Beyond Bristol

Saturday 30 January - To distract ourselves from the recent spell of grey days Ian and I ignored the cold weather, wind and less then sunny skies and made a trip to Bath. We had a lovely time wandering around the city and popping in our favorite shops for a browse. We had beef and vegetable pastys for lunch from the guildhall delicatessen then made our way up to the royal crescent and over to the botanical gardens. The park near the botanical gardens has a charming little pond full of ducks and swans and the park is crisscrossed with tree-lined walks. Not much was in bloom at the botanical gardens, other than snowdrops, but we had a nice time looking at the odd trees and pointing out where crocus and daffodils were pushing through the grass. A small English robin entertained us for a while, posing for pictures and hoping from shrub to rock to some abandoned burrow and then back again. After our adventures in the park and garden we warmed up with a cream tea at Sally Lunn's (quickly becoming our traditional watering hole in Bath). After a bit more browsing we made it to the train station and only had to wait an astonishing 7 minutes before the train to Bristol whisked us home.

Happy year of the ox

Sunday 25 January - To ring in the Chinese New year we made a special trip to an oriental grocer to stock up on some tasty bites for a Chinese new years party. Red was the colour of the day as it is meant to bring good luck, We had paper lanterns, poppers, incense, red envelopes as well as some red tulips and paper umbrellas. For dinner we served Chinese noodles, spring rolls and stir fried vegetables. For dessert we had some hard candies in a Chinese gold ingot shaped box (also good luck for the new year as it is supposed to bring wealth for the following year) and some sweet buns filled with red bean or lotus flower paste. We were seriously full by the end of the evening but hopefully we managed to bring some good luck for the rest of the year.

Ballet in Bristol

Friday 23 January - For Christmas Ian got me tickets to the Ballet at the Bristol Hippodrome, we chose the performance taking place the day after I handed in all my MA work so that it would be a sort of celebration. After a quick by tasty early dinner at home we walked down to the hippodrome to see Coppellia. We were joined by a number of families with young children and it was certainly a family style ballet. The story revolves around a toy maker and his lifelike doll, Coppellia who sits on a balcony above the town square reading and no one can catch her attention. a local swain falls in love with Coppelia much to the chagrin of his betrothed. When the toymaker goes out one evening the swain's betrothed finds that he has dropped his key and she sneaks in to confront Coppelia. She learns that Coppellia is a doll and when the toy maker returns she disguises herself as Coppelia to avoid being caught. Meanwhile the swain enters the toy makers house via the window to plead his love to Coppelia. The toy maker tries to trick the swain but at the end of her dance as Coppellia the swain's betrothed reveals herself and Coppellia's true nature. The last act is a celebration of the swain's wedding. It was a very lively ballet with almost Disney-esque musical accompaniment. The costumes were also fantastic and I particular enjoyed the chorus line of dancers dressed in clockwork style tutus with clock-hand tiaras. We had a really lovely evening and definitely plan on alternating between opera and ballet at the hippodrome.

Thanks

I am back in England and settling back into life here. I've also turned in all the work for my MA and now have some free time to enjoy the mild weather. I want to thank everyone across the pond who made my time at home so wonderful. Living abroad certainly makes one appreciate ones friends. Being home for only three weeks means that you have to make an extra effort to see all the important people in your life but also means that you get a concentrated dose of love and friendship, its an amazing thing to experience. I look forward to my next visit home and will be sure to keep you all updated on my adventures here.