Blenheim Palace and Frost
I got up early this morning to get to church by 9:30. I went down to take a shower at 7:30, pretty sure no one else in the house was up by then, so the hot water heater should not have been run down or anything. The shower wasn’t even lukewarm. It wasn’t as cold as all cold, but all hot was still cool at best. I tried both of the ones on this side of the house that are close to me. I guess tomorrow I’ll try to go to the other side of the house. I went down this evening and turned the water on and let it run to see if it would get warm at night. It didn’t. So I took a shower trying to stay out of the water as much as I could, shivering, and trying to make it quick. I might start taking showers every other day if this keeps up. Or ask someone at Regent’s about it I guess.
Anyway, I was almost late for church. I got all my stuff ready for Blenheim Palace and tried to walk fast to church. However, it was really cold and misty/foggy, which the moisture from the mist apparently freezes on the sidewalks. So I had to watch my step to make sure I didn’t fall on the slick sidewalks, which meant not quite as fast walking. I’m pretty sure that if the sidewalks keep being like this, I’ll fall at some point because usually me and slick/icy pavement do not mix well. I’ve fallen three times in the recent past that I remember, once on my head, twice on my bum (as the English say it). I got to church just a couple minutes before Mass started. It was a nice service. I like the 9:30 services because there’s actually music but it also means I have to get up early. Oh well only a couple more weeks of having to walk that far to get to church.
Then I walked over to Regent’s, blew my running nose (I think I’m getting sick, not bad sick, just like cold sick - but I’m the last of the G-town people to get sick, everyone else has before this - and with a combination of dry heat, cold showers, and half-hour walks in the freezing cold at least twice a day, even with taking vitamin C twice a day among my other vitamins, I’m bound to get at least a small case of the sniffles), and then went down to sign up for my meals. But the sign-in sheet wasn’t there. Ruth came in then and we both looked but could find nothing. She’s going to go down tomorrow morning and sign in and she said she would sign in for me too as long as the sheets are there then, so hopefully that will be okay.
We headed over to the bus station and found we had just missed the bus. The website said it came ever half-hour but not on Sundays. It comes every hour then. So we walked over to the train station to see if there was one there. There wasn’t. So then we ended up going into a cafe place and each got a small cup of tea. Ruth had never had peppermint tea so she tried mine. She said it wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be, still not her favorite though. Then we rode the bus to Blenheim, which luckily the bus driver called out when we got there because we were a little nervous we would miss it.
The Palace and grounds were so pretty. It stayed foggy all day and there was still frost on the ground and stuff. Some of the water was frozen too. We walked out to this monument, something of victory, while we ate lunches that we had packed. Then we went through the living crafts thing. There were a lot of neat things, of course all expensive, so we didn’t buy anything, but it was fun to look. And there was a food part too so I got to try some samples. There was even one stand with a guy selling sweaters made of alpaca fur! (Some people will understand my excitement with alpacas, it’s a long story.) After that we went through the palace. We went through fairly quickly on the exhibit part because I had already seen it all and it was crowded and Ruth said she didn’t feel like reading the things. But the Christmas decorations were beautiful. The dining room had a table set up for a meal and there was a toy train running as part of the centerpiece. One room had a bunch of different trees and there was a band playing Christmas music that was really cool.
After the palace, we walked around the back of it and went into the “secret garden” which was still really pretty and quite green. It turned cold really fast so things were still green even though it was frosty. After this, we were quite cold, so we went into the gift shop and looked a bit. We tried to go on the small train to the butterfly garden but it wasn’t coming for a while and Ruth needed to get back to go to the grocery before it closed. I had already seen all that stuff and the main things I wanted to see were the crafts and the palace christmas decorations, so we went back to the gift shop and I bought some honey. I’m bringing it home but I’m also going to use it as a sweetener for my tea some I think. Then we walked back out to wait for the bus. Ruth had brought some lollipops so we ate those while we waited.
When we got back we walked to Sainsbury’s. I got some more crackers - the last time I’ll have to buy those I think. Then I headed back to Stanley Road and Ruth went back to Regent’s. It was a really fun day and we got quite a few pictures, though the best ones are on Ruth’s camera. She’s going to send them to me. Mine I’m sort of looking at the screen instead of the lens to make sure that I’m holding it still and that it actually takes, but I’ll put one up anyway.
When I got back to the house, I made some vanilla tea with honey in it. Then I called my mom and took some medicine to try to ward off my cold. I read some and then cooked my pizza for dinner. Then I talked to Kyle until he had to go to church. I went down to see if the showers got warm and washed my face when they didn’t. Then I crocheted a bit, and now I’m writing this before I go to bed so I can try to sleep off my runny nose. I hate having a runny nose, so annoying. Oh well as long as it doesn’t get any worse, or at least not until I get back to the States. But today was a very fun and good day. I’m really glad I made it to Blenheim, even if it was on the coldest day it’s been since I got here. It’ll probably be getting colder so that just means I have a reason to start wearing my big white coat. As long as it keeps me warm right? Okay I’m going to stop typing. Great day!