Saggs and the City: Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

I love this phrase taken from Robert Herrick's To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.

Isn't that what Life's about sometimes? Taking chances, making spur-of-the-moment decisions, initiating impromptu actions, or as the Latins put it - Carpe Diem! Seize the Day! (more accurately translated, 'pluck the day').

This weekend saw one such moment.

Consumed by wanderlust, Dee decided the family should go on a minibreak, a roadtrip of sorts. Our destination of choice - BATH.

Here's a breakdown of what we did over the 3D/2N trip:

Day 1, Fri 2 March: Never do things improviso!
An irony since I did say it was a 'spur-of-the-moment' decision, didn't I? :P

We rented a small car, threw in some clothes, diapers & toddler supplies into a haversack (but not without leaving Danielle's toothbrush, our toothpaste & raw meat thawing in the microwave!! Arrghh!) and headed to the car pickup point @ Norbury. Without finding out exactly how we should get to Bath, we hit the road. Daredevils we are! And as expected, we got IMPOSSIBLY lost! Wasted precious time going back & forth on the highway (M3, M25, M4???!) and taking innumerable wrong turns. We finally made it to Bath by nightfall, after 6 hours of silly detours. Checked into a B&B (my 1st B&B experiece! Hoorah!) and went in search for dinner. Unfortunately, all the food outlets near Braemar Guest House were closed. In the end, we had to pop into a Co-Op Supermarket to buy instant noodles, ham & a can of Dr Pepper. Oh, did I fail to mention we got lost within Bath too?

Our luv-erly dinner spread!

Tip of the Day:
On a roadtrip with the Chans - take Dee (coz he's a driver) & perhaps the 2YO (only if you enjoy listening to 'Ba-Ba Black Sheep' sung continuously throughout the journey), but lose the severely 'navigation-impaired' one! That, would be me.

+++++++

Day 2, Sat 3 March: First breathtaking then breathless...
We suffered a night of interrupted sleep - no thanks to Danielle whose diaper not only leaked slightly onto the bed, but who changed sleeping positions 589,203,031 times a night! Bah!

Outside, the weather was perfect! Just what we needed - a clear blue sky, cool breeze and lots of sunshine! We tucked into a hearty breakfast prepared by Gillian, our B&B proprietress. It was a quintessential English breakfast consisting of sausages, eggs, toast... la-dee-da... Danielle made friends with 2 friendly American ladies over cereal. They turned out to be nurses and could instantly tell Dee had Bell's Palsy. They told him to be patient as 'it could take months' to recover.

Poor Dee, he's taken to holding a conversation with a hand over his mouth...

Danielle & the Americans

We'd decided only the night before that we'd stay one extra night in Bath. But Gillian was fully booked for the weekend so she directed us to her friend Rose's B&B, Milton House, which was a few houses down from hers. So after breakfast, we moved over to Rose's and registered ourselves for another night.

After settling our accomodation, we finally set off to explore Bath.

Simply put, Bath is a very pretty town. It's not as grey and definitely less polluted than London. Its buildings bear a tinge of custard yellow and under the sunlight, the whole town seems to shimmer like gold when seen from a distance. Our camera couldn't capture the vibrant colour as we saw it but I hope you get an idea...

Some of the must-see(s) in Bath would definitely be the Roman Baths and Bath Abbey. Dee said he had a new-found respect for the Romans after visiting that World Heritage Site. Indeed, there is much to marvel about regarding these Baths. The Romans' prowess in architecture and their ingenious system of heating rooms (modern day suanas) and baths, are truly awe-inspiring. Even their bathing rituals bear a strong resemblence to today's Japanese Onsens (温泉) and Taiwan's notorious 三溫暖. Just sans the seediness, I hope?

We spent over 2 hours at the Roman Baths and whilst Dee busied himself listening to the audio aid, Danielle hollered at a half-naked male mannequin, imploring it to 'turn round and look at' her. I explained that 'he' was about to take his bath. She muttered 'shame, shame' (for his lack of decency) before dismissing him for his impertinence.

Danielle having a mini picnic by the Roman Bath, completely oblivious she's at a World Heritage site. Thank goodness she goes in for free!

Our next stop was Bath Abbey. All Abbeys look similar to each other - rose tainted windows, ornate cornices, beautiful carved ceilings. But what made this visit different was the wind orchestra performance we were fortunate to catch. For a good half hour, we were treated to music from the Renaissance and medieval periods played on rauschpfeifes and recorders.

Nice music was followed by a nice tea. We visited Bath's oldest house and residence of Bath's most famous baker, Sally Lunn. We tried the much-raved about Sally Lunn's Bun and loved it. I had mine with Tiptree Strawberry Jam and loads of clotted cream (but of course!). Dee had his with homemade brandy butter. Honestly, the bun tasted like the 70cents toasted bread we find in our neighbourhood coffeeshops. But it was good...Perhaps that's why Dee and I enjoyed it so much. A slice of Singapore in Bath!

Our next stop was very much for Skiver A's benefit - The Jane Austen Centre. I tingled with excitement when I sighted Colin Firth's handsome mug at the shop window. We didn't visit the Museum since we had to pay an entrance fee so settled with browsing in the shop. It was filled with all sorts of Jane Austen paraphernalia and souvenirs I had a hard time picking out something for ma Queen Lovie. But in the end, I did. Here are some pictorial souvenirs anyway:

Not quite Darcy, more like Mr Collins? Gag.

We ended off the day with some activities for Danielle. We reckoned she'd been 'gracious' to follow us to 'kid-yawning' places so it was time she had some fun. We'd brought some bread nicked from breakfast and told her she could feed the swans with them.

We didn't find any swans at the Royal Victoria Park, so settled for feeding just de ducks.

Ducks, come here!

After, we went to the nearby playground where she had fun on the swings, slides and 2 rides on the Merry-Go-Round. She had a blast and so did we, just watching her!

We finally headed back to the B&B at 5ish pm. Convinced Dee we should walk back instead of take a bus. In the end, I paid for that decision with my thighs! Our B&B was located on a hill so it was a long, arduous climb back to the top. I took in short breaths at a time in a bid to pace myself better. Was darn proud I didn't give in to the posterior pain. I prammed Danielle all the way up the winding path! *pat on back*

Hellish uphill climb!

Dinner was at a newly-opened Indian restaurant just round the corner from our B&B. It's funny how we're trying Indian cuisine in Bath when there are a dime a dozen Indian eateries in London! The food was palatable and I had myself a 'paratha'! Methinks I still like the ones back home waaaaay better.