Priors Marston June 24, 2008

Yesterday, for my ‘rents 30th  wedding anniversary, we visited Priors Marston, the village where my Mum lived as a child. It’s a nice change to go to the countryside when you live in a city and everything is grey and concrete.

On the way we drove through Bascote so I could see where my Auntie Ethel used to live with Auntie Lizzie and Uncle Wal. It’s a really lovely cottage, it’s a shame she had to move.

Priors Marston was really pretty. We could see the windmill in Napton from the huge hill there which was wonderful because it’s not every day you get to see a windmill. The village was really pretty, especially the church, St Leonard’s and the graveyard. The church has some parts dating back to Norman times, it was really old and lovely. (see photos below)

From the huge hill in Priors Marston you can see on the horizon some of the taller buildings in Coventry. It was quite cloudy though so we couldn’t see them at all well. We did see some lovely horses. They were very pleasant.

We walked and we walked and we walked, taking in the lovely scenery. I love the countryside.

 

 

We were going to go to the only pub in Priors Marston – The Holly Bush, for lunch. However it wasn’t open. So we took a short drive to Priors Hardwick and went into the Butchers Arms pub. We looked at the menu, nearly dying at the prices. For a main course the prices ranged from £20 as the cheapest to everything above. All I wanted was a cheese sandwich. We all had a soft drink each (my dad had a shandy), there were 4 of us there. The drinks came to £9.40. We left pretty quickly and went to Southam and got some chips.

They had a good anniversary. I enjoyed the countryside and the walking and the pretty places. My brother did too. It unnerved me a little at how empty the village was. There are no shops. The houses are very well spaced and all of them are huge. I’m used to a packed together, concrete jungle with lots of discount and bargain shops and hundreds of people around. And lots of noise. The only noise there was birds singing and the distant neighing of horses.I think I do want to live in the countryside when I’m a bit older (not that I’ll ever be able to afford to) but in a place that is a little bigger than Priors Marston and a little bit busier. A nice little town I think.

Let’s be chronological June 23, 2008

On Sunday I went with my mother, father, Sir Baz, the FP and Affafto see Thomas and Boney Joe play football. They’ve both joined teams. It was raining, it was windy and it was freezing. Cue terrible terrible 70s flicked hair. Affaf behaved really well until we got to standing on the edge of the pitch. People were warming up with footballs. He wanted a football as well. Cue a few sulks and tantrums.

It was Boney Joe’s first match. He looked very nervous. Every time the ball went near him he panicked and either stayed on the spot moving it around a little or kicked it to the nearest person to him.

Affaf had been told not to cross the line indicating where the pitch began and were spectators should stop. Cue Affaf walking over the line. In the end Boney Joe’s team lost 5-4. The team all got presented with medals afterwards. I think Affaf wanted one too. He followed Joe to queue up.

We had to wait an hour in the rain and generally poor conditions until Thomas’s match. He played very well. The goalkeeper on his team has the best name EVER. Literally. He is called Aslan. When Baz was shouting out his encouragement for the team he shouted to Aslan, “COME ON ASLAN! ROAR!” Aslandidn’t look impressed. Neither did he look impressed when Baz actually roared at him. He was the loudest person there, often coming out with remarks like “Come on! Get it! That’s your ball, it’s your ball!! Mark ‘im, mark ‘im!! SHADOW HIM! Get in some space!” He plays football himself. He still managed to fall over in the field, straight onto his back/arse. I did cackle. A lot.

Other news…. NEARLY time for Prince Caspian. Can’t wait to see it on the big screen. I actually feel excited. I got my Prince Caspian soundtrack today. It’s amazing! Some songs make me nearly cry. William Moseley’s next project sounds really good, I look forward to that also. *Swoon*

I got my Flowers in the Attic DVD too. I’m not sure about it. I think Louise Fletcher is great as the Grandmother, she really goes well in that role. Victoria Tennant quite suits her role as Corrine too. But the actor who plays Chris, he looks nearly 30 when Chris is supposed to be an adolescent. He’s nothing like I thought he should be. Neither are the twins. And they missed out some of the key aspects in the book as well as adding in some of their own. I’m not sure as I like that. It’s all very 70s too.

 

Minnie and Albert June 13, 2008

Today has been lovely. Very sad. But lovely. I went to the FPs, just for a few hundred cups of tea and a chat. We decided to go visit my Nan and Grandad’s grave, just to say hello. It’s been a while. I’d like to thank the FP for coming with me and for her support We weren’t quite sure where it was, although the cemetery is fairly small, so is their gravestone as it was their ashes that were buried. We wandered past many many sad graves, some of them forgotten and lonely. It made me want to cry.

We found my Nan and Grandad in the end. Their grave doesn’t look too bad at all. The FP and I are going to visit them again next week and take them some flowers and generally tidy up their grave a bit. No one has been in a while and I don’t want them to be forgotten.

I really miss them. Although I never met Grandad, I still feel as though he was a part of my life and I still love him as my Grandad. I felt really choked up when I read “reunited” on my Nan’s part of the stone. My Grandad died 12 years before she did, she must’ve been so sad and lonely without him. They were so in love.

That was them on their wedding day. It’s so fitting that where they are buried now literally overlooks the very first house they ever lived in together. Their spot in the cemetary is quite secluded, but they’re not lonely because they are with each other, close to where they spent the first of many many happy years together. And now they are back together again even in death. As the grave stone says….reunited. I’m not really the sentimental type…in that I hate sentiment….but I really really miss them and wish they were here and even though my Grandad died a couple of years before I was born, they both still hold a special place in my heart.

R.I.P Minnie and Albert….gone but not forgotten.

What are you doing to try?! June 6, 2008

Yesterday I babysat my wonderfully naughty nephews. There was much fighting and arguing between them before the FP and her husband even left. Thomas was particularly grumpy and naughty, so Affaf found it upon himself to go and “tell him off”. When Thomas was trying to get his bike out to ride around in circles in the barren wasteland garden, Affaf was most confused, demanding to know “what are you doing to try?!” which translates to “What are you trying to do?”

Affaf is in a very cute stage at the moment. Although he’s taken to becoming a mass murderer of the snail population. He rides on his tricycle and runs them over. The other day he crushed one with a pole. When asked why he had done this, he argued that “It was going to get me.” Some how I think Affaf might have been able to escape had it tried to get him. He’s been told not to kill anymore snails as it is mean. I watched him as he crouched down to look at a snail yesterday, he was merely looking, saying “ ‘ello ‘arry snail“. That was nice behaviour so I left him to it, retiring to the living room. He came in announcing he had seen a snail. I asked him if he’d killed it. He said “No, my didn’t kill it, my just broked it. With my shoe. Harder.” He wasn’t wearing any shoes so I believe him to be lying. Especially seeing as when he was told it was bath time he asked if he could get the snail and put it in the bath with him. He also said he’d seen a ladybird, I asked him what he’d done to it. He replied “Nothing. My just kicked it” Naughty Affaf.

I watched Big Brother last night after saying I wouldn’t. It was poor. The contestants are poor. Much. Although there is one in there, Rebecca, that went to my school, she would’ve been a couple of years above me. Small world.

I want the postman to hurry up and bring my Cloverfield DVD. Although I’m probably being a touch optimistic, it’ll probably get here tomorrow.

Family May 31, 2008

Researching my family tree = near impossible. With the older members of the family no longer here I can’t ask anyone and it would seem, from records, that we’re a very sporadic family. We crop up lots in one decade and then never in the hundred years before or after that. I don’t know what’s going on. I was heartened when I was looking through stuff and found my Nan had also tried to do the task I am doing. She didn’t get very far either bless her. I want to know why she was trying to, seeing as it was her husband’s family she was researching rather than her own. I miss her a lot. She was a very special Nan. My Dad is taking me to look at church records and graves next week to help me on my mission. I’m going to take her some flowers.

I think my Dad likes that I’m researching it all. It’s not often people take an interest in him and his family so it’s nice for him I suppose. Stressful for me though. The most annoying family ever. Saying that though….my family tree does now have 60 members, nearly all of them very much from the past. So I am not doing too badly.

I think the reason I am so determined to find out is because I’ve nothing else of any structure to do. I am looking for a job but even having a job won’t help my mind….I like to research and get stuck into things and find things out and this is a way of satisfying that whilst I’m not at Uni. You could also argue it’s regression….looking lots in the past to help the stresses of the present. I think I explain too many of my behaviours as regression. Maybe.

My exam results come out mid-June How scary. I want to know now.

I want a Domesday Book. They’re really expensive though. But I want one. Just because.