Tom in Salisbury, England

Tom in Salisbury, England

|≤ <<< Friday, May 17, 2013 >>> ≥|

Tom is participating in the Mayor Making of Mayor Elect Penny Brown in Salisbury, England, UK.

At 0640 it’s 42. I ordered kippers for breakfast this morning, but the waiter nudged me away, noting they are very strong and full of bones. I had, instead, for breakfast, a huge portion of smoked haddock! Penny appeared in the hotel lobby, as scheduled, to take Henry, Karen, and me touring. Penny took the three of us to Stonehenge. We drove down country lanes between homes with thatched roofs and 12 foot high hedges. We drove past the manor homes of two different titled lords. Hollywood gets a lot of stuff wrong about England, but this drive was straight out of the best Hollywood has to offer about England. It's not restored, they just still live this way! I scored t-shirts for the boys: "Stonehenge Rocks." After a tour of the Guildhall, we had lunch at The Ox Row Inn and Pub. It was 2:00, so I didn't want much and had a starter of Chicken Liver Parfait, and a "half" of ESB, a local ale. At 1815, the three Americans took a cab (£6) to 23 Victoria Road, the home of Penny and Derek Brown (Oh, that's Councillour Derek Brown OBE [Order of the British Empire]). They had 40 of us for dinner in their home tonight. They had planned on a BBQ, but only the cooking was outside as they said it was too cold. I didn't find it too cold, but it wasn't my call. The 40 were from USA, Northern Ireland, Germany, France, Spain and a chunk of her family and friends. Pimms was my drink of choice this evening. I spent a portion of the evening with a 6-month Cocker Spaniel puppy in my lap. I discussed the habits of dogs with a couple from Germany, while North Carolina Karen spoke Spanish with a woman from France and a woman from Germany who did not speak either English or each other's languages but did, also, speak Spanish. Around 2200, we took a cab back to the hotel.