Our Trip to Bath

Margaret turned up promptly at 8.40 am and after checking we had drinks for the coach, travel sick tablets for Margaret and camera for me, MTL drove us down to the coach which came almost immediately. We were able to choose our seats apart from the front two: one for Liz and husband as the organiser and one for a lady and friend who have mobility problems.

‘Do you feel liberated?’ asked Liz seeing me minus MTL.

‘No, just a little sad.’ I told her.

Once we set off Margaret and I embarked on a relaxed chat that lasted all day. Any sadness soon evaporated except for one brief moment when it hit me how much I would miss Margaret - after 24 years of close friendship - when she and Malcolm sell their house and go to live in Cheltenham to be near their daughters. I told her it wasn’t that we saw on another all that often but the knowledge that she was just up the lane. We have seen one another through some dark times. To my surprise Margaret got emotional so we concentrated on enjoying the day.

One of the good things about travelling on the coach: you can see into people’s gardens – far more than you see in a car. We decided that rather than race round shops, museums etc we would concentrate on finding a pleasant place for lunch and not have to rush to get to the theatre in time. The performance started at 2.30pm

And we arrived in Bath about 11.30am.

I decide to show Margaret some of the eating places I knew and let her choose. Wandering up to the theatre area we passed through a square which has an intriguing posh shop that sells experienced posh clothes. In other words: second hand. It was a two floor treasure trove full of eye catching garments and accessories. The customers were bright young things with children – two of whom were running wild- completely unchecked and managed to knock over a screen and create bedlam. Not conducive to a quiet browse but I spotted a beautiful brand new silk scarf celebrating the Centenary of Federation in Australia. In January 1901 the six separate colonies joined together to form the Commonwealth of Australia and I have now become an integral part of the celebration – which was in 2001. Hope my Aussie pals forgive the tardiness.

After inspecting the eating places near the theatre Margaret chose- to my delight - Los Iguanas where I knew the food was good and as it was such a warm day we ate al fresco, under an enormous umbrella. The ambience and service were faultless and I managed to demolish a large chilli con carne leaving only one tortilla. Margaret had wraps round chicken and delicious goodies. We had wine – red for her, white for me, iced water with lemon and Hagen Daas ice cream – in fruitless effort to cut the cals; green and black chocolate for M and the creamiest, clottiest vanillaiest concoction for me. Then we waddled into the beautiful theatre – the best was yet to come.

Normally the weather has been so unfriendly that I had failed to notice the collection of hand prints of actors in the court yard. See photo below. It was fun comparing ours with the likes of Joan Collins, John Mills and daughters, Edward Fox, Penelope Keith and many more.

More later…