Okay, following our disappointing visit to Alianti in Richmond upon Thames. we are still in the deep south imposing on family. To share the burden of our presence more evenly, however, we have now moved to Poole in Dorset. Here, we can live the life of beach bums. Evidently, it’s a lifestyle we can adapt to without any sort of difficulty. Today, however, we have hit the monsoon season which we’re assured will only last one day. We’ve taken a drive and ended up here at the Old Mill Tea Rooms in Christchurch.

Miraculous

The ancient town of Christchurch sits between two rivers – the Stour and the Avon and is dominated by the 11th century Priory. It was closed in 1539 during the Dissolution of Henry VIII but miraculously managed to survive.  It houses the tomb of Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, who Henry described as “the most saintly woman in England”. Though, it would be another miracle if she was able to maintain such a title after meeting Henry.

The roof of the Priory also contains the Miraculous Beam. The medieval builders determined that this essential beam was too short for where it was supposed to go, giving rise to much angst. Next morning, however, when they returned (presumably sober) it was not only the correct length but in its correct position. It brings to mind a quote by Noam Chomsky sent to us by our Aussie Toowoomba correspondents still recovering from the Matilda’s defeat to the Lionesses: “The general population doesn’t know what’s happening and it doesn’t even know that it doesn’t know.” Given that people flock to see the Miraculous Beam we should not be surprised when they vote the way they do.

The Priory also has a memorial to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who was drowned off the coast of Italy in 1882.

Cashless

But now to more prosaic matters … parking! Although Christchurch is only a few miles from Poole it takes half an hour to get here. It takes half and hour to get anywhere. It’s just the volume of traffic! You have to pay for parking everywhere. In our modern cashless society we were supplied with an app to facilitate this. A cashless society disadvantages a lot of people so we’re not in favour but increasingly we find ourselves without any. To park you just enter your location (4 digit ID) and select how long you want to stay. Not here, however, outside the Old Mill. When the app asked how long you wished to stay it wouldn’t allow us to select anything. We tried everything but eventually we gave up. Perhaps someone in the Old Mill could tell us where we are going wrong?

The girl behind the counter just shook her head and said “No-one can work it, there’s no service down here, you’ll have to use coins”. Coins? Where on earth would we find these? Our girl came to the rescue. She gave us four £1 coins from the till and said she would add it on to our bill. Phew! A couple of hours would have been more than plenty but in our excitement we fed the machine with all our new found treasure. Now we could stay all day in the pouring rain … yeah!

A funfair

The Old Mill Tea Rooms were busy busy. Maybe it was just a very good place or maybe it had something to do with wintry weather outside? There’s a funfair here and there’s nothing quite so desolate as a funfair in the pouring rain. Anyway the atmosphere in the Old Mill was bright and cheerful with lots of chatter. We had a window seat allowing us to look out onto the harbour and watch others braving the worst of the weather. Our scones came with lots of jam and cream as well as a fresh strawberry. It was thoughtfully cut in half to prevent any squabbling about whose it was. The scones had been warmed and were lovely and soft. Not topscones but we thoroughly enjoyed them nevertheless.

Newsless in Dorset

For the last couple of weeks we have been without television or newspapers. Adrift in that wonderful world of “no news”. Don’t think we’ve missed much.

Shelley’s wife Mary wrote Frankenstein in 1818, She also said “Life, although it may be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me and I will defend it” Go on yourself Mary!