Well, yesterday was a day and a half by my standards. Despite being nourished, nurtured and entertained I was pretty much ready for bed by the time I'd been up for twelve hours. We'd already ascertained that Peter's nearest rail station was only doing buses so a trip home would take a silly amount of time and he'd offered to drive me to Exeter St Davids. We set off at random o'clock not bothering to aim for a scheduled train as the schedules seemed to be totally out the window due to floods on the main lines. When we got there the departure boards showed two trains heading west one in about 45 mins, one in about 55 so I went to the ticket office and asked if both stopped here and the young women spent ages looking at her screen and finally said they were hoping to get one out in a few minutes and to listen out for announcements. And there was indeed one and I was indeed chuffed to have it just when I needed it...especially when it set off and I realised not only were trains on this line running to fit in with replacement buses from elsewhere...but due to a mudslide on one track they had to negotiate their timings so they met at the place they could shunt backwards and forwards and pass! This meant a silly amount of time on a train but that's better than a long bus ride AND a long train ride by far! So much gratitude to Peter and the staff who were all being so friendly and helpful, including turning the heating up to tropical temperatures. I'd not felt properly warm since I got on the bus to Exeter in the morning and suddenly I was boiling hot, but the upshot of that was that when I finally arrived here I abandoned the idea of seeking a cab and walked up the hill to cool down. Walking uphill and needing to cool off both almost unheard of these days...
We'd been in Sidmouth earlier and I'd continued my quest for a loaf of rye mix bread. I know it exists...you can often get in in the nearest Co op and Tesco but not for the last couple of weeks, so that means bread with no rye or all rye and I like in between so I ask in every bakers I find. None in the ones in Sidmouth, but we went in a (literally) 199 year old grocers and general store to look at the amazing vintage woodwork and found they had one loaf left of the very stuff. I have tried it and it's excellent...and also huge, so three quarters are in the freezer to keep me going for a while. It has a rather handmade feel to it, though perhaps not quite as much as the ciabatta a baker I saw on TV earlier describe as having the a pre cooked texture of the 'inner thighs of one's best beloved'!
I'm grateful for some very speedy ebay purchase/delivery turn around times this week. Especially delighted to see a very narrow but 3 ft long parcel containing carpet door plates in the place where a doormat would be if there were one inside the communal letterbox...there's no reason why it shouldn't have gone through but I somehow thought I'd have to go down the sorting office to collect it. 'Do not bend' it says on several places on the packet...I know I'm a bit of a weakling these days but I think you'd have to be trying pretty hard to do so!
Finally grateful for the very slow speed with which I've progressed through this day...love the gadding about but it tires me too! Today I'm going even slower than we drove through a rather deep flood remnant yesterday...
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