Tag: Bath

Splash…it’s bath time

I always enjoy my visit to the hairdresser and this is despite me being someone who in the past as an awkward teenager suffered from Tonsurephobia.

Tonsurephobia apart from being a 15 point word in Scrabble, is the fear of getting a haircut. The word Tonsurephobia is derived from Greek words ‘Tonsure’ meaning ‘ to cut’ and ‘Phobos’ meaning ‘deep dread or aversion’. To be fair for me it wasn’t the loss of hair that was the issue, but the need for conversation with a twenty something smart and worldwide girl when I was an awkward 15 year old. Anyway, that was then…I am no longer aged 15!

So these days I enjoy the conversation. Sophie my hairdresser is always interested in where my work travel has taken me over the last 5 or 6 weeks. So I often will list off places such as London, Milan, Berlin, Muscat, Dubai and so on.

So last week…same question and all I could come up with was home, Aldi and Morrisons . (For those not familiar with the UK..both of these are supermarkets!) Suddenly I felt my ‘reputation’ as one of her most well travelled clients erode into one of her most likely serial and obsessive supermarket shoppers.

I realise much later that evening that I had actually omitted to tell her about the one interesting journey I had made in the past weeks was to the City of Bath.

I have been to Bath many times and this most recent visit was a real flying one, to quickly help someone with a house move.

Bath is a beautiful city, just awash with beautiful buildings, an awesome park in the city centre and more Georgian Terraces of house than you can shake a stick at. Pubs, restaurants, wine bars and coffee shops abound and you would be hardpressed not to be able to find things to suit taste and budget. So what’s not to like? Really only the city’s narrow street and the impact on through traffic. A geographically short journey can take a long time!!!!!

Your musical taste is not important to us…

We are all too familiar with the ‘on hold’ message when calling a contact centre is to be told ‘your call is important to us, and we apologise for the delay etc.’


Well that might well be the case but my choice of music most certainly is not a big issue for them. A fairly recent call to my credit card company gave me the opportunity to listen to Divine Comedy’s   …The Pop Singers fear of the pollen count!! I have now listened and listened to these lyrics with some detailed scrutiny but after much analysis,  I really can’t find any relevance to financial services at all. It is however one of these tunes that once in your head will never leave it, at all, ever!!!!

Similar in takeover as is The Lighthouse family’s Ocean Drive .

The Divine comedy actually specialise in somewhat bizarre lyrics and a focus in subjects as part of their musical song writing  and composing efforts. One of their equally left field charting successes was a song “The National Express” based on a UK bus company offering inter city travel.

It’s worth a listen on you tube if only to reassure yourself that not buying it, when it came out was the right thing to do!

Here for your delight is a sample of the lyrics!….

Take the National Express when your life’s in a mess
It’ll make you smile
All human life is here
From the feeble old dear to the screaming child…

Hmmmmm………..

However….. all this has now changed.

This last week I was on hold again in a call but this time, the ‘voice’  in charge gave me a chance to select and plan the music’. It did trouble me that this might mean I might be in for a  ‘long haul’….Anyway, great to be in the musical driving seat!!!

Bath time ….lights, camera, action!

I unexpectedly made a visit to the city of Bath last weekend. As is often the case, it’s the short unplanned visits to places that are sometimes the best ones. I only had a short time for a walk before our restaurant reservation for dinner, but the dappled evening sun reminded me how much I like this place and made me question why we don’t visit there more. As is always the case the answer is simple …we are spoilt in the UK with so many places like this just a few hours away, we become totally nonchalant about them.

If you have never been (…and if you live in the UK) that’s perhaps no surprise as people often see it as another York, Harrogate or Cheltenham ..but where it trumps these is that you are literally tripping over wonderful buildings, Roman Baths, history and Jane Austen literary heritage at a far greater density per square mile than the previously mentioned towns. If you are from outside the UK and made a touring visit of major UK places …it was probably on your itinerary as it is just a short drive from Stonehenge, Avebury and many other gems.

There is much to see in Bath but you can cover a lot in one of the free walking tours or (not so free!) city bus tours.

Even the ‘ordinary’ buildings that populate both the city centre and suburban streets are a real joy to the eye.

Bath Abbey is one of the sights thst draws the crowds, but if you can …just meander in the small streets and alleys ..they will not fail to please.

Any downsides?…not really…easy to get to with plenty of car parks, and worth noting is the out of town park and ride…as the city layout can be confusing even with the assistance of Sat Nav/GPS.

It is not surprisingly, a film makers paradise and we wandered into one of the city squares somewhat surprised to see it looking so ‘historic’ until we realised we were ‘on set’ , unfortunately not looking anything like the Jane Austen characters around us….oops!!!!!…. nice job for the editor to remove the imposters😁

Enjoying these short blogs?

Please comment, share on social media and subscribe if you would like to be notified of new posts..I publish every Friday, Saturday and Sunday

%d bloggers like this: