A nanosecond spare to write from the village of Evershot, just outside Dorchester and specifically from the Acorn Inn , which featured in the Thomas Hardy novel "Tess of the D'urbervilles".
I've arrived here on a rainy, cold June afternoon and thank goodness am booked into the cosy pub downstairs for dinner. Even the ducks are in hiding, so inclement is the English weather at present.
My chums from the Press trip, "Wormy" Wade, Blood Donna, Gabbie D, Porno Paddy (don't ask), the SS Great Britain and Torchy Sarah have all left me now to my own devices and I've been joined by mate Phil, who's driven down from London. We'll be on the trail of Mr Thomas Hardy, a miserable old misanthrope to some and a brilliant chronicler of the rampant changes in agrarian England during the Industrial Revolution to others. In truth I haven't really read any Hardy since uni but I guess I was miserable enough then to really enjoy his big novels and the interest in him hasn't wavered despite the lack of attention. The next two days will tell, especially if it stays raining...
Saying goodbye to the above possee was hard - so much fun, so little time, so many jokes at each other's expense, particularly aimed at the newly christened "Daddy T" (ie yours truly) today. Still, it's been one of the very best group press trips I've been on and thanks so much to Donna Campbell from Tourism Ireland and Sarah Styles from Visit Britain for organising it all and best of all daring to have me along on it!
I've completely had to re-evaluate Weymouth, which I once thought of as an ugly dump, as a rather enchanting Dorset seaside town and we've seen and done some great things while there. We sailed in the harbour that the Olympic yachtsman will be competing in next year, took a long drive along the Jurassic Coast discovering stories of doughty Victorian ladies uncovering dinosaur skeletons with Blue Badge guide Anne and then this morning, in intermittent showers, cycled to the delightful village of Sutton Poyntz with the enthusiastic and very aptly named Loop. I won't even start on having a Piddle or two (a local beer brewed by two jokesters that were clearly brought up on Monty Python) or sampling the Cheddar cider at the Boot pub...
Bye for now, dinner is calling me!
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