Saturday, March 26, 2011

Wales: Day 1

Because Nigel does on-calls on certain weekends he gets certain Fridays off so that we have a long weekend more often than most. We decide to get out of London on these 3 day breaks. On this occassion we get in contact with British friends who were living in Malawi at the same time we were. Rob and Nigel both worked at the hospital in Blantyre. While Gill was a creative type into graphic design, publishing, editing, and writing. I really took to Gill as she was one of the most energetic people I had ever met and didn't let having kids stop her from doing all sorts of things. She also liked to rock the boat and found some loud African fabric with a giant Catholic image of the Madonna and Child which she had made into a dress and wore especially when around the conservative protestant missionaries. It actually looked really cool too. I went out and bought some of the same fabric. Thier two boys would strip off all their clothes and run around naked in their Malawian yard pulling up carrot sticks from the garden and eating them fresh, dirt and all. I only heard from them again when I recently got a baby announcement saying they had just had a girl. They were living just inside the Welsh border in a tiny village near the slightly larger village of Oswestry. We arrange to drive up and visit for a couple of days. They take us walking near their house the first day. Sometimes up sheer slopes. The view is amazing and as it is lambing season there are little lambs everywhere in the herds of sheep we pass. Through a forest at the top of a hill. And down the hill again. The big tree is pointed out to me. It is amazing and just doesn't seem to capture as well in a photograph. We wander into their village to the local pub (on the right), kids and all, for drinks, crisps and peanuts. Then back to the large house they are renting. The only address is "The Old Vicarage" as it used to belong to the village church.

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