Weston-Super-Mare - Summer 2003

July 2003

Jeanette’s Version

We slept in this morning.  I think it must be delayed jet lag.  Jenny came home at noon and threw us out of bed and we had an al fresco lunch out on the patio.  Pate, toast and fruit.  Yummy  I love their new house.  The last time I was over they were living in military housing in Bristol.  It was very nice, but still not their own.  Then the government decided to close down the RAF Locking base which is about an hour’s journey from Bristol.  According to Jenny there was a great deal of  interest in them and the day they put them on the market it was on a first come, first serve basis.  Bob and Jenny rented a caravan and were in line for a week before the sale opened.  Their determination paid off as they got one of the larger units and it is really nice.  Bob has done a lot of remodeling himself with occasional help from son- in- law Darin.  I never dreamed that he was such a talented remodeler.  All the work looks like it was done by a professional.

After lunch Jenny took us on a tour of Weston-super-Mare. The name Weston is made up of two Old English or Saxon words meaning the west tun or settlement. Because there are several places called Weston in Somerset descriptions were added to tell them apart.

What is unusual about Weston-super-Mare is that the descriptive part of its name has remained in medieval Latin. Super (with small s) means on or above, and mare is Latin for sea Previously I had only known two things about this pretty little west coast town.  One, that John Cleese came from here and two, what I had read in Bill Byson's Notes From a Small Island in which he was not very complementary.  To be fair it seemed that he had visited here very briefly and it poured with rain the entire time.  That can put a damper on any place.  But I found it charming. The shorefront is lined with large beautiful limestone houses, many of which appear to have been turned into B&B's and the beach is lovely.

Weston-Super-Mare strikes me as a Brighton-on-a-budget kind of place.  There were mostly old people and young Mothers with small children in evidence along the seafront.  But Jenny informs me that the town has a split personality and that after the sun goes down it turns into Party Central where the young people come to let their hair down and do all the wild and naughty things that young party animals do.

  At the far end of the quay was a small ferry named The Bristol Queen. This little ferry was built in 1938 and was originally named The Levin and she has quite a history.  When WWII broke out she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and when the Navy captured a German submarine, after torpedoing a ship carrying evacuees to Canada the Leven was sent out to bring the German U-boat crew in.  These were the first German prisoners of the war.  She also made several trips to Dunkirk in 1940 when the British Expeditionary Force was rescued by the Navy aided by hundreds of small boats and ferries.

Jenny and Emily went on a shopping tour and I parked myself in one of the many pretty little parks while they were exploring.  Afterwards we stopped and had a Cream Tea, a first for Emily.  We headed home about five as Jenny and Emily were driving up to Bristol to pick up Emily's brother Matthew.  Matthew was on the tail end of his European Odyssey, having spent two months backpacking with a friend through Southern Europe.  His friend went home last week and Matthew has been in Scotland visiting with Nicky. We will have one one day to visit with him before he has to leave to go home.  We plan to go somewhere tomorrow but haven't decided just where yet. 

Emily’s Side of the Story 

Today I slept until noon....lazy lizard I know...got up...went downtown to Weston Super Mare. Walked along the pier...and the beach...and the boat area...took some nice shots. Went to the post office..bought a International phone card. Went into the shopping area...looked for the shoes I have been wanting...didn’t find. Came back...Went to Pete and Nina's...hung out...talked about the U.S and different phrases the UK and the US share. "Two nations divided by a common language." Such as, "Keep your pecker up" which in the US would mean..well you know :) but over here it means, Keep your chin up. I should have known that one to use on the stuffy lady. "Fag" which in the US is a derogatory meaning towards gays...over here it means cigarette. "Lay the table" aka set the table. "Knock me up in the morning" which obviously we all THINK we know what that means, but really it means, "Come by in the morning." "Ring me" aka call me. "Rubber" <----hahaha aka eraser. "Pants or Knickers" aka undies. "Trousers" aka pants<---our meaning for pants. "Telly" aka phone.,

We went to pick up Matthew from the airport...It was so thrilling to see him. I love him so much. I almost cried, BUT I didn’t. Then we ate dinner...new potatoes weren't cooked...haha...nuked them and still hard...haha it was great you could barely bite into them...Matt, of course, ate like every one of them. Bob lost his off his plate, "I was trying to be like a lazy American and cut it with my fork." It was awesome. Grams was talking about Gpa and she said "Sometimes I wake up grumpy...but most of the time I let him sleep." It was great...haha. Bob is having trouble with the puter...it started when we got here..but it must run in the family, because Matt broke Nicky's VCR...no power, no lights, no one is home.