My time in Dorset, 18-23 October 2017

I'm going to condense my time spent in Dorset into one page as an experience in toto. With pictures.


So the weather isn't great - but I didn't come for that. Lyn and I have a creative session, working with inks - playing, experimenting, having fun. 







We spend a lovely morning in West Bay - part of the Jurassic Coast and a World Heritage Site. It forms one end of Chesil Beach. It is both spectacular and very blustery. Smartie is in his element. The TV series Broadchurch was filmed here. Superb. 

A treasure trove of a shop in West Bay!

We wander into Bridport township - it's a market town, not too big, not too small and just the right level of busy. There are some great shops. I spy a fantastic leather handbag in a shop. It's not cheap, but it's not outrageous. It is different, simple and of top quality, this I do know. I ponder. We wander. I cannot get the bag out of my head. I go back. I buy it. I know for certain that this bag is going to be the bag that endures till the end of my lifetime. It is Turkish leather, and made in France. Or maybe the other way round. I don't really care, I love both France and Turkey. And I LOVE this bag. 

Wandering in Bridport

There are some fantastic clothes shops selling gorgeous quality items. Cheap.  It starts to rain; we go to the Museum and enjoy walking around seeing local history unfold. This is fossil territory, dinosaur country. It's fascinating. The buildings are quaint and well kept. The vibe is relaxed and cheerful. We pass an old fashioned hair salon. 

This many of these? In 2017? Seriously?


We pick up some supplies from the supermarket - again I lament the cheap prices, high quality and huge choice. NZ has it all wrong, our prices are out of control and we are held to ransom. The real problem is that most people don't understand this. The ancient (Jurassic!) Kiwi perception that the UK (and everywhere else ) is so much more expensive than NZ is total nonsense. When I returned to NZ in 1991 after a decade living in the UK, I could not believe how expensive NZ was, how poor housing was, or how deluded people were about what is really going on out there in the big wide world. That's a whole other story ... one that most Kiwis will not entertain, but one I continue to speak up about. 

Good news - we are able to go and see Lyn's new house so she can show me where she will be living hopefully very soon - and where I ought to have been staying if the sale had gone as intended. Inside is a bit dated - but that's the point - Lyn is a gifted and experienced renovator and she will transform the place into something utterly fabulous. I look forward to my next visit ...




Meanwhile, Smartie is just a little envious that Lyn and I are nattering away endlessly and he is not the centre of attention! Oh Smartie, it's okay, I'm only here another couple of days and then you'll have her back! I think he recognises me from many Skype and Facetime calls etc through the years which he has participated in - and now he's thinking "Oh, that woman is now actually here." !!


We spend time at Abbotsbury Gardens, a subtropical garden established in 1765, right by Chesil Beach. It's a gorgeous setting and, from one particular vantage point, you get a fabulous view of the ruins of Abbotsbury Castle. What a lovely experience. On our way back to Bridport, the fog came down all of a sudden and the vistas were exceptional.



In our week together, Lyn and I walked, talked, cooked, ate in, ate out, drank, dog-walked, saw the local sights, revisited our past, laughed lots, learnt more - and created many new memories. 

In between all this, I also managed to catch up with an old classmate from my days at Epsom Girls Grammar School - Libby, a lovely English girl who returned to England and now lives in Bristol. She was en route to visit her daughter at university in Bournemouth and a stop en route in Bridport worked perfectly. We reconnected - 40 years later - in a local pub and I met her husband - and it felt like just  yesterday that we'd been at school together! What a special thing!



And then it's time for me to return to London. 



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