From Dartmouth I moved inland again to Horrabridge where I stayed with Tricia and Andy and their two kids who took me to the local swimming pool and for a pint at the local pub.
After a half English breakfast at the Barrington House around 9 o’clock (listen to your belly), I made some nice shots of this area. With the house built on a hill, the view is just marvelous!
Later Simon and Lizzie let me use their business computer to write yesterday’s report, until I was finished.
Than I packed my bag, had a last look at my rooms’ view and got my stuff loaded into Simons’ car.
As The Gift from James and Pauline in Paignton I handed over a window flowerbox to Lizzie and Simon. As Lizzie loves to do things in their huge garden, she will definitely use it.
Simon came with the idea to drive me to the next village, Totnes, where it would be easier for me to hitch-hike to my next place in Horrabridge (Village Appraisal), via Plymouth.
Around 2pm I got a hitch from Michael who was on his way to the Plymouth College.
He was about to graduate in Third World Development Management and Communication. From his youth until 1994 his boss wouldn’t allow him to have extra time to study or even give him some financial help. When his job ended in 1994, because he got much too expensive than 18-year-olds, the could finally continue to study, because he had always liked that.
He doesn’t really know what to do after his graduation, “probably I just keep on studying something else.”
Michael dropped me off at the roundabout towards Plymouth, after telling me some great history about this city.
He said it was in the 10th/11th century that tin and silver was found in the Dartmoor area. It all got collected in big warehouses, right were the river Plymp starts from the sea. That were the first foundation for what became Plymouth (darn: the mouth of the Plymp!).
In Plymouth I called my next hostess Tricia as she told me she worked in Plymouth and could arrange a pick-up for me. She told her husband Andy about me and within ten minutes I got into his car! Oh hello!
He was actually the one who had invited me over after he heard about my project on the British national BBC Radio 2!
The first things he wanted me to show me was a little bit of Plymouth itself, before we’d leave up to Horrabridge.
Plymouth was heavily bombed by the Germans during the World War II, because Plymouth (still) is the port for the British Royal Navy. Only two blocks of Plymouth survived and the rest of the city was completely rebuilt without any beauty in it. Ahum.
We had a beer in an former Gin Brewery and Andy told me about his government job at Customs and Excise (the country border control revenue service), which resulted in some nice stories where John Grisham can write several books about!
Andy has always been the man on ‘the Drugs’ and that involved very big operations in Europe. He told me he had been after the Tamil Tigers (located in Sri Lanka) who fund themselves by smuggling heroine into Europe. He told me how Ireland failed to catch them, and how… [removed by request of the UK government]
Afterwards Andy and I got into the car and drove to their village of Horrabridge and on the road the surrounding nature was unbelievable beautiful.
I am used to a little city while everything around it is flat like the rest of the Netherlands, but those hills, the greens, make it all a bit special.
At home at around 5.30pm I met Tricia and their two children Emily (14) and Jamie (8), who really enjoyed meeting me.
Before dinner their idea was to go swimming at the local sporting centre and relax a little bit. I love swimming and I haven’t done it for over two months!
And back home Tricia made dinner while I checked for my latest mails on the internet.
We all had dinner in the kitchen and it was chicken curry with very spicy chili. Of course I took to much and I had to compensate my HOT tongue by eating all the bread.
It was long after dinner while we were telling scary stories to each other and talked about each others worst fears. I still can’t tell my fear, I just don’t know any… And then the most horrible stories came out…
And as Emily went to babysit for Jamie, Andy and Tricia took me up to their local pub, the Leaping Salmon (across the river where in October the salmon fish jump their way up to the starting point of the river), where we had a pint of beer.
In the pub Andy introduced me to some of their friends and got them very interested into my project and I had to show the logos on my jacket several times. Yup, that was me!
When we got back home again (British pubs close safely at 11pm!), I got a short briefing about what is going to happen with me tomorrow (huh?) and I placed myself behind their computer to update sort everything out again. No, don’t worry, the passport stays in the pack.
For tonight, goodnight Horrabridge!
