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Nina's Blog - Saturday 30th August 2025

Saturday 30th August 2025, 10:38

Sitting on the 10:40 train from Cheltenham to Gloucester. It took me so long to book the ticket and the journey is so short that I almost feel that I could have walked instead.
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ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 15:42

Been without WiFi most of the day. So here are my notes.

In the March Hare tea shop on The Oxebode, Gloucester having a scone with cream and jam and a pot of tea. Very pleasant but no WiFi.

I was complimented on my green dress and bare feet by a good looking woman member staff in the charity shop a couple of doors away.

Apart from my thong and bra which I bought new the whole outfit including hat and jewellery came from charity shops. The most expensive piece is my necklace which I splashed out 5.00 GBP on in the shop that was part of a garden and café charity complex. I suppose the whole outfit, excluding undies, cost less than 20 GBP including the handbag.


As I was walking along the street after my scone a woman walked past me and said she admired me for going barefoot and that she wished she were brave enough. I said she didn't need courage, she just needed to get on with it and that it probably less dangerous than her trainers one of ehich was trailing undone laces!

I came out without earrings! Perhaps I'll find some in a charity shop.

Bought a set of three pairs of 'gold' earrings in Primark for 3.50 GBP. Now I feel fully dressed.

13:53

In the Tudor tearoom attached to St Mary's church having a mug of tea and a packet of crisps.




It looks like it doesn't get much business. Just three of us. I suspect that local people might come in once and not bother again as the ready made food offerings are a bit scanty. So it's relying on tourists.

Shame really because it's a reasonable location and very comfortable inside. It just lacks a welcoming air somehow. The woman behind the counter doesn't help by irritatingly ending almost every sentence with a cheery 'No worries!'.

Anyway, I've done the errand I came out for which was to buy a bra extender for my smaller cup size bra. I'm considering wearing a bra after all when I come out to family and friends but toning it down. The problem is that I can't find a band size 42 with a cup smaller than a B which is what I usually wear. So I bought a 38A which of course is a bit tight. Then sometime before I meet my sister I'd better sew pockets on to it to hold some sort of insert in.

Next I need to find some WiFi so I can buy my return tail ticket. If buy it at the station it will cost three times as much. To me that sounds like discrimination against people without smartphones. Why is cash not worth as much as the same amount of digital money? Or should I simply be grateful that they accept cash at all as there are so many businesses in the UK that do not. We have laws against that back home.


14:40

Found WiFi but only in a shop, not really where I want to grapple with Transport for Wales. So I used it to find out where the Turk's Head had moved to, it's now in St Aldate's Street. So I'm having a pint of very dry cider. At least I'm drinking what's left after I managed to knock my glass off the table. It landed upright and launched about a third of a pint up in the air about half landed on the floor but quite a lot reached above head height and landed on me!

No WiFi here but I wasn't expecting any either. In its previous incarnation it even had notices prohibiting mobile phones.

15:54

Now I'm in the bus station café having a pretty bad mug of coffee while waiting for the 16:17 train to Cheltenham. It was empty when I arrived ten minutes ago now it's almost full and almost everyone is either very overweight or in a wheelchair.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 20:38

As i usually do I visited the municipal museum. In this part of the country Roman remains are thick on the ground and one of the first things one sees is a Roman grave stone

Yet another lion

And a smaller cat


Upstairs is a fine airy gallery

with a number of interesting items including Beast IX by Lynn Chadwick

And another lion has sneaked in amongst the farmyard animals

There are quite a few clocks in the museum including a dozen or so long case clock, none of which are running. Are said to one of the museum employees that I thought that this was rather a shame and she excused on grounds of expense. I'm pretty sure that once the clocks were put in working order there would be very little ongoing expense.

The little collection of tools made by John Davis as an apprentice at Fielding and Platt was interesting. Not a lot had changed twenty five years later when I did a workshop course at university and had to make a Toolmakers clamp just like John's. Except that as he was making his as part of his apprenticeship his is much better executed than mine! Mine was just part of a three week course intended to make it possible for us Applied Physics students to make our own experimental rigs





As I went back to the stairs to go back down to the ground floor I noticed this desk. It's interesting because it is clearly intended to be used while sitting down on an ordinary height chair. In my, admittedly limited, personal experience of angled drawing surfaces (O-level technical drawing) they are best used while either standing or sitting on a tall stool

The outside of the museum
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 20:08

Seen on my wanderings today.

On the way to the station I noticed this
Odd, I passed it yesterday and didn't notice it!

Walked just a couple of minutes from the railway station in Gloucester and I saw my first lion. They are pretty enough but what are they for, I'm beginning to think that perhaps some other animals should be represented

There's a lot of new building going on in the area near the station and part of it includes connections to the past



I didn't take many pictures of the new buildings. I was pleased to see that there were variations in style

There was some sort of event that i didn't identify happening in King's Square

And another lion

This one is surely inspired by the tale of the Tailor of Gloucester but the description acknowledges neither John Prichard who was the real tailor nor Beatrix Potter who wrote and illustrated the most widely known version of the story
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 20:31

These two were spotted in an alley off Eastgate Street.


I wonder when it was that people forgot that the gate in names like Eastgate actually means street.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 21:05

And the last picture of today is another that I walked straight past yesterday. Spotted it this time just after leaving the railway station on my way back to Pittville
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 21:06

Today's outfit as been mentioned before but not pictured, so here it is. First getting ready to go out, putting my hair up in a pony tail
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And at the station waiting for the train to Gloucester
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ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 20:35

In Janners Emporium I spotted this VW hippy bus

And lying on a pile of books a letter in Norwegian!
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 20:27

In England the fact that something is called New is not always an indicator of its age

There are many other instances including New College, Oxford, founded 1379.
ninalanyon · 61-69, T
Saturday 30th August 2025, 21:04

Another old building in Gloucester

 
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