Bathing it all in

I am trying to show Ruby as many quintessentially English places and things as we can fit into a cross-country road trip. We stopped in Bath, the Devon market town of Tiverton and we were going to pause in Stratford-upon-Avon but on driving into the town centre, the crowds and busloads of tourists were so unappealing that we sped off.

We headed all the way to Retford in Nottinghamshire for another friend's wedding reception; a very laid back afternoon at a campsite, filled with vegan junk food, a general knowledge quiz and chilling on a picnic rug. After the quiz we darted to my place in Cambridge to get some much needed sleep.

For accommodation on Saturday night we'd stayed in the Cotswolds in an Elizabethan era (1580) house doubling as a bed and breakfast, named after a Dutch merchant called Clutterbuck. The owner, Sharon, was telling us about how haunted the place was, with ghost nursemaids wailing, babies crying and picture frames moving a few times per week. After having the house exorcised several years ago (by someone who provides the service for free, therefore not a money-making racket) no spooky happenings have been recorded. I am not a believer in ghosts as I don't understand how they can work biologically and chemically, but it was hard to refute Shazza's tale as she relayed it.