Hexham Abbey

I was in Hexham twice today.

This morning I did a quick shop in Aldi before going to meet the kitchen designer in town. It's amazing to see the 3D software they use to simulate how the kitchen will look. We spent quite a long time moving and adjusting. I think the kitchen will be great, although I came home and had a few thoughts about how I would like it even better!

My meeting took so long that we had a very late lunch. Judith, from across the road, had called to see Mum so she had been well entertained. Judith is a fund of hilarious stories and has a very wry view on life's little difficulties.

This evening, I returned to see A United Kingdom which I missed first time around. For those of you who don't know. it is the true love story of Seretse Khama of Botswana (was Bechuanaland then) and Ruth Williams, a white woman he met in England. 

I was fortunate enough to meet Ruth when I was staying with friends in Botswana in the early 80s. She called in, unannounced, to see them. She was delightful and fun and attractive.

In the film, Seretse goes back to his home town of Serowe. I stood on the ridge overlooking it, just as they did in the film. I loved it. I'm afraid that the government officials came out looking like fools and Winston Churchill as an unreliable politician. He promised to send Seretse back from temporary exile in England if he was elected as Prime Minister, but reneged on his word, ordering permanent exile when in government.

I also visited Palapye and Mahalapye - both shown in the film. Before the film started, the woman next to me said she was looking forward to the film because parts were filmed at Doddington's dairy farm in Northumberland. I could not bear to ask her afterwards if she had come to the correct film!! (She had a hip replacement one week ago and had been back to Morris dancing after a knee replacement.)

Off to bed to dream of - Botswana or kitchens. I hope that Botswana wins. I was there for 3 months as a medical student and loved it.