Out and about

It rained. In fact it rained in Biblical proportions. The maintenance man at the hotel had started building an Ark. We would decide on today’s schedule after breakfast.

With more people staying in the hotel, there was a gentle background hubbub in the restaurant over breakfast. We watched as the clouds rolled in, then cleared a bit, then rolled back, then cleared a bit more. The Silver Vixen decided that there was some Christmas shopping that was needed and we could stroll into town and shelter as we hopped across the puddles from shop to shop. While we were in one of the shops we overheard one of the locals bemoaning the fact that several of the roads into and out of the town were completely blocked by the torrents running off the hills. Clearly, staying put in Sidmouth was the right choice today. Sidmouth does have a certain Edwardian charm.

We were out for several hours and made a number of purchases. As we made our way back towards the hotel, the rain had cleared so we diverted along the Clifton walkway that runs along under the cliffs. We had to dodge torrents of water that were cascading down across the path in places, but it saves visiting Angel Falls in South America!

At the end of the walkway we made our way up the ramp to the Connaught Gardens to take in the view. On a sunny day it must be lovely. Today it wasn’t bad but the grey of the sky flattened all of the colours.

We made our way back to the hotel The road (Peak Hill) was completely awash and we had to watch for traffic to ensure we didn’t get completely soaked.

Back in the hotel, the Silver Vixen spent some time reading and the Gorse Fox tried to get to grips the the “Pages” app on his iPad. He is intent on providing some clear documentation for Mrs Tiggywinkle and this seemed like a good excuse to learn a new word processor. It was a slow process at first, with all of the tools being accessible, but accessed differently from the traditional word processors he has used. Most frustrating, at present, is the fine placement of illustrations or pictures. He is sure he will crack it, but it is slow going. We interrupted our afternoon challenges to go down for a cream tea (well, you have to, don’t you?), but carried on with book and word processor over tea.

It was good to see an opening win for Jose Mourinho at Spurs today. Let’s hope he can revitalise the team and get the results pouring in once more.