Beautiful Bath

So, Emma bursts into the room wearing a blood spattered muslin and blasts Darcy in the chest at point blank range with a sub machine gun.

I may have got that mixed up. But it was thirty years ago. I was an undergraduate and probably desperate to read Blood of the Flesh Eating Demons. Jane Austen was a late night struggle with an essay. So I possibly failed to grasp the finer moments of Georgian society.

But I'm older and wiser now. And as we visit the Assembly Rooms in Bath it is possibly the first time I appreciate those well turned ankles, delicate dresses and quick eyes darting about the rooms, seeking surreptitious engagement.

One day I'll have time to take the enchanting Jane Austen into a sunny garden and loll about on a hammock with her. When I'm retired and the gritlets are all off at university studying Blood of the Flesh Eating Demons on their English Lit course.

I'll look forward to that. Meanwhile, here are the Assembly Rooms and the gritlets, becoming bored waiting for someone to ask them to dance.



We have got this wrong. Clearly, we need to doll ourselves up at the Fashion Museum.




That fires me up. In fact mama is now so dedicated to this Austen-style pursuit of ladylikeliness that we next take tea in the cafe. Or hot chocolate. (I know it looks like Shark's hot chocolate has a plant growing out of it. That's the skill of the photographer.)


Anyway, Bath is so stonily and haughtily elegant, I have fallen in love with it. In fact I might generously allow Bath tourist office to nick this picture of Squirrel and ArseFace standing in the circus if they want.



But of course we've also come to see the Roman Baths, because we can't leave without that. And we're meeting a home ed group for a tour round. How is that for educational planning and organisation? Really, the gritlets have the equivalent of a full-time personal assistant. I might start charging them 40K a year for this job.



And this is one of my favourite pictures. The Roman lead piping. Seriously, what with Jane Austen, some proper magnificent buildings and real Romans, you should all get on over to Bath right now. And the tourist board aren't even paying me to say that.