There came a point at which we had both had enough, and Babel helpfully saved the situation by saying that we needed to shoot off to find a Mothers’ Day present for his Mum. He did genuinely need to pick up a card, so we decided to head to Stratford-upon-Avon. We had actually been to Stratford the previous week and had a very pleasant walk which I think I forgot to blog about, but Stratford is an excellent place to go on a sunny afternoon and Babel had the excellent idea that we could try out one of the rowing boats.

There’s a stretch of river at Stratford which is quite calm and safe (well, as long as you stay away from the weir!) and it’s possible to hire both rowing and motor boats by the hour. Motor boats go an awful lot faster but rowing boats are perhaps more pleasant, or at least they are if you’re not the person who has to row We had previously been in a rowing boat when we were in Szombathely for the IJK last summer, where Babel demonstrated that he could row surprisingly well and I demonstrated that the complexities of the sport were a bit beyond me! Contrary to what one might expect, the rowing boats at Stratford didn’t seem as new or secure as those in Hungary, and I wasn’t 100% convinced that they couldn’t capsize if we moved around too much, plus there seemed to be a real risk that Babel might accidentally drop one of the oars. Nevertheless, he did a sterling job not just of rowing but of steering us around the branches and bridges alike and ensuring that we didn’t crash with any of the other traffic on the river – no mean feat when it’s as busy as it was on Saturday.

He did suggest at one point that I had another go at rowing but I didn’t think that this would be a good idea or, more accurately, I became paralysed with fear and was unable to stand up to swap places with him That aside, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and it was especially nice to get so close to the swans and other wildlife on the river, although the ducks seemed to be taking the mating season very seriously!

As if that wasn’t exciting enough for one Saturday, from our boat we caught sight of a mini-golf sign and having returned our vessel, we decided to investigate it on foot. By a stroke of good fortune, it just so happened that when we arrived we were able to scrape together enough spare change for a contest, and so the battle commenced Babel seemed to be under the impression that he was going to win hands down, and by some sort of fluke I did indeed come second, but not by much! Babel scored about 58 whilst I scored 80, and in any sensible game it would be the person with the highest score who won anyway

All in all it was a lovely weekend, made even better by a discussion of our finances which seems to indicate that we’re in a much better position for the future than we expected

Babel didn’t admittedly get off to a great start, by arriving thirty minutes late, reeking of cigarette smoke, and proceeding to tell a story of how he was offered a shag the previous night, but I managed to successfully navigate us to Stratford without getting lost, and by the time I was sitting in a pub by the river with an enormous burger and a glass of red wine, life seemed a lot less stressful I’ve decided I quite like red wine, and the burger was really rather delicious.

The rain was still holding off, so we went for a stroll by the side of the river. Stratford is actually a bit of a mess this year, as they’re doing building work on the theatre and half of the gardens appear to have been dug up, but the far bank of the river is untouched, and there’s a pleasant little footpath which leads from the park through various fields and woodland for miles and miles. We followed it for a little way, pausing for a while to look at a herd of cattle which looked quite cute from behind barbed wire, though would have been less so had we been sharing a field, and when it did temporarily start raining we were able to sit on a bench under a convenient tree Babel took the opportunity to wind me up incredibly, but whilst I may not have appreciated it at the time, I reluctantly admit that I kinda did later on

Once you’ve walked along the river for about a mile, you have two options. You can continue across the fields in the direction of Long Marston, or you can pass through a little gate and climb up a bridge onto a cycle track. We didn’t have time to venture as far as Long Marston because I’d only had enough small change for four hours parking, and so we had a leisurely walk back into Stratford along the cycle track

Whilst Babel discovered no fewer than two branches of The Works, I discovered that Stratford has a branch of my favourite coffee house, Caffe Nero Having fed my caffeine addiction with a Frappe Latte (if you haven’t tried one, you haven’t lived) I felt sufficiently generous to let him feed his book addiction in The Works, and he soon emerged with a very heavy and boring-looking volume on the history of the world, or some such

I got home pretty early, which gave my parents a bit of a surprise, but Babel had to go and visit another friend, and anyway we’d definitely had the best of the day’s weather It was a nice relaxing day – it makes such a difference to weekends Babel both having a car and not having to work Sunday was actually okay too – my little cousin came to visit in the morning, and in the afternoon I interspersed progress with La Lada Tambureto with surfing the net for career ideas. I didn’t find anything terribly interesting for myself, but I did accidentally find that the job Babel was waiting for to come online now has, and hopefully by the time I’ve posted this he’ll have submitted his phd application, and things will be starting to work out