Avalon - the Event, intermission

[catspaw]

By the time the photos were done and dusted, the event was running very, very late. LIke VERY late. The auction was supposed to start at 7.30 and I'm sure this was about 7 o'clock - with people still behind us in the queue for their picture. We had some minor panic about blue_adagio since we'd arranged to meet her at 6.30 but when we didn't turn up, she very sensibly phoned us to tell us she'd retired to the Avalon Lounge in the Deanery, an area which had been set up to cover just such eventualities (yet more Brownie points for GABIT on that one). So we could relax a bit. We still had to find her though...

Outside, it was raining. So, where was the Deanery? Good question. We did eventually get directions from a very nice laddie who was waiting table at the afternoon tea, and set off. In the dark, in the rain, and the inevitable happened (although it has to be said, Wells' reluctance to put very visible street signs up at the ends of streets, where one hopes they'll do the most good, was not a very helpful attitude on behalf of the City Fathers). We got lost. Eventually found the Deanery after ducking into an hotel and asking at Reception and found blue_adagio, snug and warm, lucky thing *g*. We soon changed that LOL.

We decided to try an Italian restaurant just down the street and that Feather, yragg and I would wait there while sazzle_02 and blue_adagio, hereinafter referred to as 'S', went back to Saz' car to dump S's luggage. Off we toddled our separate ways. The restaurant was very nice - but a snag soon became apparent: no veggie food other than a variety of starters and one main course which involved garlic and chilli and therefore possibly was not the best choice in case we got a chance to get up close and personal with Himself again ;-) And trust me, it really wasn't the sort of restaurant that would look very kindly on you just eating a couple of starters *g*. So we ducked out of there and continued to wait for the other two to come back.

And waited.

And waited.

And phoned. No signal. Reception in and around Wells was generally pretty poor, thanks to all the stone buildings and the weather.

The rain got heavier.

We waited some more. Bearing in mind that Feather and I hadn't eaten a thing apart from a piece of cake at the tea since 9 am on the plane down, and that G hadn't eaten since considerably before that and furthermore had passed on the cake in case of random nuts, a small amount of disgruntlement was quite understandable. It wasn't helped by the fact that we could smell food all around us and it smelt good, time was getting on and we weren't sure what time the auction was going to start, and the rain was getting heavier still. So we decided that Feather (who was by this time starting to feel ill) and I would go into the hotel restaurant and order, to be joined by the other three when the two S's turned up again. Which we did. We were just getting warm(er) when Feather said to me, 'you know what? Look at the service in here. We're not going to have time to eat here and still make the auction, and we don't want to miss it.' Very true - the average age of the waiting staff in that place was about 60 and they kept getting tangled in their zimmers. So we ducked out of that one too, with a suitably pathetic excuse LOL. Ah well, I'll never be back there again ;-)

Still no sign of the two S's. We waited another ten, 15 minutes and eventually spotted them coming - and S still had her luggage with her: they'd been to every car park in Wells except, as it turned out, the one where the car actually was, and had given up looking for it. Poor Saz was totally drenched: she looked like she'd taken a bath with her clothes on :-(

We squelched back in the general direction of the auction and S, bless her, produced power bars :-))) Gotta admire her organisation :-))) Feather had one of those and started to feel considerably better. And that was the story of our evening meal that wasn't. The whole fiasco wasn't helped by the fact that G had precooked a delish veg. curry, which was waiting for us back at the cottage and which we'd intended to go back and eat in between the tea and the auction. And it was further not helped by a certain supermarket chain** refusing to deliver groceries to the cottage for us because they couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that it was a self catering cottage and not a business per se. Still, the curry was still waiting for us, power bars had solved the immediate crisis, so we figured we'd have it when we got home.

When we got back, the auction hadn't started, luckily, and didn't seem likely to start any time soon. So we had a chance to ablute, smoke, get Saz out of her soaking sweatshirt and into G's nice warm coat, and find our seats. Luckily, all seating was pre-assigned, and yet again we were nicely near the front :-)



**Tesco, people. Home delivery? Tchah! :-((( Three freakin' hours I spent, the day before, tryng to arrange this! Not helped by the fact that the woman who owned the cottages assured me that they took in deliveries on a regular basis for folks who were staying there. Oh no, not good enough for ::spits:: Tesco. Well yah boo sucks, Tesco - Lidl and Morrisons scored BIG TIME the next day :-P~~~~~~

Comments

[feather-autant.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been reading all this, (You're doing a fab job, btw), and it's just struck me that this it only the first day. *g* We did manage to cram quite a bit in, didn't we?

Thank you for being so diplomatic about things! :D *g*

[catspaw-sgjd.livejournal.com]

Yep, one day only! Amazing! And 'Diplomacy' is my middle name ;-)

Glad you're enjoying the report - but I've forgotten much. Feel free to chip in with any little details that come to mind. Or, get enough sleep so that you can write your own ;-)

[sazzle-02.livejournal.com]

You know, I think I would have preferred to have taken a bath fully clothed, at least then I would have had a towel to look forward to :-(

Have to agree with Feather though, you're doing a bang up job of "our" Avalon report.

[catspaw-sgjd.livejournal.com]

Well thank you ma'am, glad you're enjoying. But like I said to Feather (above) - I've forgotten loads, or missed out loads, especially about the auction. I think we were all pretty much done by that point :-( It was a long, busy day.