Compton Acres and Eurovision

  Poole, United Kingdom
Saturday, May 12, 2007

12 May Saturday

I spent this morning grading student projects from my online Technical Communication class. In the afternoon, I joined Julie and Tory for a walk through Compton Acres, a large series of gardens.

I'd already finished the grades for my face-to-face 1301 course before I left, but I planned on finishing the online class in my off times here. Not a good idea, particularly at this new hotel where I have limited internet access. As well, we've had little off-time, particularly with the amount of time we've put into our blogs. Today was the first day I was able to focus on grading, although its been in the back of my mind most of this week.

Around noon, Julie and Tory came by my room. They had spent the morning wandering around the local area and told me about the game of "bowls" they'd played that morning. It sounds like a great experience-check out their blogs for the details.

We decided to walk to Compton Acres, a large garden that Tory had found out about. We had two rather incomplete maps, so we ended up backtracking a little bit. We eventually decided to follow the shore line. There was quite a wind kicking up the sand, but we were able to watch kite surfing and other windsurfers.

After asking a friendly local for directions to Compton Acres and wandering around a bit longer, we decided to get a bite to eat. We stopped at a place just up from the shore, the Inn of the Hotel. We found a place in the restaurant section and ordered some salads. I had the salad with King prawns, which are like little shrimp. When the waitress brought them out, she asked Julie if she wanted any "sauces". Julie said no thanks, but then we realized the waitress was asking about salad dressings. Julie ended up eating a pretty dry salad ("sauce" was already on mine and Tory's salads). Another linguistic adventure.

After lunch, we got directions from the bartender and started our search for Compton Acres anew. We wandered into another garden-this part of England is full of large and small gardens. This one was Cliff Gardens, with flowering trees and shrubs and a little canal down the middle. All these gardens are peaceful and well-maintained. I could see myself eating lunch or simply relaxing for hours in these oases.

Julie finally saw a street sign pointing to Compton Acres and we were finally there about 10 minutes later. We found out that Compton Acres is a series of unique gardens spread across 10 acres. It was beautiful and bountiful throughout, with an Italian Garden, a Wood and Rock Garden, a Japanese Garden, a Winter Garden, a Roman Garden, and many others. There were plant species we recognized, but many more new ones. We can across small wildlife and even a very elaborate wedding in the Italian Gardens. I was particularly taken with the large Koi in the Japanese Garden. I'm glad that we took the time, and the meandering walks, to find these gardens. It's a wonderful place.

Although walking there was worth it, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel to save some time. We were expecting a ride at 7pm to take us to Claire's house. Claire was one of the three BPC faculty who came to Cy-Fair in the fall. Our ride was Graham, a tall thin, engaging chap who teaches at BPC. We talked a little about teaching, about culture and other things as he droves us out to Claire's. One thing that stood was his membership, in the past, to CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. CAMRA was and is a non-profit group pushing for the return of real ale in pubs. It is an interesting social movement and shows the importance of good beer in English culture. I enjoyed talking with Graham.

We eventually found Claire's following Graham's handwritten instructions. It was great to see her again, meet her husband, and her son, and the several friends she invited over for the evening. We talked about her experiences in Houston, our experiences so far, and had many laughs. I tried Pimm's, a gin-based beverage that looks like tea and tastes like a fruity wine cooler. I also indulged in the farm-made sausages that Claire cooked, just for us along with some homemade bread and pizza. Once again, I had a feeling, tasty meal.

As we ate, we watched the Eurovision Song Contest final. DISCLAIMER-Claire didn't want us to include this next part in our blogs, as she was a bit ashamed that our cultural experience included it. But I thought it was a hoot. This contest is a European version of American Idol, with bands representing each country and people across the continent, from Ireland to Russia, voting. It was quite an extravaganza, broadcast from Helsinki (the country that one last year). The UK broadcast had a commentary from Terry Wogan, a UK radio personality. His commentary was as funny as the actual songs were campy, over-staged, and rather bland. The UK entry, Scooch's "Flying the Flag (For You)" was one of the those empty pop songs with an annoyingly catchy chorus. Of the participants we watched (we turned it on already in progress), the only one that seemed to have some musical talent was from Bulgaria.

We spent the night laughing at Terry's comments and the debating the acts. The group from the Ukraine was particularly over the top, with a song that was even less memorable than most of the rest. Apparently over-the-top is the latest trend for Eurovision (last year's winners were an act from Finland dressed as monsters). When the votes came in, we got a real sense of the political alliances across Europe. Our UK friends (and Terry) would accurately anticipate who a country would vote for because of political and cultural borders, (countries could not vote for themselves). It seems, at least for this contest, that the UK and Ireland are "off" the European map, as they finished second and last respectively. In fact, we spent most of the night just hoping that the UK would get some votes, most of which they finally did get from Ireland.  

It was a fun night, talking with Claire and her friends, laughing along with the contest, and enjoying good food and drink. I comfortable and accepted. Reluctantly, we had to finally leave, as we were all getting pretty tired. Graham graciously drove us back to our hotel. It was late, but I took a few minutes to do a little packing, as we are returning to our hotel tomorrow. But we did decide to take advantage of our "free" day tomorrow (Sunday) and sleep in a little. We could all use the rest.