Why, Oh Why (Day 187)
Why, Oh Why do things take so long, why oh why much more. Crikey I sound like a right moaner!
Why, oh why does admin take so long? A couple of hours in the morning and all it seemed we achieved was contacting the travel insurance regarding our curtailment claim, also the travel bureau to chase for money owed due to TigerAir cancelling our flight. The lady on the phone didn't understand the correct phonetics when Tim was giving her the Booking reference!
Time for some exercise. We jumped in the car with Katy, our Airbnb Host and she drove us into Bristol city. We climbed the steep stairs at the Osteopath’s office to the attic. I whipped my skirt off (Yes - I did have leggings underneath), got mats out and off we go. Lying down and noticing where our bodies connected with the ground; aware of our breathing...
I really liked Katy's style of teaching Yoga at @yogawithkaty. The lesson flowed so smoothly and she took time to check we were using our bodies the best way for us, releasing any tension, not overstretching. The ethos seemed to be to allow the body to go with the flow intuitively; using gravity, being aware of our breathing, grounding our feet and expanding our spine, naturally finding a way to strengthen our bodies and develop flexibility.
Katy had such a warm and playful way of working. Near the end of the lesson, we were practising 'downward dog' and she demonstrated getting into this position crawling and then lightly walking like Spot the Dog. There we all were, bottoms up in the air with right leg and arm moving in sync, then the left. It was harder than it sounds - great fun though. Sadly the lesson finished. If you are Bristol way, I highly recommend getting in touch with Katy and dropping into one of her classes.
Time for lunch and we found a recommended cafe near St Nicholas Indoor Market, where we visited afterwards. Some great stalls, groovy clothes shops with tie-dye and top hats; rainbow wool in Sew N Sew, Jewellery, Book and Record shops. The market was named Britain’s Best Large Indoor Market in 2016, well worth a browse.
Unfortunately, we had a Cabin bag to buy. The lovely burnt orange one that we found over a week ago still hadn't arrived. Ah - that was another admin thing I had to do this morning - phone the suppliers. It was going to take another 5 days to deliver. No good, we're in Tokyo then!
Eventually, we found Weng, a bag and luggage shop and was served by a very patient and friendly lady from Taiwan called Sunny. We chatted about the various size restrictions of cabin luggage that the bucket airlines have. Why, oh why can they not be consistent? I write more about this on our #grownuptraveller blog "What type of luggage to use". The airlines are becoming a lot more stringent. Our cases have been weighed a couple of times. Luckily they let us through without extra charge. One of ours weighed 7.4kg rather than the allowance of 7kg.
Tim found a nice blue Samsonite one, ticking the box for his requirements, except for a couple of airlines whose width restriction is a tad smaller. We had such a lovely chat with Sunny. She recommended we visit her country, especially the Taroko National Park and showed us photos of the stunning scenery. Her dream since the age of 10 is to go travelling around the world. I do hope we inspired her and demonstrated that it is possible. She inspired us with Taiwan and funny enough our son John recommended that we visited this country as well.
More shopping to go, I had t-shirts to buy, as I am swapping the white and cream ones for mid colour ones. Didn't quite get want I wanted, they'll do. Tim was getting tired, or was he bored? It was getting to 6 pm by now. We waited for a bus next to a young couple with their 7-year-old son. Why, oh why do people treat their children so appallingly? It's one of the most important jobs we have as parents yet we are not trained.
When getting off the bus, we heard our names being called out. Tom, Ewan and John's girlfriend Georgia, who are living in the house with John, were sitting outside a cafe. How lovely. We joined them for a drink, catching up on news and then headed home together.
Up in the attic, we found paperwork for the travel insurance claim, tried to find a replacement sarong to no avail, then dinner was ready. Chatted and relaxed, time for us to head back to our Airbnb for another good night's sleep.
