friends and lovers,
hi. i have many things to say again. hope you are all well!
I am in london now, but I'd like to recap my last day and night in Wales before London...
I slept longer than I wanted, accidentally. Battery powered alarm clocks are not the most reliable. After breakfast, Jan showed me how to make jam out of the crabapples I had picked the day before. Then I watered everything inside the little greenhouse in the yard and picked edamame beans from the tall stalks. It was very pleasant to search all through the green plants to find the largest beans to pick, which were usually hidden among leaves and branches in places I almost didn't look. It sounds cheesy, but I've come to really enjoy touching raw vegetables, feeling their dirty textures, fresh from the ground, and then to wash and cut and cook them. It's quite inspiring, and I wish I could feel this feeling more, but it's hard living in a city..
Later in the day, I helped Alex make apple cider with the huge variety of apples picked from the trees. It was a difficult and messy process. I washed the apples and cut them into quarters and gave them to Alex to put in a small food processor to chop them into bits. Then he put the apple mush into this barrel press. We would just keep that going until the barrel was full of mush and then he screwed in the piece to press it all down as far as it could go to squeeze out all the juice, which came seeping out the bottom and into a big glass bottle. We had to do all that a few times to fill up the entire jug, and it took a long time, but it was pretty fun. The juice would be mixed with sugar and let sit for like six months to become cider. We laughed about the hundreds of apples lying around and the 6 other glass jugs he still had yet to fill. But that was for another day he said.
After cider making, I took Molly for the daily walk, and walked further on the coastal path in the opposite direction to see what I might find. The path went up and down, and Molly got tired with the hills, panting along behind. Eventually, we came to some houses, just a couple, people's properties, but there were gates and the path continued on through their yards. There was a stable with nobody inside, beautiful gardens and a white stucco house with a huge chimney and cool modern patio. I could see Dale, the town with the marina across the bay, and I wanted to continue on the path, but I felt it was too far, so I turned around and we went back. Then I took Molly a few steps the other direction on the path and I picked rose hips (they're like berries) for Jan and Rob to make preserves, and brought them back to the house.
When I got back, Rob and Jan were all dressed up for the fundraiser ball and headed out with another couple. Alex and I got ready and drove down to Dale, got drinks at the pub that Rob and Jan used to run, and went on Jan's brother's yacht, which was parked on the dock. He and his girlfriend were very dressed up and drinking champagne in the boat, which was the fanciest boat I've ever seen, complete with a bunk room, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, and master bedroom. Rob and Jan and their friends came to meet us shortly. It was so funny that all the adults were wearing like fancy prom attire and Alex and I were in jeans and hoodies. Jan's brother again entertained me, this time going on and on with his statistics about the bottom of the bay and the water level and the tide. He was planning to keep his yacht parked at the dock to sleep in after the ball that night, but you're not supposed to do that because the tide goes down and the boat could sink and rub the bottom of the bay. But he took all these measurements and calculations and was telling us he was sure it would be fine for this night because of the time of month it was, and at worst the engine might touch the bottom and get a little smashed, but he hoped and thought not. Apparently he had a disaster with this a couple years ago and had to pay a fortune to repair the boat. We were laughing when his girlfriend said he's been talking about his calculations all day.
So after that, Alex and I left them to go get some take-away fish and chips and then head to Charlie's bar. Alex called Charlie before we arrived there to see how the night was going so far. Charlie's had recently started doing live shows and DJs on weekends and have since had more people show up than ever before. So tonight, there was a band playing, and like over a hundred people there, in a sort of small bar/club. Things had gotten out of control before we even got there. Some guy who had hit one of the bar tenders a few months ago and was banned came back that night and punched Charlie right in the nose over the bar! So Alex and I showed up to help out, the police were there questioning, tons of drunk kids outside making a raucous, band setting up, bar absolutely insane busy, Charlie with a nose bleed but in good spirits. So Alex took the bartender role, among three other bar tenders (Charlie, Stumpy, and a girl whose name I didn't catch) and I helped Stumpy's 12-year-old son Josh collect and wash glasses. He's 12 and isn't supposed to be working or behind a bar, but he works with his dad like once a week it seems and has got the job down. He was like telling me what to do and drinking smirnoff ice from his dad while on the job hahaa. and the place was crazy, especially once the band started and no one could hear themselves talk and there were so many people, everyone from young teens to adults in their 40's were there and having a great time. there were tables outside and always around 20-30 people in different groups outside, drinking, smoking, trashing, yelling, dancing. and me running around collecting their empty glasses. i had a good time and it was fun to close up and make jokes about the two people making out at the end of the bar way after closing time, and josh drunk by the end and being really silly playing with the sink and squirting people with water. it was great fun, and a good last event in wales. i slept well that night and in the morning took a train to london after finding out charlie went to the hospital for his nose which was definitely broken and hadn't stopped bleeding all night. Jan was also in bad shape after taking a fall on the sidewalk in Dale after the ball and hitting her head pretty hard. Sadly, I didn't get to say goodbye to her because Rob left her to rest at their friends' house in Dale and came back to take me to the train station.
In all, I couldn't have had a better first wwoofing experience. They were lovely people, made me family, taught me so many things in such little time. I will miss the family, the town, the sea, and the dirt under my fingernails.
I think that is enough for now, it is night time here in London, and pouring rain outside. I'm going to do a bit of reading for class tomorrow. But I promise to catch up on my London adventures in the next couple of days.
cheers,
xx
emily
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