Symmetry of Life

I was at the breakfast today and listened to people who were speaking about going to the Bath and another group discussing about going to the Blenheim Palace. I was not very interested in seeing palaces hence i set off to go to the Bath. The previous day I had gone to the bus operators to find out the tourist routes to Leicester and other places they did mention to me about the bath. I also heard from my sister who lived in the UK who told me about it. So decided to take my chances to see the Bath.

We took a train to the Bath. While changing trains at Didcot i was so surprised to see a steam engine that just passed by from the station. I was thrilled to see it as it was the same as the one we have in Coonoor. The train was pulling a few small bogies. Before i could get my camera out the train disappeared. I had to board the train and leave for the bath. As soon as we got of the train there was a magnificent building that welcomed us. it was the Cathedral with a number of sea gulls welcoming. the cathedral was the last church built by the Tudors. The facade contained the angels going up and down the ladder. As soon as i saw it i was able to recollect that it was Jacob's dream from the old testament.

The Bath is very close to Bristol near the Atlantic. in fact like the other coast of the country. the sea gulls were all over making those gooing sounds to attract attention.

As we walked along we saw the Pump Room, presumably there was a pump there to take the wall up hill for distribution. Before i start with that, let me tell you about the Bath. The city is believed to be founded by King Bladud, the father of King Lear. He is said to have leprosy, so he came to the mud and rolled in it where his pigs were and got cured of his leprosy. In fact the name comes from the hot springs that are present there. Firstly the Romans used to bathe in the water and get heald of a number of diseases. Even now Rheumatism and allied diseases are treated with this water. The Romans then converted into a bath where the nobles could come and take bath.

We went to a hotel, and drank a glass of spring water which was rich in minerals and tasted like hot water. After drinking we went and saw the place of bath from the hotel. The water was green, and had a few feathers of a pigeon. we looked at it and told ourselves we just paid to drink this green water.

We then took a long walk to come back for the road walk guided tour. Walking around we went to the The bath Circus, this was not a place where people performed, but a huge Semi circular building. We even went into a museum house that depicted the life in the 18th century. We got to see the rooms the chairs, tables, food, bedding and all that they used including the toilet pots which were used because of no running water. The halls and everything was arranged in perfect symmetry as the people of that day loved things to be in order and life itself moved according to some sort of symmetry.

We got a chance to take a peek into the women's chamber which had all the make up essentials including a wig scratcher. The guide told us that women would use so much make up that some would die of it because the chemicals had lead in them. Many would loose their eye brows and used mice skin to replace it. Sounded awful but that was the pursuit of being beautiful.

The kitchen was absolutely great as it looked like the one in the old seminaries in India. The only difference being they are still in use there but in the UK the utensils are in the museum

On our way back we stopped to get some food as a small eatery, owing to the delay in getting the food and eating it we got the tour place half an hour late. Hence we missed the tour.

We then decided to go to the park. We strolled around and found the park where the Bath Band was playing. This was the first time I was witnessing a full band play in public. they were playing compositions of various artistes from the UK and the USA. Usually a brass band in our country plays for weddings, of festivals, in college the brass band is played for some occasions only. But here it was like an orchestra with the band.

We then took our train back to Oxford. The day was not over yet. My Japanese friend and I wanted to find some dinner. We went in search of the stores but they were closed so we decided to look for a distant store. After a good 15min walk we found that they was closed as well. So we decided to treat ourselves with Indian food. He was telling me that he was going to eat till he dies. We ate so well and got back to watch out Sunday evening show. To my surprise I had a Sri Lankan friend who was waiting to meet me. We had a discussion and he took me to his house and we started to talk many home matters the time flew by that we ended up talking till 11:45 pm. It was so late that i got to my room well passed midnight.