Squirrels are real!  I was beginning to wonder.  If one could have a soul animal, I think a squirrel would be mine – very easily distracted, yet at the same time extremely cute and surprisingly intelligent.  Cough.  I’d heard that squirrels were to be seen all over the place in England, running across people’s fences and through their backyards.  But I’d been here a week and still hadn’t seen one, until just as we were leaving our AirBnb in Coventry, a real live squirrel raced across the road in front of us.  No time for a photo as it was gone in an instant.  So it will have to remain, as Linda McCartney would say, in my soul camera.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Prepare yourselves.  Selfridges is also real!  Yep, it’s not just a fictitious department store from the Netflix series.  It may have begun in the olden days, but believe it or not, it is still alive and well today. I saw it myself a couple of days ago, standing loud and proud in a modern Birmingham shopping mall.  And spreading out over three levels of that mall, I might add.  

Squirrels and Selfridges – surprises around every corner! 

We did venture out from Selfridges to see a bit more of Birmingham.  My impressions?  Well, to me it seemed a strange fusion of old and new.  However it did supply us with a jolly good backpack (thank you to the lovely chap at GoOutdoors who gave us the membership deal despite not being members – I said I’d mention him), as well as a hard-to-find, NZ plug-friendly travel adaptor (thank you Birmingham Bullring Markets).

We also paid a visit to the town of Nuneaton, where Clive and his family had lived upon their return to the UK in 1979.  Twelve year old Clive was not happy at all about the move.  So not happy that he worked three paper rounds in the hope of earning enough money to buy himself a plane ticket back to New Zealand, bless him.  I’m not sure how much money he managed to save, but he did get his wish.  After a year, the whole family packed up and returned to New Zealand once again.

Visits to family members have been an important part of our trip so far.  Clive has three aunts in the UK.  While in Coventry, we’d spent some precious time with Aunty M.  Aunty M is a wonderfully kind and gentle lady.  She has a lovely family and an incredibly sweet four-year-old grandson, who is so delicious I could have gobbled him up.  He and I went “sploring” for squirrels, but alas, despite the aid of his toy red telescope, the squirrels were nowhere to be seen.  Sigh.

Clive’s dear Aunty K lives in Cornwall, so after leaving Coventry we headed down to the beautiful land of the Cornish.

Along the way we stopped at the lively town centre of Bath, and made our way to… the Roman Baths.  The water didn’t look particularly inviting although I’m sure it would have been a top notch place to go back in the day – possibly even a level or two up from a soak in our own wee spa pool.  

The Roman Baths

Next on the list was Exeter.  The cathedral looked magnificent – from the outside.  It was closed to the public unfortunately, but we grabbed a few pics of her exterior and had yet another tea break at a nearby cafe.  This travelling gig is thirsty work!

We arrived safe and sound in Cornwall, winding our way down a narrow gravel road to find the holiday bungalows where we are staying for our last week in the UK.  And what do you know?  On our very first evening, we spotted a fox.  Hurrah!  It was skinnier than I expected.  Mind you, the only other fox I’ve known is Basil Brush, who perhaps wasn’t the best example of his kind.

So all and all, it’s been a grand few days.

We’ve a few places to visit with Aunty K while we are here in Cornwall.  The countdown is on for my departure to France, but for now my focus is on all things English.  I might just stay up for a bit tonight and see if I can spot any more wildlife.  Supposedly there’s a badger set here on the grounds, so we’ll have to see just how true that is.  I’ll keep you posted.