Power Cuts, Burn & Crash, and Buckfast Abbey

Last weekend we experienced 6 power cuts in 2 days, leaving us feeling cold and powerless (pun intended). Hubby was bored as there wasn't any power supply for the laptop, good thing he has a wind-up radio to kept him entertained. I was using my reading light to read the TV guide for the week. Yup, pretty useless, as there wasn't any power for the TV. Next time when we have our own house I'm going to insist on having a bicycle-powered TV or a solar-powered TV or a mini wind farm to power the house, or something like that. :)

Yesterday I went to practice my cycling skill at a country lane nearby. That was the very first time I took my new bicycle on a proper country ride. I couldn't remember how to balance my shoulders. Result: I crashed into a bush, got my hands scratched by the thorns, the bike fell on me, resulting in spectacular bruises on my both legs. The "crash & burn" incident didn't deter me from finishing the 1km track. I still can't figure out how to work the gears, but I'm happy enough that I managed to go about 60m at a time without crashing into anything. I also managed to steer my bike away from cow pats, horse poos and dogs poos so I didn't have to clean the wheels. :) Hubby thinks it's going to take sometime before I could remember how to cycle properly.

That was my weekend adventures.

Now to Buckfast Abbey in Devon. We went there on our last break. According to the webpage, it's "home to a Roman Catholic community of Benedictine monks." The abbey itself isn't that old as it was being rebuilt quite recently in 1900. The weather was pretty bad so we didn't take many pictures of the gardens around the abbey. We had a proper Devonshire cream tea: scones with fresh clotted cream, homemade strawberry jam, and a cup of tea there. It was absolutely tasty! We slathered our scones with the cream and jam in the right order: the cream first before the jam, the Devonshire way. Apparently the Cornish way is to do it the other way round: the jam first before the cream.

The abbey is supposed to be famous for their honey but we didn't see any for sale in the gift shop. It probably has something to do with the disappearing bees in England in general. There was an interesting building in the compound where they sell different products produced by other Benedictine communities around the world. I would have bought some toiletries if I wasn't on "No Buy Challenge".

We didn't see any monks around, only fellow tourists. It was quite an interesting place altogether, you should visit the place if you're ever in the area.