Bread And Circuses
We spent last week away on the Isle of Wight. For those not familiar with this fabled land, it's an island just off the south coast of England separated from the mainland by a bit of water called The Solent.
I've only ever been there for a couple of day trips before, one of which involved that ever-so-British insistence on going into the sea despite thick fog and cold winds, which will tell you what the weather was like. So one thing I hadn't registered before this visit was how classically English countryside the landscape is. Seriously - think of what you'd expect to see in the classic English country view and it's everywhere you look on the Isle of Wight. Rolling fields, woodland copses, little villages with thatched cottages nestled between hills, hedgerow-edged country lanes, sheer cliffs falling into the sea, hilltop churches; they're all there. In a lot of ways you don't register how little of this typical England you see in the ordinary course of events, especially living and working in a city. I know it's all still out there in parts, but on the Isle it's like it's all been concentrated into one small area and you're just so much more aware of it.
We stayed on the edge of a village called Godshill, which is one of the most relentlessly pretty villages you can imagine, and though it's one of those tourist villages where it's not clear if there's somewhere to buy a pint of milk, it does have some good eating. Being an island with a decidedly agricultural bent, there's a wealth of great produce available from both land and sea, and in a shameless plug, I'll say that we didn't find those things being put to better use than at a pub in Godshill called The Taverners. You've got to love somewhere that worries about its food miles but can also list them in fractions, or even in one case "640 yards". Even down to locally sourcing the flour that they use to bake their own bread, The Taverners is a winner on the local produce front, and they do it all justice in the cooking. All our time in San Francisco has given The Mrs and I a serious love of sourdough bread, and The Taverners does a fabulous loaf of the stuff. If there was a way to keep it fresh I'd have brought home a car load. Which ironically would have bumped up its food miles by a factor of hundreds 
Of course, the downside of holidaying in England is the uncertainty of the weather, which did its level best to be as uncertain as possible last week. It was so variable that weather forecasts changed dramatically from hour to hour, and while a lot of the rain thoughtfully fell overnight, most of the time there was a generally grey aspect that always threatened more. Given that part of the rationale for going was to help entertain some friends' kids, that limited the options slightly, but it also led to at least one lifetime first for me: we went to the circus.
Now, I'm not sure how I've reached the age I have without ever having been to a circus, but somehow it's happened. And obviously now they're not like they used to be, as they can't have evil animal acts, so I suspect I've missed the golden age. But was it what I was expecting? Not exactly. To begin with, the scale of this one was ... smaller. When you think of circuses, they tend to be those huge Big Tops with hundreds of seats ranked up around the ring and enough overhead space for a serious trapeze act or three. This one was more intimate - no trapeze as such, though various acts worked off the ground, and no tendency to inspire the gasps of awe that I tend to associate with high wire acts and people being thrown and caught high above one (can you tell my circus expectations are totally informed by films?). But it was a fun way to while away a couple of hours; there was a clown, there was a ringmistress - yes, terribly modern , there were young women in many sequins, and athletic young men being athletic. And to give it its due, the two kids in our party were rapt. They loved the slapstick of the clown, and they sat amazed at the acts, so on probably its most basic measure, I'd have to say it was a success.
I'll be frank and say that it wasn't the most amazing holiday ever, but it had its moments, and for the gorgeous landscape alone I'd say the Isle of Wight is somewhere worth passing some time.