Digestives, Wine Gums, and a Cemetery

I got up this morning and had a bit of a panic that we are leaving soon. I don’t know what I think I need or want to do before we go, but I felt like there must be something. I calmed myself down by doing laundry. We walked to get some groceries – mince (hamburger) and tomato to make tacos for lunch, 3 packages of wine gums (to take to Alexander)(but I ate one), nectarines (we had some last week and they were the best), and double sized packages of digestives (on sale!). Keith went back and got a package of Hobnobs. You may remember a stranger gave me (and I took) hobnobs candy last week. Apparently Hobnobs are also a form of digestive – the package says “the oaty one”. I like oaty stuff, so it seemed like a fine way to go. Nah. Not as good at all as the original. Keith likes them better. Huh.

Our side street is called Cemetery Road. I thought I should walk up to see the cemetery. We got close one day while walking, close enough to see that the gate was closed. I hoped for it to be open today and it was. It is quite a large cemetery. The headstones in the front section all have gold writing. The sun was shining on them and they were quite sparkly. (THE SUN WAS SHINING.) I saw two cars by a building and figured I was not going to get locked in as long as those two cars were there. One drove away soon, but I kept my eye on the second. I looked at the stone wall surrounding the whole cemetery and figured there was very little chance that I could get over it. I wondered what Keith would do if I texted and said I was locked in the cemetery. There were many beautiful headstones. It seems that one large stone will be for whole families, over a long period of time. As I climbed higher on the hill, I saw the second car take off. I wasn’t really too worried that I was going to get locked in – why would 3pm on a sunny day be lock the gates time? I watched it go, pause at the gate, turn left, and disappear. No gate shutting.

Of course, as soon as I stopped worrying about it, a guy came and shut the gate. By the time I noticed, he was walking back to his car. I went running down the road toward the gate, but quite far away – yelling “Excuse me!!!” His head popped up over the stone fence and he said, “the side is open.” I slowed down and looked for “the side”. Nope, saw nothing. I continued to hurry, then saw a people gate standing wide open. Phew. I asked how long it would be open and he said always – the house on the grounds is private, so they always need to get in. So, the house in the cemetery is just someone who lives there. Interesting.

After a bit more exploring, I left the cemetery and continued up the road, up the mountain. I climbed up a bit and admired the view.

Keith got done working in time to go to band. It was his turn to sit in the balcony and listen. They worked on test pieces – I still like them both. I BROUGHT candy for my balcony buddies this week – cherry flavored, my favorite. Philip gave us a shout out at the end of the rehearsal and everyone clapped (like we weren’t the ones getting everything from this adventure). They are very good clappers here – it lasts a long time and they sound and look very sincere (not just clap clap like at home). Philip mentioned that we were on to Amsterdam next and I swear everyone went OooOOOooOoo. It was really funny.