More drama & a nice weekend

Following on from the near-miss break-in on Tuesday, I locked myself out of the house on Friday evening. My landlady had just left for the long weekend and I went to collect my washing from the backyard when the backdoor slammed shut behind me. Crap. No shoes, no key, no phone... I climbed over the fence to get out to the front of the house and went door knocking on all the neighbours doors looking for a ladder to borrow as I had left a window open on the first floor. In the process, I almost locked a woman out of her house when she came to answer the door & almost caused a heart attack in an old guy who came to help me (he wheezed and huffed and puffed when he climbed over the fence after me to see the back door). After about 75 minutes of stress, found a guy down the road with a ladder. Got a case of the 'sewing machine legs' (as our rock climbing instructor, Simon, called them at Year 10 camp - remember him, Eppie?) near the top of the ladder before successfully breaking into the house. Not an eyelid battered in the street. Trauma over.
Took the train to Stratford-Upon-Avon on Saturday morning to visit my great-aunt Kong Suk Por's sister. Stratford is beautiful. Full of old houses and buildings. Took a hop-on hop-off bus tour around to all the Shakespearean sites. Only went into the Anne Hathaway house, which is a lot bigger than it was when she lived in it. A little bit of false advertising at many sites as to the exact historical timing, I think. The funniest things I learnt was that she was 26 (old maid!) and he was 18 when they married and that she gave birth to their first daughter 6 months after they got married! Hmmm...
Auntie Margaret and Uncle Bob took me to a pub for dinner, where I had the nicest fish and chips I have had since I arrived. Couldn't move afterwards!
On Sunday morning, I went to church with them. All this church-going - first evensong at Westminster and now mass in Stratford. Haven't been to so much religious ceremony in the last 5 years. I don't discriminate between denominations. : ) Had my first Sunday roast (roast pork with yummy crackling) and bread & butter pudding (got to try all the traditional British dishes).
After lunch, we visited Coughton Court, a 15th century and onwards house belonging to the Throckmorton family (a wealthy Catholic family). The house is famous for being central to the Gun Powder plot of 1605 (the one Guy Fawkes was involved in), when the wives of the men involved waited at the house for news of the success or failure of the plot to blow up the House of Lords. Of course, it failed and they all got executed. The house is huge! Lots of historical objects are on display here - a cope believed to be embroidered by Catherine of Aragon, a chemise worn by Mary Queen of Scots when she was executed and my favourite - the Throckmorton coat, which was made from sunrise to sunset in one day from the shearing of the sheep through spinning, dying and weaving to tailoring as a result of a bet. What wealthy people do (or have people do) in their spare time.
I have updated my album with the latest photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/frances.ip
Off to Brussels tomorrow for an assessment centre. Will have to get up at 5.30am and probably will be back home at ~10.30-11pm. Maybe I can get some Belgian chocolate. : )