Visit of RC Wiveliscombe

During April 2008 we did not visit only Anne, but also the Rotary Club Wiveliscombe. These events followed one another, and the one in Wiveliscombe started by Anne taking us there. Wiveliscombe is only about 40 minutes from Tiverton. This in practical life means that as the crow flies these two towns are a small distance away, but because of the Devon roads the jurney gets somewhat longer.

We should sleep at the Kellets, which we knew in advance. We found the place all right, nice house on the main street, and they even had the main gate opened, so we drove into a small yard. There was a Mercedes standing there and we felt a little bit of unrest that the family ease ended and social duties would start. Luckily reality was different.

The Kellets were already waiting for us and when we drove in they came out of the house. We knew Adrian from his visits to Hluboká, but we did not know his wife. She is really sweet woman, albeit speaking like a mashine gun.

Our Friday departure was described already, but that was not the end of this Friday. The whole club gathered in The Bear restaurant, and we, of course, with them. It was meant as an informal introduction meeting. Lenka’s biggest experience was right after arriving at the restaurant, when she found out that she should order (and pay for) her drink without knowing what she was going to eat. It is true that we encountered this custom in England at more places. Even weirder is that they will gladly bring you your drink to the table during the meal or anytime later. Maybe it is some kind of admission fee.

Evening was going on peacefully, while we were talking to about eight people around the table. They intentionally seated us with people whom we did not know. The whole weekend was like this. Each event took place with different people in order for us to meet as many members of the club as possible.

Sitting in the restaurant was made more pleasant by smoking prohibition. Non-smoking in restaurants was a new regulation at the time. When somebody felt like smoking they went out to the street. And it worked. It was said that it would spoil revenues for the restaurants. These are untrue argument of the smoking lobby only.

Our busy program started on Saturday in earnest. In the morning we went to Tauton, the Somerset county seat. I did not talk about it yet, although Wiveliscombe is only a short distance from Tiverton it belongs to Somerset, while Tiverton lies in Devon.

The whole party should go to Tauton by bus, by some near city line. We went to the bus stop by car with the Kellets, but we were late, and the bus just leaving when we arrived. It was no problem, we were first anyway, and the party with the Čutkas was late. The next bus was arriving in about 20 minutes, and on the top of this the Bermans came even later. In Tauton we visited a museum that shown the city history and some technical stuff.

From the museum we went to town and stopped by a coffee house. It was a pretty two storey building with wooden insides. And the coffee was good. The other party with the Čutkas had the same idea, so we all got together and talked. We split after the coffee again, since they went to the museum, where we already were.

We wandered around for a while and then went back. It was lunchtime, and we were expected at the Oake Manor golf club. That was a building – the real English club. Beautiful house, interior like in a castle, selected and very good food. Many members with their wives came for lunch, so there was a lot of getting acquainted.

After lunch we could choose whether to play golf or walk around Wiveliscombe and then go to be interviewed on the radio. Honza Čutka picked golf, his wife shopping, and we went to a walk and the radio. The town itself is not interesting, but since the English architecture is completely different from ours, it was pleasant. Interview in the local radio awaited us, or rather me, later in the afternoon. I had a little bout of stage fright because of my pronunciation – I wanted listeners to understand me. Luckily, I was not afraid about the interview topic itself, and the redactors said that it was good. Reportedly it had juice and all it wanted to cut some gaps in order for it to be more dynamic. As I was concentrating on proper grammar and pronunciation I spoke slowly and sometimes took a break for thought. The guy promised to send me the final copy, but he did not send me anything, even after a reminder.

Then we went around two corners to one Rotarian family for a snack. The snack was large, almost like dinner. And we still had to go to a real dinner. Lenka was in the middle of attention explaining about plans for our wedding.

The dinner was held at Terry and Fran Carter. It was a nice, comfortable evening without any more important experiences. That changed late in the evening, more like at night, at the Kellets, where we were talking a little before bed. Somehow it came out that I like whisky, same as the Kellets. And when they found out that Lenka liked it, too, Adrian came alive and immediately showed us his collection, and we had a nightcap.

We were expected at Tony and Jenny Hoyle for coffee on Sunday morning, but it was more like second breakfast. Evidently, they did not want us to hunger. Nevertheless, the important thing was that there were about six owners of 4x4s, with whom we should have gone the Exmoor National Park.

We continued on until we got to the place called Selworthy. It is several hundred of years old, three little cottages with thatched roofs lost in the middle of woods. It looks like in a fairy tale. There is a coffee house in one cottage, where we planned a snack called the Cream tea. English were making fun of us since morning, when they found out that we did not know what it was. They told us not to eat that this was real solid stuff, that we would be surprised, that they felt sorry for us ... Lot of talk, but nobody let out that it was not tea, but cake. Cream tea is something like a stuffed cake without stuffing, then you spread cream (fairly rich one, too) and marmalade over it and eat it. I heartily recommend it to everyone, it is good.

At night, after everybody left, I stayed by a fireplace and watched dying embers and drank a glass of whisky. It was a beautiful ending of a beautiful day.

On Monday morning we could choose again between golf and the trip by a steam train. The choice was completely clear to us. The train is a local attraction and a hobby for volunteers, who restored the train and the track. In child speak the train is called Puffy, and we use the name as adults, too.

After lunch we had an excursion to a small local brewery with the Čutkas. The trip was nice and interesting. It is just slightly larger than manual home brewing. If EU officials could see it they would cry crocodile tears.