Windermere : Luke & Ben in the B&B in which we stayed
When I visited the Lake District for the first time, I stayed at a small B&B whose proprietor was a sweet old lady. Akiko, my friend, and I stayed there for two nights. On the second day, when we went back there after we had supper, we found two boys, which seemed to be her grandsons, playing in the living room. The older boy was Luke and younger Ben. They were very cute, we liked them at first sight, and therefore took many pictures of them. They are very cute, don't you think?
The next morning, when we went down for breakfast, Ben was sitting on the sofa. "Wow! We have a chance to meet him again." We were excited and so took some pictures this time with him.
It isin't an exaggeration that my best memory in the Lake District on the first occasion was playing with these boys. This made my impression of Windermere more lovely.

Ambleside : a passing baby having a good sleep
　
I met this baby in Ambleside on my first trip to the Lake District. He seems to be having a good sleep, doesn't he? When we were passing him, because he was very pretty, I suddenly wanted to take his picture. Then, Akiko, my friend asked his mother's permission. Actually, the person pushing the baby buggy was me!(I deleted my figure--as is my homepage policy--)
When Akiko asked his mother to permit us to take a picture with him, her cheeks became flushed. Then, she passed her baby to me and stood apart from us, although we were complete stranges to her. I still remember her embarrassed attitude.
I think that he has grown up quickly and healthily and become an honest boy, because his mother was really lovely and wonderful.
"I'm sorry for putting your picture here without your permission. However, I want to show your picture to everybody because you were very pretty."

From Oxenholme to London : a Scottish woman who seemed never to keep her mouth shut
In closing, the most impressive person who I want to introduce to you is she! On our second occasion,  we met a woman(left on the photo) on the train from the Lake District to London.
Actually, we wanted to book seats on the train from Oxenholme to London, but it was too late. As we had expected, we found out the train was almost full when we changed trains at Oxenholme.
Akiko, my friend, said, "Stay here and watch our luggage, please. I'm checking if there are some seats available." After a while, she came back and said, "Luckly, I can get two seats. They are a little far from here."
Then, I followed her. On the way to our seats, she talked about a woman who she had asked to save our seats. The woman said to Akiko, "When I saw you coming here, I thought that a robin was flying towards me." "Why robin? Is the robin which she mentioned the same bird appearing in 'Mother Goose'? What did she mean that I look like a robin?", Akiko wondered.
Finally, we reached our seats and sat down giving a sigh of relief. Things seemed to go well so far. However, when I said to Akiko in Japanese, "My ears easily has become infected", showing her my ears, she broke into our conversation. She probably thought that my ear had become infected because I was wearing earrings, so she began to talk, "If you wear earrings, gold ones are best."
She said that she came from Glasgow. Because of that, her English had a broad Scottish accent, so I couldn't catch it. I understood only a quarter of what she was saying. However, she didn't stop speaking. We couldn't be hard on her because she saved us the seats. I almost didn't understand what she said, but I had to listen to her and nodding my head for a few hours to London. She talked about hay fever, sty and so on. During her conversation, the man sitting next to her sometimes began to laugh. I saw Akiko answering and nodding her head, I admired her because she seemed to understand everything. I thought that she had lived in England to study English, so she could catch the woman's words.
However, when we arrived at London, Akiko said, "Her English had a strong accent, so I could understand less than a half of what she said. Oh, really? She continued, "At first, I thought that the man sitting next to her was her family or friend, but probably he wasn't. I think that he couldn't understand her conversation either. Therefore, he sometimes laughed because he saw us listening to her although we seemed to be able to understand her at all."
During a trip, incidents like this sometimes happen.
　

(2003.4.9)

to theTOP

Trip to England