Wordsley, Stourbridge, England: 7 degrees, bitterly cold, bursts of sunlight and sometimes showers.
What a Saturday! I hadn’t seen Julie to go out with last night, but I had seen her in the morning when I went to the café. However, we couldn’t go out in the evening, as I had a class at 9:00 p.m.
I did a tough workout in the morning, which was very good. I saw some things on the computer, and then Julie messaged me saying that she had a brainstorm.
“Let’s go to Worcester for the day”.
“Of course,” I said, I’m game for almost anything. Worcester is about 30 to 40 minutes from Stourbridge by car. It is a beautiful, traditional old English town with some main shopping streets, old buildings, and churches steeped in history, as well as a river that runs alongside it.
We left Stourbridge around 11:00 a.m. and had to pass through Hagley to get there. Hagley is one of the more exclusive neighbourhoods in the region, lined with boutique shops along the Main High Street and featuring some of the largest and most beautiful houses nestled within the scenic English countryside.
After a while, we found ourselves deep in the English countryside, surrounded by farmland and vast open fields, some with cows and sheep, and a variety of different shades of green everywhere. It is almost spring, so there are more dark greens and lushness all around, with some bare fields where seeding has probably already taken place, and time seems to be waiting for nature to run its course.
The day was cold, grey, and slightly rainy when we arrived in Worcester. We found the town’s central car park just a short walk from the main high street and side streets. The sun appeared, and although it was bitterly cold, even a little sunshine makes a big difference in everything you do.
We strolled along the main streets, popping into some shops out of curiosity, and discovered a charming little coffee shop that combined coffee and tea with a bookshop and some esoteric items. Places like this are quite common in Brazil. We sat down and ordered cappuccinos, which were very good.
I’m here in England, in Worcester, in what is considered a charming traditional British town with Julie, my beautiful, perfect little woman. We’re enjoying good cappuccinos at a unique place, having a wonderful time, and I haven’t felt this good in such a long time.
We also visited a memorabilia shop where various images, memorabilia, and vintage advertisements from the past are printed and mounted onto steel plaques. We noticed two old-style Art Deco plaques promoting coffee, and we even considered giving them to the owners of the coffee shop where Julie works as gifts. Julie was a little unsure, so we could return later and purchase them.
We didn’t buy them, but at least the thought was there.
After walking around for over two hours, we discovered a charming shopping gallery catered more to pets and dogs, featuring a lovely pet shop and coffee shop for animals and their owners. There was an owner with a cockapoo, the same breed as Austin, so Julie had something in common to discuss with the owner.
After that, we eventually walked down a side street and came across a small, beautiful, and discreet old English pub with a Tudor frontage. We stepped inside into a charming gentleman’s old English style ambience, complete with wooden panelling on the walls and bookshelves, bay windows at the front, and a log fire, all creating a very homely, cosy atmosphere. The bar was at the end of the room, so we approached it to inquire about food and drinks. We ordered our drinks, and Julie went upstairs to find us a place to stay and eat.
I asked the barman if I could see the menu and order some food, and he told me that they were only closing the kitchen from 3:00 to 5:00, and it would reopen at 5:00 in the early afternoon.
I said, ‘Okay, what can I do?’
But then a very charming and beautiful young lady appeared; her name was Jess, and she was clearly the manageress. She kindly told me that if I wanted food and ordered within the next two minutes, she would make it happen.
How good is that?
I quickly went upstairs to the next floor to find Julie, and again, a lovely old-fashioned traditional interior with a red carpet, off-white walls, and old Tudor beams, along with a small log fire at the far end of the room.
How good is that?
Julie had discovered a wooden booth, one of three or four that could comfortably seat six people, with partitions on the sides behind the benches and a long table in between. The benches resembled church pews, with a high partition separating us from the other booths. It was a peaceful, sublime setting for us to enjoy our lunch.
I asked Julie to go downstairs to talk to Jess and order the food. At first, she didn’t want to, but I insisted, and she went. For me, it was a burger with fries, and for her, a chicken and mushroom pie with mashed potato and vegetables. Julie’s was very English and very nice!
We stayed in our booth talking, absorbing everything around us and ourselves; it was extraordinary. The food arrived promptly, hot, fresh, and extremely tasty. It was very, very nice, having lunch in a special place with good food and drink and with beautiful and interesting company.
We left after about an hour and a half and decided to have a quick walk around again, and then back to the car park. I’m now back home in Wordsley. Julie dropped me off at home at about half 5, the Brazil and England game was at 7, and I wanted to see it in a pub.
I thought it would be like Brazil, with lots of people in a bar or restaurant watching the derby.
We had arranged to meet at Wetherspoons, the most popular pub in the area, very close to where Julie lives. The pub was busy, but they were not showing the match. Julie had not arrived yet. I decided to go out and head to the other pub about 100 metres away, which I had seen from the street, that had TVs. When I entered, they were showing the match.
The pub itself doesn’t look particularly special from the outside, seen from the street, but when I entered it was quite cosy, though in a different style from the earlier pub in Worcester. The pub looked very clean and well-organised, the lighting was brighter, and the atmosphere was good. The whole pub and bar formed an L shape, with the shorter end featuring an enormous projector screen showing the match.
I sat on a high stool at the bar and watched the match in front of me. I ordered a glass of wine while watching the game, and it was enjoyable. Julie arrived, and we continued to sit at the bar on comfortable high stools. She ordered a Desperado long-neck beer, and we watched the game while kissing and talking.
Brazil scored and the match finished one-nil, the final score!
We thought everything was over, then a woman with an amplifier and microphone stepped onto a small stage in front of the window and began setting up her gear, including disco lights and a mixing desk. After a while, she started to sing. A tall, heavy blonde woman in her late 50s began to sing, a little rough around the edges, but she was pretty good and energised everyone present.
Now we were enjoying live music with strobe lights and colourful lighting, drinking and sharing Desperado beers. Julie wanted us to stay; we were feeling very good, relaxed, and happy. I think the Desperados had started to kick in a little, and we were sharing lots of kisses. The evening flew by. We talked, kissed even more, and everything felt very, very good.
Grant, the young barman whom Julie loved, rang the bell for last orders. We ordered ‘a saideira’, one for the road, while the locals and natives were dancing. A guy came over and talked to us a little drunkenly, saying that we were a beautiful couple, and that the night and the day were coming to an end.
We left, I walked Julie home, and then I walked another two miles back to my mother’s house. This isn’t Rio, where you can find a taxi at any time of day or night. I arrived home, and my mum had gone to bed. Well, I thought she had, but she came down to see if everything was okay.
She said she was calling me, but I couldn’t hear her voice because I had my headphones on. We talked briefly; then she went back upstairs to bed. I opened a bottle of wine and raided the fridge. I had a couple of sandwiches; I was starving. I drank a few glasses of wine and watched a film on TV.
At 2:00 a.m., I was in bed feeling very happy after a full day. My relationship with my beautiful, little, perfect woman is going well; I think it is on another level. We spent the day out, went to a lovely pub with live music, and smooched a lot.
And nobody died!
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
