'I Found no Thrill, on Shrewsbury Hill.'

Guess what I received for Valentine's day... Can't guess? Well I will tell you. It was a Bath bomb. It's a particularly macho one as It's shaped like a grenade, perfect for a wanna-be terrorist. It came with s

Battle of Shrewbury
Not as tough as finding a restaurant on Valentines.  

ome other shower gels and soaps all with a masculine branding. These types of things always seemed particularly 'girly' to me but as long as it's got a manly picture on it I suppose it's Okay. I come from the carbolic soap, and 'loo paper you could cut yourself on' generation where 'soap on a rope' was an extravagant luxury. The heady sophistication of Hi karate and Brut aftershave was a special indulgence at Christmas. For all their luxuriant beards and toned physique from hours in the gym the modern male is a namby-pamby in comparison. I'd like to see them survive on one cold dip a week in the neighbour's rainwater butt then then drying themselves off with sandpaper like we used to.

Anyway, I received this excellent present from Dearly Beloved while we were away for our annual valentines break in Shrewsbury. I would tell you all about Shrewsbury but unfortunately there is nothing to tell. We strolled around the town and visited the castle museum. It was closed so we tried the Cathedral which was also closed.  We followed the river and walked back through a council estate. I was quite impressed by the young, athletic females rowing on the river but Dearly Beloved didn't seem quite as interested as I was. In fact she hurried me away mumbling something about being arrested. Shrewsbury is notable for a famous battle during the Wars of the Roses and the fact that it floods most spectacularly, as it wasn't flooded and no one was fighting they really isn't much more to say about.

It's now a week since we have been back and my bath grenade remains unused. The reason for this is that the heating is broken. This is no surprise; everyone's heating breaks in February. We have already had it fixed once this year and now it's broken down again for a related reason according to the fellow charged with fixing it. He is supposed to return today with the spare part but so far no show. The original reason it stopped working is because of a drop in pressure and the manual said to check for leaks. Due to my paranoia I thought it might be leaking in the house so I had all the floor boards up. It wasn't, but now I have to replace the bathroom floor, so I might as well decorate the whole room. Oh well, at least when I use my bath grenade I will be able to admire my newly decorated room at the same time.