Watership Down

Ama, a friend from church, booked this week off work a while ago but didn't have any plans for how to spend her time. I suggested we do some kind of road trip but due to her recovering from a recent bout with the flu, a normally busy life, and a distaste for road trips (I've discovered that it's quite common for people here to cringe about driving even just a couple of hours), she decided to just stay in town. I'm going to stay with her for a couple of days and we'll just do day-trips in the surrounding area.

I met her and another one of her friends in Basingstoke today (about ten minutes from where I live in Hook) and we went for a downland walk (a "down" refers to a hill) in the area where the book, Watership Down, is set. The walk took us along a hill with sweeping views of the surrounding area.

Ama enjoying our pre-walk picnic in the warm sunshine.

A comical basset hound in the parking lot.

Ama is from Ghana and along the walk I asked her to sing her country's national anthem. She sang a few lines and then sang her favourite patriotic song in her mother tongue - I love listening to other languages! We started talking about anthems and she said her favourite is The Star Spangled Banner. We started singing it but the girls soon dropped out and all three of us were surprised to discover that I knew almost all the words to the first verse. Not sure how I learned it! The girls asked me to sing O Canada so I sang the first and last verses.

A far-off view of what we were told is Andrew Lloyd Webber's estate.

L-R Ama, Ayshah, and Me.