When In Frome

I caught the bus over to Warminster today to visit my friend Sian. When I got to her house she poured two large G &T’s which was nice and we listened to The Best Of Elbow. What a great band they are. I love that track One Day Like This, it puts you in a good mood for the day ahead. Sian wanted to go to Marks & Spencer in Frome so we caught the bus over there. Frome is a lovely little town. It also has one of the best venues for music in the West Country which is the Cheese & Grain. I have been to lots of great gigs in Frome. There are lots of nice arty type shops as well. I don’t think I’d like to live there though because it is too hilly for the likings of me.

Anyway, after Sian had done her shopping I left her in the Blue Boar pub while I hit the charity shops to look for books. There are lots of them in Frome. I went in about seven of them, Blue Cross, Dr Barnado’s, British Heart Foundation, Julian House, Oxfam and a couple of others. I came across a Jack Kerouac biography but I had it already so I didn’t buy that. I found a first edition of a Margaret Craven novel and a biography of Brian Jones but nothing spectacular.

I was just feeling a bit disappointed until I went in the Dorothy House Hospice shop and I found a signed autobiography by snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan. That made my day and made the whole expedition seem worthwhile. After that I re-joined Sian in the pub and she beat me at pool as usual. Then we retired to the George Hotel for lunch and an amusing bottle of Chardonnay and spent a nice hour chatting and looking out the window and watching the world go by. When I went outside for a ciggie I had a quick stroll up St Catherines Hill and looked in a couple of shops.

We caught the bus back to Warminster at about 3.45. Sian went home and I carried on to Westbury and that was the end of my afternoon in Frome. PS, If you want to hear Elbow sing 'One Day Like this' at Glastonbury then just click on it opposite.