Learning about Romans

Today me and Mum and Dad had a nice day out (Mark stayed at home). We went to St Albans, which is about 30-40 minutes away down the M1. I've been there once before, with Amy and Maddy, and we all met up at the station and went to the cathedral. This time we drove down, and parked by the Verulanium Museum, which is the Roman museum, Verulanium being the Roman town that was right next to St Albans. We walked across the park to get to the town, it was a nice park and there was a canal and ducks but it was very cold and windy. We poked around the shops in the city centre a bit, then found a nice cafe and had some nice lunch (toasted sandwiches and hot chocolate).

After lunch we walked back over to the cathedral. When we'd come past it before there was a service going on inside, but this time it was empty and we were able to go in and look around, at all the carvings and tombs and stained glass. We saw the shrine of St Alban, who was the first Christian martyr in Britain. Then we walked back across the park in the cold to the museum.

The museum wasn't very big but it had lots of things, all excavated nearby. Lots of pots and bone hair pins and coins and things like that. They also had several lovely mosaics. I like mosaics. There was allegedly another one in the park, and a Roman theatre as well, but we decided to leave that until a warmer day. As we left St Albans about 15:30 it was raining, then sleeting, and by dinner time it was snowing. I think it's still snowing now. The cars and grass are all white, and I am very glad for central heating and double-glazing.

Mark made Sunday dinner as he usually does (he's very good at it) so we had roast chicken and roast potatoes and vegetables, and he'd even got some stuffing so the kitchen smelt like Christmas. Then we had some leftover chocolate cake from yesterday and watched Top Gear.

I'm getting the hang of crocheting properly now. I think it's starting to go a bit better. Possibly I should have done some practice pieces rather than carrying on with my baby blanket that's going to be a gift, because I suspect my tension is all over the place, but it still looks OK so it can't be too bad. I keep getting tempted to go back to my own made-up way but I must perservere.