Let's get the obligatory Star Wars reference out of the way, shall we? When I heard the Embassy would be joining the other ASEAN missions on a Taunton reconnaissance trip, I thought, well, you know....
I was so hoping it was a typo, I was so hoping.
While Somerset Taunton may be decidedly less bad-ass than Hoth Tauntaun, the former certainly is cool and interesting in it's own right. And you don't have to slice it open.
Highlights of the visit:
SatNav can suck It
First stop was the local hydrographic office, one of world's biggest producers civil and military nautical charts and surveys. The place also keeps archives of centuries old, yet amazingly accurate, country maps and sketches.
The first SM mall was plotted and everything
To make things more interesting, we liked to pretend there was drama whenever all these diplomats from southeast asia looked at the maps of a certain, um, sea.
awwwkwaaaarrrd
It's just business, it's just not cricket
From the hydrographic office, the delegation proceeded to the town's beautiful cricket grounds for a working lunch with local businessmen and trade officials. Now, talk of tax breaks, investment incentives, forex rates, export processing zones, labor costs etc. -- that I could keep up with. The moment a local chatted me up about cricket however -- oh man. They were kind enough to try to explain the most basic rules to me, but I went cross-eyed so often they simply smiled and walked away.
That scoreboard is trying to tell me something, BUT WHAT?!!?
Well then. Our next stop was a private school that exuded so much excellence and exclusivity, Harry Potter was turned down admission. All our student guides were so supremely self-confident yet effortlessly charming, I sucked my thumb and chewed my nails to the bone in insecurity.
Let me put in pictures. That up there? That's their freaking arts and music room! All my school had was craypas and some tambourines made out of tansans.
Drown your sorrows in cider
Ah yes, the perfect way to cap the day -- a tour of a cider factory! Cider has become my favourite alcoholic beverage here in the UK: less strong than, say, beer, but more manly than, say, Cali shandy.
(I have a low threshold)
Anyway, it was great fun for everyone in the ASEAN delegation to go around the apple farm and see how everything was picked and processed. With the gorgeous countryside bathed in a warm sunset glow, the diplomats all acknowledged the entire trip was very fruitful (har!) and productive, and that Taunton was indeed a very special place.
Although the Ambassadors' ride was slightly different from what they were used to.
Postscript: the cider must have had more alcohol than I thought, because I could have sworn I saw a giant white horse on the side of a mountain during the train ride home.
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