The last week or so has been stressful. I’ve been sleeping less, even by my standards, and cramming far too much into too short an amount of time than is good for me. Thats why it was great to get away from it all on Saturday by taking a trip to York with Heather.

We’re both very much fans of the city and always find any excuse to make a day of it. We started the day late and had lunch in Bettys tea rooms which was lovely; aside from the usual great food and service they had opened the dining area upstairs and there was a pianist playing a number of well known english tunes. If anyone reading this hasn’t been to Bettys yet, you really don’t know what you are missing – if you’re ever in York pop in for afternoon tea and you’ll be hooked.

When I was last in York with Heather I hid the presence of the Minster Bookshop (a small but well stocked antique bookseller situated just opposite the Minster Cathedral) because I had purchased her Christmas present from there and didn’t want her to realise where I’d got it from. This meant that this time around Heather really wanted to look around so we popped in and spent a good hour and a half browsing the various sections. I ended up buying a quirky little book with jokes aiming to be read by parents of young children and Heather bought a wonderful Peter Pan fairy tale book, complete with colour plates. Its a beautiful book and we both spent some time on the train home thumbing through its pages.

The weather wasn’t fantastic so we didn’t spend too much time outside, but we did take the opportunity of a tour around the Minster and looked at all the archetechture and marvelled at the size, scale and beauty of the place. Its amazing how I continue to be amazed by the building despite having been inside so many times before. I’m not normally one for gift shops but on our way out I decided to buy a CD of recordings from the choir and organist in the cathedral so as I might take a trip down memory lane to my church choir days – listening to it now I find it inredible how well I remember the words and the chants.

We didn’t do much else while in York save for looking round a few shops but it was a very pleasent day out all in all, certainly a significant improvement from being chained to a desk. I still have to find time to take my camera out and grab some shots but I’m sure that will happen when the weather improves.

Upon arrival home we decided to make an evening of it and cracked open a bottle of wine and ordered in some food. In the course of the evening we popped open some of Heathers CD boxes and listened to a few tracks from a number of artists. Although we’ve discussed music tastes before it wasn’t until this point that I realised how much our collections and likes and dislikes really do overlap. I’ve now ended up borrowing some CDs and no doubt some will be going next door from me soon as well. The crowing moment in the musical interlude though had to be when Heather played guitar for me. Despite what she says she can play really well, certainly better than I could ever hope for, and it was great to hear Heather play some of the very music we’d just been listening to on CD. I feel very privilaged.