Monday March 15th 2010 - The Helpful Bathplug

          I hadn't realised how helpful bathplugs, especially defective ones, can be.  Only yesterday, one stripped me of my Roman Emperordom, and lo! today is the Ides of March: not a day anyone would want to disport themselves as a Roman Emperor.

          I sneak out early, in my most plebian outfit, to get early to the car rental people.  They are very helpful, and immediatley offer to accompany me to the tire-fixing place.  The tire-fixing place are equally helpful, and take the wheel, allowing me to get back and sorted out, carefully avoiding any imperial displays.  (The flat tire, by the way, had a doorkey (yale-type) stuck in it.  I hope whoever lost it had to spend the night on the beach, and I hope it was cold.)

          Then I just have to stop off to get the wheel changed, get everything back in the trunk, and it's off to Norfolk VA.  The forecast was for rain, but, although it's pretty dull, all we get is a bit of drizzle now and again.

 

          On a fleeting visit to downtown I happen upon yet another battleship.  It being Norfolk, they've got it parked on the front lawn.

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I guessed it would be called the Virginia, but that never got built.  It is, in fact, the Wisconsin, which actually saw action in 1991, in the first Gulf War.  I expect it's only here because they couldn't get it up the St Lawrence and across the Great Lakes.  It also has a row of bars near it, which I tell Dulcie to remember for later investigation.

          And that was quite enough tourism for one day.

 

          Later that night, Dulcie whisked me back to the downtown bars.  They actually turned out to be a kind of indoor mall of bars and restaurants, and after a bit of looking around ("Eat, Drink and Play", for example, turned out to presage a licensed video games parlour: whatever next?), I ended up in the local naked ladies bar with the rude name.  It was fairly quiet, except for the naked ladies, who liked to whoop and shout a lot.  The only other candidate was at the other end of the mall, where I started, and it was even quieter, with no naked ladies.