ouch (body and bank account)

Manchester is all a blur, as my night out with Joey involved several gin and tonics too many and the next day was spent on the hostel couch trying not to move. As a consequence I know nothing about Manchester other than where all the good gay bars are.
We were sitting in one place when we were approached by drunk Mancunian Martin.
"What's your name?"
"Maaaaaaa!"
"What?"
"Maaaaaaaa aaah!"
"What is he saying?"
"It's Maaarhaaan!"
It was sort of entertaining trying to figure out what he was saying all night. But not really.

Bizarrely I get hit on more (by men) at gay clubs than at ostensibly straight ones. I suppose it helps to be one of the only straight females in the place.

Then I came to Bath which I love, it's beautiful and loaded with things to do. Everything is very expensive. The Roman Baths are interesting and of course I had to have the traditional tea at the Pump Room, it's the aging bookish spinsterly thing to do. Pricey but tasty (clotted cream! Where have you been all my life!?!?), I couldn't eat again for the rest of the day. I also drank the water (the natural mineral hot spring water) which is served up by a strange man in period livery. He was impressed that I drank the whole glass, apparently nobody ever gets through it all. It is pretty vile but there are something like 43 minerals in that water. In retrospect it tasted a little like Leslie tap water.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend the Jane Austen Centre which doesn't have a lot going on other than an "exclusive" video featuring Amanda Root (from the movie version of Persuasion), which features Ms. Root wandering pensively around the Assembly Rooms. Because I'm a nerd I already knew everything they were talking about and at 6 quid to get in, it's too much.

Yesterday I did a tour of Stonehenge/Avebury/Silbury Hill/Lacock (where some Harry Potter and new Pride and Prejudice stuff was apparently filmed)/Castle Combe. I've never done a day tour like that before (a horror of those enormous coaches that pull up and disgorge a wave of tourists at the 'attractions') however this one was really good and I saw much more than I would have on my own in my limited time. It was a Mad Max tour if anyone is looking for something similar, only 16 people in the van too so you feel like less of a jerk.
At Avebury our guide Keith handed out a couple sets of dowsing rods, as Avebury seems to lie on a 'ley line' (invisible energy line). I was the recipient of the first set of rods, along with another man, and we were instructed to walk toward a large stone. Oh the pressure! We wandered around for a couple of minutes with nothing happening and then one of his rods swung off to the right. Nothing had happened with my rods yet and as I walked toward the other man a skeptical American woman jeered "You must have bad karma!" Oh shut up.
Anyway as soon as I passed over the same spot as the other man, sure enough my rods swung around. It was pretty cool, they just moved in my hands with no interference from me, and according to Keith there is no water or electricity line in that spot. We passed the rods on and it worked for most of the other people as well.

Somewhere between Manchester and Bath something happened to my left shoulder, something like a pinched nerve, I don't know, which means that when I breathe deeply or move in certain seemingly random ways or try to sleep I find myself in excruciating pain. This is very bad considering I live out of an enormous freaking backpack. I'm going to London this afternoon and hopefully will be able to find a doctor. Painkillers don't seem to be working (although I haven't tried the ones with codeine yet...).