UK - Ascot

A Day at the Races

Well, l was let out last weekend – it was my first time outside of Switzerland since I arrived in April. A group of us had booked some time ago to go to Ascot for the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup. It came at about the right time for me, as after four months it was nice to have a change of scene, even though I do love Switzerland in the summer and am really happy to stay here in the hot weather.

There are two things that generally happen when I travel from Switzerland to the UK – the first is to act as an exporter of some Swiss chocolate (gifts) and the second is to order items for delivery in the UK that I either can’t get in Switzerland or (more likely) are cheaper to buy in the UK. So, I took across some Lindt champagne truffles as a gift to our hostess and ordered myself two swimming costumes (one was only 2.50 GBP and the other was 20 GBP) and some swimming goggles (2.99 GBP). They were from a website I’d just discovered (www.decathalon.co.uk) and I got a bit overexcited. There’s nothing the British like better than a perceived bargain!

It’s always good to be back in the UK – it’s just the familiarity of it all, the little villages, the stores you’re used to, the various accents, quirky boutique shops, the country lanes, the fields, the banter... it’s all just what I grew up with and your home country always holds a special place in your heart, I think.

Candice had hired a car to get us from Heathrow, but she was a bit taken aback when we ended up with a huge Jeep instead of a normal car for the weekend. It wasn’t quite how we’d imagined turning up for our dressy weekend. Then it took us almost our entire journey before we’d worked out how to switch the headlights on (we got a few honks and stares), and Pam’s house was on a road that was not on the GPS, so at the end it looked as if we were driving in the middle of a field. But we got there safely!

Pam was the hostess with the mostess (thank you so much, Pam!). The day before Ascot we went to the Bombay Sapphire distillery. I wasn’t so keen on this idea since I’ve been round distilleries before and I’m not that fond of gin, but actually it was very interesting. They had a greenhouse-like place designed by a famous bus designer (whose name escapes me) where all the plants incorporated into the secret recipe (that reminded me of KFC!) were growing. You could select your favourite flavours and they made you a cocktail at the bar. The sun was shining, I had great company, a fabulous cocktail – it couldn’t really go wrong!

I’m not really a “see and be seen” kind of person and nor am I a girly girl, so I wasn’t massively excited at the prospect of dressing up, but actually, I have to admit that I really enjoyed the day at Ascot and to a large extent because of the dress code. There weren’t as many hats or fascinators as I was expecting, although I’d never seen so many different dresses in my life. Not one seemed to be duplicated. At first I was puzzled, because I feel I’ve searched every shop in existence for dresses this year and hadn’t seen any of them on people at Ascot, but then I remembered I was in Switzerland and Ascot wasn’t.

The racecourse itself is impressive – beautifully manicured lawns and we had a perfect summer’s day, so it felt very archetypal British, although why I should think that when pure blue skies are so rare in the UK, I’m not entirely sure! We’d booked a meal and drinks package, so were in the Premier section of Ascot, and could look over the racecourse. People were already laying out their rugs and picnics on the lawns by the side of the course and the boards showing the odds were at regular intervals just by the pathway, just like I’d seen on television.

The horses looked beautiful and when we went to the winners’ enclosure, you could see that the winning horse was allocated a huge bucket of water and the other horses who only came 2nd-5th (out of 10) got smaller buckets of water. To my surprise, the water wasn’t for drinking, it was for pouring over the horses to cool them down. I somehow doubt that the winning horse was aware that he or she had more water than the others!

Afterwards, there was a concert including performances from Lulu and Rick Astley as the singers I knew best (I’m showing my age!). In front of us, the people left an empty bottle of Bollinger on the grass. It was almost like being in Switzerland (referring here to the quality of champagne, not the messiness!). Rick Astley interrupted the concert due to a scuffle somewhere in the audience, he called security, and then continued. So, a bit of drama was also sprinkled in.

On our final day we went to the local country pub for a good old British Sunday roast and then it was back to Switzerland, where for once things didn’t run smoothly and the flight was delayed (I’ll blame that on the UK). But it was a great break and I’m always surprised at how much more of a rest it feels when you go away somewhere than when you just stay put.