Summary (by AI): I found my "Zenial" stay in Bedford to be a successful and charming experience, highlighted by a comfortable room and a great local pub recommendation despite some eccentric feline company.
Blog: I recently decided to sign up for a bricklaying course. I’m currently in the middle of renovating what I call "the back of the garden," and I have some pretty specific plans for the space. First on the list is a large Argentinian-style parrilla BBQ. I want that classic setup where you can raise and lower the grill over an open fire, which obviously requires some solid brickwork. I also want to build a more substantial, brick-based compost heap; my current one is made from old pallets, and it’s finally starting to fall apart. While I’ve dabbled in brickwork before, I realized there were definitely some professional tips and tools I was missing that would help me do a much cleaner job.
After a bit of hunting, I found a two-day DIY bricklaying course in Bedford. It was a bit of a trek from where I live, but I figured I could use the trip to tick off another entry for my ABC project. I ended up booking an Airbnb for my "Zenial" category right in the middle of Bedford—a town I don’t think I’d ever actually visited before.
I stayed with a lady named Allison, and she was lovely. I’d guess she was somewhere in her 60s or 70s, a wonderfully bohemian character with a shock of purple hair. She lives alone, if you don’t count her three cats.
The cats were a real mix. One was an old black cat, a very sweet but incredibly frail thing that was quite literally hobbling around the house. Then there was a really friendly grey one. And finally, there was the "killer" black cat. When I arrived, Allison was actually massaging her own wounds; apparently, the killer cat had attacked her within the last twenty-four hours. Needless to say, I kept my distance from that one.
Despite the feline danger, it was a great stay. The room was comfortable, and Allison gave me a recommendation for a local pub (The Wellington Arms) that turned out to be tremendous. All in all, it was another successful "Zenial" stay for the project—this time with a bit of Bedford charm and some purple-haired hospitality.
The Map: