Ashbourne Comes to Life.

The most exciting thing about Ashbourne today was that I saw a party of Chinese tourists. One of them was taking a disproportionate interest in a plastic toy lawnmower hanging outside a toy shop. He was also taking photographs of it while the rest stood around laughing.

I thought of asking them whether they had seen the Tower of London or Stonehenge, but decided they were probably the sort to judge a culture more by its mundane artefacts like plastic toy lawnmowers. That struck me as very wise.

I also thought of asking them whether they knew a guzheng player called Ji Wei, but desisted since I didn’t want them judging my culture by the slightly mad people who occupy it.

Another man was taking pictures of roofs. I've no idea why, but nobody was laughing.