Family Get Together

Another trip to the North Island, this time to Winchester for a gathering of the clan to celebrate my Mother's birthday. Several of us arrived early so met at the Cathedral and had a cup of tea in the Refectory Cafe, before heading to the restaurant to meet everybody else. The restaurant in question was the delightful Chesil Rectory; this was a pre-reformation building that had had a number of uses over the centuries, but had been a restaurant for the past 85 years. We were given a large side room and served the most delicious food. I had carrot and cumin soup, followed by lamb (fell apart, yum!) with chickpeas and chorizo, followed by sticky toffee pudding - my brother in law was rapturous about this, and I wasn't far off. Scrumptious! The finale to the meal was a wonderful birthday cake created by my brother-in-law's daughter at Three Little Birds Bakery. Looked and tasted delicious!

After several hours, some of the party headed home, and the rest of us waddled to our cars and headed down to Dorset to the Hoburn Naish holiday park in New Milton. We spent the evening in a cabin, eating more delicious food and telling silly family stories until we all needed to retire.  The following morning began with a leisurely breakfast, and then a stroll along the beach towards Highcliff and back. Glorious views along the coast towards Muddiford, and towards Barton-on-Sea, and across the water to the Island and the Needles.

We all headed home early afternoon, and us Island people managed to get an earlier ferry back thankfully. Tired but happy.

London 2017

Much as I love our beautiful Island, I felt a desperate need to leave it behind for a few days, so the teenager and I packed our bags and headed to the big smoke. After a straightforward journey (despite misreading the red jet timetable) we arrived in Camberwell, ambled to my sister's house through big piles of London Plane leaves (of course we kicked through them!) and spent a pleasant evening eating lovely food and watching 'Keeping Mum' on DVD (recommended).

Next day the sister had to go to work, so the teenager and I bravely jumped on a bus on our own (not sure where we had to get off), and beaded for the Horniman Museum. It was somewhere we had wanted to visit for ages, and we imagined it would be less crowded than the Kensington museums. It was, but was still full of shrieking toddlers; we couldn't really work out why you would take a toddler to a museum as they don't stand still long enough to take anything in! Maybe we're just old farts. However, the main galleries of the museum were fascinating, and full of Victorian examples of taxidermy showing creatures from all around the world. There were also fossils and skeletons. The centrepiece was a huge walrus which had been stuffed by a taxidermist who had never seen one, and thus got rid of all the wrinkles and bumps! Spectacular nonetheless. A major curiosity was an example of a 'merman', brought home by a gullible sailor, and made up from wood, paper and fish scales. The stuff of nightmares! We didn't go to see any of the extra exhibitions as the card machine wasn't working and we had no cash. We bought baguettes at the café (tasty) and afterwards we mooched around the gardens, also full of screaming children. Pleasant though. Worth a visit.

On day 2 we hopped on the number 40 bus and hopped off again at London Bridge. We headed towards St Paul's Cathedral, and found Cafe 101 at the Salvation Army International HQ in Great Victoria Street, next to the Millennium Bridge. After a cheap and tasty lunch we crossed the Millennium Bridge, pausing to admire the views up and down the river and also to admire the teeny tiny pieces of art painted on the floor, on chewing gum. Sweet! We turned left at the end and mooched along the south bank of the Thames, passing the Globe Theatre and, later, the replica of the Golden Hinde, through Hay's Galleria, before coming to Tower Bridge, opposite the Tower of London. Here we decided to do the tourist thing properly and bought tickets for the 'Tower Bridge Experience' (student discount too!). We got in a lift to the top of the north tower, watched a short film about the construction of the bridge, then proceeded along the walkway and stood on the reinforced glass floor gazing at the traffic and river below. Thrilling! After completing both walkways we descended to street level, found the gift shop and then explored the Engineering exhibit (lots of engines). Once finished we bimbled back along the river to London Bridge and caught the bus home. Lovely, bimbly day!

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Engine at Tower Bridge

Globe Theatre 

Wild Nights Out..... September

Shanklin Chine

We decided to end the summer holidays with an evening visit to Shanklin Chine; this meant that parts of the chine were illuminated with ever changing coloured lights and looked delightful. We had a lovely time pottering along the paths, and admiring the view over the English Channel with the lights of container ships glittering on the horizon. Definitely worth a visit if you are down that way.

Mark Steel's In Town, Ventnor Winter Gardens
I was allocated a couple of free tickets to this by the BBC and had a lovely, giggly evening with a friend, listening to Mark take the piss out of Ventnor and the Island #nitonnotnitten #microclimate

Isle of Wight Day
We got more involved than usual with this, although not by much! We started with a visit to the library to peruse the book sale and cake stall, and then headed to Newport to look around the Mosque which was having an information day. A team had come down from Regent's Park Mosque in London and set up some interesting displays about the history of Islam and its culture. There were some very helpful chaps on hand to answer any questions and explain a bit more, and I got free dates (fruit) and a bottle of water. Very pleasant and informative.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Took teenager to the flicks to watch the lovely Colin Firth and chums in action. Not as good as the first film, but still very enjoyable. Worth a watch.