0304 Pottering around in England

Pottering round England - 7th June - 13th July 2015

After spending several days on the Narrow Boat on the Oxfordshire Canals, I then had to get on with organising things so I would be ready to head off on the road again in early July.  Having broken a front tooth on some French bread while on the Narrow Boat, that was the first thing to be organised as I looked a bit like a pirate !  Luckily John's dentist was able to help, and over the next 3 weeks I have had a crown fitted.  A bit painful financially, but the end cost here without insurance was about the same as it would have been in Aus with insurance rebate, so I decided to go ahead.

There were also a number of things to be arranged for the car - A full service, plus the replacement of some bits and pieces after a year on the road.  John's cousin Anne stayed for a few days and it was good to see her again, and then after a great walk up the hill to St Martha's church outside Guildford to check on my Dad and make sure he wasn't too overgrown, I set off down to my sister Margaret's in Milford on Sea.  Found a great bike cheap at a local pawn shop which with a new set of brake pads fitted seems to work just fine ! Margaret rides most mornings so I got plenty of exercise while I was down there, and also got to see Second Best Marigold Hotel movie - Good, but not as good as the first, I thought.

I have been having horendous computer problems - Thus the delays on getting my blog updated !  My 4 year old unit has had a hard life - One trip round America and Alaska back in 2012, and now a 14 month trip from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego - and during that time has suffered multiple bangs and bashes ! I spent a couple of weeks considering options - Tablets, Windows, Macs - A visit into Southampton to a computer store did nothing more than cloud the issue !!  But this week I finally decided the old one was just too slow and unreliable, so I made an executive decision - And bought a little 11 inch MacBook Air !  The thought of having to master Windows 8 and then change again to Windows 10 in a couple of months time was enough to tip me over onto the dark side !!  So far I love it and am managing to work my way around in the slightly different Apple format.

Blog wise this has meant that I am having to start a new blog because my user names have changed in the change over, and it is just too difficult for me to correct it all at the moment.  So that might explain any differences you may find.

I paid a flying visit to friends Jackie and Brian down near Wareham and went for a lovely walk with them in the afternoon before returning up to the Skidmore's home in Effingham (I went to school with John, for those who don't know), we had a 3 am wake up one morning to go up to Billingsgate Fish Market up in London, and it was well worth the effort.  John goes up every month or two to buy fish which is a lot cheaper than in the shops - Maybe half price or less - and also a lot fresher.  Quite an experience, and we came away with lots of fish and a few scallops as well !!

The next day it was off to Goodwood Festival of Speed for 5 days - Just me, camping in a field.  I have entered that separately as I am sure some people won't want to spend time looking at photos of cars !!  From

Goodwood I went off to Hereford to get Troopie serviced.  Why Hereford, all the way over on the Welsh border ? you might ask.  Well, my son Damien and his partner Hannah and daughter Poppie are currently living over in the UK in Thame in Oxfordshire for the summer, so I wanted to drop in and catch up with them. We had a delightful lunch in a little pub in Thame, and then I headed on to near Hereford for the car service.  Julian Voelcker's Overland Cruisers business specialises in LandCruisers and people doing Overland trips like me, and his operation was just what I needed for Troopie.  Mechanic Martin went through Troopie with a fine tooth comb, changing all fluids, checking every bushing and bearing, and all the brakes and drive shaft, and generally giving her lots of TLC, which after 65,000 kms she needed !  Unfortunately a suspension part was found to be required late in the afternoon and that had to be ordered overnight, so I spent the night sleeping in  Troopie jacked up in the garage with no wheels on !!  But all was good, and the following afternoon all was completed and I set off again.

I was going to drive from Hereford over to Wales to see my old college friend Huw in Aberystwyth, but Huw was busy for a few days, so I ended up returning to Effingham for a few days.  I had to have the final fitting for my tooth, so that all worked out OK, and I managed to spend some more time working out my new computer !  I also had a quick trip down to Portsmouth for a day because I had never been there before, and enjoyed a lovely day exploring down there before camping right on the beach, and then returning back to Effingham in the morning.  I had found some fresh scallops and good steak so enjoyed a delightful supper on the beach in Portsmouth, washed down with one of my last bottles of S American Carminere wine !  Very pleasant !

Next day it was off to pick raspberries at a local pick your own farm. John makes his own raspberry gin for use for medicinal purposes on cold winter days when he and Di are beating.  To do this he requires copious amounts of raspberries (which is where I was able to help!) and we had a pleasant morning picking (and eating just a few !) in the sunshine.  We then took out booty back to the house where John began his 6 week manufacturing process ! 1 lb raspberries, 1 lb raw sugar, and 1 pint of gin.  Mix carefully, then leave to mature for

about 6 weeks, stirring occasionally.  At that stage he will have to sieve the mix to remove the solids, leaving a fine raspberry gin which is efficacious in every way !  I hope he won’t have drunk all the proceeds before I get back !!

The following weekend John and Di had a large Sunday dinner party with a number of their friends, and managed to squeeze me in round the table.  Fine food, good company – Most enjoyable.  A couple of days later I set off back to Wales to see Huw, and had a delightful drive across the English countryside and then across Wales to Aberystwyth.  There is some stunning countryside out there, especially when the sun is shining, as it was.  It was great to catch up with Huw and Dilly again – I was good friends with Huw in college, and then John and I went out to stay with them both when they worked in Jamaica in the ‘70’s.  The

view from their house overlooking the old town of Aberystwyth is superb – Very similar to the view over places like Oban in Scotland.  We walked, we explored, we had some lunch on the waterfront.  We had an afternoon nap, we had soft serve ice creams with milk flakes in them (ooooh yeah !), found some big Welsh Dragons, and had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days in brilliant sunshine. Jack the Jack Russell loved every minute of it and after initially trying to prevent me from entering the house, soon became my new best friend, sleeping on the foot of my bed all night !!  On the last evening we had a bbq where I met Huw’s brother Winston and his mother for the first time after some 50 years – About time !!  I will return to Wales as there is some spectacular countryside over there.

I then wandered back to England round the Welsh coast, over the Severn Bridge, and then dropped down to my other niece Polly’s home at Bulford Army Base near Amesbury for a bbq lunch to celebrate her son Joe’s 6^th birthday.  Husband Tom is a an army Colonel, which is why they live there, and we had yet another sunny afternoon sitting out in the garden with the families, sister Margaret, and nephew Will who had come up from Lymington with Margaret.   I am slowly catching up with everyone !   From Bulford it was back to Effingham to John and Di’s for a last couple of days (and the last of our scallops from Billingsgate) before heading off to France to meet Damien, Hannah and Poppie, and Nick and Tanja who are also in the country for Tanja’s brother’s wedding in Amsterdam last weekend. 

Postscript to the end of this entry is that I left Effingham 3 hours before I needed to be in Portsmouth (a one hour drive) to catch my ferry to Caen, and as soon as I got on the A3, the traffic came to a standstill !!  It took about an hour to get off the motorway which had been completely closed by the police – Found out later due to a truck fire or something.  Anyway, due to other roadworks and road closures, I had to go to Portsmouth via Billingshurst in East Sussex, and ended up missing my ferry by 2 minutes !  I have

rebooked on a (much more expensive !) over night ferry and have to sit in Portsmouth for 8 hours, and will now arrive in Caen at 7 am tomorrow morning !!  Grrrr. And I have been planning this trip, and booked this ferry weeks ago.  Most upset. 

Photos are here - Please copy and paste the link as it won''t work directly for some reason :-

https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0304PotteringAroundEngland?authkey=Gv1sRgCIi03Oi086mGLg