What Are They Doing?

The weather had not improved today so we decided to head out of town and explore Portsmouth. While driving we decided it was going to be a little too far and when a castle and cathedral came in to view we thought we might visit this town instead. Arundel was a great little town with a lot of English character. We looked at the castle and visited the cathedrals. It is amazing when you stand in front of grave stones that are older than our whole European history of Australia. After wandering through the town we challenged each other to a game of mini golf. It was great fun. I was the champion by 6 points ( I wonder if there is a career in mini golf?)! We left Arundel and headed to Shoreham by the Sea for a picnic lunch on the beach. The pebble beaches do not have the same character as our beaches back home but we did have some good rock throwing championships! We ended the day by a walk on the pier back in Brighton.

Filed under: Travel, United Kingdom

Today we left The Cotswold area and headed for Brighton Beach. We were improving on our navigational skills and had very little trouble finding our way to Brighton. Tone battled the traffic on the M25 around London while I got to enjoy the views. We made it to Brighton just after lunch, checked in to our hostel and then headed for the beach. Again the weather was not great (actually we were on the beach in our Jeans and Jumpers!) but we took in the beach and then headed in to explore the town. We visited the Royal Pavillion (built between 1815 and 1822 for Goerge IV), and relaxed on the lawns. We then wandered around the area of the town called the Lanes. This had a bit of a Valley feel to it. We stumbled across a lolly shop that had Australian products so we shouted ourselves a packet of Chicos, we had forgotten how good they are. We then grabbed some food from the local supermarket for dinner and had a picnic on the beach and watched the sun set.

Filed under: Travel, United Kingdom

We are staying in a lovely BnB only 1.5 miles out of Stow on the Wold. It is a very relaxing stay with great surrounds. Today we headed a nearby village Burton on the Water to undertake some walks. Unfortunately the weather was not very nice (very heavy intermitant showers) and we got drenched on some of our walks. One of our walks took us through some of the fields with the cows to great views over the valleys. We got sick of getting wet so we headed to the car and drove around some of the other small villages. They are so picturesque. We stopped in one village called Nourton and had a drink in the pub. We went back to the BnB for a rest before heading into Stow for dinner at the Queens Head Pub.

Filed under: Travel, United Kingdom

Today we set off on our road trip around South England. We were looking forward to exploring more of England in our little car. We threw all our gear in the car and headed out the driveway, but stopped in a hell of a hurry, we had left the road atlas behind! After leaving for the second time, we headed out of Manchester full steam ahead. Along the M56 we were looking for the signs for the M6 which would take us all the way to M1 which would take us to the A5 and in to Corby our first destination. But somehow ( I think it could have had something to do with too much talking and not enough sign watching) we had taken a wrong turn and ended up on the M6 heading North instead of south! After adding about 30 minutes extra driving to our trip we were on the M6 heading in the right direction! When we were arriving in Corby, Tone’s phone rang and it was his relative Gordon. We arranged to come and see him at the police station where he worked. So we drove to Isabell’s old house where Tony and his Mum stayed the last time they were in England and then on to the police station. After catching up with Gordon we drove to Northampton to have lunch with the rest of Tone’s relatives. But of course we did it in our road trip style, yes we took a wrong turn, ended up heading in the wrong direction and added an extra 15 minutes to our trip. We arrived in Northampton and met Ronald, Martine, Hayley, Fraser and Finlay, Nan, Brian and Rita. We were treated to a beautiful lunch and an afternoon of socialising before heading off to the Cotswolds (which we again did in our road trip style of wrong turns and extra travel time!).

Filed under: Travel, United Kingdom

We decided that we would go and see The Da Vinci Code at the movies last night. How many other people would you think would go to the movies on a Wednesday night? Well I can tell you, loads, it was sold out! So feeling sorry for ourselves we went to drown our sorrows with a drink at the pub. Here we didn’t need a movie, we were entertained by the old man sitting at the table next to us. He had had his dinner, and was finishing his glass of wine but it was taking a long time as he kept falling asleep! Hopefully we will get to the movies one night this week.

Filed under: General

Our friend D has been playing Clarinet, Flute and Sax in the stage show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang here in Manchester. So last night we went to see the show. It was great, the car actually even flew! The show was on at the Palace Theatre. This was our first visit to the theatre and it was a really pretty building. We were in the third tier and this was quite high up but still had a good view of the stage (it was a very steep section though so it took us a while to get used to looking down without feeling dizzy!). The theatre experience here is quite different to Brisbane, people don’t get overly dressed up for the occassion and you are allowed food and drink inside the auditorium. One man came in wearing a T-shirt and Jeans and carrying a tin of pringles and a beer! Despite the differences we had a great time and really enjoyed the show - I went to bed singing the songs!

Filed under: General

Tony told me earlier in the week not to plan anything for Friday night as he had a surprise planned for me. I was quite excited and all week have been trying to think of what my surprise might be. Tonight we caught the bus into the city and walked down to Deansgate. I still had no idea. Then we walked past this bookstore’s window and there was a sign up about an author I am in to at the moment Alexander McCall Smith and he was doing a book signing in the store at 7 pm. This was my first book signing and it was really cool. We had free wine and nibbles and then Alexander talked for about half an hour and then took questions. He was so entertaining; I haven’t laughed so much in ages. Tony bought me the latest book in the series that I am reading and I got it signed. What a cool surprise.

Filed under: General

After hearing so many people talk about the famous Blackpool we decided that we needed to go and visit. So we headed off in our little car for a day trip to Blackpool. Unfortunately the weather was not the best (yes, overcast and rainy again!) but we didn’t let this deter us. The town was what we had expected - like a huge ekka. The streets are full of gaming parlors and food stalls and the esplanade has side show alleys and you can even take a donkey ride up the beach! We had a good look around and then headed for the beach where we sat in our car (due to rain) and ate our fish and chips!

Filed under: Travel, United Kingdom