Long weekend down South

From Thursday 28th August to 1st September 2014 saw us finally have a long weekend away from Bilston and catching up on old friends Derek and Elaine Candy aka Mr & Mrs King Pig.   It was quite an eventful weekend considering we had only planed to catch up and see how Derek was getting on after a double heart bypass ( for some reason NHS didn’t bother with the planned quadruple bypass)

We found that the journey time was now cut to roughly three hours if we stuck to the motorway orientated route planned by the sat nav  which meant we arrived in plenty of time and Annette managed to do all the driving herself.  I fell asleep. Nothing more boring than being a passenger on the motorway when you don’t even have to map read and the radio is tuned in to modern thump-thump-thump and adverts.

We had struggled to find a B & B as it turned out the weekend was quite a busy one for the Hampshire/Dorsetshire coast with; air show, steam engine fair and various summer season activities like fireworks.   We eventually got booked into the Mariners Guest House Poole and even managed to negotiate a £10 day discount which was good as the place was booked solid al the time we were there. It was run by a slightly eccentric woman and her daughter (divorced? – I couldn’t be arsed to ask. Maybe Annette did) Who was a compulsive cleaner type but, provided an excellent breakfast service and kept the place very clean. It had off road parking and it was even possible to hire a garage if you wanted.  The free wifi kept Annette happy with her ipad and drove me to distraction with the crappy reject tablet I had been given.

Derek was now living in a downstairs private rented flat in Poole about ten minutes drive from the hotel and it didn’t seem too bad but, compared to the home he had been forced to abandon in Spain in was minuscule.  Main thing was he was definitely looking a lot healthier and could walk fairly well without getting breathless although with metal pins in his ankle and the continuous back pain he was still not or ever will be considered fit. His diabetes is also still pretty much uncontrolled but, I suspect the depression dropped on him from all the fuss about benefits and returning to UK has much to do with this.

The Thursday night we went out for a meal and walk along Poole sea front and at 22:00 hours we watched the last summer firework show. The whole sea front was kitted out like a Berlin street party with live music and street performers. Pleased to say that the local public houses are all thriving and unlike in the West Midlands it was hard to find an empty one or rarer still a boarded up shell.

We had planned to go up to Blandford for the steam fair but, local news had film of tractors being used just to pull cars onto the car park and a reporter wading around up to her knees in mud in the main field. Apparently it is well known for flooding in the slightest rain and had suffered two days of heavy rain this year.  So, although I was willing to give it a go nobody else was keen to risk getting bogged down. Shame as they are reported to fire up and run all the engines as soon as it gets dark.

Having had two days of catching up and seeing all three of his kids ( all with problems that could keep Eastenders and Coronation Street plots lively for a good few years). We decided to make the journey over to Portsmouth to see the Naval docks. I wanted to go this year as HMS Illustrious  was there to be decommissioned and I was dreaming of another trophy for my loft museum, although I wasn’t quite sure what piece of an aircraft carrier I could secrete on my person and get through the hatchway at 182.  Nevertheless, despite it being all locked up we did get to see it nore or less intact and afloat.

We bought a 12 month ticket as being over sixty it worked out much cheaper than paying to visit individual displays and we all wanted to see Mary Rose and Victory.  I was surprised when  Annette said we could come back and see the rest another time.   It was clear we would never get it all in on one visit; we spent hours just clambering over and inside HMS Warrior and I was pleased to be able to clamber about on the metal hull right at the bottom of the ship. It was an amazing sight, no wonder nobody ever challenged her at sea.

We then did the tour of the harbour (Annette’s boat trip) and back over to the Mary Rose  another very impressive display but, I was a little put off by the low lighting, hopefully, when she has dried out and been fully persevered we won’t have to stumble around  in the twilight zone.   I hadn’t realised just how big a ship Mary Rose was and was well impressed with the breach loading cannons.

We just about had time to do a quick tour of HMS Victory   which was looking a bit on the sorry side with the mid and top masts removed for repairs and parked up in dry dock.  Still I managed to do all Hobbit sized decks without cracking my skull (only to return home and scalping some flesh off while weeding by the garden wall!)  All in all it appears a lot of effort has gone into preserving these fine vessels and I considered the price spread over 12 months excellent value. Cannot wait to go again.

As for the air show; all the roads going towards the main spectators area were packed solid or even closed off  altogether, but it was quite easy to see most of the action all the way along from Weymouth to Bournemouth as the aircraft all flew along the coast. I had a great view of a Vampire flying over Poole but, sadly my crappy camera appears to have deleted/corrupted it.

All in all it was a great long weekend. Didn’t get to see all I wanted but, even made it over to Weymouth and they still have donkey rides on the beach.  I even noticed they have some anti-aircraft guns at the far end of the town in an old fort. Number of years I’ve been going to Weymouth and never noticed that.

The weather even behaved itself, only raining once and that was at night and the Sunday was positively tropical.   On our return journey we went over to Salisbury. Annette did the cathedral and I did the 49th/66th Berkshire museum. That was very interesting; another historic regiment (the first to fight the Kaiser’s mob) now amalgamated with the Gloucester and others.  The Berkshires had four VCs at the Battle of Marne alone.  Those boys knew how to fight.