Back to Barton on Sea via Bosham

Tuesday September 28th

This is a favourite part of the world and Mary decided she needed a nostalgic visit to Bosham. This was the place where their great family friend “Uncle Percy” had always talked about as his two sisters had lived here. It also has a very famous church dating back to the 11th century and is depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. Bosham also features in one of the Gumdrop adventures; Gumdrop on the Brighton run. The houses are built right up to the tide line and twice a day the tide comes in almost up to the windows. The houses have doors that that have a high threshold you have to climb over. This is the place where King Canute commanded the tide to stop coming in with no effect. One of his daughters is buried in the churchyard and there is a cottage called Canute Cottage. It is one of the loveliest villages to visit and there were tourists arriving in droves as they left.




So after a morning coffee in the quaint little tea rooms which is part of a complex of about 20 art and craft shops, they came back to get me and drive me on in the direction of Langston to see friends at the Royal Oak Pub. They had last seen them in 2007. On arriving they asked to see Chris and they were told he had gone back to live in NZ for good. This is after having been there for over 20 years. So looks like they will have to look him up in Taihape where he owns a house.


So it was off in the direction of the New Forest, which is very old actually and was the hunting forest for William the conquer after 1066 . Apparently the old forest got chopped down when someone got permission from the king to chop down as much timber as he could in a day. He managed to amass such a large number of people to help that he stripped the forest of all useable timber. The new forest was already there but it was designated hunting forest for the king and it still stands today and regenerates naturally.

There was a slight deviation for lunch and looking at shops at Hedge End which is a shopping mecca around the Southampton area. Alan bought a paper and was happy to sit in me. He actually bought the newly released CD of the RAF Reach for the Skies as well. This is the CD recoded by Decca for the anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The band are photographed on the runway at Northolt with the planes flying over top and Hamish is easily seen in the front right. So Alan got a first listen to the CD.


There is a rather classy promotional video at Amazon that you can copy and paste into your browser and see here...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/mpd/permalink/m360GUFNFPZQUD

So with CD playing they headed out towards New Milton and Barton on Sea. There is a good camping shop in Lyndhurst so they picked up a new gas cylinder for my cooker there and looked at water pumps as they need to replace the one Mary snapped. A bit more research needed before they decide which one to buy as they have to make sure they can fit it to the leisure battery. Lyndhurst is another one of those villages that nostalgia demanded they get out and walk around. It was late in the day but there were still two tour buses of pensioners having 2 or 3 day breaks in the New Forest.

They got to Barton on Sea just before 5 and back to the house that had been their home for a year in 2007. Andy and Liz welcomed them and Mary assured them she could back me up their very narrow drive between the house and the fence. They had made a few a changes to the house including adding a conservatory, but it seemed just like being home.
In the evening one of the teachers Mary had taught with had organised a social get together of some of the staff from New Milton Infant School. It was a very pleasant evening. Several have now also retired and are looking great and it seems to be suiting them as well. They all seem to have grand travel plans and Mary is hoping they will travel down under at some stage.

On the Road Again

Monday September 27th

Today was a travelling day again but Mary and Alan were confident that they did not need the Tom Tom in this part of England as they were really familiar with it. They were heading for Portsmouth so that Mary could go shopping at one of her favourite outlets Gun Wharf Quays. Of course it is not as easy to park me as it was when they had a car so they had to choose a spot carefully as I am too tall to go into the shopping centre car parks. They found one in a side street that was really handy. So they paid and put the ticket in my windscreen.

They had a really nice fish and chip lunch and then Mary went and had a trawl through the designer shops. Alan had a look around the book shops and bought a paper and came back and kept me company. I make a good sitting room and I always feel safer when I am not left alone for too long in strange places.

They checked out another shopping mall called Cascades further down the road and Mary found TK Maxx. On the way out of town they stopped for groceries and petrol before driving to a Caravan and Camping Club site for one night. It is between Portsmouth and Chichester and is up to usual standard of the club sites and also in a very accessible place in a village called Southbourne.

After dinner they tried to watch TV but Mary went to sleep as usual worn out by shopping I think as I saw her sneak a few more bags into my cupboards!

Fun with the Kids

Sunday September 26th

It is so cool for us guys living a real house with children. They like us and play with us and we have made lots of new friends. Ber Lin has met lots of other bears and played games with them and Adam really likes Pania and plays with her a lot. Ka Pai and Patariki are enjoying watching CBeebies TV.

There was a birthday party in the house today for the children’s granny and that meant candles and cake. The cake was a caterpillar! Lucy had learnt to play Happy Birthday on the piano especially for the occasion. After lunch both the children put on little shows for the adults and Pania go to feature in Adam’s little play.

Later in the afternoon the children rode their scooters to the local playground and lots of fun with all the other children who were there. It started to get quite cold so we had to get home have tea and then everyone had an early night. Mary and Alan are enjoying having a bit of a rest and not having to rush around and drive in mad traffic all the time.

A Walk on the South Downs

Saturday September 25th
During breakfast Marianne asked Mary if she knew the Marion Fowler from Wanganui and the name rang a bell. They had met a NZ woman in a campsite in Salzburg who was travelling around for 11 months in a campervan. They were going to back to NZ and February and would be travelling down to Wanganui to stay with the Fowlers. They could not believe it. Only 2 degrees of separation in NZ; If you don’t know someone it doesn’t take much to find a person you know who knows them.

It was a beautiful fine sunny morning and after breakfast they loaded me up again and set out to drive to Brighton. On the way they stopped by the village to take a photo of the Noah’s Ark Pub in daylight in the village of Lurgeshall.
The trip was on country roads rather than motorway and involved lots of roundabouts and narrow roads that were impossible to overtake on, so there were a few frustrated motorists caught behind me as I don’t do fast.

The Tom Tom did an excellent job of taking them into Brighton on a road that avoided a big traffic jam. They arrived at Jacquie and Pete Brett’s in time for lunch. After lunch they all set off of for quite a long walk over the South Downs. Once up on the top there was a wonderful view right over the whole area.

Back home Lucy and Adam wanted to see inside me and found the feathers and fur and immediately made friends with them and they are now making friends with all the toys ins the house so I can’t imagine what they are getting up to. Ber Lin is having a marvellous time meeting other bears, and the kiwis are having rides on cars and trucks all around the lounge.

Noah's Ark and Horse Guards

Friday September 24th

Well it was time to take me out on the road again. So the Tom Tom was set to take us to a village called Furnhurst near where our friends Warwick and Marianne Cox live. They had visited them on the same estate where they are living and working in 2007 and on that occasion Warwick had posted very detailed of notes of how to get there. For some obscure reason Mary had kept these and taken them back to NZ and Alan had filed them away. What was even more surprising was that he remembered to bring them back. And just as well because they needed the instructions to remind them that they were on a one way road with 18 blind humps and 15 blind corners that you needed to drive slowly with your lights on.

There was only one occasion where Mary had to back me up the lane a bit to let another car past and once on the road, they remembered the route.
It was drizzling lightly the whole time. The rain is back. They arrived in time for a leisurely lunch and then spent a quiet afternoon reading and resting. After work Marianne and Warwick took them to the local pub called the Noah’s Ark for a pre dinner drink. After this they drove onto another pub called Horse Guards where we had dinner. the photo is of Noah's Ark in Daylight.


The publican had lived in New Zealand for quite a time working in wineries and restaurants in the South Island and he picked the kiwi accents as being North Island. So we had a great chat to him, and suddenly another chap in the corner near us admitted that he was from Christchurch. So here we were in a little village called Tillington and there were 5 kiwis and a publican who had lived and worked for a considerable time in NZ.

Since they were last here Marianne and Warwick have moved into purpose built accommodation and there are some photos of it here. It is really lovely with beautiful views over the surrounding countryside.

A Night in Gasoline Alley Hospital

Thursday September 23rd

Well I spent a night in Gasoline Alley in a strange village.(That really was the name.) It was quite strange really as Mary had taken all the little friends with her so I felt abandoned. Actually the kind man at the VW garage had sorted out my brake problem and had me all fixed, but they all took off up to London to go to Galleries and the Opera on Wednesday and got back far too late to pick me up.

Yesterday Sue had called into a garden centre and bought a pond that was never going to fit in her VW Touran. So Mary suggested that after they picked me up we could follow her to the garden centre and put the pond in my vast interior. So Sue took a longer lunch break than usual and they set off. Alan had got out cash to pay my hospital bill and it turned out to be very reasonable. I knew I would win that mechanic over in the end. Mary was so impressed she took him a bottle of French wine out of the travelling cellar and a little souvenir from NZ which he seemed pretty chuffed about.

The garden shop was actually miles in the other direction but we eventually got there and loaded the pond in. It certainly needed a vehicle of my size and stature to transport it back to Sevenoaks. Of course it had started to rain by now, the good weather was rather short lived. So when they got me safely backed into the drive and got the pond out they spend the rest of the afternoon sorting their stuff and repacking me ready for another adventure tomorrow.

Garages, Garden Centres, Art Galleries and Opera

Wednesday Spetember 22nd

This turned out to be a great day in so many ways. It was really bright and sunny when we all woke up and the temperature for the day predicted to get to 25 in London which is where they were heading. Sue had taken the day off work and around 9am phoned the garage who said to bring me over straight away. Well it was at least a half hour drive away, so about 9.30 they set out in convoy. Mary followed Sue driving me carefully through many narrow lanes and up a few hills, ARRGH, I hate hills first thing in the morning.

When we finally got there the very nice man was quite stunned at my appearance. Well I am a little shabby on the outside, but beautiful on the inside and isn’t that what counts! While waiting for the boat Alan had rummaged through my glove box and found a bunch of receipts for previous work carried out on me and had discovered that I had had a new engine at 96,000 miles and I am on 121,000 now. This made him feel a lot more confident about my overall wellbeing. The mechanic was gobsmacked when Mary told him where they had just returned from taking me. He was visibly shocked, albeit amused. He made a comment along the lines that only kiwis would be so bold. Mary said well, we are back, we are here, we’ve done it! Patch up the brakes and off we’ll go again. So they left me in the hospital for the night.

So Sue drove us back home and we then got organised to go on the train to London. She phoned a friend to see if she could park at their house so we could go to an outlying overland station and travel in by Oyster Card. Sue wanted to go to a garden centre on the way so we called in there. It was absolutely huge and sold everything! People take coach trips to it as an outing. We had cut our lunch which we ate on the train and headed straight for the Royal Academy to look at the Sargent Art Exhibition; From the Sea. This was a small changing exhibition in its last week which Sue had wanted to get to before it closed.

After leaving here we went our separate ways. I had to get back to the Oxford Street branch of the HSCB to pick up the elusive pin number for my debit card. We finally got there after having walked past all the stunning Jewllery shops in Bond Street. I had to give my name and get into a paper queue which they said could be up to 15 minutes as I would need to see someone. My turn finally came and I was told that because I hadn’t picked my pin number up within two weeks of it arriving at the branch it had been shredded. They only keep them two weeks and then destroy them. This was news to me. Had I known this I could have made a new request online two weeks ago. The last time I had been in I had ordered it online but it had not arrived even after 10 working days. There seems to be a small window of opportunity for these things. I said that I had requested that one be posted to me in NZ and they could verify that this was posted on July 27th. I could have one posted to an address in the UK which I don’t have, but even if I chose a friend’s address the chances of it getting to the right place at the right time were remote. It would also actually change my address in the system and class me as a resident for withholding tax purposes, so not a smart move. At this point I politely said. “Thanks, I give up. I guess I will be able to use my account in 2012!” and stepped out in to Oxford St and felt like yelling some unmentionable word. Add that to the fact that when Alan checked the balance in the account at the bank, the spending in the last 24 hours hadn’t caught up with the account and it tells you about banking in the UK.

We had arranged to meet Sue and Phil outside the National Portrait Gallery and we went to Bella Italia for an early meal before going to the opera at Covent Garden. Here we had a very amusing and entertaining Italian waiter who made the dining experience a pleasure. We made sure we gave ourselves plenty of time to walk to Covent Garden and have a look around and spend time looking around the Opera House before the performance started at 7pm. This was Cossi Fan Tutti set in 2010 in modern dress. Of course if had all the trappings of the 21st century, cell phones, tattoos, laptops etc. It was hilarious and easy to follow with the sur titles displayed above. It has to be one of the best operas we have ever seen. It was long but so enjoyable that the time flew by.

We finally got back to Sevenoaks around midnight and it was still quite a warm balmy evening. However the weather is set to change soon.