Portsmouth - Andrews local

Recovered from our travels and with Andrew settled back in St Johns I get to experience, in a small way, his local environment.
Andrew loves the clubs so he has shown me where they are and we viewed one of them from the outside - I can only imagine what they are like inside at midnight on a Friday night! The Goose I understand - this is Andrews local pub, which sits within a stones throw of my B&B and 1 minutes walk from the back gate at St Johns. Last night we had dinner there with Andy & Bundy, the other two "gappies" from Scots who are at the school with Andrew.
Although Wednesday is Andrews busiest day he was free again this morning and we took the opportunity to go shopping along the aptly named, Commercial Rd. We visited the Portsmouth FC shop which has every kind of item branded with the local clubs logo - the supporters here are call pompeys. Andrew used some of his birthday money this morning to purchase a stunning leather jacket from the designer outlet store - only £50. No worries about the cold - between the new jacket and the lovely duffle coat he has been wearing during my visit he'll be toasty for the rest of the winter.
A few small items were purchased as souvenirs (mostly for Alan) - Tonys souvenirs are my photos and his present is that I didn't spent any money on him or myself - Oh! . . . except a few books.
The boys had to be back at school for lunchtime duty in the sports hall (Gym) - much of their duty time seems to be in the sports hall, lunchtime and evenings - not an onerous task for 3 teenagers who love to hoon about. I am engaged to meet the boys in Andrews house this evening at 8:30 and tomorrow he will walk with me to the station at Fratton - its an easy journey by train to Woking and then bus to Heathrow. The hardest part will be the parting here - I take heart that I am leaving a boy in a good situation, with good friends around him and excited to be leaving on Friday for a week in Spain.
PS Those of you engaged to pick me up - see you Saturday morning 11am.

UK Road Trip

What 3 things do I love about the UK:
1. The bookshops
2. The motorways
The road trip was a success - Andrew is an amazing navigator and managed to successfully navigate us through roundabout after roundabout along with convoluted motorway junctions which required quick thinking to match the 70/80mph we were travelling at just to keep up with the traffic!
Heres the list we've ticked off:

• Stonehenge
• Bath
• the crescent
• the circus
• the Jane Austen Centre
• the Roman Baths
• The Peak District
• The Roaches
• Buxton Spa
• Real country walking (with mud)
• Pub meal
• Stratford-upon-Avon
• Shakespeares birthplace
• Shakespeares tomb
• Swans
• Saturday market
  
• Warwick Castle (AMAZING)
  
• Rugby
• Lyme Regis
• The Cobb
• Real English fish & chips (couldn't eat them as they were so awful)
  

We started with a view to visiting Jane Austens haunts and some of the locations for the movies/television adaptations of her novels. This journey was completed for me, by visiting her tomb in Winchester Cathederal this morning.

In case you missed it - the first comment of this post was a joke.

Bath with an Italian influence

Bath YHA is an Italianate Mansion - great sleep, great position - no ghosts! We are immersed in Jane Austen - we have been to the Pump Room, The Baths, The Circus, The Crescent and walked the streets just as Jane would have done and her characters - we were particularly thinking of Anne Elliott. The Jane Austen Centre was average - as with so many sightseeing trips, when we have an abundance of imagination ourselves we can make more of the simple parks and streets than any artificial display.
Stonehenge was suitably worshiped earlier in the day.

Quiet catchup in Portsmouth

After the extreme day in London yesterday its a relief to be having a quiet catchup in Portsmouth. One of the major goals of this trip was to be with Andrew on his 18th birthday - tick, done that - we had coffee this morning in Palmerston Road or Palmy Rd as he calls it. Birthday presents duly delivered to a very pleased boy who is now much richer than yesterday - he was overwhelmed with everyones generosity. Each Wednesday he is on duty from wakeup until lights-out with the morning off for 2 weeks out of three - luckily this week was one of the off weeks. We have made plans for our road trip.
Sadly no iPhone. The people in the Apple store in Regent street couldn't have been nicer - they really looked after me and squeezed in an appointment with one of their tech gurus despite being fully booked until tomorrow. They were preparing to replace the phone until consideration of the locked status for UK iPhones - if I received a replacment phone here it would need to be provided locked to a provider and then I wouldn't be able to use it in NZ. Instructions for what to do when I get home were duly imparted and many apologies for not being able to fix it for me. So, my £10 Nokia will be doing good service for the remaining week of my stay. Must remember to turn it off at night though, as I was woken at 3am with a client phone call.
BTW - another gorgeous day here where I don't need a coat!

New Southgate Cemetery & London

The final resting place of The Guardian of the Bahai Faith lies in New Southgate Cemetery. 20 mins walk from Arnos Grove tube station. The shrine is situated on the edge of the cemetery in a restful spot where it is easy to pray and to meditate with only the sound of the birds for company.

The tube ride took me back several-mumble years - the carriages have not changed - London Transport appear to have cleaned them, but not too often. However the service was fast and easy.

My day-return from Portsmouth (only £13.50) necessitates me catching an evening train after 7pm. I won't be coming back to London on this trip - apart from the wonderful people at the Apple store in Regent street, I find little to recommend it. Meanwhile I am waiting for one of the tech gurus to look at my non-functioning iPhone and making use of the banks of computers freely available for people to use.

Portsmouth with no phone

Sufferring a bit with no phone. My dear iPhone stopped working when turned it off before landing at Auckland airport. Have tried everything except throwing it at a wall or stamping on it (came close!). So posting here - if you want updates check back every couple of days.
Felt really good when I arrived last night at arounf 5pm. no way to get in touch with Andrew until the B&B owner told me his son was at St Johns . . . so, he rang his son and the message was passed on ... tell Andrew Watson his Mum is here. Andrew duly showed up on the front step - great excitement and I only shed a few tears of happiness. I've had a tour of the school and seen his room which could do with a tidy up but otherwise warm and cosy with everything he needs.
Highlight of this mornings sightseeing was viewing the sail from Nelsons Victory - who cares about the ship when there are fabrics to view! It's the largest textile under conservation, in the world - its HUGE and all so beautifully sewn.