A quick trip home…ish
Tuesday 1st September
So our first stop back in UK is with Debbie in Ladybank. It’s a year since we saw them last and OMG the girls are so grown up.
Leah is 18 and is off to Dundee university to do a 4 year primary education course and leaves at the weekend and Eve is 16 and has become a bit of a party animal. Today we go into Edinburgh, I get a blood test done and then we go into town for some retail therapy.
Debbie is back today. She’s been in New York for the last 5 days, leaving the girls to fend for themselves. We’re so looking forward to seeing her – she’s been doing all our admin; scanning all our mail and putting it in the cloud for us to read. We’re lucky to have such great friends who will look after our admin and give us a roof over our heads and even the use of their car on our trips back home, we can’t use our own home because there’s a tenant in it.
Wednesday 2nd September
This morning Jol and Joelle come to visit. It’s great to have a gossip and catch up. Today I also have my first trial italki French lesson. To be honest it’s an uncomfortable 30 minutes. But early days!
Thursday 3rd September
Leah is packing for her imminent move to Halls of residence in Dundee, Eve is in school, Larry is still working in the States, Debbie has chores to catch up on. Basically we do very little – just a little washing up and occasional dog walks with Sasha.
Debbie has heard Darren asking about having my hair done. This time last year I told him i’d love to have orange hair and would get in done as soon as I left the Army. Well of course it hasn’t happened, although my last haircut in Iceland, that’s what I asked for. So Debbie and I pop in to the local hairdressers in Ladybank and ask if she can do it. She says yes but she is fully booked. To be honest I was relieved but of course Debbie asks her to ring us if there’s a cancellation and we’ve just walked into the house when she phones with a cancellation – so tomorrow I have my appointment.
Friday 4th September
Today I’m waiting for my Skype French lesson and the start time approaches and passes. It turns out I didn’t appreciate the time difference, my lesson is 11am not 10 am. Well that’s it, we’ve planned to see Lynne today and I’ve been stressing and dreading this lesson since 9am. So i’m not putting myself through that for another hour. Instead we take Sasha out and then visit Lynne, an old friend from Army days. 
In the afternoon i’m off to the hairdressers and after a slow start, once Gillian realises I’m pretty much open to any of her suggestions, she really embraces the plan. First I have all the colour lifted with bleach, then she’s ready to colour. She wants to clipper the sides and back and dye them purple. The rest is orange. It’s a fantastic colour and I love the cut too. Debbie comes to pick me up and can’t believe it. I know Daz will be happy because he wanted me clipper my hair and Leah, of course, is amazed. Great result. Thank you Gillian.
Saturday 5th September
We’re up for breakfast and there’s only Debbie. Leah has already gone to work,she has a job in Iceland in Dundee, Evie stayed at a party last night and Larry has gone to a vintage car show with his coffee van despite only coming back from the States late yesterday afternoon. During breakfast I show Debbie my neck – I’ve got a ring of blisters along the back of my neck – something to do with the hair bleach/dye. Daz and I load the car with all Leah’s bags. We have a plan, Debbie will drive Evie into Dundee whilst we’ll get the train. So after taking Sasha for a walk, we get the train into Dundee. We have a look round town 
and then head for Iceland. Leah is on the till and has been there for her full shift.
She looks totally at home in her new role – most impressive and we thought she might be embarrassed by our presence but she’s fine. After her shift ends we all walk up to the university
and queue at student admin for Leah’s keys. The whole area is full of parents and their children and their luggage, all here to settle in before Fresher’s Week. We get the key for Leah’s room, for the first year she will be in Halls of Residence. We quickly find her room – very nice with ensuite. She’s basically in a flat with 5 others with a shared kitchen/lounge. It seems a really nice layout. Neither classes nor the Students’ Union is more than a couple of minutes walk, but Iceland and the town centre more like 15 minutes. Now all we need to do is find Debbie and the car but she’s not answering the phone. Finally we make contact and they come up to Leah’s room.
Then it’s a couple of trips to the underground car park to fetch all her gear – would’ve been so easy if all the stairwells weren’t jammed with other students/parents doing the same thing! It’s soon done and we unpack and we demand a quick tour of the students union before we leave.
It’s an emotional time and Evie is really upset to see Leah go!!
Saturday evening is a quiet affair and Larry’s isn’t back until 7pm from the car show. Tomorrow Evie will be off to the conservatoire in Glasgow early and Larry will do another coffee day at the car show so we need to say our goodbyes today. It’s sad to be going but it’s been a lovely week. We’re lucky to have friends that will put a roof over our heads, feed us great meals, and look after us like this. And of course to see Leah and Evie growing up and planning their futures is fabulous.
Sunday 6th September
Our last day in Scotland and it’s a beautiful sunny day so we take Sasha to Tensmuir beach – Debbie knows I love this beach. And it’s so beautiful.
After our walk, it’s lunch and we’re off to catch the train to Edinburgh. We’ve hired a car for a few days. First stop will be the Lake District – tomorrow we are doing the Via Ferrata up through Honister Pass. It’s only a couple of hours drive and we’re in Cockermouth. We’re staying with a ‘warmshowers’ host Mim, who’s a really keen cyclist and has already done a 9month bike tour through Asia, some of Australia and New Zealand. It’s great hearing her stories about her trip and how they managed the heat in Asia and having a cycling partner without any map reading skills, negotiating skills or packing skills. After dinner, which she’s cooked for us, we take a quick walk into Cockermouth – it’s a pretty market town on the river Cocker and Derwent. There’s bunting all over town and decorated bikes in every shop window or on display around town in celebration of the Tour of Britain, the bike race, which started in Anglesea today and comes through Cockermouth on Tuesday.
Monday 7th September
Today we’re up early and drive along Derwent water, through Buttermere, along Buttermere lake to Honister Pass. The scenery is breathtaking and there’s a mist lying on the water – very ethereal!
At the top of the pass there’s Honister Slate mine – and we’re ready for our adventure. Via Ferrata – the iron walkway originating in the Dolomites to allow the Italian army to cross the mountains more easily. And here it follows the route of slate miners from bygone days. There are ladders, cables and bridges set in the rocky cliffs and our leader, Hayley leads us along the route. Fortunately there’s no one in the group that is really nervous or scared of heights, so we complete the course in good time. The views along the route and from the top are spectacular.
From the slate mine we head for Keswick and stop to look round.
And then we head to North Wales. We’ve got another host who lives only a few kilometres from the zipwire experience we have booked tomorrow. Our host has had some unusual travel experiences including teaching Welsh in Patagonia; being arrested and severely beaten in Bolivia and being expected to teach English to a class of 50 ranging from 6 to 16. Our adventures seem tame by comparison. He’s also not adverse to smoking a bit of weed, or in fact, growing it. He cultivates the seeds indoors and then sows the seedlings in various locations around the Welsh hills. He’s certainly different to our army colleagues but great fun to chat to. We cook dinner together and chat away about our various travel experiences.
Tuesday 8th September
After a fat boys breakfast we head up to Zip World. First we do the Little Zipper. This ride is about 30 seconds of flight at about 30mph. We’re all underwhelmed by the experience. I made sure we went first so as not to have too long for the fear to build and actually I’m pretty OK because even looking down the line, the descent looks quite benign. At the bottom we wait for the rest of the group before being driven up to the Big Zipper. From the top we can see Tryfan, Ogwen Valley, Anglesey, the Menai Straits and the entire slate mine which is made up of approximately 32 galleries, each individually named eg Duchess, Marchoness. The miners would abseil down the cliff face and drill holes for the explosives. They used zip wires to move the blocks of slate. They were paid only by the quality of the slate they mined not the hours worked.
Unfortunately once we’re at the top we’re told there are retaining wires at the bottom that need renewing so there’s a delay during which my fear levels start to rise and I can see the drop off for this flight is really steep compared to the last ride. So I’m getting pretty nervous. Finally it’s fixed and again we manage to get in first. We’re hooked up in our harness and we can see the flight path over the lake. This is the longest course in the northern hemisphere and fastest in the world with speeds reaching up to 100mph. We’re in position for the longest time before we’re released. And finally we’re off and it’s incredible as we fly out over the lake. Fabulous.
From ZipWorld Daz was hoping for a fishing trip that our host told us about. So we drive over to Anglesea and to Beaumaris in the hope of joining a fishing trip, but just like Iceland, it’s not to be
Instead we have a look round the town and Castle, eat fish and chips on the beach in the glorious sunshine before heading to Tamworth to see Carl (Darren’s brother), Trish, and the family.
Tuesday 8th September
The evening at Carl’s is fab. Great food, sangria and games. We all play Brainiac together which is sooo entertaining – Trish manages to guess ‘platform shoe’ from a cleverly molded lump of plasticine by Carl which simply looks like a lump of plasticine. But she fails to guess ‘sleeping bag’ from his molded slug! After Brianiac we play Pointless, where I cheat repeatedly and still come last! We finally meet Snoop their Beagle. Only 3 weeks ago he ran out of the house and under a car. Everyone thought he’d be dead, but he survived but with a broken spine and pelvis. Amazingly after some major surgery he’s on the mend – thank God. And he’s a lovely dog.
Wednesday 9th September
Today, despite plans to walk and geocache we don’t actually manage to leave the house. Instead I remember I’ve got a trial lesson on Skype with a new French teacher. There’s no introduction in English and it’s French all the way. After ten minutes I’m shattered and still waiting for him to switch to English but it just doesn’t happen. Soooo different from my last lesson and Manon (workawayer from horse farm, Sweden) told me I wasn’t paying to talk English. After 25 minutes I’m beginning to relax, it’ll be over in 5 but Jean overruns by 15 minutes. And yes it’s been tough but I spoke a lot of French and Jean is positive about my abilities so we’ll see how it progresses. After my lesson, I publish the blog – always a time consuming exercise.
Carl and Trish are taking us out for dinner tonight. So when Carl comes home from work we get the train into Birmingham, meet Trish from work and start at the cocktail bar Botanist. It’s supercool. Then it’s on to Fumo, picking up Jamie (Daz’s nephew on the way). After a couple of (very expensive) cocktails we move to a couple of fab pubs, which look like renovated banks, and all revert to beer. Then we go out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. Thanks Carl and Trish for looking after us!
Thursday 10th September
It’s going to be a quiet day today. We pack up and say our goodbyes to Bailey and Snoop. It’s been a whistle stop tour but great fun. Today we’re driving down south to Marlborough to stay with Vik and Gav. We do need to return the hire car but that’s about it. Gav and Vik have been storing our bike and biking gear but our planned departure date of 21st September is looking unachievable. Finally I’ve managed to see a doctor – it seems I’m probably anaemic and need a referral to a specialist and to ensure we’re not stuck here for months, we’re going to pay to go private and fingers crossed it’s quick.
Friday 11th September
Gav and Vik are at work and we go into Andover (they’ve lent us one of their cars – ain’t that brill) to get my blood test done and Daz needs a haircut – he’s planning on growing his hair into a ‘manbun’ so he just needs the back and sides tidied up. After that it’s a couch fest – very relaxing.
Saturday 12th September
Jane visits today. She’s flying off to Boston on Wednesday to her eldest son’s, (Peter) wedding so she is so happy. It’s great to see her, as always, and we all go out to the village fete and then later return home for some amazingly fabulous but extremely large fishcakes made by Vikki.
Sunday 13th September
Today Jane has booked lunch for us all in Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s restaurant in Winchester. Ang (Angela) also joins us. It’s such a lovely treat for us all. Thanks Jane.
Monday/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Friday/Saturday
Monday it’s Gav’s birthday and we pop off to Swindon to visit the outlet village. I get new Crocs and even Gav buys a pair. A croc convert we hope. Tuesday we do a treasure hunt in Bath and Wednesday we go to Salisbury for an escape room experience, which is great fun. Basically there are a set of interconnected rooms that we have to navigate through by solving puzzles and clues to open boxes, doors and find other clues to help us proceed, there’s even at one point an exercise bike linked to the lights that someone has to pedal so we can see what we are doing for part of the puzzle! We have a great time trying to escape!!
Thursday I have an appointment with a specialist. This fast track experience is costing £150 and before my examination she’s explaining that the subsequent tests required will be a biopsy (£300), ultrasound (£300), operation (couple of thousand). Oh dear. But when she examines me she finds a prolapsed fibroid. There is no need for any further tests and she is happy that the serious nature of the fibroid means I can go back on the NHS and hopefully treatment will be within a couple of weeks. Result. We are so relieved, Daz says we should celebrate and we go into Winchester for a nice meal and a glass of wine. Then on our way home we gate crash at Jac and Trax. They’ve moved into their new home in Tidworth and it’s absolutely fantastic.
Friday we visit Deborah and John and have a lovely meal and catch up and meet their beautiful new puppy Stanley.
Saturday, Alex and Mandy come to visit from Torquay. Mandy used to live with me and Vikki in Andover when she was working at Twinnings, Andover. It is so great to catch up with them and we go into Marlborough town to enjoy the evening scene, play Killer and then go out to Vik and Gav’s favourite Indian restaurant, which is fabulous.
Sunday 20th September
Today Mandy and Alex leave and my mother, brother (Meirion) and his partner (Joanna) and their 2 dogs arrive. Well what a bizarre visit. My mum hates my hair which is absolutely fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, what isn’t fine is that when I tell her I’ve had numerous compliments she tells me these people are just being polite. Oh dear mum, such a shame you think your opinion is the only right opinion and you feel within your rights to insult my friends, whose hospitality I have relied on since my return to the UK. And then the visit continues in much the same vein and is much like pulling teeth. My brother has absolutely nothing to say to us after 8 months of travel and when we attempt to ask him about himself he is his usual monosyllabic, taciturn self. I’m at a loss to understand why he even wanted to see us. At least we have Joanna’s effusive manner to counterbalance my brother’s reticence and pedantry. Finally the visit is over and even Daz’s usual exuberance has been beaten into retreat. What a shame!
Wednesday 23rd September
Monday and Tuesday were pretty quiet. The weather has been wet and cold and as a result we haven’t done much. Today we take the tandem out for our first proper ride in over 9 months.
We cycle to Osborne St George along the disused railway and then back to Marlborough along the road. It’s just over 9 miles in total and whilst we didn’t really enjoy the muddy bridleway, we were fine on the road.
Thursday 24th September
Today we’re off to see Everest at the cinema. It’s a brilliant film and it’s followed by a visit to the Defence Academy, Shrivenham to see Brett.
It’s great to see him. He’s been working really hard since his commissioning at the beginning of 2015 but he’s still loving it. Unfortunately he’s off to Canada on Medicine Man on Sunday for 8 weeks so we don’t think we’ll see him again. What a shame, but a lovely evening none the less
Friday 25th September
Today I have my seventh lesson with Jean, my French tutor on Skype, not including my one trial lesson. Each lesson is about 30minutes. Well they’re supposed to be 30mins but Jean often overruns. In addition to the lessons, I’m doing a couple (if not more) hours of French homework most days. Hopefully if I can become competent in French, I’ll find learning Spanish easier.
Saturday and Sunday
This weekend Vikki’s parents come to stay. Paul and Julie from the Isle of Wight where they have a beef farm. On Saturday afternoon the boys all go off to football (Swindon v Colchester)
whilst the girls go to 100 Chai Street for a late lunch and then up the church tower where we can look over the local area. It’s fabulous and our guide, a little old chap in a boater is extremely knowledgeable. But it’s been a challenge. Neither Vikki or I like the narrow, claustrophobic tower steps whilst Julie, who doesn’t like heights, is extremely uncomfortable at the top of the tower.

After the tower trip go to the Marlborough for a passionfruit cocktail and the boys meet us. We return home for a lovely dinner of homemade beefburgers and then there’s the Rugby. This evening – England v Wales – a tense atmosphere with Gav, Daz and Paul supporting England and me the only Wales supporter. But England manage to throw away their lead and lose the match. What a shocker – almost half of the Welsh team were stretchered off in the last 20 minutes but still we just manage to win. Result!!!
Sunday 27th September
Today we show Paul and Julie our bike and Paul has a go with Daz, which is tremendous. He’s a really good sport.
Later we go off to East Kennet to do some geocaches. It’s a nice little walk with about 7 caches and there are many walkers about because we’re near Long Barrow but the caches are a little disappointing – mainly just Tupperware boxes. Then it’s home for a lovely roast dinner – thanks Vik and Gav.
Monday 28th September.
Depressed! My operation date has come through. I saw the specialist on 17 Sept and she said it was urgent and would be done on the NHS in the next couple of weeks. So I was expecting the date to be 2nd October instead it’s 16th October. I’m so annoyed. I wish she’d managed my expectations better. I’m so annoyed and I remember her saying if I was going private she could have done it the following week. So I ring her private secretary to find out cost and date of going private. It’s £3000 and 21st October. So that’s that then. We take the tandem out. We cycle to East Kennet. As we’re leaving Marlborough we notice a bit of a wobble and then realise we’ve got a puncture in the rear tyre.
We try pumping it but the air leaves as quickly as we put it in. So we have to fix it. Daz gets the rear wheel off and this is when we discover that our tyre levers are too flexible and not rigid enough to lever the tyre off. Then we discover our spare tube has the wrong valve fitting so that’s no good either. So instead we fix the puncture. To be fair it’s been a godsend – an ideal time to find out these things. It’s fixed relatively quickly and we carry on our bike ride. Mileage today approximately 14.5 miles.
Tuesday 29th September.
Today we say goodbye to Paul and Julie and they’ve recommended a couple of places that I’d like to visit if we have a chance. One is the hangman’s gibbet at Coombe Gibbet and the other is the area behind Fawley Power station. Then we’re off on our bike again. Today I want to show Daz Avebury Ring which isn’t much further than East Kennet. Today we do 19miles (30.5km).
New problem today – Daz notices a bulge in the front tyre where there’s a cut in the tyre wall. I’m relieved that this didn’t blow out on a fast downhill but since the erratic steering of the bike yesterday when we had a rear puncture, I’ve started imagining a rear puncture at high speed. Not conducive to happy cycling!!! So shopping list now includes one new tyre, correct inner tubes and decent tyre levers. Perhaps this extended UK stay is proving to be a godsend.
Wednesday 30th September
Today we’re off to Andover to get some more drugs to tide me over before my operation and to pick up our flag. Then we’re off to Amesbury to do a walk with Deborah and John. It’s a 6 mile circuit and it’s a lovely walk and we’re blessed with lovely weather, views and there seems to be a lot of air activity out of Boscombe Down, which is MOD tri service experimental aircraft testing centre. We also see Sting’s house. Fabulous.
After the walk we’re off to Tidworth. Jac and Tracy have invited us to dinner and we get a chance to catch up with them. They absolutely love their new house (and who can blame them – it’s fabulous) and whilst Jac is have a great time at work – the work she and little Paul have implemented is making huge steps in saving millions of pounds for the MOD and they’ve had commendations. As far as her bosses are concerned Jac walks on water – a fantastic development considering some of the shit she’s had to put up with over the last couple of years. Meanwhile Tracy is looking after Marion and childsitting for Scarlett and also busy finishing courses in child minding and child physchcology. They both seem really content in their new home which is great.
Thursday 1st October
Today we’re off to Coombe Gibbet where there are, in addition to the hangman’s Gibbet, amazing views over Wiltshire. After Coombe Gibbet we visit Hungerford. We have been before, but only in the evening, and it’s a busy, quaint town and we sit by the canal eating our fish and chips.
Today we also register with ‘trusted housesitters’. Jane told us about this site but we didn’t intend to join as a year’s registration fee is nearly £90. But we decide to go for it and then look at jobs in France. We email 4 jobs in France and within a couple of hours 3 out of the 4 have answered and want us to work for them. We can’t believe the response. So we have a couple of house/pet sits arranged for December in the south of France. Incredible. We’re very excited.
Friday 2nd October
Today we meet Katie in Marlborough for a ‘catch-up’. It’s so sad – she’s broken up with Marius and sold their house in Amesbury. At the moment she’s living with her mum but she’s already agreed a purchase of a new house on the same estate in Amesbury and that should be ready at the end of November. She’s also changed jobs but it seems that Army HQ is undergoing another restructuring and all the headquarter elements that were originally moved from Netheravon, Upavon, Pewsey etc to be under one roof in Andover are now steadily being disaggregated again. All very strange – so I struggle to recognise her original position let alone the new one – she did a swap with Peter Williams but it seems to have backfired somewhat. But it’s great to see her and hopefully we’ll see her again before we leave.
Saturday 3rd October
Today we’re off to London to see Kate. Gav is at work again but Vikki has taken Saturday off and very kindly drives us to the train station. We get to London, Streatham Hill around 1400hrs. We take Kate out for some geocaching around Clapham Common and then we stop for a couple of pints. Then it’s home to watch the England v Australia match. Disappointing – England lose convincingly and since Wales beat Fiji it looks as if it’s Australia and Wales that will go through.
Sunday 4th October
Daz and I walk through Brockwell park and do some geocaching whilst Kate goes to the gym. There are so many people out in the park, walking their dogs, cycling, just enjoying the sunshine – there is even a load of horses, Ebony Riding Club, out riding with local kids.
The caches are good and it’s a draw – 3 finds each. Then we meet Kate for breakfast at a very nice cafe on Streatham High Street, Boyce Roco. In the evening we all go to the cinema to watch Martian. We go to the Odeon on Streatham High Street. Brett refuses to go to this cinema because it’s too provincial but we decide to go and whilst the screen is pretty good there isn’t much leg room for poor Daz. Good movie though!
Monday / Tuesday/Wednesday
We had a walk planned for Monday but the weather isn’t that good so we go into town and walk from Victoria to Westminster Abbey and along Whitehall, looking at Downing Street and Horse Guard Parade and then to Trafalgar square to Piccadilly.
We go to Fortnum and Mason’s for tea and cake and then wander through Burlington Mall which is so exclusive it has its own ‘minders’ dressed in black and gold.
We end up in Soho where I insist Daz has a back massage because he seems to be suffering from a bad neck and back. His mood is much improved after his massage – I wonder why????? After a leisurely stroll we meet Kate by London Bridge for an Escape Room experience.
It’s more disjointed than the Salisbury experience and it’s really too difficult. Most of the work is done by Daz and Kate. Afterwards we go to a tapas restaurant in Borough Market where the waiter is extremely charming with the cutest Spanish accent ever, Kate and I spend the evening looking at him dreamily!! Tuesday Daz and I stroll round Leadenhall Market, go up the 311 steps of the Monument and walk around the museum at the Bank of England and the banking area.
We then enjoy a drink in Borough Market before coming home. Wednesday, due to more foul weather we decide to take it easy. Our only plan is to buy a new phone for Daz. His blackberry which we use for geocaching and mapping and lots of other things seems to only hold its charge for a couple of hours. We did buy a new battery for it in Edinburgh but if anything it’s got worse. Sometimes even on charge all night, it’ll still be dead in the morning. So it’s a new Xperia X5. It’s the newest model. Very exciting and very expensive. But definitely worth it.
Thursday 8th October
Today we travel up to Kings’ Cross and have a look around the station at St Pancras, which is such a fabulous building.
Then we make our way to Finsbury Park and follow a disused railway to Highgate.
In Highgate we walk through Highgate village which is incredibly quaint and then down to Highgate Cemetry only to discover that we can’t go in the west side, whilst buried on the east side are Douglas Adams , Karl Marx and many others.
From the cemetery we walk through to Hampstead Heath. In the Heath there are 3 swimming pools: one for men, one for women and one mixed. There’s actually a guy swimming in the men’s pool – it’s literally like swimming in a dirty duck pond. Bizarrely he walks around the pier then enters the water then swims around the pier (about 20 strokes) then climbs out, walk across pier again, then swims around pier again. Very bizarre. Kate tells us later that it’s some form of male posturing – must work because Daz spends 20minutes taking photos!!!
In the heath we walk up Parliament Hill for a view over the city.
From here we head back into town stop off in Carnaby Street and then head to Leicester Square to meet Kate. We go out for a fabulous Mexican dinner then take Kate to Madison’s at New change – it’s a roof top bar with views over London and across into St Paul’s.
Amazing views. But the bouncers won’t let us in the bar – their disgust for our crocs is palpable. From here we head to Brixton to show Kate the place we ate a couple of nights ago. A great last day and even better Kate doesn’t have to go into work tomorrow.
Friday 9th October
Today we’re leaving London. It’s been absolutely great staying with Kate and getting a chance to enjoy London, where we always have so much fun. Thanks Kate. So today we’re off to Winchester for my pre op appointment – nothing exciting to report although I have to have another blood test to check how my anaemia is – I’ve been on iron tablets for about 3 weeks and mostly I’m much better than the asthmatic geriatric I used to sound like. Update on post op behaviour – 48hours to recover from general anaesthetic and a week off work and no lifting or driving. So I’ve possibly lost the sweepstake of a leaving date of 20th October. From Winchester we head to Lee on Solent to see Jane. She’s busy working at the sailing club so we just make ourselves at home.
Saturday 10th October
First stop today is at Pauline’s (Jane’s mum). She’s selling her house and moving to a flat in Lee on Solent and she’s having a coffee morning to say goodbye to all her neighbours. She’s moving on Monday 19th October so it’s not long now. She’s lived in this house for 51 years, brought up Jane and Karen here and spent many happy times with Terry, who sadly died last year. So she’ll be leaving the house with so many memories but she’s moving to a lovely flat which will be easier for her to manage. From here we head to Durley to take Jane on a geocaching country walk.
Sunday 11th October
We go off to see Jane and Ange’s allotment and once we’ve picked some veg and dug up some potatotoes we head to the 10th Hole at Southsea, Portsmouth to play 9 holes.
It’s absolutely ages since I’ve played golf and we discover Jane had a misspent youth – well youth of her boys where they often played pitch and put. We all have a good game.
After we have a spot of lunch; the range of cakes on display is stunning but unfortunately our coffee and walnut cake is a little disappointing. On the way home we stop off to admire the views from Portsdown Hill.
It’s great spending time with Jane and catching up on her news. Since we last saw her she’s been to Boston to see Peter and Sarah marry and then she spent 3 days in New York with Pauline, Ange and Duncan and by all accounts, the Pope, who was in every tourist location that they wanted to visit. But they had a great time and the pictures of the wedding are absolutely fantastic. Peter and Sarah make a lovely couple.
Monday 12th October
We cycle to the allotment and dig up all the potatoes and tidy up several other beds.
Then we head into Lee for haircuts. In the late afternoon we walk to the Osborne View and enjoy gazing over the Solent as the sun sets. Beautiful.
Tuesday 13th October
Today we head back to Marlborough. Jane gets us up at 0630hrs – it’s a very long time since we’ve been up this early. She drops us off at Southampton Parkway.
We catch the train to Reading and then it all goes ‘tits up’. There’s problems with the Bedwyn trains (engineering works on the line between Reading and Newbury) has caused train cancellations. There are some coaches laid on but not enough to deal with the problem. Eventually we get a delayed train and when we arrive in Bedwyn we’ve missed the bus by 10mins. The next bus is over an hour away and Daz insists on hitching and 5 minutes before the bus is due he gets us a lift. Hurrah!!!
Wednesday 14th October
Big day today. We pack all our kit and load up our bike. This takes a while and Daz only planned a semi laden bike trip but this really is one of our few chances to get some practice in.
We’re just going to cycle to Bedwyn – this is where we plan to get the train when we set off. It’s only 8 miles so should be fairly straightforward. It’s not. We start out and the bike is so heavy and we’re weaving all over the road. We turn out of the lane onto the A4 – quite a considerable uphill and already we’re nearly at a standstill and cars are haring past us. I’m pretty terrified because we keep weaving across the road. We stop and start walking and get to the top of the hill. Are we ready for this? Perhaps not but we’ve got to give this a go. From the top of the hill we start cycling again and gradually we get back into the swing of things. After all we have cycled with this much weight before but we were so much fitter than we are now. I think Daz is shocked by how hard he finds it. We make it to Bedwyn and it’s only taken 45 minutes not the hour we estimated. We stop off at the post office for a snack and drink and chat to another cyclist. Then we head off to see the windmill but we can’t find it and give up and head back into the village. Now we head for home and actually we are already so much better. Unfortunately we take a wrong turn and find ourselves in Burbage . From here we end up on the A346 back into Marlborough and it’s a horrendously busy road through Savernake wood with a killer of a hill. It’s pretty nerve wracking with all the traffic but we make it home safely and we’ve improved hugely in this one trip – and we pretty much know what we’re taking. An awesome result – 34km done.
Saturday 17th October
Yesterday I had my operation.
We drove to Hampshire Royal County Hospital, Winchester for 12am. Was shown to by bed in the ward and waited to speak to my consultant and my anaesthetist. I was number 2 on the operation list and lady number one went off around 1340. Around 3pm they took me away for my anaesthetic and I felt a bit anxious as they prepared me but then there was nothing until I came round and they took me back to the ward. Daz was waiting and we sat and read and I had tea and toast – fantastic when I hadn’t eaten since 0730hrs and I’d only had one cup of tea!! I had the usual observations taken etc and then we left at 1820. I felt fine. No pain and just a feeling of huge relief. We headed back to Marlborough for dinner. Lovely.
Tuesday 20th October
After a really quiet weekend we went for a lovely walk yesterday from Greater Bedwyn to Wilton Windmill and then back along the Avon and Kennet canal.
We watched a canal barge struggling with one of the locks where the seal between the gates was so poor it didn’t seem they’d ever be able to get into the lock.
Today we did another test ride. 30km to Avebury Rings and back. It took 2 hours cycling time and it was so much better than last week. 30km is about half the distance we plan to do daily until we get bike fit again. But after today’s ride we’re feeling much more confident that the world cycling adventure is doable – so fingers crossed.
We have been incredibly strict on our packing and we’ve had to throw out even more – most of the stuff we carried around Scandinavia and Iceland for 8 months. More stuff for the tip!
And tomorrow we’re putting more into our storage locker.
In the evening we visited Roxy and Mark in Middle Wallop, 2 old friends from Hereford. We went out for a lovely Thai meal in The Greyhound at Broughton but we were so stuffed. It was lovely to meet them and hear their news.
Wednesday 21st October
So this is our last day before the big trip. And our plan – to put more stuff into storage, post our last UK blog and take Vikki and Gav out for a thank you meal.
Our storage locker is now pretty full!
Tomorrow the world cycling tour begins. We’re cycling to Winchester and then Friday we need to get to Portsmouth to catch the Santander ferry at 1730hrs. So how do we feel – I think terrified probably covers it for me but I’m sure once we get going the nerves will settle and perhaps I will become the touring cyclist Daz pretends we already are. It feels as if it’s been a long time coming – we’ve been back in the UK since 1st September so for everyone who’s been kind enough to put a roof over our heads (Larry and Debbie, Carl and Trish, Jac and Trax and Kate) for this extended period – thank you so much. We’re incredibly lucky to have so many friends and family that helped us out over this period and we really couldn’t have done it without you. And especially to Gav and Vik who not only gave us a place to stay but also a car to use. And to all my operation well wishers – thank you so much for your kind thoughts. I feel great – the relief is enormous and the symptoms are no longer in existence (well not at the moment anyway).