English Sunshine

Monday, May 28, 2018
Worthing, England, United Kingdom
We left the hotel at 8.15 to get a €2 bus to Orly West Terminal. The hotel dropped us the bus stop. Good value for a half hour journey. Every airport seems to have a slightly different system to check in. Susan’s walking pole had to get prior approval before going through security. This was a first, every other flight it was scanned with the rest of our hand luggage. The 50 minute flight took off time on time at 11.40 for London City Airport.
Took off on time = the plane left the boarding air bridge to head to the runway and wait our turn. We actually lifted off at 11.50.
Au revoir France. It was a lovely few days driving through the countryside. We did not see Paris this time as we have ‘been their done that’ in 1988 & 2014. The small bit we did see was so busy, busy.
Jason picked us up from London City Airport (opened 1987) and took us to Hatfield’s Loughton which is north of London. Once Svetlana arrived home we headed out for a pub dinner in a pub in Epping Forest. It was Epic - sorry corny!
Battered Cod, chips & peas - just what we wanted. Washed down with a pint or 2 of British Ale. We dropped Svetlana home and Jason took us on a wee ‘tiki tour ‘ alias pub crawl of the area. We saw some of the Footballers Wives houses, the lovely wee cricket ground where Andre plays cricket. Susan found a lovely cider from Nelson NZ so we will have to track some down once we get home. The pubs on a Thursday night shut at 11pm so we only visited 2 more. Friday morning and Jason had taken a holiday day so he took Simon for a run in the lovely Epping Forest. After our run we went to the Toby Carvery the ‘Home of the unlimited breakfast’ Jason was in heaven. After our breakfast  Jason accompanied us by The Tube into Victoria Station to catch the 14:39 to Parkway (Southampton Airport) and at 13.53 we realised we should be at Waterloo Station not Victoria to get the train but at least we got to ride in a London Black Cab and see Buck House, The Houses of Parliament & the scaffolding shrouded Big Ben. Jason and Simon will debate who cocked up but we easily caught the train. Men! It made the Taxi drivers day! The taxi driver was a Brit but lives in Germany, he drives for 2 weeks and then goes home for a week and returns. Far too expensive to live in or near London. The 2 bedroom house around the corner from Jason’s flat is on the market for £250 000 ie $500 000. Jason drives 90 minutes each way to work and that’s leaving at 6am before the traffic. No thanks! It was great to see Jason, Svetlana and Andre even though it was only for a few hours. They were very hospitable hosts. Thank you.
Anne met us at Southampton Parkway Station and we drove to Anne’s lovely house in Hamble Le Rice. Although previously known as "Hamble", "Hamelea", "Hammel", and "Ham-en-le-Rice", the village's official name is now Hamble-le-Rice. The name "Hamble" is still in common usage. Hamble has certainly grown since we were last here 4 years ago. The only thing that hasn’t grown are the local roads feeding the motorways. Anne told us they get so clogged up with the increasing amount of traffic. Anne’s garden was looking lovely so we sat outside having drinks and a chat. Claire ( Annne’s daughter) arrived followed by Minne ( Claire’s daughter) which was great to see them again. Supper ( an a English term for tea) was cold roast chicken, salad and new potatoes which was perfect. Saturday morning S&S had a late start. Simon’s older English relations he found , tend to wake up and get up before the sparrows. The a English day is weird. In spring  it’s light from 5am until about 10pm but in winter it’s light from 8am and dusk is at 4pm. We are here at the right time. Anne’s son James and his family ( Sue and children Annabel & Genna ), popped round for a morning coffee. James Stagg is heavily involved in the America’s Cup.  https://www.ineos.com/news/ineos-group/ineos-team-gb-to-challenge-for-americas-cup/ so he will be in NZ for the 2021 Cup. We then went for a walk into the village and down to the river returning via a drink at the Royal Air Force Yacht Club. (Planes and boats seems and unusual mix). After lunch we drove to Hedge End to visit Simons Aunt Sybil for a cup of tea - yes S&S each had a cup ( proper cup & saucer ). Sybil is amazing at 93 still living on her own. She’s had her share of health issues but still keeps going. Her mind is so quick and of course knew  that Simon’s 55 birthday is not that far away on the 8th. Driving back to Anne’s we stopped in at one of Britain’s institutions, Marks & Spencer to do some shopping. As it was a Bank Holiday Weekend, Anne had a 20% discount voucher so after half an hour or so we walked out with 12 shirts for Simon. His working wardrobe is sorted. Simon likes to wear short sleeve shirts at work all year round. NZ has a very limited selection whereas M&S had a huge range. Yes, we still have room in our luggage to bring them back.
Because of the Bank Holiday a Weekend ( Long a Weekend ) Southampton was having a 2 day weekend music festival,  Common People at Southampton Common which Minnie was going to both days and Annabel was allowed to go to 1 day as she had to study for her upcoming final school exams. The Jacksons ( of the Jackson 5 Jackson’s no Michael ) were headlining on Sunday! It’s who all the 23 & 18 year olds go too! If The Jackson’s are playing at The Forsyth Barr stadium Simon won’t be going. Minnie explained how she was going to tape her bladder of cider to her back for refreshments while at the Common. Portsmouth, just down the road also had a music festival but it was cancelled after 2 people died from “high strength or bad batch” of drugs that had been circulated.
For supper on Saturday night we took Anne to the The Victory where we had some very tasty fish. After a wee merlot and cheese ( Rachel’s favourite Black Bomber) we headed to bed. Sunday morning dawned so that meant Simon went for a run. The heavens opened but luckily Simon was under the trees in Hamble Common. England & France is being struck by lots of thunderstorms. The NZ Herald reported that in the Bordeaux region ( where we had been earlier in the week) a large number of vines has been decimated by the hail.
As we were having lunch at The Jetty we only needed a light breakfast. The plan was for Jane who was driving from Worthing to pick us up, drop our luggage at Sybil’s and then head to Christchurch for lunch. We had to amend the plan as Jane was stuck in traffic so Anne dropped us off at Sybil’s ready for Jane to zoom up, pick us up and zoom on for lunch. The Jetty at the waters edge in Mudeford, Christchurch is the original Jetty and still the best according to cousin Jane. https://www.thejetty.co.uk/  Also joining us for lunch was her oldest son Jack, who had travelled down from, Buckingham, where he is studying, so we had a full car. Jane’s other son Max works as a waiter at The Jetty. Unfortunately Max could not get the day off as it was a Bank Holiday Weekend The Jetty was rather busy! We spoke to Max as he wizzed about. Simon ended with the 5 cheese cheese board which Max recommended and described the cheeses. The Isle of Wight Blue had won multiple awards was yummy, as was the whole meal. Jane told us on Monday morning that Max had his dinner at midnight after The Jetty had finished for the day. Max had worked a 13 hour day with Bank Holiday Monday to follow. The joys of working in hospitality. Plus his girlfriend turned up at the restaurant to surprise him after being away for about 6 weeks. Max thought she was coming back on Tuesday. Jane thought poor Max, even less sleep now! 
After dropping Sybil off, we loaded the luggage in ( Janes car can fit 5 people but not 5 plus our luggage. ) we drove to Janes house in Worthing, which is on the coast just south of Brighton. Driving to Janes we past topless men mowing their lawns. The British men of all shapes seem to love taking their shirts off - not always a good look, as soon as the sun comes out. When S&S were here in 2014, Jane had an offer in to buy the house so we had seen the house from the outside. Jane has renovated the house and it looks amazing. After a light supper we all slept well. Monday dawned with more thunderstorms forecast. We had a Full English Cooked breakfast, cooked by Jane at 11am. 
Jane dropped Jack at the train so he could return to Buckingham and we then left for a ‘tiki tour ‘ through the South Downs. The cloud reduced our views but what we could see was still impressive. We stopped for Coffee & Cake in the village of Puddington before returning to Worthing. We took Buffy, Jane’s 7yr old staffy bull terrier / shar-pei coss, for a walk, Buffy has just been diagnosed with arthritis so a slower and shorter walk than what both Jane & Buffy are used to. Jane’s lovely house is 2 minutes from the local shops, pub, takeaways so we went to the ‘local’ for a pre-dinner drink. While Jane was cooking dinner, Simon popped to the off-licence, as the 1 bottle of red, Jane had was corked! The offy shut at 9pm on Monday nights, as Simon discovered at 9.05 so he went walked a further 50 metres to the Coop ( like a 4Sq) which was still open. The wine Simon chose was to Janes taste and went well with the Tuna Steak, desert and cheeses. Note the order is back to the English way.  
We woke on Tuesday to rain so Simon went for his third run in England all 3 of which have been in the rain. Jane took us for breakfast at a funky looking new eatery Brunswick & Thorn on the corner of Brunswick & Thorn. Simon had the Veggie breakfast - Jack would have been impressed. We returned to the house to while a way a few hours before heading to London for The Theatre. Jane was a bit apprehensive of our journey as the train timetables had recently been changed and were causing all sorts of problems. Our trains were all fine both into town and the return journey. When Simon read The Guardian (online version) on Wednesday morning the chaos caused by the changes to timetables was the lead story. No wonder Jane had been a bit apprehensive. 
We were going to see The Book of Mormons, a show Rachel and Luke had seen in New York in early 2016 and they both really enjoyed it. It was a brilliant musical ‘taking the piss’ out of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. It could be a bit ‘risqué’ for ShowBiz to perform in Christchurch. C words etc
We had great seats upstairs in the circle - quite steep. The theatre was full and the girl (17ish) sitting next to Simon spent most of her time on her phone and they only time she got excited was when the show ended and the band was being applauded. She could have been a groupie!  She also got up 3 times during the show to go .... so we all had to stand up. ( the rows are narrow, like the rows in The Theatre Royal in Chch) Jane said words to her ( I can’t repeat them ) and she wanted to trip her up, so she would roll down the steps. The English are just so tolerant!
It was a day of firsts though as Jane who is a fairly adventurous person, had never had a Vietnamese meal. Pardon we said, No, as 1: she’s never been to Vietnam  2: Horsham ( where she used to live) and Worthing don’t have a Vietnamese restaurant (she’s checked) and 3: Rachel has never taken her to a Vietnamese Restaurant either here in England or when Jane was in Auckland. The Viet Cafe gave us a very tasty, fresh meal. They had Summer Rolls on the menu ( no pictures on the menu so Rachel would be likely to try the restaurant ) which we hadnot heard of in NZ and Spring Rolls. On asking we discovered they were Fresh Rolls and the Spring Rolls are fried. In NZ we call them Spring Rolls and have them fresh or deep fried. Perfect pre-Theatre as it was not heavy. After our meal, we still had time for a pint, ( we = Simon ) at the Tom Cribb, a pub very close to the theatre. We got back to Worthing at 12.20 am ready for our last sleep in Europe.
Our last day in England was leisurely and we headed off on a cross country drive across the cloud covered Downs to the lovely village of Lurgashall for a final pub lunch at the Noah’s Ark Inn. The smoked Trout salad was very nice. Jane then dropped us off via a slowish M25 at Heathrow, where we had a few hours until our flight to Dubai took off. It meant Jane should be back home well before we take off and she was. We are having a night in Dubai ( near the airport ) to break the journey.
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