June 23rd – Did the chicken cross the road?
A return trip to Birmingham airport was fortunately trouble free outwards (we were half an hour late leaving – not our fault), but a bit slow on the return. A farewell to a sleepy grandson as we dropped him and Manu off for their trip to Brazil, then an evening out with Richard and Sue at the Unicorn, down alongside the River Trent at Gunthorpe.
It should have been great food by all accounts, based on the fact that they had two menus to peruse. One was pretty much the standard pub fare type of menu, but with two chicken curries to whet our appetite. The other was a full menu extolling the virtues of their rotisserie chicken. We’d noticed people on the next table tucking in to half a chicken each. This was at 7:15pm – so pretty early.
Our waitress returned with our drinks and told us with a straight face, “Did you know we’d run out of chicken?”
“Yeah, right…”
“It’s true!”
“OK, so you are telling us no starter plate or chicken goujons either?”
“Correct.”
“Chicken curries?”
“’Fraid not.”
Well that must be a first. A restaurant specialising in chicken and they had run out early on a Monday evening. Like any restaurant with a speciality, the other options were somewhat thin, but thankfully, the company was good. As I said earlier, Rich and I have been friends now for 60 years and have always had the same sense of humour, so the waitress returned after the main with the dessert menu.
“So, what flavours of ice cream do you have?”
“We have vanilla, chocolate, raspberry ripple, coffee, toffee, lemon meringue (etc. etc.).”
The response as one voice from the two of us, “No chicken?”
June 24th
Into the city for the morning for a wander around the shops (after a Costa’s coffee). Then on the way home, I picked up a bag of mortar and a bag of sand for Stewart. The sand was quite wet (no idea why) and it leaked about half a pint of water out, but fortunately, I had it in a box in the boot of the car.
We then went over and collected our senior cousin of the family, who is now 81 and brought her back to Dave and Sue’s for tea. Dave had volunteered to return her whilst we went up to Stewart’s and made a start on patching some rendering on the outside of the kitchen wall, feasting on takeaway Indian afterwards. Interesting to note that the dishes were twice the price of what we usually pay in NZ as they didn’t include rice.
Day 32 - June 25th
Another friends catch up today midday. Paula made a start on her packing.
We took Dave and Sue out again to the Tree Tops, plus Stewart this time. Whilst the others walked home, Stewart and I had a go at seeing if we could strip some sticky acrylic paint off some interior woodwork, using the new hot air gun and a scraper. Success – but slow, tedious work. All this manual work - I’ll be needing a holiday soon.
Day 33 – Thursday June 26th – Sadly, our last day in Nottingham.
Brother Dave’s usual skating session, but this week, on the large arena rink. Sadly, we missed the opportunity to see if he’d raised his standard, as by the time we arrived, he’d had enough anyway. Fortunately the cafe was open this time so we had a nice coffee and a panini there, before heading out to the larger B & Q home supplies establishment. We were mainly looking at kitchens, but they had a good display of flueless gas fires - which was somewhat better than the single option we had in NZ.
We then grabbed a drink/snack on the way to a very pleasant walk at Colwick Park – the site of Nottingham’s horse race course and bordering the River Trent, just across from our visit to Holme Pierrpont a couple of weeks ago.
Back home and whilst Sue slaved over a hot stove doing another excellent turkey roast dinner, Dave was joined by Stewart playing blues guitar. Very impressive!
A sad farewell to Stewart and with the packing all finished (phew!), we retired for our last night in Nottingham.
Sue and Dave have been marvellous to us and saying cheerio tomorrow isn’t going to be any easier than normal.
Day 34 – Southampton via Brookwood
Friday dawned somewhat damp and drizzly but no complaints from us as we have had good weather for most of our UK time. Car loaded OK, with two cases in the boot and two inside, plus two hand luggage bags and the computer in the backpack. Big hugs from Sue and Dave and away 9:01 – to miss the 9am school rush.
With known massive road works on the A453 – the shortest route, we headed slightly north and had a good run so we passed that A453 motorway junction 30 minutes later. The weather got worse.
By the time we reached Leicester, it was hosing down but then it started to ease off. The sat nav failed (though we didn’t need it for directions, but good for time estimations). For some reason, it wouldn’t charge from the car socket, so we plugged it into the USB port of the laptop!
It still wouldn’t charge, but it did work. We aimed for Pirbright in Surrey where we were due to rendezvous with the next cousin down the line after me on the paternal side of the family, Aly. Spot on time, but we didn’t fancy the menu prices, so we headed just up the road to the Brookwood cemetery, where Aly’s older brother, who died 39 years ago, is buried.
A few years ago, I tried to find the burial plot and failed, as the cemetery is enormous and I didn’t recognise it. When Aly turned left off the main road at the entrance and we’d previously turned right, it all made sense. What we didn’t know was, that as a sectarian location, the signpost at the gate said “Muslim” – but the minority (these days) “Methodists”, adjacent, didn’t warrant a sign.
Anyway, a good catch up and Aly passed over a pile of photocopies of census entries relating to the family after we’d eaten at Farnham.
On then to Southampton via another long-time friend at Fleet, leaving her at 4:30pm. A steady but slowish journey at times as southern England wound down for the weekend.
The Premier Inn at West Quay, may be nearest to the dock, but like Doncaster, no on-site parking, which is frustrating, as the extra parking charge on top of a bed price which was already high, made this a doubtful option for the future.
Too tired to venture out, we ate on site. A long wait for our meal – but at least we got it, which is more than can be said for several others, as they only got their entrees, before the chef went home sick…
Tomorrow we cruise! Yeeha. We know that check in and therefore boarding has been delayed for two hours as they are doing a deep clean on the ship, but our hire car has to be back before 12.00 anyway. No problem as the car hire depot is the same postal code as the terminal, so we’ll just drop off the luggage, walk back, check in and relax.
For those blog followers and potential cruisers who do not know me, it might now be a bit more interesting - but don’t hold your breath.
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