Monday July 5th 2010 - Now you get the lot!!

Yes Peeps, here we are.  a run-down on my hols.  By the way, that's water in that glass.


As my friend, Joan, rightly commented we were indeed near Winchester, England.  We hired a cottage for a week at the little village of West Meon in Hampshire which, for the uninitiated, is in the south of England.  Now we have only rarely visited the south - northerners don't, you know.  They're not like us down there (tee hee - that'll get 'em at it!).  They think we're all flat caps and whippets.  We think they're unfriendly to a man and earn wads of cash.  Maybe that evens up the score a bit - we were all wrong!


We could hardly believe our luck when the sun came out.  And when we had to get the sunglasses out and switch on the car's aircon we knew the rumours must be true.  We were in for some decent weather.  Mentally I was totting up how many more t-shirts I could have packed if I had left out the woolies.


When we eventually found it, the place we stayed at was a beautiful converted stables, all open-plan inside, with plenty of space for me and my turbo wheels, a kind of 'wrap-around stone patio and as much as we liked of a HUGE lawned garden

.It was an idyllic place, miles from anywhere - almost - and on the edge of the beautiful rolling Hampshire countryside of the South Downs.  Just what English people abroad come to remember when they think of England, and what other countries are taught IS England. A 'green and pleasant land'.  I wonder what they think when they see the completely different but equally beautiful scenery of Yorkshire?


On the following day we found that in the nearby village of Bramdean a village fete was being held.  Well we had to go to that didn't we?  Can't get much more English than the village fete.

  The Plant Stall

On Sunday we decided to have lunch at a local pub that we had heard great things of - and we were not disappointed.  We had a superb meal in the sunny back garden.  Mein host(ess) pulled a table into the shade for us and we enjoyed a wonderful meal cooked by a chef who really knew his way around!  It was quite expensive but it was worth it..


The Thomas Lord (that was the name of the pub) was named after the founder of Lord's cricket ground in London and I must say I thought he must be a son on West Meon.  Not so:  he was a Yorkshireman - a northerner - from Thirsk.  But he spent the last few years of his life at West  Meon and is buried in their churchyard so we'll let them have that one!

 On Monday we thought a little train trip on the Watercress Line which runs from nearby New Alresford would be nice.  Shame it doesn't run on Mondays!  Heh heh, now you  above isn't my own photo don't you!  It is the real train though

Well we thought that was as far as that expedition would go but we did stay longer in Alresford than we first thought.  It was a lovely little town - well a middle-sized one maybe.  Apparently there used to be some controversy as to the correct spelling and pronunciation of the name.  It was alleged to be a spelling mistake by the compilers of the Doomsday Book (see?  they did typos then too!) and was properly spelled "Arlesford" and pronounced 'Ahlsford".  Now if anyone who happens to know the place is having a good old "she's been had" chortle at this, apply to me for a punch on the nose!

 Now this, Monkey World, is a place I have long wanted to visit, ever since there was a TV documentary series about it and on Wednesday off we went.  I know they are trying to do their bit towards protecting endangered primates and providing safe havens for abused apes and monkeys, but as a tourist venue I was not altogether impressed.   There were plenty of excellent animal enclosures but not much in the way of monkeys to be seen.  Me being seated didn't help of course but neither did the steepness and awkwardness of some of the slopes that had to be navigated to get near where you could view.  I was so involved in safely navigating very uneveni inclines that I probably missed things I might otherwise have seen.  Does anyone remember those little cardboard periscope affairs that kids used to have at one time?  What a good idea if they wqere available at places like this for the use of little people.  I won't say any more because as far as I know it's a popular attraction..


OK, I think I'll have to leave the rest until tomorrow as this is getting a bit long and I'm going cross-eyed looking at the screen.

Oh, by the way, Marie, our lovely lass at A Year From Oak Cottage, who is away in Canada on her hols, sends her love to everyone.  I had a text from her at the weekend and she is thrilled to bits to be seeing her family again.