Sunny Summer Days

Hello dear friends,

It’s been a busy old time as usual, with Sammy and I really starting to get settled into the way of life here. We still eat a bit late in the evening, as the sun goes down very late, and that has taken a bit of getting used to. Still in the winter, it will be the other way around!! But I digress. We will leave the weather conversations for later in the blog. 

The week after the wedding we were invited to a friend and colleague Richard (another one, as its a great name, I am not surprised!) and Carmen’s home for dinner. Carmen also works with us at Brightpoint. Sammy and I love this kind of evening, it’s always great to get to know people and to discover new parts of the town we now call home. Rich and Carmen live in Bournemouth proper, very near the beach, in fact, it’s less than a 10 minute walk from their front door to toes in the water. Lucky chaps! We drove through a new part of Bournemouth town we have not seen before, very busy and bright, lots of shops and restaurants and small businesses lining the streets. We arrived to a very large block of flats, kind of art deco, but it reminds us totally of the big white blocks on the Berea in Durban, just much bigger, and by the looks of things, just as trendy. Rich and Carmen live on the top floor and have a lovely corner apartment. They prepared a great vegetarian meal for us, but I think Rich thought he was feeding several couples as the portions were huge! Not complaining though, the food was excellent. We had a great evening, even seeing the Thursday evening fireworks over Sandbanks in clear view from their lounge windows. Rich and Carmen are well travelled and we picked up some good tips on surrounding areas to Bournemouth for days out and also saw some picks of places we would like to go to in Belgium and others. All in all we had a great evening out. 

One thing that I have started to do on Mud Island is to learn the fine art of the little white ball and metal stick. Some call it golf, I call it a crazy way to spend 5 hours of your weekend. As I still borrow clubs to play, combined with the skill of a 5 year old, it’s all a bit of a lottery each time I go out. I played a good round with Maz and friends the three weeks ago. Well when I say good, I mean I only lost three balls, and shot a solid 110. For the golfers amongst you, you will know that translates into a pretty long day on the course! And then just two weeks ago, I played again and was demoted back to the realms of completely pathetic. The plus side is the exercise is good. There is no such thing as pitching up at a golf club and hiring a caddie. The caddie is you. Again there is a plus side. You don’t get annoying advice and an “eish” every time you shank the ball (read then, every time I hit the ball), and all the funds that were in your wallet before the game are there afterwards. One UK quirk is the lack of a proper break at the end of the 9^th. Normally I look forward to smashing a solid bacon and eggs after the first nine holes. Some courses here have the ninth at the furthest point of the course, so no bacon and eggs for me. The courses though are beautiful and ample compensation for my poor state of play is the amount of time I have to admire the scenery. I am lined up to play again on the 3^rd of September at a course near our home called The Isle of Purbeck. It looks really hard, but the plus side as usual will be the scenery overlooking the whole of the Poole/Bournemouth area, and let’s face it there are worse things to do. I only hope that once I have my own clubs, they come with a suitable dose of talent to enable me to not make a complete plonker of myself each time I go out on course. In the meantime, I am there for the amusement of my fellow golfers on the day.  Whilst I make a plank of myself on the golf course, Sammy has got back into the gym routine, you will see from the pictures she is looking fabulous. Tuesdays are becoming fairly sporting though as she builds aggression to take out in her boxing exercise class. I try to leave all the frustrating things I do for a Tuesday, in the interests of a good gym class for her! I know, I know.....so considerate. It’s what any good husband would do. 

This last weekend was a fantastic one for us again (we have a lot of those *grins a thoughtful grin*). Our friends Brett and Shelly Thomas came to visit. Most of you know them and will know that Brett works for SAB Miller, and we share a passion for beer! I picked them up in Hammersmith on Thursday afternoon. Shelly loves the sun, so Mud Island made sure it was absolutely bucketing down when she arrived in London. In fact there was so much rain on Thursday Bournemouth had flash flooding! Now I have moaned about the Brits driving badly before, but once its damp out there, it really goes pear shaped! You would think they would be able to handle a spot of rain, given the islands reputation for being damp a lot...but no, they simply drive like morons. Some exceptions are my colleagues who spend a lot of time on the road, and therefore are not put off by a bit of H2O. Anyway, I digress. We had a great evening of wine and dinner, so good to have the Thomas’s in our home.

Sadly, Sammy had to work on Friday, so I decided to take Brett and Shelly on a tour of Bournemouth and Sandbanks, followed by lunch with Sammy in Poole. We had a great lunch in the sunshine and set off again. The plan was to find a pub I had seen once with Sammy, and to sample the local beverages at the same time (read beers!) It went something like this:

Brett: Do you know where you are going big guy

Rich: (Indignantly) yes I do of course. See, I just turn left here, and it’s just around the corner

Shelly: Haven’t we passed this field before?

Rich: No Shells, they all look that pretty

Brett: Corner has come and gone bud, no pub.

Rich: I know, it’s the next corner..........

A few miles down the road, now on a very narrow stretch...

Rich: Um, ok it’s not this one. Perhaps I should have turned right. Time for a three point turn.

Brett: Three point turn? Where exactly? 

Rich: Ok a four point turn.

Lots of careful manoeuvring, chirping from both Brett and Shells and some wheel spin later, we are back on our way.

Brett: Ok big guy, getting thirsty now, where is this pub?

Rich: It was here I swear it! Never mind, here is a nice um, tea garden, let’s stop here.

Shelly: Yes good idea, its thirsty work chirping you from the back seat!

Never a dull moment when the Thomas’s are in town! For Friday night we planned a dinner in town at the Indian Ocean, a curry house on Westcliff in Bournemouth. Great curry! We had planned to show Brett and Shelly the fireworks but they had been postponed by a day so instead we took a walk through a park and had a final cheeky beer at a late night bar. What a pleasure to get a taxi home and not to have to worry about drinking and driving. On Saturday we went up to London for the day. Always brilliant, London didn’t disappoint, with sun, then rain, the sun! Brett went to watch the Arsenal v Liverpool game and Sammy and Shelly and I did all the sights. We met up with Brett after the game and even caught the first half of the Boks at a dodgy Aussie pub in Covent Garden. The plan was to have dinner and catch a West End show. We managed to get tickets for 39 Steps, which plays in Piccadilly Circus, difficult to get more West End than that! We had another great dinner and the show was a lot of fun. A little eccentric perhaps with two actors playing 6 or 7 roles each, along with only 2 other main roles, but it was a good night out.

On Sunday, much to Shelly’s dismay we woke up to rain and so decided to take a drive to Corfe Castle to have a look. We approached the castle and realised it is perched up on a steep hill. Brett has a bad knee at the moment, so we didn’t climb the hill, but we did drive through the town and go over to Kingston to take a few panoramic pictures of the castle. We took the chain ferry back across to Poole and finished a great last day with Brett and Shelly in the sun at the Jazz Cafe. It was sad to say goodbye them but we know that we will see them again very soon! So now we have had the first friends in our new home, don’t forget that we have plenty of room for you (yes you don’t look behind you) to come and visit! Soon! Lots of pictures below, and a new blog a bit later with the long awaited pictures of the new home in Knighton Heath to come. Much love to everyone, Rich and Sammy.

Brett and Shelly, Sammy and red wine. Great evening (yes that is the new home in the background)

Sweet picture of the peeps. Brett didn't even moan having his picture taken (this changes)

Chicken and Me!!

Shelly at the Indian Ocean, she doesn't eat hot food......whoops

Ok enough pictures now pal.

Somewhere in Carnaby Street

Sammy made me pose! Jack Wills is a premium clothing brand in the UK. And so it should be... :-)

Beautiful, and busy London.

Just recovered from Indian Ocean, we lunched at Nando's in Glasshouse Street!

Aaand the rain. Did you notice how short Shelly is?

Sammy and the camera.

Rain gone!! Standing in Trafalgar Square.

Sammy and Shelly in the square

Brett and I happily reunited over a beer. Brett didn't like being photographed, but Liverpool won, so the smile was fixed

Franco's, great little Italian between Piccadilly and Leicester Squares

Full of food and Beer. Perfect!

Ready for the show!

Corfe Castle. Or what's left of it

Country views, 15 minutes from the front door at home.

Looking up at Kingston village

Looking back from Corfe Castle towards Poole

"What are you doing down there???"

"I am king of my castle! Or at least the rock I am standing on!"

Ok guys, funny one.....

No really....

Ok can a man not have a pee in peace?

Isle of Purbeck golf course. I know, going to be a long but pretty day!

Jazz Cafe!

Such a sweet pic of Brett and Sammy, despite Brett's protest! And rude sign!

Sammy sporting a trendy scarf bought at Covent Garden the day before.

That's all folks, see you next time.