13 of June 2004
Weekend Over
Yes I am back from Newbury, having driven the "long" way round via Gloucester. The journey is, theoretically, the same length but there is a lot less motorway driving involved, slightly more to remember and lots more speed restrictions. Despite all that I managed to do the journey in half an hour less than my usual time and I didn't feel like driving the car off the road in a fit of desperation because it was so mind numbingly tedious. In fact I would go so far as to say I quite enjoyed it, and I saved nearly £5 too.
So I shall have to drive that way round a little more often I think. The last time I took that route I enjoyed it too, so it shall simply have to become my preferred route. There was lots of wildlife to see (mainly rabbits chancing their lives in the middle of the roads), some stunning scenery, and I even got to witness a Paraglider landing in a field by the side of the road.
I pulled into a field on the left, grabbed my camera and legged it across the road, but by the time I was in a position to see anything there was nothing to see. Shame, I'd have loved to have got a picture of it.
Anyway, jumping back to Friday ... When I arrived at Liz's we chilled and watched some Buffy (She recently bought a metric ton of Buffy DVDs). And that was the end of Friday.
Saturday we got up reasonably early to tidy the house (the estate agents wanted to show around some potential new tenants) and then we buggered off to Basingstoke to go to a dive shop where Liz spent some of her hard earned pennies on a face-mask, fins and a neck-seal. She's now, almost, ready to go diving :-o After that we went to the cinema in Basingstoke to watch The Day After Tomorrow I thought it was a good film, although Dennis Quaid who plays Jack Hall was wooden and lifeless and there was some extremely dubious science. If you can see past the screaming flaws in the film and watch it with an open minded "yeah whatever" attitude then there's a really good film under there.
After Basingstoke we went home, went for a wander down the canal looking at the ridiculously cute ducklings and signets (and I forgot to take my bloody camera), then watched some Eddie Izzard ("Oh you ARE an axe murderer? We were wondering!") and some more Buffy.
Sunday (today) we went for another walk down the canal, and I made a point of not forgetting my camera this time. The ducklings were out and we saw some baby Coots (not sure what the correct name for baby coots is - probably "chicks") and as always there were plenty of Swans. The signets, however, were nowhere to be seen. We went to B&Q to get a burt-pipe-repair-kit then wandered back to see what else we could see. I got some really close snaps of two ducks which I really hope look as good on film as they did through the view-finder.
On the way home we stopped off in Holland and Barrett and got some Vegan sausages which were ridiculously nice, and so we ate them and some porkless pie outside. After lunch we watched more buffy, and then I had to set off. That was when I realised I'd not got enough money for the toll bridge, and didn't fancy going into town to get some money - hence taking the "long" way round.
You will probably have noticed by now that I have taken down the blog on the UWA servers.
"One reason I don't drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time."
That is such a good quote, it really sums up the thinking behind my cutting-down in drinking.
That has got to be one of the single ugliest cars I have ever seen in my life.
Right, I'd better clear my bed so that I can sleep in it. Currently it is buried under boxes, clothes, and other junk from when I was tidying last week.