My Average Holidays

All the ‘action’ came at the end of March. Most of the month was spent watching our bank account empty as the true state of our windows became apparent. On the plus side the window below is finished and the difference in the amount of light that now comes in is like… well night and day! Also it’s not going to fall out so there’s a bonus.

I did a couple more volunteering days at Arlington Court and an induction day which was meant for both staff and volunteers. The thing that I’ve noticed is how ‘nice’ and ‘friendly’ everybody is, staff and volunteers. Certainly from a volunteer point of view we’re choosing to be there so why would you be grumpy. From the staffs point of view you’ve got help so you can do other things and you’d be hard pushed to find a prettier place to work especially when the sun is shinning. I’m sure there is pressure and stress of some kind and I’ll revisit my thoughts on this when the Summer holidays are in full swing but for now ‘nice’ is the word.

We went looking for a new car. This is something I like but Lyn not so much. However it was her idea so, for the first time in nearly 40 years, she made an actual effort to look at more than one car. Well done Lindy 👏. After spending a day wandering around car dealerships, Chinese cars came out on top. They meet our criteria when buying a car which is comfort, practicality and value for money. How a car ‘handles’ is just for motoring journalists to fill up a review and… twats. As long as a car doesn’t role over every time it goes around a corner it’s completely irrelevant for 99.9% of journeys made by 99.9% of people. Of the car’s we drove the Volvo ‘handled’ the best but had a very shallow footwell and the indicator sounded like an annoying child tapping their fingernail on a bit of plastic. These things are far more important so it was instantly discounted. Interestingly Volvo is owned by Geely (a Chinese company) and whose car we did like. Truth is after all that we might not even bother and just do the French thing and drive our car into the ground. Like I said last month about letting your house crumble, there’s a freedom to that approach.

Our planned outing for March was a trip on the Flying Scotsman with my mother-in-law Mary. For this we had to travel back to Hampshire, our county of origin. It’s smaller than I remember and came across as very Middle England. There was definitely an over abundance of personalised number plates and while we were sat outside a coffee shop about half past 4 in Hartley Wintney a well-to-do middle aged woman in a business suite stomped past with a bottle of white wine in her hand. Which is a loverly clichéd image of Hampshire. I’d be surprised if the bottle made it home unopened.

We stayed at the Wellington Arms in Stratfield Turgis which I found on Expedia. As the name suggests this was located on the Duke of Wellingtons estate of Startfield Saye (we went there many, many years ago and is worth a visit if you are in the area). The hotel was clean and comfortable and had a fairly decent and popular restaurant attached which is always a good sign. At the age of 85 this was Mary’s first stay in a hotel so I’m glad it was alright. In fact when we got back home she jokingly complained the next day that nobody came to take her breakfast order!

The main event however was the ride on probably the most famous train in the UK if not the world. As Mary said it was a once in lifetime opportunity and not many people can say they’ve been on the Flying Scotsman. It would have been better if the windows of the carriages had been a bit cleaner and the seating a bit more comfortable but then I suppose that makes it more authentic. The Insta360 did its thing (see below) and I know a lady who had one of the best weekends she had in a while. So much so she was even talking about getting the train up to the top of Snowdon!

And that was March. The weather is getting warmer, flowers are blooming and as the expressions go’s ‘hope springs eternal’. Speaking of hope, hopefully I can report the windows are all done next month if not please shoot me and Quis Autem Reformationem.