Weekend in Portsmouth

It was a back in time weekend last week (18/19 Oct), I used to live in Portsmouth in my early days in the Navy and both of my Girls were born there. After a visit to Bristol where we saw SS Great Britain, I said that there was better attractions and decided to make an effort to find a weekend to get there.
The Dockyard in Portsmouth has a reasonable pass, where you get access to 7 attractions and 4 of those you can revisit any time again through the year. The Warrior, Action stations, and two of the Museums are those you are able to revist, with the Victory, the Mary Rose and the harbour tour available on a one off basis. Another attraction within the Dockyard is the Costa Coffee, I do love those and am a regular visitor.

The Warrior is the natural first visit as it is just inside the main gate and ticket booth it is a magnificent ship, I have been on here before when I attended a dinner in celebration of the 100 years of the RNFA. The late great Alan Ball was the guest speaker who gave a very witty rendition of his selection to play in the world cup final in 66.

The Warrior is well furnished with artifacts from the time and gives a good impression as to what it would have been like to have served during those times. I believe that remarkably for that period the Warrior never actually fought in anger.

The tour round takes about half an hour and if you are 6ft like me then you have to have a bit of a stoop to your walk.

The ship was one of the first to combine steam with sail and it was interesting as an ex engineer myself, that engineers of that time were treated as second class citizens as the sailors did not like the change and felt it was there job to propel the ship through sail.

After the Warrior we went on to Action stations which is basically for kids and is very hands on, with simulators for the bridge, helicopter and the use of the GPMG and SA80 (prefered weapons of the matelot). It was ok and we had a go at flying the helo simulator very badly and took some shots on the guns.

Summers here its just 2 months late!

What a beautiful weekend we have just had, the weather does strange things. I was thinking about those poor people that had weddings etc booked when it should have been nice in August then you get a weekend like this in the middle of October (serves them right get married I suppose Not high on my list of recommendations). It wasn't all good on saturday though, that awful performance by England on Saturday night wasn't great thankfully they improved near the end. Ashley Cole should go and sit on that crap singing show with his missus, coz he was no no good at playing football. In the words of Ann Robinson "You are the weakest link Goodbye".

If I got booed as much as him I would not play for England again, heres hoping hey!

Sunday here in the Sunny South West was a busy day, we had a food fair here at the Barnstaple Pannier Markets, that was really good for sampling food including a very nice Paella which was cooked by a good friend of ours ex wife (see what I was saying earlier). She has a resturant in Barnstaple that we really should try. It wasnt the same for buying though, some of the prices were very steep, we bought a Guiness and Beef -Pork pie and that cost £2 and some Tomato soup in a bag that cost £4.

In the afternoon the dogs needed walking so we took off to Westward Ho! along with what seemed the rest of Bideford and Westward Ho!. The place was packed, one of the main attractions being the waves splashing up over the sea defences. Really good to watch but i really didn't feel the need to feel the waves on me too. Unlike some of the muppets in this area.

The Tea on the Green does a very good Cream Tea and even though I am trying to be good at the moment, it is just to much to resist. Row is great she only ever wants to buy one scone and says I only want a half of an half, Yeah really!! good job I never listen and buy two scones as they always go down very well. The Tea on the Green is a really nice place but unfortunately only opens in the afternoon, I am sure they would get a good amount of customers for evening meals if they opened longer.

Well its Monday evening now and although the afternoon improved it was a wet and miserable start to the week here, and the weather forecast dosent look much better, so maybe the summers not here after all.

One Down One To Go

That's the first bit of NEBOSH out of the way although there is still an exam to pass. I had my customary moan on the course questionaire though not about the course itself which was good but more about the facilities they used. There are so many better hotels / conference facilities in the area, why they used Gypsy Hill I do not know.
We finished nice an early on Friday so was able to get home and get some stuff done in the afternoon and spend another night in my house which has been vacant for weeks now.
I feel an email coming on now to Best Western not sure if I will stay there again when I go back for 2nd part of course.

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Day 2 Or Is It Month 2

Crikey this health and safety business is complicated. Loads of paperwork to plough through and reading well there is plenty of that too. Tomorrow I have to cram in a session of Dreamweaver back in north Devon after a day of this.
We learnt about policies today and as we were given more and more information I realised that I am going to have some work to do once qualified.
I have taken on a job from the tutor in updating his web site, it will be good practice and good to start building a portfolio.
The hotel never ceases to amaze, when we were a little late for coffee this morning the manager was phoning us up hurrying us up. I always thought the customer called the shots.

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Nebosh Day 1

Today was the start of hopefully a career change, doing the first part of my national certificate in Health and safety. We are based in a tacky hotel which belongs to the Best Western group and with the name should really be better than it is.
The room is poor, creaky floor single bed but expensive price and my old favoirite TV, almost has as few a channels on the TV as we did in Spain. I did bring a dongle to get TV on my laptop but you really shouldn't have too in the UK. How much does a freeview box cost? And aren't all hotels going to have to have them soon.
The course is quite expensive and the hotel has a number of conference rooms but we (12) of us are crammed into a converted bedroom. I am having problems in the classroom as the layout is at an angle to the board and I have these new varifocal glasses which need me to look straight at the board.
I always like to make some valid points in my course criteque and on day one i already have plenty.
Course isn't bad though and the food in hotel is ok, so not all bad. Homework to do so it's down to that now.

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Back home in Blighty

Arrived home this afternoon after an early start again and straight into a downpour at the airport, it wasnt to bad though as when we left Malga it looked like it might be one of those overcast days anyway.

Even better was that the taxi driver didnt rip us of either, although it was expensive he drove sensibly, got us to the airport on time and charged us 20 euros less than the one last week. the flight back was on time and only left a little late so by 1pm we were in Exeter and at just after 2pm we were back in Westward Ho!

The diet starts now, no more 5 course evening meals and cooked breakfasts, well not until the next time....

The weather has been awful since returning home, but I have done all the washing, unpacked and watched Utd beat Blackburn so a busy afternoon. I have also sorted this blog out, as it was annoying me whilst away, when you go on the edit site in Spain it comes up in Spanish so it is difficult to edit, perhaps at my next Spanish lesson I will have to learn the word for delete. I have my first follower on the blog even it is my sister....but welcome to her and you can keep up with your big brothers boring day and gripes.

Well its good bye to all this and back to good old England for a few more months at least....

Last Night

Been representing England in the sports today, I won the Table Tennis without losing a game including a game against a very competitive German who unfortunately had me and the wind against him. He was beaten into third place in the end by an English lady which was prob worse to him than losing too me.
We had a second game where you push counters through holes too score points, it was called Sjoerbak, I think it is of Dutch origin. After a late surge I came second losing to the English lady.
Tonight we go to the show and before it starts we get a glass of champagne and a certificate.
The wind was really strong today but we still got our last lot of sun, it's back to Exeter in the morning after enduring another ride in a rip off taxi.

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Almost Time To Go Home

Blogged twice today and lost it both times, really got to get to grips with blogging before we go away again. Sunset was really nice tonight and hues what I had left my camera in the room I have added a pic taken on the iPhone nut it really doesn't do it justice.

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