Famous Last Words

So, you know I said I’d not be diving near London, well I did, but only because the trains were rubbish yesterday. You see we did our research on tinternet and found that we could catch a train to London from a local station - Hedge End. The journey time was the same as from Southampton Central, and Hedge End has a free car park! Much better than getting the bus to town. All this careful forethought went out the window when Mother Nature chose to flood the station further down the track (Botley) and stopped all the trains. The options given to us by the man at the station were
a) Wait for the replacement bus to take us to Eastleigh and then get the train from there, but he had no idea when the next one was
b) Drive to Eastleigh and get the train from there where parking is not easy

So north bound on the M3 heading for Richmond where I knew of a car park near the tube station. As luck would have it we found it with not much bother.

Here are the highlights of the day… Oxford Street - busy. Harrods - did you know they sold cats and dogs and rabbits and goldfish and watches costing £50,000? Covent Garden, then Trafalgar Square and theatre land to Piccadilly Circus (nice lights) to Regent Street (nicer lights) and back to Oxford Street – now 6pm and much more busy. Then back to the car and home. Fhew!

Summing up…
£15 petrol
£11 Tube Tickets
£11 Car park
£37 Total - £18.50 each

And I’ll defiantly be taking the car again.

Moderatly Sunny Oxford

Cooked breakfast and holidays go hand in hand for me. Sausage, beans, fried egg and toast - mmmm. No bacon as it was pinched. No matter as there is some left for tomorrow.

Today was spent in Oxford. Fairly pleasant if moderately busy. The park and ride was good: 60p to park all day, and £1 each for the bus ride into town. I guess this could work out expensive for a family, but for the two of us it was worth it. Saved getting lost too.

So much for the cross country route home... Came off the motorway early and got stuck behind a moped. Just after overtaking that got stuck behind a slow car. And then the final stretch of the road we were on was closed and the diversion took us back onto the motorway. DOH.

Off to London tomorrow. No way I’m taking the car there!

Holidays

Hello. Sorry for not updating sooner. You know how it is.

Today is day one of my two week holiday. Should be day two, but as an interesting course turned up at work yesterday I went in and took part while Jane went to Poole with her parents and spent lots of money, oh joy.

We managed to thoroughly clean the house today – rock and roll! It needed it. Then on to Christmas present wrapping. Jane has been ultra organised yet again which means the rest of our holiday can be spent relaxing and not worrying about shopping.

Plans over the next two weeks are sketchy. Hopefully the weather will have mercy especially as we may cross over to France. Don’t fancy doing that in a force 8.

Hopefully we’ll pop up to London to wonder round our favourite place - Camden market. Maybe Covent Garden too as we’ve never been there before and it comes highly recommended.

Also on the cards is a mini road trip.

Updates will follow.