Spring has Sprung

I was up early, and so was the sun (though not quite as early as me.) The sky looked clear, and it promised to be a nice day. In fact, it turned out to be lovely. The skies were blue, and only the occasional contrails of passing jets broke the continuity of the canvas. 

I wandered around to Zoe's to take Ellie to school. Zoe was not going to attempt the walk (quite rightly). She was, however, going to pop into work to sign off on the payroll and enable access for working at home. Diane drove around to take her to Sainsbury's and then went on to the vets. I completed the walk to school with Ellie and then headed out for my walk, arriving home a few minutes after Diane.

The morning was spent on domestic chores, but with them out of the way, I returned to my editing suite. I decided to make a start on the video recalling our cruise to Norway in 2023. This occupied a good few hours and has only covered the first three or four days. There's much yet to do, and it should keep me out of trouble for several days.

We picked Ellie up from school, whipped her home to collect a snack and took her to Chichester for her regular appointment with Hannah. While she was being seen, we sat and read our Kindles in the waiting room. Afterwards, we were astounded by how quickly we managed to carve our way through the late afternoon traffic to get home.

Video Travelogues

 I was up just before seven. Di was awake, so I took her a cup of tea in bed. I settled down with a coffee and the overnight news. It appears that the moron Trump, who wants a Nobel Prize for Peace, has furthered his case by bombing Iran. I'm not sure that I ever held a politician with such contempt as I do Trump.

After my coffee, I had planned an early morning walk. The weather decided that heavy rain should fall. I postponed my walk, and after breakfast, I worked through a pile of ironing while Di had her shower.

It's John's birthday today. I had sent him a video during the week, recalling our short break in Granada. He commented that he had enjoyed it and would like to see one of our trip to Barcelona. I sent him the relevant video, and also another of our trip to Florence. That got me thinking, so I started to compile another video covering last summer's break at the Carlyon Bay Hotel. This took me a few hours, but I was pleased with the finished article, which I subsequently sent on to John.

With Zoe laid up, we will probably need to change things about over the coming weeks. The first step was to transport many of Ellie's school clothes back to Zoe's. Di took them around and then spent a few hours keeping her company. I took the opportunity, as it had dried up, to go for my postponed walk. When I got back, I settled down with a cup of tea and my Kindle until it was time to start on dinner.

Fragments

 Today seems to have existed in fragments. I was up just before seven, and read the news while consuming my first coffee. I had a quiet hour before Diane stirred, and I fired up the kettle for her life-affirming cup of tea. After a shower, I prepared breakfast and got ready for my call with the cousins.

The call followed the usual course, most easily mapped by a bowl of spaghetti dropped on the floor from a great height and then agitated by a kitten with ADHD. What did become evident was that Tim appreciated my write-ups and videos of our trips. He regards me as his travel advisor. This became an issue when he spoke of a trip to Madeira. After the call, I extracted a travelogue of our 2018 trip to Madeira and set it to him. I then started to develop a video of the trip. 

Time overtook me. I had to go to Zoe's, help her shift some stuff around the house, and then take her to work. I left her in the capable hands of her manager, who swore she would not leave the office and would not walk the aisles.

I returned home and realised that the video of Madeira was pointless. I had already made this video. I sent the original video to Tim and deleted the version I had started earlier. This did get me thinking, however, so I took some time to develop a video of our trip to Jersey.

Di had spent much of the day in the garden. She had been tidying up and chatting with passing neighbours. When she had finished, we settled in the Orangery for some Kindle time before dinner.

Strange day

 It turned out to be a strange day. I was up around seven and sat drinking my coffee as I read the news. Diane came down a few minutes later - she had he Cardiac Rehab session this morning, so needed to get breakfast out of the way. I wandered around to Zoe's to join the walk to school and, after dropping Ellie in class, set off for my usual walk while Zoe, who had a day off, headed home.

By the time I arrived home from my walk, Diane was already at the Community Centre for her exercise session. I settled down for some breakfast and skimmed the social media. D~i arrived home, and we chatted while starting on our various admin tasks. These took most of the morning.

It was during our admin session that Zoe turned up. Her knee had "popped", and she wanted a knee brace. Needless to say (did you see what I did there?), we had one, and she went back home. A little while later, she phoned. The GP had told her to go to the hospital and get an X-Ray. I collected her from home and dropped her at the War Memorial Hospital. 

After we had some lunch, we settled in the lounge with our Kindles. I was awaiting the call from Zoe to say she was ready to be collected. As all was quiet, I went to collect Ellie from dance practice. It was while I was waiting for Ellie that Zoe called to say she was ready. Ellie and I hot-footed it to the hospital and collected Zoe, who has a damaged Medial Cruciate Ligament. The doctor tried to sign her off for 6 weeks, but she was having none of that. She intends to work, even if she is confined to the office.

I dropped Ellie and Zoe back home. Ellie is with Pete for the weekend. Zoe intends to rest, but will discuss work with the store manager, Jason, in the morning.

Editing

 Though there was no pressing need, I was up soon after 6:30. Coffee was taken, and the news was consumed. Once Di had come down. I performed my morning ablutions and prepared for my assault on Zoe's. I walked around to Zoe's and joined the girls on their walk to school.

Leaving Ellie in class, I headed off for my morning walk. It was grey, cool, but bright. I enjoyed the hour or so, and finished my latest audiobook and started another. As I arrived home, Diane left to go to the hairdresser's. I tucked into my usual breakfast, and as I finished, Lottoe arrived for her weekly cleaning session. After a brief (well, not so brief) chat, I headed to my study and started to work on the source videos I had received from Alex and Mary Louise. Today, my focus has been on videos featuring my Uncle James and his wife and family. This has taken many hours and still awaits some form of music track, but that must wait until I have improved the video from the original cine data.

After lunch, we settled in the lounge (it was a bit too cool for the Orangery) and read our Kindles. I finished a book and started a new one before we had to go and collect Ellie from school. Once home, she went to her room and spent an hour or two reading her latest school book. Zoe turned up soon after 5 pm and collected Ellie. I started preparing dinner as soon as they had left.

Booking

I was up before the 6:30 alarm (but not by much). Ellie was dropped off, but was barely conscious. She went straight up to Nana and went back to sleep. Jasper decided that sleep was not an option and started to yowl. Ellie was not amused. (Now she knows how we feel.)

The rest of the run-up to school followed the usual pattern, and we dropped her at the classroom door. Di headed home for some breakfast and then to head off to Pilates, while I enjoyed my usual morning walk. This was completed in the warm sunshine for a change.

Di had left for Pilates by the time I arrived home. I grabbed some breakfast and then, after completing the accounts, I set about a stack of ironing. This took the rest of the morning.

After some feedback from Brian, one of the Band of Brothers, we decided to have our Spring Lunch at The Betjeman Arms in St Pancras Station. I booked the venue and sent out the invitations to my distribution list. During the afternoon, I had RSVPs from all of the regulars. I'm hoping for a few responses from the "irregulars", but nothing has come through so far.

Once Di was back from Pilates, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed off to Sainsbury's for the weekly shop. It may have been a day early, but it was an excellent time to shop. The store was deserted. Once we had arrived home and unloaded and stowed the shopping, we had a quiet hour before I started on dinner. Di, meanwhile, had a telephone call with her friend Pauline.

Sunshine

It seems strange to get up at 6:30 to greet Ellie. It has been a while since I last had to do that. I was suitably delighted by the small package that Jasper had left for me to clear up before I got around to making my coffee. Just as I started the coffee maker, Ellie arrived, gave me a cuddle and headed upstairs to get into bed with Nana. The rest of the morning procedure ran on time, and it was lovely to see sunshine when we left for school.

The sunshine lasted most of the day and certainly made my morning walk enjoyable. Everyone I passed seemed to have a spring in their step, and we exchanged a hearty "Hello" as we passed.

Once home, I tucked into my porridge, then, as Di went up to her sewing room, I went to the study. Di spent much of the day rearranging the sewing room. I helped when a bit of muscle was required. The rest of the day, I spent working on my video editing. Well, actually, it wasn't so much video editing as creating a simple way of creating a common branding for my title pages. I had tried this yesterday, and it wasn't bad. Today, I wanted to refine the process and document the whole thing for the future. I explored several different approaches, and I am now fairly happy that I have found a good method.

We collected Ellie from school and stopped off at the park for a while on the way back. We were not there for long, as Zoe was ready to collect Ellie and take her home. After they had gone, we settled down in the Orangery (which was delightfully warm) for an hour before I started on dinner.

Video

Jasper was noisy again last night, but not quite as noisy as the night before. He woke us both several times through the night and snuggled down on Diane's pillow between his overnight periods of roaming. Ellie seemed to sleep through it all. I was up and about (clearing his overnight deposits) soon after seven. I wrote my blog entry for yesterday while enjoying my first coffee.

We left Ellie to sleep, but once I was dressed, I headed out for a morning walk. This allowed me to get back into my audiobook while strolling around the estate. Once I was home, I had some breakfast, then settled down to do the accounts. Di took Ellie to Bognor to get some new school shoes and to collect her medication on the way back home. It was while she was there that Zoe revealed that she had been hacked at the pub yesterday lunchtime, and her Santander accounts had been emptied. This is the problem with public WiFi, and why I use a VPN when connecting to anything other than my home network.

While Di and Ellie were out, I returned to my video editing. I watched another YouTube presentation and then got stuck into the short video that I was producing as an exercise. One problem that I had on previous exercises was the ability or technique to create a title page that looked like those I had used in the past. I like the idea of some common branding. This was my target for the day. It took me a couple of hours to crack the challenge, but I am now confident that I can reproduce it at will.

Zoe collected Ellie soon after three and took her to Chichester for her Monday appointment. We had a quiet hour in the lounge with our Kindles before I prepared some linguine with prawns in white wine and cream sauce.

The Ageing Process

As my birthday dawned, I realised that the ageing process is not helped by a cat yowling "Happy Birthday" all night. After numerous interruptions to my beauty sleep, I gave up just after 6 am and went downstairs for some coffee. I had a quiet 90 minutes with my coffee and the overnight news before Diane came down. This was the opportunity to start opening all of the Birthday cards that had accumulated over the past week. I must say that I received a great deal of abuse in the cards, but suspect it was well deserved!

I spent much of the morning trying to refresh my video editing skills. This involved watching several YouTube videos and playing with some sample video clips. Much of the general workflow is coming back to me now, but I do have many hours of video to work with.

As lunchtime approached, we drove across to Pagham, where we met up with Kim, Zoe, Ellie and her friend Poppy for lunch at The Lamb. By booking an early table, we had no trouble parking, nor waiting for our meal.

Previous visits had told us what to expect. We were not disappointed. There was a wide selection available for Sunday lunch, and it seemed that everyone chose well. Certainly, all the plates were scraped clean. (Diane and I both chose the roast pork, Kim had some Sea Bream, and Zoe had roast beef).

As we sat and chatted over lunch, the restaurant filled up and got quite noisy (and that wasn't due to Ellie and Poppy).

We had a lovely couple of hours there, and I was immensely blessed with the gifts, cards, and love that I received from everyone. We said our goodbyes and headed home.

The afternoon was spent with our Kindles in the lounge. Late in the afternoon, Zoe called. She was performing the usual school uniform check to ensure that the right items of uniform were (or would be) available throughout the coming week. Ellie asked if she could sleep at our house tonight, so that she wouldn't have to get up early tomorrow. (Tomorrow is an INSET day, so there is no school.)

Unravelling

I slept in until about 07:15. Other than making coffee, the first order of the day was to complete yesterday's blog. That took me longer than expected, and by the time I had finished, Di had come down for a cup of tea to start her day.  

I had the usual call with my cousins. After the news about Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor this week, we had the entirely predictable anti-monarchy diatribe from Chris (who has lived abroad for about 30 years) and Tim. We let them rant and duly ignored them.

With the call out of the way, we headed to the Cattery to collect Jasper. As usual, he had been well cared for, and we had a long chat with Mark. Our route to and from was somewhat circuitous due to the flooding, but we managed without incident. Jasper, however, kindly presented us with a toxic, foul-smelling gift as we got within a mile or so from home. The less said, the better.

Chunks of the day have been spent downloading old cine film (which has been digitised) from Alex & Mary-Louise's NAS. The idea is that when I get time, I will try to clean it up and cut the huge recordings down into manageable chunks. My rule of thumb is that they should be less than 15 minutes, and ideally less than 10.

Sainsbury's kindly delivered our weekly shop at lunchtime. After we had eaten, we retired to the lounge for some Kindle time. 

Zoe has taken Ellie and her friend, Poppy, to see the laser show at Chichester Canal Basin this evening.  I'm sure they'll have a great time. It's a shame, however, that it is drizzling.

Around and About

I was up just before seven. It was our last day in Jersey, but our return flight was not until early evening, so we had a full day. I opened the curtains, and the sea was battering the sea wall beneath us. Someone had obviously topped it up again overnight. At least it wasn't raining, and there was sky to be seen beyond the clouds.

We went down to breakfast. Clearly, the hotel had a lot of new guests in the preceding 24 hours, as the dining room was quite busy by the time we were ready to leave. Alina, the woman in charge of the dining room, came to give us a hug, wished us a safe journey and hoped we would be back. I think that it's fairly certain that we will! We returned to our room (250) and packed our suitcases, then went to reception to check out and to leave our cases with the concierge. It was pointless carting them around with us all day.

We took a walk along the promenade, soaking up the sun and watching some brave souls swimming. We later found out that there was a sauna near the cafe, and the brave swimmers would head straight for the sauna as they came out of the surf.

Near the cafe was a lovely little garden scattered with benches where you could sit and absorb the view. It was very peaceful and an ideal spot for a tranquil coffee in the morning.

We crossed the road to the bus stop and hopped on the 12A into St Helier. We hadn't got a specific plan, but thought we'd mooch around the town for a few hours.

The first order of the visit was to find a little gift to take home for Mark, the Cat Whisperer. We walked along to the main shopping area and found a store that specialised in Jersey produce. The assistant, who was recovering from a personality transplant (clearly she was the donor), helped us select some honey and chocolates. We moved on, zigging and zagging through the streets and squares. 

Approaching midday, we stopped at a cafe for some coffee. This was near the waterfront and was evidently very popular, nestled at the foot of several modern office blocks.

With a fresh shot of caffeine coursing through our veins, we crossed to the waterfront. The view across St Aubin's Bay was excellent, and with the tide out, the vast expanse of sand was very inviting.

We walked along the wall that protected the Marian from the worst of the weather. A strong (and chilly) wind was blowing, and despite the sunshine, it felt cool.

We walked to the end nearest to the Elizabeth Castle. Elizabeth Castle is a large historic fortress built on a tidal island in St Aubin’s Bay by the marina. It's cut off twice a day by the tides. It was built in the 16th Century and named after Queen Elizabeth I, and it was the home of Sir Walter Raleigh during his tenure as Governor of Jersey. It also provided refuge to King Charles I during the Civil War.

It is only open from March through to October, so we were unable to visit. 

We wandered back to the bus station and made our way back to the hotel. The clouds had swept back over the island, and rain was expected. We settled down in the lounge with a sandwich and our Kindles. Our taxi arrived just before five and whisked us to the airport. As we went through the security checks, Diane was stopped, and the honey we had bought for Mark was confiscated as it was over 100ml. That was a shame, particularly as it was thick, not runny honey. We started to walk to the lounge when the security operative chased us down and handed the "honey" back to us, explaining that it was honey at all; it was a honey-scented candle! Well, you wouldn't want to spread that on toast.

Considering how empty the flight to Jersey had been, the return flight was full. We took off a few minutes late and headed north over Guernsey toward Southampton. As we approached the airport, it became obvious that the people who install the potholes in our local roads had been moonlighting and doing the same in our bit of sky. The plane was chucked about all over the place as we descended to terra firma.

Once we had collected the suitcases, we walked through to the car and headed home, where we were greeted by Zoe, a very excited Ellie, and her friend Poppy. We had a mad 15 minutes, and then they left us to relax. It had been a superb few days.

Castle

It was high tide when we woke up this morning. There was a strong wind blowing, and the waves were crashing against the sea wall below. Seaweed and debris were being thrown up onto the promenade and even onto the hotel’s terrace. The forecast suggested that the rain would stop around ten, but that it would remain windy all day. The forecast also seemed to take great pleasure in telling us that the temperature would feel like -4 °C.

We were in no hurry, so we strolled down past the Spa for a leisurely breakfast and sat chatting over our toast, fruit, yoghurt, eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and whatever else we fancied. At least we wouldn’t need anything else until dinner. 

We returned to our room and got ourselves ready for today’s adventure. We had decided to visit Gorey on the east coast.

We caught the bus outside the hotel and discovered we could buy a ticket that was valid all the way through, including the change of buses in St Helier. (I wish I had realised this yesterday.) We only had a couple of minutes to wait at the bus station before climbing aboard the No.1, which took us the last leg of the journey. The overnight rain had stopped, but the wind was gusting up to 40mph, and it felt very cold. The forecast suggestion of -4 °C seemed pretty accurate. We climbed off the bus at Gorey Pier and strolled along towards the shops, stopping at a store that specialised in knitwear from Guernsey, Jersey, France and also had a wide range of Barbour clothing. We stood chatting with the proprietor for ages. I think we got her whole life story, from birth in Jersey, childhood in France, and the fact that her mother is Norwegian. Diane kindly bought me a lovely sweater for my birthday before we left the shop.

We found our way to the steps, which took us up to the medieval Mont Orgueil Castle. This was an imposing fortification dating back to the 13th century and built on a rocky outcrop surrounded on three sides by the sea and cliffs. From the battlement, you can see France, just 14 miles away. It had, in fact, been used as a defensive location since the Iron Age. French attacks and sieges during the 13th and 14th centuries led to improvements and a strengthening of the garrison, and a number of improvements and renovations have been made over the years. It was an intriguing place to visit, and we had free rein to wander virtually anywhere we wanted. The battlements and wards were exposed to the biting wind, and whilst they offered some stunning views, they were too cold to linger for long.

We clambered back down the steps (equivalent to 10 flights of stairs) and found our way to a small Cafe where we sat down for a cup of coffee and a slice of millionaire’s shortbread. We lingered for a while, but then hopped on the bus back to St Helier and changed for the bus to St Brelade’s Bay. The whole journey back took about 65 minutes. (I must say that I’m very impressed with the Liberty Buses on Jersey; they seem to run on time, and there is a flat fare for all trips. If a trip requires a transfer and that is within an hour of starting your first trip, the fare can be covered on the first ticket.)

We ditched our outside gear and went down to spend some time in the lounge. Di enjoyed a pot of tea and some fancy cakes, while I enjoyed a glass of beer. We stayed for about an hour, then returned to our room. Like yesterday, the cloud seemed to be breaking up near the horizon, but this afternoon we seem to have gained a rash of surfers braving the cold wind. 

(Unfortunately, the surfers only appear as black dots in the surf in this photo.)

We went down to the lounge for dinner. Today's special was a lovely chunk of cod, grilled and served on a bed of vegetables. We both chose the special, and it was delicious. We finished with some ice cream before returning to our room for the evening.

Tunnels

It rained heavily throughout the night. Either it was high tide or the sea was full when we woke up just before seven. We had a quiet hour or so in our room before going down to breakfast. We are used to having a good breakfast selection when staying at The Victoria, or Carlyon Bay, but they were no match for the breakfast menu here at L’Horizon. We were in no hurry, so we lingered over breakfast.

Because of the intensity of the rain, we decided that a trip to the Jersey War Tunnels would be a good idea (after all, it doesn’t rain in a tunnel). We caught the 12A bus, then the No.8. It was a good job we had dressed in our waterproofs, as we were soaked by the time we had walked to the entrance.

The tunnels were dug out over two years by forced labour. Over 14,000 tons of rock were removed, and the walls were lined with 4,000 tons of concrete. Originally, the tunnel complex was destined to be a munitions barracks, but was repurposed as a main casualty receiving station. At one point in the tour, we stood some 60 metres inside the cliff, and 33 metres below the surface. The tunnels were well worth the visit. Somehow, they managed to personalise the predicament of the Occupied Islanders and brought the story home in a very real fashion.

When we had finished our tour of the tunnels, we went up to the cafe for a coffee and a scone, then made our way down to the bus stop to head into St Helier. We walked to the museum (it was still pouring with rain) to see The Occupation Tapestry, only to find we were at the wrong museum. We did an about turn and headed for the maritime museum. When we arrived, we found it was Pirate Week for the school kids’ half-term holiday. The Tapestry room was infested with loads of kids being entertained by two adults dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow and his sidekick. We ignored them and made our way around each of the tapestry panels. They were quite stunning in their content and their detail. The stitch count worked out to 256 stitches per inch; across the panels, there are over 7.5 million stitches. This photo shows just one of the many panels that were created by each of the participating parishes.

We walked back to the bus station and grabbed the 12A back to the hotel. By the time we arrived, the rain had almost stopped, and there was a break in the clouds to the western end of St Brelade’s Bay. We changed out of our wet weather gear and headed down to the lounge for a drink. By the time we returned to our room, the sun was just visible over the western end of the bay as it sank below the cliffs.

We chatted about dinner and decided to stay put in the hotel again. We chose comfort food tonight. Diane had a shepherd's pie, and I chose their salmon dish of the day. It was hardly haute cuisine, but it was immensely tasty and a perfect end to the day.

A short break

 The alarm went off at 05:00, and we attacked the day with vigour. With a hot drink inside us, we hit the road at 06:15, and by 07:00, we were parking at Southampton Airport. It took a full 2 minutes to walk from the car to the bag drop-off, and a minute or two later, we were sitting in Costa Coffee with another hot drink and a croissant while watching the sun drag itself over the eastern horizon. 

Our plane was only one-third full, and we managed to leave early. 35 minutes later, we touched down in Jersey. It had taken us longer to drive to the airport than it had to fly to the Island.

We grabbed a taxi to take us to the hotel. It only took about 10 minutes, and the driver was eager to hang on and take us on a tour into St Helier. We politely declined as we had not yet got a firm plan for the day.

Though it was only just after nine, our room was already available, and the porter/concierge, Greg, took us to our room and gave us a thumbnail sketch of the Island and most of his life story since leaving his home in Budapest.

The view from our room is superb. The sun was shining, and our balcony was quite sheltered. We stood there admiring the view for a while, then decided to make the most of the conditions and go for a walk along the promenade.

We turned right out of the hotel and walked towards a church. Some beautiful gardens were being lovingly tended by a couple of gardeners. There were also several restaurants and cafes. We stopped for a coffee and took it back to a bench in the gardens where we could drink in both the coffee and the view.

We didn't walk as far as the church because the promenade ended several hundred yards short, and we didn't want to walk along the narrow roadway, as there was no pavement. We turned around and headed back the other way, stopping to chat to one of the locals outside another cafe.

We returned to the hotel and checked the bus times and where the buses stop. We had a 20-minute wait, but caught the 12A bus into St Helier. It was about a 30-minute trip, but once we were there, we found our way to the visitor centre (at the museum), then wandered back through Liberation Square. Liberation Square is a central public square in the heart of St. Helier, close to the harbour, shops, cafés, and Liberty Wharf. 

The sculpture depicts jubilant islanders lifting a Union Jack, symbolising the joy and relief of freedom after years of occupation.

We found an Asian restaurant called Izakaya in Liberty Wharf, where we stopped for some lunch. We both chose the Chicken Katsu burgers and shared a plate of chips. We had chosen well. The burgers were lovely, and they filled the hole left by skipping a proper breakfast as well as providing lunch.

After lunch, we walked up to the main shopping area and zigged and zagged the whole length of the road and those running off and parallel to it. I wouldn't say there was anything that stood out, though there was a large department store called Voisins. 

What did stand out, however, was the covered market that we found behind the main drag, off one of the side streets. The Central Market is a Victorian-era covered market hall right in the heart of St Helier. Though the market itself has roots in the island’s trading culture going back centuries, the current building was largely rebuilt in 1882 in typical Victorian style, with metal and glass architecture that makes it one of Jersey’s architectural gems.

The market reminded me very much of the covered markets we had seen in Spain and the Canary Islands. It had significantly less farm produce (though it did have some), but had more craft,  curios, gifts, bakeries, and patisseries. It was charming.

High cloud had drifted in, and the temperature was dropping. Rain was expected. We made our way back to the bus station and headed back to the hotel.

We spent the last part of the afternoon looking at the maps and guides we had collected during the day, and, of course, read our Kindles. 

This evening, we went down to the lounge bar, rather than the restaurant. We weren't very hungry after the burgers we had for lunch. In the lounge, we settled down, and Di had a sandwich with some applewood-smoked cheese while I ordered a chicken Caesar salad. It was simple, but it was all we needed.

We were back in our room by eight, and I suspect it will be an early night after today's early start.