A Few Days Away

We’ve just got back from a few days away. We’re not having a ‘proper’ holiday this year so we decided to mix a visit to friends and family with a bit of a break and headed off on Thursday morning. After a quick stop at my brothers garage in Bristol for some new tyres for my car, we continued on our merry way towards Southampton.

First stop was a quick visit to Anna’s friend Rebecca for a cup of tea and to say hello to their new baby (also called Anna). She’s 7 weeks old so still pretty small. Typically just before leaving, I’d developed a pretty bad cold so decided it was probably best not to handle Anna (the baby) too much. We had a cup of tea and a chat and then headed off again to visit Jasper (Anna’s uncle), Fiona, Pippa and Joe in Lymington where we were staying for a few nights. Their house is right on the front opposite the ferry terminal so we had a walk around the seafront and played in the park.

It seems as though they’d been having a lovely summer in the south without any rain for ages. All the grass was brown and everyone was in a summer mood. Unfortunately we must have taken the rain with us as the next day was pretty wet. We were due to have a day out with Rebecca and baby Anna and then head back to Rebecca’s for a BBQ with them (by which time Pete would be home from work).

I was hoping to windsurf in the morning as well, so after a leisurely breakfast we drove around to Hill Head and Salterns Park. There was a bit of wind but not quite enough for me. This was possibly a good thing as I was still suffering with ‘man-flu’. We had a picnic and Morgan played in a park for a bit – until someone started picking on him! We then met up with Rebecca and headed to Manor Farm.

Manor Farm is an old-fashioned farm complete with plenty of animals and a kitchen garden. It was pouring with rain most of the time so Anna and Rebecca chatted and caught up whilst Morgan and I explored. Morgan got to milk a cow and we had a look around. It was nice, but there wasn’t really that much there especially considering the cost of entry.

The rain then meant that we had to have an indoor BBQ at Rebecca and Pete’s before heading back to Lymington for a few drinks and a sleep.

The next day wasn’t quite so wet so we headed off for a walk in the New Forest and a paddle in the river and then in the afternoon we headed off to Hurst Castle (via a little ferry) with Jasper Fiona, Pippa and Joe. Hurst Castle was full of dark damp rooms but there was plenty to see and we all had fun exploring it, despite getting pretty wet at times thanks to yet more rain. A few of us picked the wrong choice of cake in the coffee shop though – Don’t go for the ‘Rocky Road!

Then it was back on the ferry and back to Lymington for another BBQ, this time the weather did clear and we were able to eat outside and even sit there chatting until late in the evening.

Before we knew it, after a leisurely breakfast our time in the south was over and we were heading back up towards  a visit to my parents in South Gloucestershire. We did take the scenic route and even stopped off at Stonehenge, but when we saw how many people were there we had a quick look from outside the fence and then continued to my parents.

After carting my windsurf kit and mountain bike all over the place I finally managed a little ride with Matt on Sunday evening and then on Monday we had a family day out in Bristol with a round of crazy golf and some shopping in Cabot Circus, a play at Blaise Castle, a visit to The Mall and dinner at Preview.

And that was that, another leisurely breakfast and once again we were packing the car and heading home. On the way home we made a detour to Maisemore Bee Supplies where we all tried on and bought some bee-keeping suits and we stopped at a couple of garden centres, including the Three Shires Garden centre where we had a lovely carvery lunch.

We all had a good few days away, ate too much, exercised too little, spent too much money and had fun catching up with friends and family. Shame we’re now already back to the reality of work and e-mails and such like.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.