• Our bedroom at St. Benedict’s B&B

    Our room at St. Benedict’s B&B — What an absolute gem this B&B was. We stumbled upon it quite by accident, and it was wonderful. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Our room at St. Benedict’s B&B — What an absolute gem this B&B was. We stumbled upon it quite by accident, and it was wonderful. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Marine Court on St. Leonards-on-Sea seafront

    Marine Court on St. Leonards-on-Sea seafront (East Sussex, UK) - an Art Deco apartment block built between 1936 and 1938 and modeled on the Cunard ocean liner Queen Mary.
    Marine Court on St. Leonards-on-Sea seafront – an Art Deco apartment block built between 1936 and 1938 and modeled on the Cunard ocean liner Queen Mary. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Dusk on St. Leonards-on-Sea seafront

    Dusk on St. Leonards-on-Sea seafront – featuring Marine Court, an Art Deco apartment block. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Seafront at St. Leonards-on-Sea. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Seafront at St. Leonards-on-Sea

    Seafront at St. Leonards-on-Sea
    Seafront at St. Leonards-on-Sea. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Ginger testing the water at St. Leonards-on-Sea

    Day Seven

    Ginger testing the water at St. Leonards-on-Sea. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    We spent the weekend catching up with family and the grandchildren.

    As the grandchildren are otherwise occupied this week, we decided to rent a car and explore along the coast to the east of Portsmouth.

    Thursday, we have arranged to meet Jacqi, a Flickr Friend we’ve known since 2007, in Brighton. Jacqi lives in New Zealand and is in the UK, touring and visiting family. It’s an opportunity far too good to miss. We last met up in 2011 in Missouri when she visited us while crossing the US on her way to her new home in New Zealand. Before that, we met in person for the first time in 2008 in Bletchley Park (UK).

    After seeing Jacqi, it’s back to Portsmouth for a night, and then we head off for the first two of our business events of the trip, near Northampton on Saturday and in Norfolk on Sunday. Our plans for the latter have already gone awry, as it has been announced that the road from the hotel in Ipswich we’ve booked to the venue will be closed. It will be a long diversion on the morning of the event.

    In the meantime, we have a couple of days free to explore. The plan was to go places I’d never been, so our first destination was Rye. I’ve not been there and always wanted to visit it. It was a disaster. The traffic was awful, and the parking was impossible, even after we found a spot. You needed an app on your phone to park, and we couldn’t get it to install, because the App wouldn’t text the access code to my US cell phone number (We’d got UK data only eSIMs, as we can call and text using our US numbers via data. And WhatsApp is all we need to get in touch with family and business contacts).

    So, I left Rye in a huff. Next on the plan was the Seven Sisters, but somehow, we missed them, and settled on heading towards Hastings. I’ve never been to Hastings.

    We’d not booked hotels in advance, so before we got there, Ginger did some searching and found what looked to be an excellent B&B in St. Leonards-on-Sea.

    Luckily, there was a room available, and it was suggested we go eat while it was made ready. So, we ended up eating a very nice curry, followed by a walk along the seafront at St. Leonards.

  • Fox

    Day Five

    Fox — seen on the way to visit my brother. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Today, we moved from the hotel to my son’s house.

    In the evening, we went to visit my brother and, on the way, saw this fox by the side of the road.

    Fox — seen on the way to visit my brother. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • HMS Prince of Wales

    HMS Prince of Wales — leaving Portsmouth Harbour. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Today is our last full day at Gunwharf Quays. We took a stroll along the Millennium Walkway to pass the time and were there to watch HMS Prince of Wales leave Portsmouth Harbour.

  • Interesting things happening in front of our hotel

    Interesting things happening in front of our hotel. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Day Four

    We were fascinated by the construction of this miniature golf course going on below our hotel window.

    We discussed the business model, marketing, construction methodology, finishing, and testing among many other things.

    This was not a ‘regular’ attraction, and gleaning some clues from what we saw, we discovered the company installing it specializes in pop-up miniature golf courses, and originally created theater props — which explained a lot. Some other clues suggested a drone might be used in the marketing (otherwise why put logos on the top of things?) — and on the last day of the build, sure enough a drone was used to do a fly through.

    Yes, we are easily entertained in a cerebral kind of way.

  • What Gare Bears might wear in the woods

    Day Three

    What Gare Bears might wear in the woods. Copyright © 2024 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved.

    With the emphasis on might. Well actually, might not. We had a good laugh though.

  • Fish & Chips and a couple of pints at The Still & West

    Fish & Chips and a couple of pints at The Still & West — A pint and pub grub on our first evening in Pompey. Copyright © 2024 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Ginger, Gary and the Spinnaker Tower

    Ginger, Gary and the Spinnaker Tower — Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth. Copyright © 2024 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved.

  • London Heathrow, T5

    London Heathrow, T5 — I love buildings like this, and we spent ages looking at the construction details. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    We had discovered that one of Ginger’s community members would be at Heathrow the morning after we’d arrived, so we made plans to meet up in Terminal 5. I booked a car to pick us up at two pm, giving us plenty of time for people watching and looking around after our meeting.

    We’ll be back at T5 at the beginning of September for our flight home.

    Next stop, a three day stay in a hotel in Portsmouth, where we can enjoy some quiet time, rest, and get over our jetlag.

  • Heathrow T3 from our hotel

    Heathrow T3 from our hotel — The hotel’s sound insulation was very impressive. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Heathrow T3 from our hotel — The hotel’s sound insulation was very impressive. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • To all appearances, we might still be flying

    Day Two

    To all appearances, we might still be flying. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Good flights, an excellent connection, and we zipped through border control in the UK in minutes. Down in Baggage Reclaim our bags were first on the carousel, and our hotel was just a short (inside) walk from Heathrow T3 Arrivals. Within half an hour or so of deplaning we were tucked up in our hotel room, and ready to get some well-earned sleep.

    This was the view the next morning. The reality was a little different though, as you can see in the next post. The hotel’s sound insulation was so good, you would never know you were right next to an airport.

  • Ginger watching the dawn at 30,000 feet

    Day One

    Ginger watching the dawn at 30,000 feet. We are off on the first leg of a visit to the UK. Our first since 2019. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    We are off on the first leg of a visit to the UK. Our first since 2019. It’s going to be a mix of business and pleasure. We have three business events (Towcester, Wortham, and Glasgow), with family and personal time planned in between.

    This picture is very similar to one I took on the first leg of our last trip.

  • Early evening on an Ozarks farm road

    Early evening on an Ozarks farm road — It’s all looking very lush and green. Nowadays this road has a lot more traffic than it used to. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    We recently spent a few days down with Ginger’s parents. In the evenings we walked down to the creek where, one evening, we saw a family of otters playing. We also saw several deer.

    This quiet looking farm road gets a lot more traffic than it used to. And, blowing my own horn, that included me on a couple of early morning runs. Yes, I now manage to (mostly) run a couple of miles five times a week.

    I discovered an unexpected hazard of road-running out in the sticks — being chased by over-enthusiastic dogs!

  • Last of the sun

    Last of the sun — The last of the sun was catching the trees behind the house. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Four deer

    Four deer. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    They were about 100 yards away and very interested in what we were doing, which just happened to be, watching them.

  • Another Hat

    Another Hat — I bought myself something with a large brim that was also lightweight and airy for the summer. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Cleome houtteana — Spider Plant

    Cleome houtteana. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Last year, less than half a dozen of these plants appeared in the front yard flower bed. Ginger collected the seeds and sowed them. This year we have been rewarded by this spectacular display.

    Cleome houtteana. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
Home

Start typing and press enter to search

Scroll to Top