Mothers Day March 2015.

 I had a lovely Mothers Day treat. Emma and Nick booked a resturant for us and Trevor and Christine in Margate .James and Aimee were there too. We haven't been to Margate before and unfortunately the weather was awful so we didn't stay outside for long. It was a shame it was so horrible as the resturant was at the end of a breakwater and we felt as it we were in the middle of the sea, which I suppose we were!

  The view from our table.

          

 I have a new camera and I definitely need to practise a bit more. I'm not very good at getting everyone to look at the same time! 

The food was superb and we shall most certainly be returning when the weather warms up a bit.

           

 Beautiful girls

Cheerful boys

               

Little Henry absolutely loves Wills and makes a beeline for him as soon as he sees him.

    He also loves his Grandma.

          Smiley Henry.       

  

The Harbour

             

    Abigail.

 I know Emma already posted this but it's a great photo so no apologies for posting it again.

    This little dog had nothing to do with Mother's Day. He was just sitting watching the world go by so as I've got a new camera and am currently taking snaps of anything that I see, he got snapped.

Chatham Dock Yard. March 2015.

I spent most of the week indoors suffering from the most horrible manky cold.  I wanted to go out but because I looked such a wreck didn't want to be to close to other people. Malcolm thought the dockyard would be good as it's outside and contact with others could be avoided!

We got there as it opened and we were the only ones. A few more people came as we were getting tickets but it was pretty much deserted all day.

        

We went to the rope making room first. There were 4 of us so the poor woman must have felt a bit daft 

Doing her "act" to 4 OAPs. However,it was really interesting and we got to make some rope.

       Not this rope though!

                  This cannon is well tied up to stop it becoming the proverbial "loose cannon"

                 Rope is made from Hemp. It is very strong but not easy to work with. Making rope was a prized job and rope is still produced at Chatham.

             This is the rope making factory. It is a quarter of a mile long.

                       

Some of the different types of rope made at the dockyard

     

After the rope factory we had a wander round. 

They filmed Call the Midwife here

Recognise it?

   

                

 

     Later on we went on board the Cavalier

When it was in active service this deck was open to the elements. Whoever was sitting on this chair would most certainly not have been smiling. The ship was deployed in the Arctic. Touching any metal parts with naked skin resulted in serious injury and frostbite was common.

 

Aye-aye Captain!

Fairly cramped living quarters.

Next up, or rather next down, was HMS Ocelot, a submarine.

 I'm not usually claustrophobic but too long in this confined space would have been unpleasant. It was put to sea for 3 months at a time and must have been horrible.

Launch tubes for the weapons.

The captains cabin.

Dodgy wiring!

It's a bit hard to make out but this is electric wiring. It went the full length of the ship. Goodness knows what happened when there was a fault somewhere.

The walkways were all incredibly narrow. This was the engine room. The chap in front was a slim Jim but he had to turn sideways to walk through. 

These bunks were 2 ft wide.

I'm guessing none of the sailors had a fondness for all things Greggs!

The front of the Sub painted up for Comic Relief.

 There was so much to see. We were there all day and only saw a fraction of it. An excellent day out.

Houses of Parliament March 2015

 We often get e- mails from our local MP inviting us to go for a tour of the Parliament with him as the guide.  We decided to give it a go. We had no idea what to expect but it was actually brilliant. The only down side to the event was that no one is allowed to take photos. Such a pity as it really is a magnificent building.

We waited for him in the main hall. This glorious window is at the end of the hall.

The only down side to the whole event was that it was a it too fast.  We wanted to read everything, and there was a lot to look at, but we had to keep up.

Big Ben.

    Security to get in is airport style, but friendlier. A lady chatted to us while we were getting our clobber back and asked if we were there for the tour and dinner. We had a minor panic as we were dressed in jeans and trainers. Why she thought we were dressed for dinner I don't know!  Our invite said nothing about dinner! We were directed to the Great Hall to wait for our MP and were relieved to see others dressed as casually as us. However, while we were waiting,people were arriving togged up to the nines. They were mostly overly pretentious types braying away in ultra posh voices and generally showing off! I think they were also being shown round by an MP but I didn't recognise him. 

The first place we saw was the chapel. It is underground and so elaborate it took our breath away. 

We went into the Commons and the House of Lords. The difference between the two places is incredible. The Lords is all gold and red velvet, big comfy chairs and very ornate. The Commons is smaller, very plain and has no natural light. We were told all about the voting process. If the Speaker can here a clear majority vote, he records that as taken. If he can't the MPs voting have to leave the house and go into for or against corridors. They then give their names to a clerk. Sometimes they get themselves into the "opposition"voting area  but they aren't allowed to go back. So instead of opposing a motion by the "other side" they end up voting for it. We were told what the Whips " do and what happens at Prime Ministers Questions. Not as random as it looks apparently. He also told us about safe and marginal seats and what lengths some MPs go to to secure safe seats.

We were taken into the robing room where the Queen  waits before the opening of Parliament. 

Did you know that an MP is "taken hostage" during the opening? They go to Buckingham Palace and would historically be executed if the House did not return the Monarch. The tradition goes back hundreds of years to the times when the Monarch ran Parliament and things could get a little heated.Now they just sit in a little room at the Palace with a policeman and have a sandwich and a cup of tea and wait for their lift back. 

When the House is in session, the Sergeant at Arms sits with a sword on their lap and has to be prepared to use it to defend the life of the PM. In Canada the person with an equivalent job has a gun and during a recent attack during a session did kill an attacker. Scary stuff.

There are bronze plaques on the floor of the Great Hall marking the places where notable royals have lain in State. There is also one for Winston Churchill.

The tour lasted 2:30 and was brilliant. We had a chance to ask questions at the end in a proper Interveiw room. A good evening out and it didn't cost a penny 😉

Rugby.

 On the Sunday we got back we popped down to Sparrows Den to watch Wills plying in a tournament. 

Emma has already done a post so I will just share a few photos

        

                

     

                      

                     

Lovely smiley boy. 

  

Fuertaventura February 2015.

February and time for our annual "Centre Parcs" holiday. This year we went to Correlejo. It was a volcanic island,as are all the other Canary Islands. It is also very,very windy. 

However, the house was lovely. As we've all got older we like to have a bit more space around us and we all like to have our own bathroom. This house had 4 bedrooms all with their own bathrooms. Perfect! Lorna and Ray had the master suite and they had their own terrace. Very posh indeed.

Breakfast room. Lovely sheltered place to eat.

           

      

               

             Very posh inside.

             I don't think Fuerteventura could ever be called attractive. Most of it is very barren with precious little natural greenery.

It is very mountainous and apart from a few scraggy goats we don't think the landscape supported any other animals.

 The area we were in is famous for its sand dunes 

The sand blows across this road, completely covering it. It's a bit disorienting and feels as if you are driving through the dessert.

                     

   

   This dune was the size of a small hill .It was all very amusing to slid down it until everyone realised how hard it was to get back up.!

 

                                    Lady down!

                               

      The weather was a bit naff one day so we had a drive back to the place we stayed at before. It was much windier there. We planed to have a bit of a walk until we saw this...........

   

 The spray was like fog

 We left there a bit sharpish!!

We went to a place called Cotillo. Where the lava had reached the sea it created little lagoons. The water looked very inviting as it was so shallow

                 

   

There isn't really very much to look at so they tend to " big up" what there is.

This place is a marine park. Basically a lighthouse, lots of black rock and weird little piles of pumice stone made into fancy shapes

        

                           

   It wasn't that heavy!

                    As it is always so windy ,people make little shelters from the rocks. If you can get one to yourself and there aren't that many, laying on the beach can be very pleasant 

                     

                    

       We found this beach bar and decided to have lunch there one day

Unfortunately, the day we went it was cloudy and a bit chilly.

        

      

The main reason for going to this bar was the "happy hour", 2 drinks for the price of one. Problem was it was only mojitos or beer. I tried a mojito but it wasn't for me, so I gave it to Val. The regular price for a cocktail was only €4 so I ordered a Mai Tai. It came in this enormous vase sized container 

It tasted all right but was a gungy green colour and took me about 2 hours to drink.

      

On Sunday we went to a market. Val and I were looking for little cardigans for our grandchildren. We didn't think it would be too difficult, but there were none to be had anywhere. Val bought one for her granddaughter and Charlotte decided to buy one for Ollie, her grandson. Unfortunately this was his reaction.

 

Not a success!

  We had a drive one day to a place called Oliva. It was once the municipal centre for the island. We expected a bustling little town with lots to see and do.

This was as bustling as it got!

It was quiet season, maybe it's busier in the high of the summer. We shall never know!