Thursday 25 July
Afternoon ferry to Liverpool and stop off at Cheshire Oaks before our stay overnight at HIE in Shrewsbury.
Friday 26 July
A few hours with Flic & Cody with a meal out by the Kennet & Avon canal at Pewsey Wharf at the Waterfront Bar and Grill before we head off for our overnight stay at Portsmouth North in the Holiday Inn Express ready for our ferry the next morning.
The landlord of the Pewsey Wharf is a character and the food good value for money (4 adults + an infant including drinks was £110).
Saturday 27 July
Rain for a change after a week of hot weather and the boat is absolutely packed as, once again, the fast ferry was Cancelled so lots of passengers had been transferred to the slow boat we had been booked on. Even the Club Lounge was full.
Sunday 28 July
Breakfast at Cafe Ouen and time on the beach watching Harry and Sarah surf with Sarah’s friend, Tracey after a last visit for Harry to Sarah’s old office.
Monday 29 July
Take Harry to Corbiere for a play in the rocks before lunch at Quennevais Sports Centre and, for Harry, a scoot around the cycle track.
Tuesday 30 July
A dull day and we are out for lunch with Laura & Jim in Gorey as Sarah is working at home today due to her office move.
That said, some of the time was spent preparing Harry’s home made volcano which, when we were home was well demonstrated to us.
Wednesday 31 July
We take Harry to the cinema – Toy Story 4 – and then Harry and Sal go on the open top Beach Bus whilst I negotiate the stupid paying arrangements for the underground car park before meeting them at St Brelade’s Church and lunch on the rocks at Corbiere
Thursday 1 August
The Pallot steam Museum is open daily but the two circuit Standard Gauge Steam train runs on Summer Thursday’s only and whilst we had taken Harry last year, another visit was always worthwhile.
Harry brought his own “hand me down” camera and was enjoying himself taking photos whilst we went round.
Even the tour around the Museum showed up some new exhibits since last year, or perhaps I just don’t remember them.
An afternoon visit to one of Harry’s favourites, Rocco’s mini-golf – he didn’t “cheat” as much as he had in the past!
Friday 2 August
A visit to a WWII gun emplacement at Noirmont which Harry was interested in and from where you could view all along the South Coast of Jersey followed by 10 pin bowling (I hurt my bum!).
Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 August
Not a lot happening so a restful sort of weekend with a walk down St Catherine’s and a visit to the Sand sculptures.
Monday 5 August
Ski school for Harry in rainy weather and after dropping him off, we head for Colleen’s at Greve de Lecq for our regular breakfast. It is such a nice place to have a bought breakfast when in Jersey.
Tuesday 6 August
Meet up with an old colleague, Anne Holden at Ransom’s Garden Centre and bump into another Coutts colleague, Karen White who I haven’t seen for close on 17 years.
Out for an Indian meal with Laura & Jim at an old NWB branch at St Aubin. Very crowded and noisy and slow service but at least you know it is being cooked fresh. Food OK but I must admit, we have tasted better Indian meals.
Wednesday 7 August
A brief visit to St Helier and I now have a MacBook Air.
Thursday 8 August
Dull and rainy start to the day. Coffee at Poplar’s tea room, it has been 20 years since we last went there, I think, and the place is still as I remember it – old fashioned.
Whilst the tea and coffee were OK, the scone was a tad hard, possibly yesterday’s.
Traffic bad as today is Battle of Flowers but we avoid the worst.
Friday 9 August
Sand delivery, lunch with Sue at Colleen’s, not crowded. Harry didn’t win a hat 😕
Saturday 10
Another breakfast at Colleen’s (do you get the impression we like the place?) followed by a visit to town for Sarah to update her phone. Collect Mel from airport – she is looking after Harry next week – it was a bumpy ride from Liverpool we pack up to go home.
Our overnight traditional ferry is 2 hours late because of unseasonable strong winds with the fast one already cancelled. That’s a bit like coming over when the fast one was cancelled – you can see why we use the traditional one.
The ferry is going to be crowded again. In fact it left close on 3 hours late with Guernsey still to call at! But, we had already booked a cabin so we were alright despite it being somewhat rough – force 7-8 winds between Jersey and Guernsey.
Sunday 11 August
Ferry only an hour late into Portsmouth but that means we have an hour extra in bed and the sea was a lot calmer after Guernsey or maybe we were so tired we just didn’t notice!
Off to Flic’s where we empty the car of clothes and toys from Sarah and head off to the Swindon & Cricklade Railway for a ride on the train and view of the steam tractors, rollers.
There was supposed to be a spitfire flypast but we didn’t see it.
A fascinating restoration project has just started to a locomotive 35011 General Steam Navigation which apparently will take about 20 years to complete – there’s dedication for you.
Cody doesn’t protest at night time tonight- the first time for a long time, we obviously wore him out.
Monday 12 August
We have Cody to ourselves this morning before Flic and Laura join us for a visit to Rowde near Devizes and the Rowdey farm for lunch, a play for Cody on the playground and a look at the animals including a Rhea, and young cows.
We now have some rhubarb and Daisies for our garden.
Tuesday 13 August
An early start and we are off to Coleford to see Rob before heading north for our smooth crossing ferry home after Lunch at Dobbie’s Garden Centre in Shrewsbury and a food shop in Sainsbury’s at Cheshire Oaks.
Now a few days rest before visitors for the Manx Grand Prix and festival of Biking.
More Travels with the Reads II 