Boring Football!!

I know, we've got football coming out of our ears. The World Cup is currently on in Russia. Not just on virtually every television channel known to man (stupid, it isn't but it feels like it at the moment.) You turn on the television expecting EastEnders (I don't watch it, but you know what I mean.) and the programme has been shifted to either another day or  later or earlier slot. If you don't watch, the alternative isn't exactly enticing. You can watch a second-hand episode of something else instead. Or the BBC has to celebrate the 70's birthday of the N.H.S., but rather over-does it with more or less wall-to-wall programmes. Not bad to celebrate, but it's just over-kill. You just can't avoid it, similar to how you can't avoid football.

The simple fact is, football bores me silly. I cannot see what's so exciting about 22 men running about on a piece of grass, chasing a ball and with the intention of kicking the thing into a net. It's just plain pointless. There's no sense in it at all. Similar, I suppose to cricket. Something I just don't get anything from. Maybe it was because I was never any good at either sport when I was at school (there is another blog post on this subject somewhere on here, so I may be repeating myself somewhat, but who cares?) We were made to spend hours and hours watching these wretched sports when I was at school, as well as having to play them. I was never any good, so I was virtually the last person selected when they were organising teams, so I was made to feel inferior because I wasn't any good and you can see why I have an eversion to team sports of this sort. Having to watch it on television is just as uninteresting. I suppose I can bear to watch Rugby because at least it has a sort of raw energy to it as a game, it's a contact sport and it's faster and angrier. They occasionally get covered in mud and all sorts of grime and dirt. It has a sort of Medieval battle feel about it.

I suppose the World Cup has the element of patriotism about it, 'come on England!' and all that jazz. But is it really? Unfortunately the sight of the national flag of England has connotations of the National Front and ultra-right wing politics about it. Which is unfair, I know, but I'm sure you'll agree where I'm coming from here. Those organisations who have a political agenda, usually with racist views, sadly. They use the national flag for their own use, as a sort of symbol.

There again, football does have the power to bring people together, to create bonds of friendship, which seems to be happening in Russia at the moment, which can't be a bad thing. Politics shouldn't come into sport, particularly when we have to remember what happened in Salisbury a few months back and the fact that Russia was supposed to have been behind that incident, but not actually proven.  At one point, in the lead up to the World Cup, it was suggested that we boycott the event, but fortunately it didn't come to that.

A Day Out At Avebury

A few weeks ago, when we were on our way to meet the In-Laws in Salisbury, we broke our journey at Avebury. We were there no more than 30 minutes. It was an excuse to have a coffee and snack before continuing to our destination. Up until then, we hadn't really realised that Avebury was such an extensive place. We visited the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire a few years ago and had imagined that Avebury would have been similar. How wrong could we be? The stone circles and earthworks which make up the landscape is huge. On Saturday we decided to make a proper day of it and left home around 8.15. It wasn't too sunny either. The last few weeks we've had exceptionally warm and unseasonal weather, which is all very nice when you can get into some shade, but if you are working (which Carol has been.) it can be quite difficult. But on Saturday it was bright but not sunny. We had around a 2-hour journey there and this time, I had my new Canon digital camera fully charged, because last time we visited, part-way through my photography was interrupted when the battery gave up, unfortunately.

The landscape is quite breathtaking. It seems to creep up on you totally unexpectedly. And then these enormous stones appear within this landscape. The actual village of Avebury is strange when you think it's been built within the stone circles. We've visited Stonehenge (which is a short distance from Avebury.) and that is spectacular, but I think Avebury, together with the stones and the earthworks which comprise the total landscape, is far more spectacular.

We started off in the café, as we had done around a month ago, and then walked up onto the surrounding hills where we took some photographs. We came back and then visited the Manor, which is part of the complex and managed by the National Trust. As members, we had free entry. I have to say it was interesting, but not as interesting as many other National Trust properties we've visited. What was different was that none of the furnishings within the rooms on display were genuine. It had been transformed by the BBC for a television series called  "The Manor Reborn" when each of the rooms in the manor was decorated and furnished to represent various periods through British history, for example, a bedroom to represent the Tudor era and a lounge to represent the 1930's Art Deco period. Whether it worked I'm not sure, but the idea was to attempt to make each room not only accessible to visitors, but to allow people to interact with the furniture and other items, unlike in other properties you might visit, particularly those owned and run by the National Trust, where you are not allowed to touch anything, sit on the furniture or touch the various items on display. A good idea up to a point, but it didn't seem in any way genuine and had the definite feeling of being a set for a play or television drama. I think the National Trust should be careful to not make their properties seem more like attractions in a theme park and make sure that the properties are, wherever possible, as genuinely historical as possible and not attempt to be persuaded to make them 'popular' just for the sake of it. The people we were with when we visited the manor seemed to be having a good time, being able to dress up in period costume and sit on the furniture etc, which was  a good enough reason to have the manor as it was.

We then went out into the garden in which the manor sits. There was a great collection of sculpture scattered amongst the flowerbeds which we spent time looking at and we photographed several of them.

This is only a small selection of the sculptures we saw in the garden at Avebury Manor

We went into the village shop to buy drinks. As Carol is diabetic, it was incredibly difficult to find sugar-free drinks. It seems that manufacturers of any sort of drink seem incapable of making any drink which has no sugar in it. Why do some drinks, which are marketed as being 'light' have so much sugar in them? What does 'light' refer to? Is it the fat content or the sugar? We also bought a rather magnificent map of Avebury which we hope to get framed and then hang it in our lounge. Good value at only £5.

From the shop, we decided we'd seen all we wanted to. There is far more to see, such as Silbury Hill as well as The White Horse chalk figure at Uffington and Wayland's Smithy, which is around half way home on the journey back to Milton Keynes, which we intend visiting in the near future.

A Visit to the In-Laws

Carol's parents live in Bournemouth. We see them infrequently. It's a good three-hour drive there and then back and usually, it's on the same day. We have been to Bournemouth and stayed in a hotel, but that was a few years ago. We last saw them in Southampton during the Easter holidays. We had planned to visit them when we had our holiday down near Petworth which was then abandoned when the weather became really bad. (see earlier post.) So, this time, we organised things so we met up with them in Salisbury, which is about a two-hour car journey from Milton Keynes. They would come up by bus from Bournemouth and arrive in Salisbury at 11.30. We left home at around 8.45 and decided we'd stop on the journey down and choose to visit Avebury, as we were interested in seeing the stone circle. I set the SatNav and we set off, getting to Avebury a little after 10.15. We had coffee and cake in the National Trust café on the site. We weren't expecting the place to be so extensive. We visited the Rollrights stone circle in the Cotswolds a few years ago (see earlier post.) and had seen an item about Avebury on television a week or two ago and then realised that they were close to Salisbury and would make a good place to stop on our journey down. The landscape around that area of Wiltshire is really amazing. We have visited Stonehenge a few years ago and when we went down to Chloe and Steve's wedding in Devon three years ago we stopped at Woodhenge, which is a few miles up the road from Stonehenge and was a good place to break that journey. We weren't at Avebury very long as we needed to be at Salisbury by 11.30.  As our visit to Avebury was brief and also the fact that my Canon camera died whilst I was attempting to take photographs, basically because I hadn't charged the battery fully, we quite intend revisiting at a later date to explore the area fully. We had intended texting Carol's mum to let them know we were on our way, but when I attempted to text, using my mobile, I couldn't find a signal. On several more occasions I attempted to text, as we drove on, having left Avebury, there was no mobile signal. I'm surprised by this situation, considering how mobile technology has advanced, but perhaps it's because it's a relatively sparse area of the country, population-wise. Then we got held up by traffic and especially farm traffic, spending some considerable time stuck behind a tractor and trailer drawing a load of straw which got caught under trees and brought down leaves and twigs and bits of branch as it brushed below overhanging trees.

We arrived at the Salisbury Park-and-Ride carpark. We got there just as a bus was leaving but the next one wasn't much later so we boarded it. I don't have to pay as I have a card which means I get free journeys. I was never sure whether this could be used outside Milton Keynes, but I soon discovered that it can which saves quite a lot in travel costs. We were to meet Carol's parents outside Debenhams, but we got off too early and then had to find where Debenhams was. It seemed that every time we asked someone we met they had no idea, but it was in the Market Square. We saw both Carol's mum and dad, but on the other side of the road and crossed over. We then made for a Wetherspoons pub, the King's Head, to have coffee.

I wanted to visit the cathedral. For one thing, it's so full of history. There is a copy of Magna Carta in there. And possibly the oldest clock in either this country or the world. Or something. And what's wrong with just being awed by the sheer magnificence of such a building? How can you not be, when you think how old it is and how incredible to imagine how they built something that size without the aid of modern technology such as cranes. Also, getting great slabs of stone up to the top of the tower without our modern lifting machinery, safety standards etc.

If you want further information about Magna Carta, here's a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta. There are apparently four surviving copies of this document in this country, one being Salisbury Cathedral, the other Lincoln and another in the British Library.

We sat on a bench in a park near the cathedral. Carol had made up a really nice mixture of rolls and fruit which we ate. The water meadows could be seen across the river and then I realised that the painter, John Constable, had executed several paintings of this very view, but seen from the opposite side. I have found the painting on the Tate gallery website.

Salisbury Cathedral, John Constable, 1820

We wandered the town, looking in stores and then made our way back, as if by some magnetic force, to the Wetherspoons we'd been to earlier and had tea. Unfortunately, it wasn't very nice. I make tea at home, but I can control the various elements such as boiling the water, the brand of teabag used, sugar etc etc but what we had here, or at least, what I drank, was unpleasant. 

Time was ticking on. Carol's mum and dad had come from Bournemouth on a bus and the next one was due to leave to return there shortly. We ambled back towards the bus stop outside Debenham's. We went into Marks and Spencers on the way as Carol wanted to see if they had a knitted top she had seen in their Milton Keynes store. There was a sale on, and, after hunting through the racks of clothes on sale, actually found the same item and bought it. 

The bus was standing at the bus stop on the Market Square near Debenhams, so Carol's parents boarded and the bus left. Soon our bus came in, and we returned to the park-and-ride car park to begin our journey home, directed by the SatNav. It had certainly been a strange day, long and tiring. We arrived back in Milton Keynes at around 6.30.

I am currently reading a book by Bill Bryson. It's called "The Road To Little Dribbling: More Notes from A Small Island." The subtitle refers to his earlier book, which was published 20 years ago. I read it then and enjoyed it enormously. He wanders around Great Britain and mentions many places and makes comments about them. An American who has an obvious affection for the quirks and idiosyncracies of this country. By sheer coincidence I have read his piece in chapter 11 where he mentions Avebury and discusses how it is managed by the National Trust.

Wedding and Holiday In Devon

I haven't been on this blog for quite a while. Infact, almost a month. For one good reason; Carol is on holiday from Milton Keynes Academy. We have been down to Devon for my daughter, Chloe's, wedding at the village of Ipplepen. We drove down on the 2nd August and the wedding was the next day. We stayed in Ilfracombe and we stayed in a John Fowler Holiday Park. We were there for the rest of the following week and came back home on the Friday. We went via Bournemouth so that we could visit Carol's parents who live there. We had intended originally to meet up with them in Salisbury on the way down but they couldn't get there much before 12 midday and we wouldn't have had enough time with them to make it worth while as we had to be in Ipplepen that evening to meet Chloe and see the church and then drive on to find the holiday accomodation in Ilfracombe. As it turned out it took longer than we had anticipated to drive across Devon to Ilfracombe. Infact it took us over 2 hours, by which time it was dark and it took us even longer to find the holiday park. The following morning we left at around 6.45 to drive back to Ipplepen but found a far quicker route as we had to be there for 10.00. The wedding service was at 12.30.
It was great that there was a swimming pool on the holiday park site. We had made sure we had bought our swimming costumes with us and it was nice and relaxing to swim. I haven't been swimming since having my heart attack. We have, since returning home, joined the local DW fitness club near the  Milton Keynes football stadium and joined up with membership. It has a gym as well as a swimming pool and there are two Jacuzzis. We went for a free tester session and did around 8 lengths of the pool, but we spent quite a long time in the jacuzzi and came out feeling really relaxed.
We visited a couple of National Trust properties when we were in Devon, one was Arlington Court and the other was Castle Drogo. This was in the process of being restored and it was very interesting to be able to see this being done, particularly how they were restoring a property which had been left to deteriate considerably.