October & November - Retirement Novelty Fades

How quickly one adapts to a new normal.  Although it's only six months since leaving IBM, it feels like another era.  I've also been stunningly delinquent in keeping up with regular blog updates - good intentions and all that...

Over the past couple of months I've been busy: three more trips in the motorhome; a family holiday to Israel; a weekend hotel break with Linda; another long distance path; further gardening efforts; a laser cutter project completed and some regular volunteering started at church.

The motorhome has continued to provide regular use.  I've used it for another two LARP (Live Action Role Playing) events - one as a player and the other as part of the crew team.  I think I'd now be very unwilling to go back to using a tent.  I also went for a short break with Tazmin to the New Forest, which was her first opportunity to experience the motorhome and resulted her achieving her longest walk ever. ( Click Here for walk photos and details. )

Over the autumn half-term break, we went to Israel.  Since Linda is still teaching part time, we're limited to school holidays, but she doesn't work Mondays or Fridays.  To maximise our time, we left UK on Thursday evening, returning ten days later on a Monday evening.

Hanging out in Capernaum

Linda and I went with my Father, Louise and Cordelia and my son-in-law, Jamie.  For more Israel holiday details, some walking madness and photos - click here.

In November Linda and I went on a quick hotel break to Herefordshire, staying in The Pilgrim Hotel about half way between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye.  Not much walking as conditions were super wet, but we had a chance to explore both Hereford and Ross-on-Wye over the two days we had.  The highlight for me was visiting Hereford cathedral and seeing the Mappa Mundi and the chained library - well worth a visit if ever you get a chance.

The Mappa Mundi - about 700 years old, largest medieval map known to exist

And that's what the UK looks like on the map!

The Chained Library - so many really old books!

Hereford Cathedral

Back in September I ticked off another long distance path that's been on my 'to do' list for a while.  The Three Castles Path links Windsor to Winchester.  I did the walk over two days.  Click here if you'd like to see what I got up to and some photos.

On the gardening front, I've simply not kept on top of all the stuff I wanted to do.  There have been a couple of areas of improvement.  There's a large oak tree that's been increasingly bothering me.  It's adjacent to a border with one of our Quelm Park neighbours and given the size, must have completely blocked the sunlight from their garden for most of the day.  It had also started to impact the growth of some of the smaller trees in my orchard area.  When we moved into our home over twenty years ago the tree was not an issue - time changes that.  I'm pleased to say that armed with my trusty Stanley saw, a pile of ropes and a long ladder, the oak tree is no longer an issue.  I've also finally got round to clearing the back of the garage as well as clearing the flower bed adjacent to our neighbours garage.  As always seems to be the case for gardening, much more to do.

	Before	After
A dramatic difference to the skyline.  It must have significantly improved the light in my neighbours garden!
A rampant kiwi vine along with brambles had been left to fester for too long.  Now we can see our neighbour's garage.
More clearance work at the back of our garage.  I don't think I've ever seen that concrete path before.

Back inside, I've started playing with the laser cutter again and just completed my latest project: an advent calendar for Linda.  What started as, "something I'll quickly knock up" ended up taking me far more time than I anticipated.  As these projects always do - and for some reason I'm always surprised!  I'm particularly pleased with a latch type mechanism that I implemented that means the draws gently click into place when you insert them and won't fall out even if the whole calendar is shaken whilst holding face down.  For scale - the front face you can see is about A3.

The contents of draw 1 after Linda opened it on Sunday

Finally, one of my intentions upon retiring was to spend some time helping at church and I'm very pleased to now be helping with some of the office admin on Wednesday afternoons.  So far it's interesting and I'm enjoying it - but then I've only just started.  Will see how it goes.

Bognor, Brighton and Arcade Antics

So last weekend Linda and I went on our second break away in the motorhome (I really need to come up with a cool name for it - suggestions welcome).  This time for three nights rather than just one.  My mother-in-law, Ann, joined us in her caravan and Cordelia came too.

Convoy Ready to Roll

Since it was all rather last minute, unsurprisingly during the summer school holidays the majority of camp sites we called were full!  Eventually we found a camp site that had vacancies for a motorhome and a caravan - so to Bognor Regis we went.  Since we'd left pretty late on the Saturday, having had to wait for Cordelia to finish work, we didn't really have much time in the evening other than setting up and preparing some food.  All in the motorhome was working as expected and a good nights sleep was had.

Sunday was an opportunity to explore the quaint holiday destination that is Bognor Regis.  It didn't disappoint.  Heading into town, on route to the beach, it proved impossible for the ladies not to be distracted by the shops.  I bought a newspaper and camped in a coffee shop, awaiting further developments.  Eventually we made it to the sea front and ended up at the Pier.

Bognor Sea Front

The beach was pretty empty, but given the typical British summer weather of cold drizzle, not really surprising.  It turned out that the Amusement Arcade on the pier was the place to be.  Lured by the bright lights and the promise of prizes to be won, we wandered in.  After a brief look round, I left to have a coffee in the cafe at the entrance to the arcade, anticipating that I'd be swiftly joined.  I was wrong.  It turned out that the lure of easy money had been too strong.  Investigating, I found all three of them...

Absorbed by a 'pusher game'

It was one of those coin waterfall type games where you slot in a 2p coin in the hope it will settle on the sliding shelf and result in displacing more coins for you to collect.  Attention was fixated on a five pound note, tantalisingly close to falling off the edge to be collected by the lucky punter who happened to insert a timely coin.

So close to falling

Surely it wouldn't take £5 worth of coins to displace it.  This must be worth a punt.  And so another set of suckers were reeled in.  250 2p coins later, the note was still sitting stubbornly on the edge - still looking like one more go would push it over.  Defeat was accepted and that was that.  Time to go - or so I thought.  While Linda and Ann had had enough, Cordelia wanted more.  You see, not only did the pusher game give the chance of untold riches, but through some impenetrable algorithm also dispensed tickets during play.  The result of feeding in many many coins into the slot had given us a couple of hundred tickets.  And tickets can be exchanged for prizes.  Cordelia reasoned that having started collecting tickets, we should continue to do so until we had enough to claim a prize, so our five pounds would not have been wasted.  She had set her heart on a mug that cost 1500 tickets!!!

	Cordelia:	Do you wanna stay and play more games to try win a mug.
	Me:	No, that's stupid.
	Cordelia:	Oh please, it will be fun!
	Me:	No - it's a waste of money.
	Cordelia:	The money will be spent on the good time and memories we'll have together.
	Me:	Give the tickets to a kid.
	Cordelia:	But I earned them.
	Me:	No - I don't want to.
	Cordelia:	Yes you do
	Me:	No, I'm not going to do it.
	Cordelia:	Pleeeeease
	Me:	No.
	Cordelia:	Just to get the mug.
	Me:	No.
	Cordelia:	Yes, go on.
	Me:	OK

And that's how I ended up playing various games for tickets on Bognor Regis pier.  Having played a fish shooting game, a basket ball throwing game, a Willy Wonka game and I think there may have been something else, it became clear that at the rate we were winning tickets, this was going to be a really expensive mug.  I'm guessing that so far we'd probably spent about £15 to win about 1000 tickets.  We then had a go at a duel player space invaders game.  A pound each to play and we sat next to each other on a bench with a gun that we aimed at a large screen.  This was fun.  We didn't do great on the ticket front, but I was convinced we could do better if we had another go.  Two more pound coins in the slot and we played again.  We played a blinder, beautifully coordinated, picking off the aliens, hitting the bonus ships, manic mayhem, they came faster and faster and we blasted them.  And then it was over. But a new high score and a mega ticket bonus!

We both got an additional 1000 tickets!

This was great!  This was the highlight of my holiday.  The screen flashed!  The colours cycled through.  It flashed more!  People were looking round to see what had happened.  And the tickets, the tickets they kept on coming, the space invaders machine spitting them out, on and on and on.  And onlookers stopped in their tracks to see what was happening.  And the tickets kept coming.  That mug was gonna be coming home.

Those tickets are still coming....

Not only would Cordelia be taking home a hard won mug, but I would be taking one too.  Let me tell you, life doesn't get much better than this.  I admit I was wrong and Cordelia was right.  It was fun.  It will be a great memory.

The Coveted Mug 

After that excitement it's all downhill from here.  More shops, chips from a seaside chippy and Weatherspoons for supper.

During a drink or two in Weatherspoons, discussion flowed on tomorrows activities.  I was suggesting we could go for a more ambitious walk than "one mile into town".  However, there was little support for this notion and the winning notion was "driving to Brighton and spending the day shopping".  I was outvoted three to one.  As a throw away comment, Ann said, "You could always walk and meet us there."  Ha! Challenge accepted.

And so it happened.  (Click here for walk details and photos)  I met up with Linda, Cordelia and Ann in Brighton in time for a couple of beers and an evening meal.  We ate at Bon Appetit - an 'all you can eat' buffet restaurant in the town centre. A big plus from me on quantity and value - however the food was pretty bland and distinctly underwhelming.  I don't think we'll be back.

Tuesday morning saw Cordelia and I heading back to sunny Bracknell with Linda staying on with Ann in the Caravan for a few more days.  It turned out to be a fun weekend break and the motorhome continued to please.  I think I'm done with Bognor, OK for one trip, but I can't see myself longing to go back.

How far would you walk for a burger?

Having been invited to the annual departmental barbecue, which is held at IBM's site in Hursley near Winchester, it made sense to me to use it as an excuse for walking the South Downs Way.

It was British summer at it's best, with five days of sun and no hint of rain.  The visibility was fantastic, providing excellent views of Southern England throughout the length of the trail.

Click here for further details of the walk and selected photos.

Progress: 3 out of 16 National Trials in the bag.  No idea at the moment which my next one will be - sometime in September probably.

First Retirement Walk

One of my retirement plans has always been to indulge in my passion for walking.  Over the past week I completed a trail that's been on my to do list for a while - Hadrian's Wall Trail.

Click here for further details of the walk and photos.

Progress: 2 out of 16 National Trials in the bag.  So now to planning my next one, hopefully the South Downs Way.