CLIVE AND THE NEW FOREST

The start of the half term holiday involved a visit to my old colleague Clive Bowring who lives in a little village called Fritham in the New Forest. As it was a Bank Holiday and we were warned of heavy traffic on the roads, we decided to leave early. As seems to be the case with English Bank Holidays it rained for the whole weekend!!
The traffic was quite normal and we arrived at Winchester by 9am, and having told Clive to expect us about midday, we decided to spend some time here and have another look at the famous Winchester Cathedral. A bite of breakfast first and then we spent an enjoyable couple of hours touring round this magnificent cathedral. The librarium contains some of the oldest publications in the land -going back to the 12th century and quite fascinating.

We duly arrived at Clive's who welcomed us with a bottle of Moet Chandon. He had invited his friend Dave (he shares the Rigid Inflatable Boat which they had had built)and we were soon off for a drive through the forest.Despite the rain,which fortunately eased off, we ambled through this beautiful forest and ssaw the seasons new batch of New Forest colts.Beautiful long legged creatures. We went to Brockenhurst where I had lived in the early 1930's and the photo above is of the old Police Station where my Dad was the village bobby all those years ago - now a private dwelling. We went on into Lymington and had drinks in a harbourside Pub, then back to Fritham. Clive and Dave cooked Spaghetti Bolognaise which was not my cup of tea, but accompanied by several nice bottles of wine, the evening was a success!

Next morning we decided to take a high speed ferry across to the Isle of Wight from Southampton and wandered around Cowes in the rain. Carol bought herself a Hooded Jacket to fend off the cold and I managed to find a very nice shirt with an IOW Logo. Lunch in a super little pub was very acceptable. Back at Fritham Clive had planned to go out to Lyndhurst for a Chinese meal, but I managed to persuade him that it was too miserable an evening for such a venture and offered to cook tea. Clive had six eggs in his fridge (and little else!) so he phoned his Pub just up the road (he owns it!) and the landlords came around for a drink and brought some ham and tomatoes so that I could make omelettes. A few more wines and a malt for a nightcap and a good nights sleep was inevitable.

We drove home via Hartley Wintney where we had a super lunch with my brother Peter and his wife Mary, and then a quick drive up the Motorway home. A most successful visit despite the weather.

It was great catching up with Clive again, and I have no doubt that he will be visiting Australia once again before too long.