I've just had two days off and spent quite a lot of my time on various trains.
Once a year I have to take S to Cambridge for a check up with the specialist eye unit based at Addenbrooke's.
It's a long day involving 3 trains, 2 tubes and one bus.
We've done the trip 4 times now and so know our route pretty well.
We go prepared.
When S was younger we would take sticker books and colouring books and this Shaun the Sheep book. As well as having a couple of stories it also contains 2 very basic games which we must have played hundreds of times on these and various other journeys over the years.
When S sorted out her book shelves this week this book was one she decided she no longer wanted. I must admit to feeling a little sad but hopefully when it goes off to the charity shop it will be bought by another family and enjoyed by them just as much.
G doesn't work Fridays and so he proposed we spend my second day off out and about somewhere together.
Bearing in mind we needed to be back in time for the end of the school day we needed somewhere within reasonable travelling distance.
The lure of a newly recommended vinyl record shop provided the idea for our destination in the end.
We took the train to Fratton.
I wouldn't recommend Fratton as a day out destination, there isn't very much on offer. Although we didn't really venture very far from the main high street, who knows there may have been some real architectural gems just waiting for us a street or two away. The vinyl shop was a bit of a let down too, lots of the stock was at a much higher price than G has seen in other places.
We did make a couple of purchases each in a Barnardos charity shop. G has two new shirts and I have a new tshirt and skirt. Like I need anymore clothes, but at £1.49 each I found them hard to resist.
A plus point for Fratton is that it's right next door to Southsea. In fact it's next to a part of Southsea we've never really explored before.
I was fascinated by all the buildings and array of housing we saw. Lots and lots of terraced houses but loads of huge detached Victorian villas, semi detached houses with attic rooms and cellars and all with such different features. If someone was organising a walking tour of the architecture in Southsea I'd be first in the queue to go.
One thing which was in abundance was original stained glass.
Another thing Southsea has a lot of is pubs, it seemed there was one on every street corner. Naturally we went into one for our lunch, The Bold Forester, in case you were wondering.
And churches, that's something else they have a lot of, it seemed there were nearly as many of those as there were pubs.
G ended up finding another vinyl shop and bought not 1, not 2 but 3 albums from off of his wish list. He was really chuffed with that little haul.
I found a car which looked like Mater
and at one point I may have said a bit too loudly and excitedly, 'oh my god there's a Tardis across the road.'
