Sunglasses

Today the sun shone and whether I was inside or out I was sporting a pair of sunglasses.
Sunglasses, inside?  I hear you say.
Yep, today my sunglasses brooch was a must as 27th June is Sunglasses day.

And because I've had this song going round in my head all day I'm going to share it with you too.

Sweets and Treats

S has been beside herself with excitement, these weeks are chock full of extras.

School is always busy at this time and as another academic years draws to end this one also signals the end of her time at junior school as senior school beckons in September.

Last week was Enterprise week.

In July the Year 6 children have a trip to a big water park to look forward to.

Enterprise week is their opportunity to raise funding for it by coming up with money making ideas.

S and her group decided to make cakes and other treats.

This was her contribution.

We made these by dipping Oreo cookies into melted chocolate and then into hundreds and thousands.

It was a bit of a joint effort as G used his pen knife to fashion the end of the lolly sticks so they would fit into the cake pop holder S was going to use for displaying them.

Next exciting event is happening right now.

S is away for the weekend on a school trip.

An activity weekend on the Isle of Wight.

G had to drop S at school yesterday at 11.30.

He text me to say she had ants in her pants all morning and couldn't wait to get going.

The weather here has been very showery and we are just across the Solent from the Island so I expect they've been having similar downpours but I bet they're still having a huge amount of fun.

In Print

Look who was in our local paper.
Yep there's a smiling T telling everyone about Sue Ryder and why he has volunteered in one of their charity shops for 18 months.
He helps out on at least one day at weekends and he does extra days during the school holidays.
That will be changing now though as he has recently been offered a weekend job in a supermarket.
This he is absolutely thrilled about.
It was his first job interview and he was very nervous but hopefully he made a good impression.
Earning his own money is something he is very much looking forward to. He hopes to still be able to volunteer now and then as he has made a firm set of friends with the team there.
With school ending and new academic and workplace challenges beginning T will be busy.

Summer

The first day of summer.
May yours be full of sun, love and happiness.

Art Walk

Add the need to collect a parcel from the local sorting office to an art trail in the City and this combination gave us the opportunity to go on a circular walk.

All this took place one day last week during half term.

The last time we had a parcel to collect we made that a more interesting trip too and this time we even managed to figure in a pub stop for lunch.

We began on the boardwalk. Even though this has been in existence for a few years now this was actually the first time we'd used it.

I had forgotten my camera and I'm not used to the one on my phone so my photos aren't great.

This shows you how the boardwalk fits into the landscape. The train track on one side and the river on the other.

At the start of the boardwalk there is an information board and 3 metal statues. One is of Peter Waterfield the Olympic diver who lives and trained in Southampton. The second is of the mighty Matt Le Tiss. Both well deserved, huge achievements made in their respective careers and they have strong ties with the City.
The third statue is of Jane Austen. This world famous author did live in Southampton, but only for a couple of years and I feel this is a bit of a tenuous link.
Emily Davies would have been a much more worthier choice or maybe Chris or Jenny Packham? Just my opinion.

I can't share the statues with you as first off there was a chap sitting in front of them who showed no signs of moving and secondly someone had used a disposable BBQ in that spot and decided not to dispose of it.
Makes me furious when people are so inconsiderate with their rubbish.
Shall we have a photo of G and S instead? 
Yes, let's see their happy smiley faces.

As the tide was low S decided a bit of clambering was in order and there was also a bit of posing for the camera.

Once off the boardwalk and onto the road you come to an old pub which has been boarded up for a while. As we walked past I snapped the bulls eye glass window whilst desperately trying to remember what the pub was called.

The next thing to catch my eye was the art work on the shutters of a row of shops. Most of the shops have closed and to brighten the ugly grey shutters local people and artists worked together in the transformation, more can be seen here but these two were my favourites.

Next up is a bit of a mystery. There are two sets of these along the road we were walking along. Apparently they are cleats, used for securing ships at a dock, that much I can find out but why are they situated on a busy main road into town I have no idea. I have googled and can't find an answer, maybe I need to email someone at the council.

At the start of this post I mentioned that this walk was being done so we could follow an art trail. I hate to be negative about such initiatives but I felt this one fell short of the mark. This is the only piece of art we saw that I took a photo of.
The bright colours must look fabulous on a sunny day and we all laughed at the name of the road, but to be honest on the whole we saw more interesting things on our walk which weren't part of the art trail.

In the City centre we have several works of art dedicated to different parts of our history and this one opposite the mural looks to me to be by the same artist but I couldn't find any plaque nearby to give me some info about it and I can't find anything online either.

From here it was a walk over Northam bridge to the sorting office and now with the parcel collected we made our way past Bitterne Manor park where we saw these gates which I'm fairly sure are a new addition, but I could be wrong. The metal rectangles are reminiscent of roman shields which I suppose is a nod to the fact that this area was once a Roman settlement known as Clausentum.

Just past here we made our lunch stop and then carrying on once again our route took us past Riverside park where we went to look at an art installation in the trees. This wasn't part of the trail but couldn't be ignored.

The geese have been in situ for a while now and have recently undergone some renovation work as some were damaged in stormy weather.

From here it was just a hop, skip and a jump to where we had started off.

Not the walk we thought it was going to be but still plenty to see and good to be out and about.

Bestie

When I saw that today is Best Friends Day I knew in an instant who this post was going to be about.

Before starting senior school you get to go on a taster day.

A day to look around the new school, meet the teacher who will be your tutor group leader and most importantly see who your class mates will be.

T and I met that day in July 1980.

We looked for each other on the first day of the new September term and the rest, as they say, is history.

We shared so much during those senior school years. This is us, aged 15 I think, after we had made ourselves ready for an evening up at the Top Rank.
T doesn't know about my blog and so I don't think it's fair to post a picture of her which is why she has a cat face!
We have only ever fallen out once.
And that was my fault and it involved me being stupid about a boy and not valuing our friendship enough.
She is the one I asked to speak to social workers on my behalf when we needed character references before we adopted and she was the one who at my dad's funeral when it all got too much for me came over and hugged me tight.
I am honoured to be able to say T is my friend.

Quite Simple

to celebrate Hug Your Cat Day when there is a Melvin

and a Malcolm both ready to oblige.