Catch up and holiday

Isn't the weather great at the moment? Well, it is in Devon, so there!

A little update re Bert, he had his first operation a week ago and came through it nicely, however, the surgeon was not happy with him as something wasn't working (not sure what) so he was rushed into theatre for another op. Wednesday night and we are waiting to hear if that one has put things right. He'll be in hospital for another two weeks at least, then recooperating at his sister's house.

In the meantime, I got the dogs off to kennels for their stay and myself packed and ready for my holiday on the Isle of Wight. Disaster one was me trying to be efficient. I wanted to check if a spare camera disc had any photos on it that needed uploading and erasing but I put the disc into the camera sideways (not thinking straight) and damaged the connecting pins. I rushed down to Jessops and was told it would cost £150 to repair and take a week but as I was leaving in two days that was not acceptable. So I bit the bullet and bought a new camera, discs, and charger for my holiday.

As is predictable disaster 2 happened on the Sunday, the taxi was late because the driver was new and went to the wrong address. We then did a wheely down the roads to the coach and got there just in time - quite a start to a relaxing(!) holiday. We drove up to Taunton to pick up other passengers via several villages, twice round Wellington's column and then down to Worcester for a break and shopping in the outlet. The afternoon saw us arrive in Portsmouth for the ferry ride over the water - picture of the Spinaker Tower left.

I was so disappointed in the shortness of the trip across, barely half an hour and only time for one glass of wine before we headed back to the coach and I could still see the Spinaker Tower when we landed.

The Isle of Wight impressed me with its cleanliness and upkeep. There were no hovels or homeless dotted around, and money spoke everywhere. Surprisingly when we checked out the cost of housing, they were similar to Devon with just a few millions-costed houses available.

I won't bore you by taking you through all the tourist spots we went to over the next few days but there were a few that stood out for me. The best was Osbourne House, once owned by Queen Victoria and designed by Prince Albert. King Edward VII didn't want it so he gave it to the National Trust and as we were not allowed to use any technology whilst touring the house I could not take any photos, but outside was different and I managed to get some pictures to show the extent of the building and the photos show just one wing. The one room that stood out for me was the last we went through; a large room designed and built by an Indian Raja as a present for Queen Victoria. It was covered in ivory fretwork - the ceiling, walls and screens. All were carved beautifully and set against ruby red furnishings and mahogany stays. One can wonder how many elephants lost their tusks to furnish this room and that saddened me. Another thing I found out is that Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are both decended from Queen Victoria and are cousins a couple of times removed.

Tomorrow I'll put some more photos up.