Winchester – derrickjknight

Last night, bang on time, at 9.50 p.m. two sleeping children were decanted from their car and carried upstairs to the spare room at The Firs. This was a very impressive piece of Satnav prediction for the journey of Louisa and Errol from Nottingham. Apart from one brief interlude around 2.00 a.m. Jessica and Imogen slept soundly until 5.30 when Louisa entertained them until after 7. Despite the intercom to their parents bedroom, it happened to be me who heard Imogen call for her mother. She had lost her Bobby, her soft toy she cannot sleep without. The girls were sharing a large double bed, and somehow Bobby had found himself on the other side of Jessica. When Jessica discovered him, all was well, and uninterrupted sleep resumed.

In the morning it was good to see that we had scored with the cereals we chose for the children. Imogen normally doesn’t eat cereal, but she tucked into two bowlfuls. The parents went off for a day on their own, and Elizabeth cared for the two girls for the rest of the morning whilst Jackie and I went into Winchester to collect the keys for our new Minstead flat.

Louisa and Errol’s two daughters are a real pleasure to entertain. Both are sweet natured, never complain, and are undemanding. So, when Jackie and I took them off for the afternoon to Peppa Pig World at Paultons Park, off the M27 at junction 2, we knew we would all have an enjoyable time, which we did. Whilst our charges were interested in the rides, they got easily as much pleasure from rolling down an artificial hill, and, Imogen especially, from the cartoon’s model figures distributed around the park. We missed the penguins’ feeding time, but found them interesting anyway. The feature we did not miss, and the highlight of the afternoon, was the half hour when real live Peppa and George Pig emerged from their house and entertained the throngs grasping at the railings which protected them from being overrun by eager children and their camera-wielding carers. Jackie, who held Imogen up so she could see properly, could not prise her away from this feature for at least fifteen minutes, and then only after the child had succeeded in shaking George’s hand.

The rides all required an adult to be accompanying a child under eight. This, unfortunately, meant Jackie and I had to join the girls in the balloon ride.

We ate lunch from one of the fast food outlets that are plentiful in the grounds. The children enjoyed chicken nuggets, Jackie approved of her spicy bean burger, and I managed to eat my bland Rio Grande cheeseburger; all with chips. I drank water and the children had apple juice. The girls each had a pencil which needed sharpening in their set meal box. Jackie just happened to have a pencil sharpener in her handbag. so she sharpened the pencils, but expressed some puzzlement as to why the pencils had not been eaten. Whilst I guarded our belongings Jackie took the girls off to a stall where they each won a soft toy doughnut. Somehow or other these doughnuts ended up on Peppa and George’s heads in the schoolroom. Jackie observed that, although in Paulton’s Park before entering Peppa Pig World, one could buy hot dogs (presumably containing pork), such victuals were not available in the outlets in the porcine area. This seemed only fair, really.

We had a trip to the Peppa Pig toyshop, which was in grave danger of competing with the brassrubbing session with Matthew and Becky described on 17th October. When Jessica chose Peppa Pig’s Teddy, I was quite happy with that. Imogen then chose two smaller characters. Which meant Jessica had to have something else. So Imogen grasped another, which was a larger one, George’s dinosaur in fact……… and so on, not ad infinitum, because I drew the line at four. I’ve learned a little bit about drawing lines in the intervening years since that trip to St. James’ Church.

The last half hour or so of the trip took place in the indoor soft play area, the best part of which was the long slides which were perfect for shooting down alongside your recently acquired soft toys, each of which had to make the descent in turn.

We then met Louisa and Errol at Castle Malwood Lodge and impressed them both with our new abode while their two daughters played with the Pig family on the sitting room floor. Back at The Firs Mum and Danni and Andy joined us for a roast lamb meal prepared jointly by Jackie, Elizabeth and Danni. Apple pie, tarte tatin, and bread and butter pudding, were the desserts on offer. Red and white wines, Stella, and cider, were imbibed. Before the meal we were entertained by fireworks provided by Danni and Errol. Louisa said this was the first year they had been able to have fireworks without a child being very frightened. A fun evening was had by all.

A glimpse into the chidren’s bedroom revealed that they had gone to bed with the entire Pig family.

Whilst seated in the arbour at The Firs this morning, Jackie and I speculated about how the hedgehog had got itself perched up on the top of an unidentified tree.

Mike Kindred telephoned me and we talked through my views on a new Listener Crossword he is preparing for publication. Although there were a couple of clues I didn’t greatly appreciate, the general idea and its execution I thought were excellent. As we usually solve each other’s puzzles cold, that is without any assistance, and this one involved cracking a code, I spent rather a long time on it and had to confess myself beaten. Codes in advanced cryptic crosswords are my weak point. We agreed that Mike’s title for the puzzle doesn’t quite work, and are both therefore thinking about another.

Leaving Jackie to the gardening, Elizabeth and I went off to Winchester with Mum to change a couple of pairs of slippers which didn’t fit. We had a great deal of trouble finding a parking spot. Even disabled bays were all full. At last we found a space in what turned out to be a loading bay. Mum is now able to walk a short distance with the aid of two sticks. We helped her out of the car and I walked her to the first of the shoe shops she was to visit, while Elizabeth sorted out the car. We sat on seats in the shoe shop, explaining that we needed to change Mum’s slippers which would be arriving in a minute. I assured the puzzled assistant that they did not possess magical qualities, and would be carried in by Elizabeth. When my sister entered the shop she said parking was not allowed there and several people had tickets. A woman in a car in front was disabled and had not been given a ticket, so Elizabeth felt sure she would herself be safe from being charged with transgression. I wasn’t so sure, and volunteered to go back and stand guard over the car. Soon after I arrived a large, fully loaded, car drew up and the driver asked me about parking facilities. I recounted our fruitless search, and told him what I was doing. As a woman and two children emerged from his car, he decided to do the same.

Naturally we got talking. James, the driver, was a very large opulent looking gentleman who had driven all the way from Croydon, to transport his friends to Winchester to buy school uniform. A very friendly man, he sported a huge jewelled cross around his neck and wore a decorative shirt and cream winkle-picker shoes. He was proud of the boy he had brought down from Lewisham, because he had won a scholarship to a school which cost £35,000 a year. His siblings, the children of a wealthy Nigerian family, not being so intelligent, were fee-paying pupils. I didn’t ask how many there were.

My conversationalist began to wonder how he was ‘going to get out of here’. He indicated some rather confusing traffic signs. He thought they must mean he should turn right, but there was another sign forbidding this. My reading was that cars should go straight on. This would mean ploughing through pedestrians enjoying shopping in the sunshine. And we didn’t think, if he left first, Mum would be able to get out of the way. We were in a one-way street. Every car which travelled down it whilst we were there, either turned right, or reversed back up to the entrance to the street. I told James that Elizabeth would know what we were meant to do. She did. She explained we should go straight on and turn left at Monsoon. He didn’t look convinced. We went straight on and Elizabeth did a pretty good impersonation of Moses parting the waves of the Red Sea.

We went on to visit the National Trust’s Winchester City Mill. This is a mediaeval mill, recently restored to full working order. Elizabeth dropped us off as near to the mill as she could and I walked Mum to the mill, holding up the traffic for her to cross the road. Our mother was justifiably pleased that she could negotiate several flights of steep steps and take herself across a metal grill with only the help of a handrail, because her sticks would have gone through the grill. Always a determined character, she was dead set on seeing the mill works. I bought Elizabeth some hardy perennial plants which we left at the till until we left the mill. At least, that was the intention. As we were reaching West End, I remembered them. They are still at the till. Until Elizabeth collects them.

It had been a beautiful morning, but the sky clouded over soon after we returned. I was able to trim the lawn edges preparatory to mowing, which will have to wait until tomorrow.

This evening Elizabeth, Jackie, and I relaxed and ate in Eastern Nights. We were their only dining in customers, and the new waiter who recognised us from another restaurant whose employment he had just left, spent a lot of time chatting to us.