A 1968 Isle of Wight holiday featured in https://derrickjknight.com/2021/10/12/a-knights-tale-49-shanklin/
It will soon become clear why a day trip taken with Elizabeth, Rob, Adam, and Danni in the mid 1980s is somewhat hazy in my mind. In fact given the haziness of my mind on that occasion this is probably an accurate presentation. Jessica, Sam, Louisa, and I were spending a weekend with my sister and her family at The Firs, in Hampshire’s West End, when we decided to take a ferry trip to the island.
I woke in the morning feeling decidedly groggy and nevertheless, not prepared to put the kibosh on the day, insisted on continuing with the plan. It was probably on the journey over that, wrapped in a blanket I dozed in the bar downstairs – probably on the way back, too. All I remember is a quartet of children queuing to ask for money to feed the food and drink dispensing machines. Head buried beneath the blanket, I would stretch out an arm, on the end of which was a handful of coins. This was gradually stripped clean.
When we arrived wherever we found ourselves I staggered into the nearest churchyard, fell onto a generously proportioned gravestone, and slept soundly until the others returned from whence they had wandered.
We next stayed with our friends Sarah and Howard at Bembridge in August 2000. On their local beach
Jessica and Heidi towed Emily and Oliver in our dinghy;
Howard helped Jessica into their small yacht,
while Michael took over dinghy duties.
While there we took a trip to Sandown’s Yaverland Beach. Is this a special stone Emily is displaying?
Jessica tows Emily and Oliver in the dinghy;
then Oliver romps on the sand with his Dad who rows him out to sea.
Although we now live so close to the Isle I have never visited it since.