Walk or scoot or cycle?
While you have been lost in the woods, aliens have landed.
Though nobody seems too concerned.
At last an arrow
Did you have any idea where you were?
Did you find your way home?
Saturday Stroll – Meandering Mapless
bournemouth
Traication
A Traication is when you go on holiday by train so you cannot take everything but the kitchen sink. Packing has to be undertaken with great planning. I cheat by having a huge bag of stuff at the headquarters of Team H, so I only have to stuff clothes, Kindle, sandwiches and water in my rucksack, though it’s still heavy. People do get on the train with suitcases big enough for a kitchen sink and I have seen women with rucksacks big enough for a commando training exercise. My main aim is to be able to get on and off the train and negotiate the underground.
You could spend hours on line getting the best bargains by booking a specific train or a journey split into several stages on the same route. A friend naturally assumed you had to get off the train and catch a different one so she was surprised to hear on the last stage she could have stayed on the same train all the way. Goodness knows who thinks up these ideas. My off peak cardboard ticket, bought well ahead at our friendly ticket office, is an off peak return, leave on a specific date and return within a month, worrying for your hosts in case you stay with them for a whole month! If they ask what time train I want I explain I just want to turn up and get on the next train going to Waterloo and I especially want the trains to be running. The day I sauntered into the station to buy my ticket it seemed very quiet, it turned out there were no trains running due to a trackside fire further up the line. On the news that evening was film of passengers evacuated off the train and walking up the track.
Fortunately the day of my journey all was going well. The current government pledged to bring the railways back under state ownership and South West Trains were one of the first to be reclaimed last year and sport new livery as South Western Railway. If you had a Brio wooden railway when you were a child you will recall the carriages linked on by magnet. Our trains work just like that… I was waiting for the 11.22am and at 11.10 am four carriages arrived. At this point passengers either rush to get on or stand in confusion in case a different train has slipped in. A few minutes later another four carriages roll in behind and click on. So there is plenty of time to get on the train and no worry which carriage if you are going to Waterloo. But all may not be well if you have a specific ticket. There were regular/annoyingly frequent announcements…
‘If you have an evening out return or a summer special extra cheap off peak and it does Not say 11.22am, you are on the WRONG train and liable to pay another £40.
On the final stage of my journey, London Victoria to Margate, it was my turn to make sure I was on the right carriage, the rear four carriages. The advantage of a London terminus is trains end up at the buffers so what was the first carriage is the last carriage so I should be okay. After every single station would be a reminder that the train was going to split and the stations recited. After our carriage had disgorged quite a few passengers and with the moment of the great split fast approaching, a couple now had room to spread out their picnic and sat back and relaxed. Then one of them thought to lean over the aisle and ask another passenger where the train was going. When she said Margate there was panic and a gathering up of the picnic. They were right at the back of the train when they should have been at the front. The young woman said to them ‘Don’t stop, just keep going till you get to the driver’s cabin .’
My return journey from Waterloo was simple. The train arrived at the buffers with fifteen minutes to spare so we could get on and relax. All trains stop at Bournemouth and this train was going to unclick in half and carry on to two different directions. You really needed to pay attention to the announcements because even before the chopping in half there were some stations with short platforms so you had to make sure you were on the right carriage.
‘If you are getting off at Remote Halt you will need to be in the front three carriages, if you are going to Forest Dene you must be in carriages two, three and four. Passengers wishing to alight at Littledene should be in odd number carriages except one and seven. Passengers for Old Milton please make sure you are in the even number carriages except for two and six.
Have you had any interesting train journeys lately?
Staycation
While others were in Norwegian fjords or on African safaris, I ventured ten minutes walk away from home for my staycation. Back at Chez Tidalscribe Cyberson Two and DIL Two were ripping out the bathroom. Not as scary as it sounds as Interiors are their business and this was their 49th bathroom.
My holiday home was a seaside let, a top floor flat with a balcony – not alas that yellow house of character with the turrets. A search revealed plenty of Air B&Bs near my house, including next door ( a converted garage ), but I thought I should enjoy a cliff top experience. I wanted a cliff top house when we moved to Bournemouth, but few were available, let alone in our price range.
I know other female bloggers go solo round the world on motorbikes or yachts so it is not very adventurous to go home for Cyberson’s home cooked meals and to collect anything you have forgotten… and to water my plants… and the garden as the heat wave had continued unabated.
What made it different from home? I was nearer my beach hut and the open top bus stopped almost outside. I could have my breakfast on the balcony and watch the world go by. At any moment, however early, there was always a dog walker on the cliff or a jogger on the pavement or a cyclist on the road. There was also traffic on the coast road, it was much noisier than my quiet little road.
There are clifftop views such as lighthouses looking over wild waves crashing on rocks and houses with back gardens on the edge of cliffs. There are still houses right on the edge in Southbourne, but lots more have long since crumbled down with the sandy cliffs, leaving only the roses and shrubs that once grew in their garden clinging to the cliffside.
However, I still had a view and at night there was the black sea straight ahead and to the west the lights of Bournemouth and Swanage and early in the morning sunrise from the bathroom window.
Inside it was clean and tidy with everything you could want if you were actually living and cooking there. The décor was white, literally, from the paint work to the bedding and towels. The only items not white were the artificial lawn on the balcony and the impossible to lift dark blue pottery mugs the size of hefty jugs. Lucky I could pop home and get my bone china tea mug. The bed was very comfortable, the sofa not so. I managed to work the television and get the WiFi so overall a good experience and I still miss the patter of tiny feet – the slip slap of the early morning joggers before the traffic got busy.
Have you been on a Staycation or had any holiday let experiences, good or bad?
Monday Meander – Sun and Shade
Cool off on a Breezer open top bus.
But where are you going?
Are we getting off here at Boscombe Pier? No.
At Bournemouth Pier? No.
Where are we?
And who is this?
Find out later.
This way?
Or that way?
Feeling cooler?
Don’t get lost
Ah, here’s a sign post…
How did you get here?
With a long walk up the road.
And where are you?
Breezer Bus 70 dropped us off at Alum Chine Beach and we walked up Alum Chine then up to Westbourne shops. Don’t worry, there are plenty of buses home from here, or you can retrace your steps back to the beach.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjdg1p97v0go
How soon did you guess the mystery statue?
Reblogged
If you are reading this I must have crawled out of the blog hole and my new computer has extended the digital hand of friendship to WordPress. Read about my Staycation soon.
Hot and Bloggled
Yes it really is that blue…
But sometimes smart phones don’t capture the moment – What I saw as I arrived at the cliff top – a snowy white yacht gleaming on a sparkling sea… I had to zoom in to my picture to see if I had imagined a boat…
We have our own Mount Rushmore – who would you like to see carved into our cliffs?
Be glad you are not a cactus…
Two days of glory and attention…
Then it’s all over for another year or two.
When you fall down a blog hole...
In the unlikely event you notice some absences on my part in July it will be due to summer projects or some projects. Forty one years ago people said ‘Pregnant?! What do you want another baby for, you have a boy and a girl?’ The answer was ‘So when he grows up he can do every home improvement imaginable, sort out all my technical problems, install a new computer and cook dinners.’ When he brought home his now wife and said she was a lighting technician and pyrotechnic expert, we knew life was going to be fun and he would have someone to help him with every project imaginable.
As we pass the the halfway mark of the year have you any summer or winter projects planned?
Windy Wednesday
A bit of a change from our heatwave last week.
The traditional Bournemouth welcome to language students.
Has the sun come out?
So windy you could get blown off the pier, or worse still your phone could get blown into the sea.
Wonder why?
Maybe it’s less windy on the other side of the pier?
NO
Less windy on the beach?
NO
How has your weather been this week?
Wednesday Words – Writing Festival
Who would have imagined that the evil tendrils of international tyrants would have wound their way into the heart of my family and the Bournemouth Writing Festival? My sister in Australia had planned her latest two month holiday to encompass various cultural delights including the fourth Bournemouth Writing Festival. Her flights were booked well ahead. There is so much to do over the three days of the festival it is hard to focus. Last year this had resulted in a friend and I only making it to the free poetry on the bandstand. So this year we needed to plan properly and book well ahead. After much shortlisting and Facetime consultation I had booked six events at the festival.
Shortly before her departure WW3 erupted in the middle east, airports closed, governments issued warnings to their travellers. My sister was traveling in comfort to visit all her English relatives, not to have an adventure. Her favourite airline Emirates was due to leave Perth, stop in Dubai and onwards to Gatwick. Suggestions by some that she could fly over the North Pole were not appealing. When Emirates announced full refunds available, she cancelled her holiday.
The spare tickets were happily taken up by others in my writers group, though by this time I had forgotten what I had booked and why we had chosen them. A sunny weekend made it very pleasant to wander through the gardens between the various venues. Everything was taking place in Bournemouth town centre so easy for everyone to walk, cycle, skate, paddleboard, come by bus or train. Car parks are expensive and stressful from my non-driver observation so to be avoided if you can.
There was a real buzz about the festival and a buzz in town. Festival team members wore bright yellow T-shirts so it was easy to ask for help and they greeted everyone enthusiastically. I can only give my humble impressions with so much happening. But we have always been impressed with how well organised and supported the festival has been right from its inception. If you want to meet other writers of all ages this is the place to be. You could be on the go from the moment you got up till bedtime with breakfast, lunch and dinner meet ups at local eateries. In between talks and workshops you can chat and look around.
In the Pavilion you could buy books written by the speakers, while at Bobby’s any author can book a table ( well in advance I gather ) to sell their books. There were interesting and colourful characters from far and wide.
There were two workshops I particularly enjoyed.
‘Stop your Plot Deflating like a Sad Balloon’ with Helen Comerford
If you run out of ideas or have writers’ block just spend five minutes writing a list of What Ifs, as silly as you like. We did this and then wrote our favourite on post it notes which we stuck all around the room and read what ideas others had come up with. We then wrote a plot for our What Ifs. I wrote ‘What if you go to a writing festival and realise you have all been taken captive.’ Some of us read out plots out.
Adrienne Dines’ workshop on creating conflict had the tag line ‘How to make it bad, make it worse then make it personal.’ She gave us an opener, chap walking home from the pub late one night and comes across a road accident… and we all had to offer make it worse contributions… ‘he knows the victim in the crash’ soon became a whole complicated family story!
Next year’s festival is already being planned, last weekend in April again. Other events go on all year round so writers can continue to meet up.
Write by the Sea™ / Our writing events in Bournemouth, England
What ‘What Ifs’ would you think of?
Tuesday Trail – Down the Road.
This is a genuine walk, get off the bus, down towards the sea, turn right and walk all the way down the road. On the way can you spot one of the venues for the Bournemouth Writing Festival and the burial place of Mary Shelley? I did have fun photographing everything I saw.
Here is my bus on the worst road surface ever, a real bone shaker stretch.
You may need a drink after that walk.
Read about the writing festival in my next blog.
Did you enjoy your walk?
Friday Festival Fun
Where were we in the last blog and where are we going now?
Bobby’s was one of the venues for the fourth Bournemouth Writing Festival. Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the last weekend in April. There was so much going on and a real buzz about town.
Off to one of the other venues…
Inside, a theatre and two studios with events and talks.
There were events at half a dozen venues all near each other and you could also do Writing on the Beach and go to a poetry marquee on Horseshoe Common. Look out for my next blog for my impressions of the festival.
Have you been to writing festivals?
Times and Tides of a Beachwriter 