Bournemouth

As followers of our website will be aware we had a new addition to our family in June, so on her first proper trip out, Poppy Alice Butler joined us.

Our frist trip away with Poppy was Bournemouth. When we say first trip away, we had already done a few trips to Wargrave, but this was our first 'holiday' trip away.

Why Bournemouth. Well it was close if we wanted to get home quickly and we like Bournemouth and we found a nice hotel to stay in for our 2 day trip!

Although not planned at the time of booking (honest) our trip away fell on a signficant Apple event day .. Friday 11th July was the launch of the new 3G iPhone. So at 5am on that Friday morning i took a short trip from our hotel to stand outside an O2 store for 3hrs to secure my new iPhone .. i was second in line and had my iPhone 30mins after the store was open!

Brighton - 10th May 2008

We are are in Brighton this weekend for Jo's birthday. We have lucked out with the hotel room. We are staying in the Thistle Hotel which is on the front and we have landed us a room with a view!

The view is of the beach, pier and promenade!

5 Lighthouses later!

So having got off to a good start and having the request read out on Radio 1 we headed for Kent. By half eight we were getting a little peckish so we 'diverted!' to Bluewater - for those that don't know its a shopping centre in Kent!

Breakfast done, and another Apple store visited we continued on our way to Kent and eventually turned up in Dungeness. We shortly ticked off seeing two lighthouses and then headed for Sussex!

Eastbourne was our next stop and here we sampled a very traditional lunch .. fish and chips on the pier!

2 further lighthouses were our next stop at Beachy Head!

The last lighthouse of the day was at the harbour in New Haven.

We finally arrived at our destination of Brighton just before 6pm.

Not a bad day .. 1 Shopping Centre, 1 Apple Store, 2 Piers and 5 Lighthouses!

Radio 1 Birthday Message

Another year older this weekend and for the first time in probably five years we have found ourselves in the UK! But not in Hampshire.

Early Saturday morning we hit the road for a weekend away, it started well with Jo texting Radio 1 and within 5 minutes of the text being sent we were on the airwaves, so to speak!

Click on the link below to hear the message!

Simon's Birthday message on Radio 1.

On the road again!

Here we go again!

Yes we are off on our travels again, and this time we have even more in tow, not just a pensioner but Nik, Caoimhe, and Pip on his/her first documented trip to the south west!

We are pacing ourselves this time and have traveled to Devon today and will make the final leg of the journey to Cornwall, tomorrow.

So we are holed up in a very nice Holiday Express Inn, just outside Exeter. As tradition dictates, we all set out at 6am this morning and converged on Exeter - coming from both Berkshire and Hampshire!

After a trip to Exeter town centre for Breakfast (see the breakfast blog) and the mandatory trip to the Apple Store we headed to some old haunts - Starcross and Dawlish.

In particular Nan will follow this as we re-visited some of Nan and Les's old haunts!!

See all the photos on our FlickR pages. If you go to the FlickR website there are comment to go along with the photos!

Starcross had changed little and Dawlish has manged to continue to be the very traditional sea side town, with very little change.

Places we have visited over the last few years

create your own visited countries map

We did make it home!

For regular followers of the blog you might of been wondering what happened after Day 5 in Cornwall! Well have no fear we did make it home, we had to go via Exter to see the new Apple store that opened on that day, just by luck we happened to be passing!

Keep your eyes out, we are off on our travel again in the New Year, and we are back off down to Cornwall, so keep on popping back!

Day 5 - A day out

We decided to take a trip out today, one of the reasons was to build up an appetite as we would be visiting Jamie Oliver's 'gaff' in the evening, 'Fifteen Cornwall' for a meal.

We headed to the south coast and after a forced stop at 'M & S' (yes they do have them down this way), we arrived at the Minack Theatre. We had all visited before but it is just one of the best locations down here. For those of you now aware of the location, it is a outdoor theatre that is built in to the cliff edge. It is an incredible bit of building made even more amazing that it was achieved by a single woman with shear determination. I am sure that the story can be told much better by having a look at there website and if you get the chance, visiting the theatre (don't worry you don't have to see a play!)

www.minack.com/

We had lunch at the theatre and then headed back to get ready for our evening out.

Fifteen lived up to its expectations. It was not cheap, but you did not really expected it to be. The atmosphere was good, it was not packed but there was enough people there so you did not feel self conscious that all the staff were watching you eat!

Its a fixed menu with a few choices on two of the courses, in all there was 6 courses! (including the coffee and fudge!).

Our only minor criticism was that there was approx 30 mins wait between the pasta course and the main course which as just a bit too long, but that aside it was an incredible evening, and one that you would want to repeat again.

Newquay - Day 4 - Rain!

Rain sums up today, it started overcast, but as soon as we stepped outside the cottage it started raining and that seemed to be the theme of the day, every time we stepped outside it started to rain!

It was a fairly lazy day. We went from the cottage to the hotel for a coffee, then from the hotel to the cafe (see the breakfast blog!) for breakfast, then in and out of shops before we had to shelter from a big downpour in the Sailors Arms.

It's funny how it happens, there is always a pub at hand when you need to seek shelter!

After walking back in the rain we have spent a lazy afternoon in the cottage and are now just about to go over to the hotel for dinner! Posh eh! Ok, so its a free meal!!

Just for Nik & Caoimhe

Just for Nik & Caoimhe
Originally uploaded by Slinkey Si

Now it's not often that I take a pic in a toilet. In fact never! But,
this I just had to take!

If you have not heard of Kenny, then go see it, get it on DVD, its
well worth a watch.

Sent from my iPhone