On Thursday 29th October I was awake at 7am and was at the Morrison’s Retford, shortly before its opening at 8pm, and making my way to the cafe, I was second in line for a breakfast. However the I was able to select an Early Flier which was brought to the table with a matter of minutes. comprising two sausages, over done bacon and an egg over fried bread, naughty naughty, with half a slice of tomato. It cost £2.27 without coffee compared to the feast with voucher for £1.99 experienced over the past month. I bought what I thought was a BLT sandwich cut into triangles on a platter with crisps and a little salad. Later one of the triangles was cheese and pickle. I had thermos coffee made at the Travel Lodge
Instead of continuing into Nottingham on the 614 link road I branched off towards Leicester which is slower in the first instance being single lanes and with a couple of traffic lights, but then becomes dual carriageway over the last 15 miles to the motorway about 45 mins in time. It is then Fast Track all the way to the Oxford turn off and through to the junction with the M40 which can be busy at the roundabout beforehand. Similarly coming off the M40 after a short distance for the A34 which by passes the city from north to south and confirmed my estimate of a two hour no rush leg of the journey.
I stopped for a second coffee, the sandwich and a comfort break around midday well on the way and in fact it is only an hours drive at 60mph into the outskirts of Southampton. However I was confused by the AA directions and hesitatingly joined the signposted M27 to the East Docks. I decided on another comfort break and relax at the first service area after joining the new Motorway rather than find someone to park within the city. I had hoped to log on to the internet here but encountered problems after doing so twice, first when eliminating the email bumph of the day and then when in the process of buying Euro lottery tickets. I decided to try once more again and then give up having missed the opportunity to use the Southampton Travel Lodge connection by this route and flying past the Premier Lodge at the service area which may have used the same link. There was no problem the third time and purchased two Lottery tickets for the Friday draw.
I was still early on arrival in the city and shortly before the Red Funnel Ferry Dock gate, turned left into a large car parking areas and shopping facility which includes major stores as well as single storey stores such as Boots and Staples where I went to check the cost of white card and white paper.
The cost of white card has trebled since commencing my work although I was able to stock up by visiting Staples stores along the route to London and back to buy 5 ream sets for £25 with a two for one offer and which kept me going for two years. Later I was able to buy the 250 ream packs for around £4 and £5 but now the cheapest is £6 and standards quality around £9. Now for £12.50 to £25 it is possible to get 5 500 page reams of printing paper.
I have several reams of such paper in stock bought several years ago which I will begin to use as well as checking to see if there are white backing cards from existing completed sets which can used for printing. Obviously if my financial situation changes or if it is possible to obtain funding to put the work on display when completed then the card deficiency can be rectified. I have been thinking recently about taking steps to ensure the work is looked after in an appropriate way upon my death whether completed or not, particularly the confidential elements.
It was only after the short walk around the car park to see the stores and facilities available that I saw one of the notices reminding that only the first 30 mins use was free so I set off still over an hour before the scheduled ferry departure. I was able to park close to the ferry just before the riverside carpark and walkway, the ten minutes or so before being the second vehicle then waiting for the arrival of the next ferry. By mistake I handed over the return ticket instead of the outward bound.
I was in fact the fourth vehicle allowed to board with a place at the front of the upper car deck and was able to select a front facing window seat for the 5 pm departure. It was an enjoyable crossing which last just under an hour. There were a couple of cruise ships elsewhere and two large container ships. There were lots of excited children and young people looking forward to a half term weekend on the island. There were also people talking boats and races including participation in the Fastnet,
It was very dark on leaving East Cowes and the route to Newport an onto Sandown is full of unlit twisting and hilly country stretches with some opportunity to use full beam. It was sixty years since two childhood family holidays on the island that in 2008 I took the bus from Ryde to Sandown and as I now know we travelled along the A 3055, a stretch called the Broadway and turning right into a one way residential road with cars parked on both sides before the Albert Crescent and a stop as this joins Victoria Road and the B3329 Road to Ryde and which is also joined by the Broadway further away from the High Street and Esplanade.
On Thursday evening I was unaware of the names and numbers of these roads but seeing a sign on my right town centre and esplanade I had continued on the road to Ryde, also signposted being in a flow of traffic, turned right and returned to the main road and had taken the town centre esplanade road, for some reason believing that the road to the hotel was off the high street. What I did not know is that had I just continued a little further along the Road to Ryde I could have taken a right turn in the road where the hotel for the next two nights is located. That error could have cost me my life or serious injury on the following evening. As it is I remain shaken and upset by what happened and worry about the financial implications despite being the victim and volunteering witnesses.
Having reached the High Street I decided to stop and seek directions and found someone who was able to accurately direct me to continue on to Beachfield Road from the High and then turn sharp right up the hill back onto the Broadway and then continue on to the right turn road for the Hotel, with the warning that the turn was easily missed. What would have been helpful is to say that the road was after the turn marked town centre and esplanade.
As you should guess having reached the turn to the town centre and esplanade I took it again, thinking I had missed my turning and thought I had better ask again and saw an individual walking along Station Avenue towards the junction with Fitzroy Street so I stopped in the road as there was no other traffic but I was told to move around the corner because as I was to learn buses treat Station Avenue as a bus lane. After getting the directions I noted a bus travelling along the road, a residential one at 30mph.
I was pleased to arrive at the hotel where I received a warm welcome as the owners come from the North East, one born in Jarrow and the other from South Shields. There were other guests who had arrived for the funeral and they and waiting for me for a while and then gone out for an evening meal. I retired to my room, unpacked and had a light supper of soup and dry crackers, a tin of baked beans and a carton of delicious grapes.
In 2003 my relative and the deceased had visited Gibraltar with me and another relative and her husband, taking the ashes of my care mother for burial in the tomb of her parents. In January of this year the husband of my relative had died and not the second male of the party had also died. We had all planned to meet up in my visit to the Island in July and I met the widow for lunch in Sandown having travelled from Newport where I was staying at the Island Travel Lodge and travelled by car along the Broadway, along Station Avenue, into the High Street and then down to the esplanade where I had parked. After the meal we had walked to Shanklin and Ventnor along teh sea front and got a bus back to Sandown.
I had also visited the deceased during the afternoons of my stay on the island and had occasion to visit his lovely home and gardens where he was able to return during his prolonged illness and where there had been indications of a recovery.
John was six years older than me and spent the greater part of his life in midlands working in the ceramics industry before deciding he wanted to be become and teacher and commenced a career as a primary school teacher, then a headmaster and then with responsibilities for a number of schools within the Education department of a local authority. He had come to the island to live a couple fo decades before where he was able to enjoy his love of walking. Throughout the greater part fo his life he was not only a walker but enjoyed being a volunteer walk leader in the UK and taking parties to show off the island home he had adopted.
In the summer I had visited Bembridge unrecognisable from the open countryside of the caravan holiday just after the end of World War two, with the village spreading over previous farmland to the rocky headland where there is still no seaside facilities. There is a Lifeboat station and shop where the pier was beings strengthened and parts replaced. There was also a small cafe on the beachside. There is also the Warner Residential holiday Hotel for adults only with an inclusive range of sporting and entertainment facilities on the large site and where at present a couple or two friends can share a double room with bed and breakfast and a full evening meal for £50 a head and enjoy the wide range of facilities although this does exclude the special entertainment weekends and other special activity holiday.
I had sat on a seat near my car and answering the mobile phone with directions to John’s home walking through the grounds of the Warner hotel I had left the car keys on a bench where they had been found by someone who had sat on the seat and then taken them into the Lifeboat shop when I had not returned and his and my cars were the only ones then in the car park. On leaving John’s home I had been unable to find my car keys but on reaching the vehicle there was a map pinner to the side of the car with the telephone number of addressed of a worker at he Lifeboat store who had returned home at the end of the afternoon session. Amazingly the individual lived around the corner from John and they had both attended the same line dancing group about a decade before.
I had an excellent full English breakfast superior in every respect and decided that I would visit the Springwood Woodland Cemetery New church on the way to Ryde where I was meeting a relative and friend before the funeral mass. I had not heard about Woodland burial sites until the death of John. I have since found there are some 30 sites in England and others in Wales and Scotland, with the nearest to the North East at Carlisle, Although the site was marked at Newchurch on the main road it is easily passed by except for a natural car park before woodland. The site comprises consecrated and un consecrated burial areas. A large part of the site now comprises mature trees with natural walkways and wood seating areas. To one side there are new areas being used where the trees are saplings. In many instances there is only a small plaque by the tree to indicate the individual human being and some a perennial flowering plants and some plantings covering the area of a normal grave. The sun was shining and it was a warmish day which added to the peaceful setting. It is usually the practice to use a environmentally friendly coffin, of the wicker kind which is biodegradable and some crematoria give discounts if such a coffin is used because less energy is required.
I had been unsure about he location and continued for a quarter of mile before turning around as I had seen the Funeral Directors and market garden on the other side of the road. I decided to see if there were any suitable pot plants and took time to select a pinky white and pinky red with variegated leaves which seemed appropriate and suitable.
Throughout the stay I stopped to ask directions and received accurate and helpful guidance and I thought the driving of cars and buses matched the nature of the country roads and by ways, I had stopped first, I think it is Kite hill where there is a bridge over an inlet, and then passed Fishbourne which I had used earlier in the year and then into Ryde where there was a significant traffic hold up because of road works
I found the one way system confusing and found myself going out of town again so I arrived at Ryde by midday but failed to find the difficult to reach car park at the back of the St Mary’s Church and stopped and was given excellent directions by a young man and found a place at within the church precincts overlooked by a boarded and window broken convent building behind the church. This car park is only open for masses and is otherwise locked. Across the narrow one way lane there is a second car park used for the community centre and for those who are in the know and use the town centre for other reasons. I went along the yard and noticed a coffee shop part of the church wall and checking that there was a toilet, I made myself comfortable before enjoying a coffee and a biscuit. I then went in search of a Smiths to but a Daily Mail which offered a DVD the Cassandra only to find that for once Smiths was not distributing. I had missed the Smith on the walk down from the church and encountered the same young man who had given directions for the church and who pointed out that I had gone past the building. I suggested that he would make an excellent tourist guide should such a job ever be needed.
I was joined by a relative and her friend and we went for a hot drink. I could not help remarking that this was an extraordinary situation. Over 55 years before as secondary level school children we had “knocked about” together for a short while and then I had no contact with the friend until a family funeral in January and we were meeting again because of a second funeral within year and because the former school friend had made the island home.
There had been a funeral mass in the morning and on returning the car after the coffee and visit to Smiths I had met the priest and his assistant as they left the church, went to their cars and drove off. Seeing me standing there, teh priest asked if I was alright and I explained that I was early for the afternoon mass and was waiting for a relative and friend.
The mass was scheduled for 2pm but did not begin until 2.30 because as the priest explained he had been out to lunch with the Dean and has been caught up unexpectedly in traffic delays. Later when a neighbour spoke movingly about John’s, life he could not resist mentioning that he had often joked with him that he would be late for his own funeral.
I was able to follow the funeral car from thee church to the Woodland burial grounds and the route was across country, through narrow country lanes with passing places and one which I am sure John would have taken on his walks around the island. The sun had gone in and it became cold in the mid afternoon before the increasingly early nightfall. I set off to go back to the hotel on my own as I wanted to relax and perhaps write before the provision of food and drink and social chat. I had switched the mobile phone on to check for messages forgetting to turn it off again and entering Lake just outside of Sandown it had sounded for a text, so I turned off the road into the nearby public car park and read the message. I then returned to the main road and continued in a steady flow of traffic into Sandown along Broadway looking for the turning to the right for the hotel and coming to the road signposted town centre and esplanade I thought I would go down and from there reach the hotel as directed the previous evening.
It is inappropriate to detail what then happened for the time being. What I can say is that my vehicle was hit from behind on the passenger seat corner and the light, indicator and stop lights demolished rending the vehicle unroadworthy. I was not hurt physically but stunned. How I managed to get home and survived a nightmarish journey Sunday will be the subject of the next writing.
Instead of continuing into Nottingham on the 614 link road I branched off towards Leicester which is slower in the first instance being single lanes and with a couple of traffic lights, but then becomes dual carriageway over the last 15 miles to the motorway about 45 mins in time. It is then Fast Track all the way to the Oxford turn off and through to the junction with the M40 which can be busy at the roundabout beforehand. Similarly coming off the M40 after a short distance for the A34 which by passes the city from north to south and confirmed my estimate of a two hour no rush leg of the journey.
I stopped for a second coffee, the sandwich and a comfort break around midday well on the way and in fact it is only an hours drive at 60mph into the outskirts of Southampton. However I was confused by the AA directions and hesitatingly joined the signposted M27 to the East Docks. I decided on another comfort break and relax at the first service area after joining the new Motorway rather than find someone to park within the city. I had hoped to log on to the internet here but encountered problems after doing so twice, first when eliminating the email bumph of the day and then when in the process of buying Euro lottery tickets. I decided to try once more again and then give up having missed the opportunity to use the Southampton Travel Lodge connection by this route and flying past the Premier Lodge at the service area which may have used the same link. There was no problem the third time and purchased two Lottery tickets for the Friday draw.
I was still early on arrival in the city and shortly before the Red Funnel Ferry Dock gate, turned left into a large car parking areas and shopping facility which includes major stores as well as single storey stores such as Boots and Staples where I went to check the cost of white card and white paper.
The cost of white card has trebled since commencing my work although I was able to stock up by visiting Staples stores along the route to London and back to buy 5 ream sets for £25 with a two for one offer and which kept me going for two years. Later I was able to buy the 250 ream packs for around £4 and £5 but now the cheapest is £6 and standards quality around £9. Now for £12.50 to £25 it is possible to get 5 500 page reams of printing paper.
I have several reams of such paper in stock bought several years ago which I will begin to use as well as checking to see if there are white backing cards from existing completed sets which can used for printing. Obviously if my financial situation changes or if it is possible to obtain funding to put the work on display when completed then the card deficiency can be rectified. I have been thinking recently about taking steps to ensure the work is looked after in an appropriate way upon my death whether completed or not, particularly the confidential elements.
It was only after the short walk around the car park to see the stores and facilities available that I saw one of the notices reminding that only the first 30 mins use was free so I set off still over an hour before the scheduled ferry departure. I was able to park close to the ferry just before the riverside carpark and walkway, the ten minutes or so before being the second vehicle then waiting for the arrival of the next ferry. By mistake I handed over the return ticket instead of the outward bound.
I was in fact the fourth vehicle allowed to board with a place at the front of the upper car deck and was able to select a front facing window seat for the 5 pm departure. It was an enjoyable crossing which last just under an hour. There were a couple of cruise ships elsewhere and two large container ships. There were lots of excited children and young people looking forward to a half term weekend on the island. There were also people talking boats and races including participation in the Fastnet,
It was very dark on leaving East Cowes and the route to Newport an onto Sandown is full of unlit twisting and hilly country stretches with some opportunity to use full beam. It was sixty years since two childhood family holidays on the island that in 2008 I took the bus from Ryde to Sandown and as I now know we travelled along the A 3055, a stretch called the Broadway and turning right into a one way residential road with cars parked on both sides before the Albert Crescent and a stop as this joins Victoria Road and the B3329 Road to Ryde and which is also joined by the Broadway further away from the High Street and Esplanade.
On Thursday evening I was unaware of the names and numbers of these roads but seeing a sign on my right town centre and esplanade I had continued on the road to Ryde, also signposted being in a flow of traffic, turned right and returned to the main road and had taken the town centre esplanade road, for some reason believing that the road to the hotel was off the high street. What I did not know is that had I just continued a little further along the Road to Ryde I could have taken a right turn in the road where the hotel for the next two nights is located. That error could have cost me my life or serious injury on the following evening. As it is I remain shaken and upset by what happened and worry about the financial implications despite being the victim and volunteering witnesses.
Having reached the High Street I decided to stop and seek directions and found someone who was able to accurately direct me to continue on to Beachfield Road from the High and then turn sharp right up the hill back onto the Broadway and then continue on to the right turn road for the Hotel, with the warning that the turn was easily missed. What would have been helpful is to say that the road was after the turn marked town centre and esplanade.
As you should guess having reached the turn to the town centre and esplanade I took it again, thinking I had missed my turning and thought I had better ask again and saw an individual walking along Station Avenue towards the junction with Fitzroy Street so I stopped in the road as there was no other traffic but I was told to move around the corner because as I was to learn buses treat Station Avenue as a bus lane. After getting the directions I noted a bus travelling along the road, a residential one at 30mph.
I was pleased to arrive at the hotel where I received a warm welcome as the owners come from the North East, one born in Jarrow and the other from South Shields. There were other guests who had arrived for the funeral and they and waiting for me for a while and then gone out for an evening meal. I retired to my room, unpacked and had a light supper of soup and dry crackers, a tin of baked beans and a carton of delicious grapes.
In 2003 my relative and the deceased had visited Gibraltar with me and another relative and her husband, taking the ashes of my care mother for burial in the tomb of her parents. In January of this year the husband of my relative had died and not the second male of the party had also died. We had all planned to meet up in my visit to the Island in July and I met the widow for lunch in Sandown having travelled from Newport where I was staying at the Island Travel Lodge and travelled by car along the Broadway, along Station Avenue, into the High Street and then down to the esplanade where I had parked. After the meal we had walked to Shanklin and Ventnor along teh sea front and got a bus back to Sandown.
I had also visited the deceased during the afternoons of my stay on the island and had occasion to visit his lovely home and gardens where he was able to return during his prolonged illness and where there had been indications of a recovery.
John was six years older than me and spent the greater part of his life in midlands working in the ceramics industry before deciding he wanted to be become and teacher and commenced a career as a primary school teacher, then a headmaster and then with responsibilities for a number of schools within the Education department of a local authority. He had come to the island to live a couple fo decades before where he was able to enjoy his love of walking. Throughout the greater part fo his life he was not only a walker but enjoyed being a volunteer walk leader in the UK and taking parties to show off the island home he had adopted.
In the summer I had visited Bembridge unrecognisable from the open countryside of the caravan holiday just after the end of World War two, with the village spreading over previous farmland to the rocky headland where there is still no seaside facilities. There is a Lifeboat station and shop where the pier was beings strengthened and parts replaced. There was also a small cafe on the beachside. There is also the Warner Residential holiday Hotel for adults only with an inclusive range of sporting and entertainment facilities on the large site and where at present a couple or two friends can share a double room with bed and breakfast and a full evening meal for £50 a head and enjoy the wide range of facilities although this does exclude the special entertainment weekends and other special activity holiday.
I had sat on a seat near my car and answering the mobile phone with directions to John’s home walking through the grounds of the Warner hotel I had left the car keys on a bench where they had been found by someone who had sat on the seat and then taken them into the Lifeboat shop when I had not returned and his and my cars were the only ones then in the car park. On leaving John’s home I had been unable to find my car keys but on reaching the vehicle there was a map pinner to the side of the car with the telephone number of addressed of a worker at he Lifeboat store who had returned home at the end of the afternoon session. Amazingly the individual lived around the corner from John and they had both attended the same line dancing group about a decade before.
I had an excellent full English breakfast superior in every respect and decided that I would visit the Springwood Woodland Cemetery New church on the way to Ryde where I was meeting a relative and friend before the funeral mass. I had not heard about Woodland burial sites until the death of John. I have since found there are some 30 sites in England and others in Wales and Scotland, with the nearest to the North East at Carlisle, Although the site was marked at Newchurch on the main road it is easily passed by except for a natural car park before woodland. The site comprises consecrated and un consecrated burial areas. A large part of the site now comprises mature trees with natural walkways and wood seating areas. To one side there are new areas being used where the trees are saplings. In many instances there is only a small plaque by the tree to indicate the individual human being and some a perennial flowering plants and some plantings covering the area of a normal grave. The sun was shining and it was a warmish day which added to the peaceful setting. It is usually the practice to use a environmentally friendly coffin, of the wicker kind which is biodegradable and some crematoria give discounts if such a coffin is used because less energy is required.
I had been unsure about he location and continued for a quarter of mile before turning around as I had seen the Funeral Directors and market garden on the other side of the road. I decided to see if there were any suitable pot plants and took time to select a pinky white and pinky red with variegated leaves which seemed appropriate and suitable.
Throughout the stay I stopped to ask directions and received accurate and helpful guidance and I thought the driving of cars and buses matched the nature of the country roads and by ways, I had stopped first, I think it is Kite hill where there is a bridge over an inlet, and then passed Fishbourne which I had used earlier in the year and then into Ryde where there was a significant traffic hold up because of road works
I found the one way system confusing and found myself going out of town again so I arrived at Ryde by midday but failed to find the difficult to reach car park at the back of the St Mary’s Church and stopped and was given excellent directions by a young man and found a place at within the church precincts overlooked by a boarded and window broken convent building behind the church. This car park is only open for masses and is otherwise locked. Across the narrow one way lane there is a second car park used for the community centre and for those who are in the know and use the town centre for other reasons. I went along the yard and noticed a coffee shop part of the church wall and checking that there was a toilet, I made myself comfortable before enjoying a coffee and a biscuit. I then went in search of a Smiths to but a Daily Mail which offered a DVD the Cassandra only to find that for once Smiths was not distributing. I had missed the Smith on the walk down from the church and encountered the same young man who had given directions for the church and who pointed out that I had gone past the building. I suggested that he would make an excellent tourist guide should such a job ever be needed.
I was joined by a relative and her friend and we went for a hot drink. I could not help remarking that this was an extraordinary situation. Over 55 years before as secondary level school children we had “knocked about” together for a short while and then I had no contact with the friend until a family funeral in January and we were meeting again because of a second funeral within year and because the former school friend had made the island home.
There had been a funeral mass in the morning and on returning the car after the coffee and visit to Smiths I had met the priest and his assistant as they left the church, went to their cars and drove off. Seeing me standing there, teh priest asked if I was alright and I explained that I was early for the afternoon mass and was waiting for a relative and friend.
The mass was scheduled for 2pm but did not begin until 2.30 because as the priest explained he had been out to lunch with the Dean and has been caught up unexpectedly in traffic delays. Later when a neighbour spoke movingly about John’s, life he could not resist mentioning that he had often joked with him that he would be late for his own funeral.
I was able to follow the funeral car from thee church to the Woodland burial grounds and the route was across country, through narrow country lanes with passing places and one which I am sure John would have taken on his walks around the island. The sun had gone in and it became cold in the mid afternoon before the increasingly early nightfall. I set off to go back to the hotel on my own as I wanted to relax and perhaps write before the provision of food and drink and social chat. I had switched the mobile phone on to check for messages forgetting to turn it off again and entering Lake just outside of Sandown it had sounded for a text, so I turned off the road into the nearby public car park and read the message. I then returned to the main road and continued in a steady flow of traffic into Sandown along Broadway looking for the turning to the right for the hotel and coming to the road signposted town centre and esplanade I thought I would go down and from there reach the hotel as directed the previous evening.
It is inappropriate to detail what then happened for the time being. What I can say is that my vehicle was hit from behind on the passenger seat corner and the light, indicator and stop lights demolished rending the vehicle unroadworthy. I was not hurt physically but stunned. How I managed to get home and survived a nightmarish journey Sunday will be the subject of the next writing.
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