Flying with Singapore airlines was a great choice. Currently ranked 2nd in the world, we now know why. Great cabin crew, excellent food and bathrooms that were always spotless. On half my visits to the "little room", a steward was leaving after cleaning, so they obviously work hard to achieve their ranking.

We both managed to sleep a little on both legs, so not too tired on arrival. We cleared immigration fairly quickly however then found that Avis/Budget weren't as efficient as the other rental car companies. While the others had between two and three vans pull in to collect their customers to transport to their depots, ours was after a 25min wait and by then was more people than could fit in the van.

At the depot, we resisted the efforts of the staff to upsell our rental car by 15 pounds per day (auto instead of manual and built in satnav) and eventually loaded the car and attached Tom to our windscreen. Unfortunately he was suffering from "jetlag" and just didn't want to connect to a satellite and continued to doze. I had told Ches that I wouldn't leave the depot till I had satnav, however wasn't prepared to wait all day for Tom to wake up.

Ches had memorised, "Turn right at the exit gate, right at the first set of lights, follow the signs to the M25 and head toward Gatwick before than taking the M3 to Southampton." O.K., there was some minor dummy spitting finding the entrance to the M25 but then a clear run south. Around 10 miles north of Southampton, we pulled into a service station where I slapped Tom around the face for a couple of minutes to wake him up. His response was to give directions in Kms instead of miles. We can live with that as we grew up with miles.

Bill (or maybe William here in the UK) led us into the top end of Hill Lane, which is both a lane and a main road leading into Southampton. We pulled over to allow an ambulance past and then around 100m north of D&K's house came to a standstill. I assumed an accident so told Ches to get out and walk to their place as it would probably be much faster. It was and she did.

I drove into the front drive some minutes later. Tea. Shower. Supermarket shopping at Sainsbury. Our first experience of Southampton suburbia was kinda disconcerting. D&K shop in this area regularly and in some ways it is like King St, Newtown or Fitzroy St in Melbourne . The shop buildings are of the same vintage as Newtown however the main difference is that there are no awnings over the footpaths. Now in a rainy country, why down they have awnings? Just looks wrong!

OMG, how cheap is UK alcohol? $AUD30.00 for Gin or Brandy or anything. And ….. Cheese.

Back home we put the shopping away, and Ches, Drew and I set out for the 15min walk into town. Keith was at work attending a strategy session with his staff at Southampton University.

We stopped at Mettricks for lunch. Really good coffee and reasonable good café food. The temp. was around 28c and quite humid, even with a breeze picking up. Drew had told us that there was a forecast for a major storm later in the day. A major storm from the west likely to cause flooding. All of the south of England on alert. We figured we had till around 6.00pm to get home.

We then set out for the "Old Town Walk". I won't bore you with the full walk.

Much of the city was destroyed by bombing in WW2, however this small section down near the original docks, is still well worth a visit. I really had to struggle to find the PDF attached and most tourist info. on line is poor. I also found a library website that had much more detailed information about the Old Town, so we took the walk reading the stuff I'd downloaded. Sadly, despite the fact that thousands of people board cruise ships here in Southampton, much of the walk within the towers and walls is strewn with litter and many of the plaques graffitied. Nevertheless, it's a good walk and the walls and major buildings and ruins well maintained. The highlight obviously the Bargate (12th century entrance to the town), the Tudor House which is now a museum and the Wool House a hotel. Unbeknown to us, even Drew, Keith and his staff were seated at a table out front of the Wool House having a drink. The meeting had been difficult and the heat hadn't helped, so they had retired to have a drink. Keith joined us as we continued the walk around the walls to Canute's Palace and along the back of the walls to the Bargate again. Ches was footsore and we were all very thirsty, so we went back to Mettricks for a beer.

With a few spits of rain, we decided the storm was on it's way, so headed home. 15min later as we entered the driveway, down she came and the thunder and lightning began. Since arriving in Southampton over a year ago, all they had experience was drizzle, never heavy rain. Down she came. We must have brought it with us.

It was D&K's 9th anniversary. Drew made a pitcher or Pimms and Lemonade and Ches proceeded to knock her glass over and flood the table …. Jetlag/tiredness obviously! Dinner and bed by 9.30 pm.

Both rose twice in the night with Thunder and Lightning still going on and slept through till 5.15 pm when the storm had finally passed.

It's now Wednesday morning and Ches, Drew and I will head out to visit Arundel Castle and Petworth House this morning.