Yet another sunny day....who said it always rains in England! Perhaps I had better keep quiet or it might change! We left our wheat field near Chichester and headed off towards the New Forest which is not new at all as it was created as a royal forest by William l in about 1079 for the royal hunt, mainly of deer. It was created at the expense of more than 20 small hamlets and isolated farmsteads hence it was a 'new' compact area in his time. It now includes one o...

Being close to the sea the wind was pretty strong and it blew a lot during the night. It was also pretty cold first thing so it wasn't too far removed from being at New Brighton in Christchurch. We had decided that we should all do our own thing today and perhaps everyday and then catch up in the evening to compare stories. First on my list was a haircut and Mandy was keen to do the same. They headed off to do Brighton Pier first but I found a hairdresser 5 minut...

Another nice day and we headed off in the direction of Rye. Rye is an old walled town which has been largely maintained at it was in Medieval times. Some years ago now a Heritage Order was placed on the entire town and so nothing can now be changed from its current state. About 40 years ago a husband and wife team set about on a Labour of love and made a model of the town of Rye. They used the earliest remaining public records to create the model as accurately as...

Last night was cooler so we all slept well and as we got ready to leave a lovely English couple about our age who had been at reception with us when we checked in and had spoken to us whenever they saw us after that came up to me for a chat and then asked "do you know David from New Zealand?" "Yes" I said "he's my brother" thinking he couldn't possibly be serious. "Really" he said "I met him at Monte Carlo several years ago". After establishing that there were se...