Brother Sam drove me in to Sherborne station and I then had a 3-train 4.5hr journey to Crowborough, one of the nearest stations to Mayfield. Nicky and 12yr old son Edward met me at the station. It was a short ride to their home where I then met 9yr old James. I hadn’t met either of the children before so that’s been lovely, rather than just hearing about them. They also have a 4yr old black lab cross border collie called Frodo. Frodo quickly found out I was a soft touch for games etc so I have a new friend. Greg recently finished renovating an outside building that was originally built to house a printing press. It’s now a guest room and a games room, so I can have fun!
Mon 26 July - Winnie the Pooh adventures.
Nicky works for the local Vicar 3 mornings a week so I “lad-sat” for 3.5hrs. My instructions were simply to ensure the boys didn’t kill each other! Together we filled in the time with X-box games and real, outside games including tennis and cricket. The only problem was they told me the cricket rules were that if you hit the ball, you had to run. Mmm ‘run’ – what does that word mean??? I figured that I should be allowed to have Frodo as my runner but he wasn’t particularly helpful in that regard!
In the afternoon we went on a search for Poohsticks bridge, the bridge where Pooh and his friends played Poohsticks. We knew this was not too far away in the village Hartfield, so we set off on our search. We arrived in the village and asked for directions at the Pooh tea shop and set off again into the forest and then on a 20min hike, mostly downhill to Poohsticks bridge. The water level was very low, and a lot of people have been playing Poohsticks so many of our sticks got stuck. Nevertheless we can still say that we played Poohsticks at the Poohsticks bridge. After the hike back uphill we felt it was necessary to return to the Pooh tea house for appropriate refreshments such as Piglet’s cream tea.
Back home Nicky organised ‘supper’ (translation ‘dinner’) which we enjoyed in the balmy, yet still overcast, outdoors.
Tues 27 July - Brighton
Today Nicky drove the boys and I down to Brighton. We walked along the (pebbly) beach front for quite some way passing various amusements and carousels along the way, to get to the famous Brighton Pier. It really is a very long pier. The majority of it is filled with amusements and arcade games which the boys enjoyed for a little while. Then it was fish and chips on the boardwalk before a few moments sitting on the ‘beach’ while the boys went and got their feet wet. It was still quite dull which seemed to mean there were only a few on the beach and even fewer venturing to get wet.
We then headed up into the shopping area which was very, very busy. It was like a completely different Brighton. After a successful little shopping spree for the boys, it was time to return home. Both boys fell asleep in the car so incriminating photos were taken and one has now been uploaded to the desktop of the family PC which, at the time of writing, the boys are yet to see!
Sounds like fun Leigh - and so great to actually go the Poohsticks bridge. I used to play Poohsticks on the rickety old bridge near our home as I walked home from Bardwell Park Infants school, but I think the bridge was replaced by the time you were born. I would stare down through the holes in the wooden planks to watch my stick float from one side to the other. :)
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