Grey stones and Grey Skies

Sherryn and Tim, good friends from Oz, came and stayed for the weekend and we took the opportunity to show them some of Old England (in the rain). They also gave us the chance to test out our new car (actually older than the previous one but much much nicer). It 's a Vauxhall Omega (Aussie translation: Holden, something like a Berlina). Comes complete with seat warmers for those cold English mornings that we haven't really experienced yet! On Saturday after a late start we drove to Netley Abbey. It's the most complete Cistercian Abbey in Southern England and was built around 1239. It's also where we went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream performed several weeks ago.

We spent a good hour at the abbey experimenting with our new camera, a Canon EOS 400D. We can hardly put it down, although we have a LOT to learn. Perhaps there'll be a course we can do somewhere. We're hoping Jono will teach us some tips when he comes over to France in just 4 weeks!
This photo took a lot of work on Tim's behalf. He had to set the timer on the camera and then run 100 metres or so in 10 seconds whilst the camera counted down. We tried it 5 times with 2 different cameras before this photo happened.

On Sunday afternoon in the rain we visited Arundel Castle. The Keep is the oldest part of the castle (built starting 1067). It's full of all sorts of amazing funriture and decorations (a lion's pelt). The chapel was especially beautifully carved.
The current Duke and Earl of Norfolk live in one wing of the castle. It must be pretty chilly most of the time here. The stone walls are so thick I can't imagine what their heating bill would be like!

I promise I didn't write it!! But obviously a few other Jane's have added their score to the list (check out the lines below the name).

Last Saturday we finally went to visit Jane's great aunt, Aunty Betty (or AB as she's affectionately known). She has recently moved into a retirement home with a beautiful garden. We had a lovely picnic. She must have been expecting ten more people due to the amount of food that was produced from her TINY bar fridge. All her meals are supplied but she still ordered things from the grocer and made 3 different types of sandwiches on her bed (the only available bench space). Note greg's appearance in the next picture ("NO MORE FOOD!!")

Last weekend Rob, Bec and Sarah (friends from Melbourne) came to spend a day with us in Portsmouth. Portsmouth is about half an hour drive away from Southampton and its a maritime city. It's where the navy is largely based in the UK and it has an interesting Historical Dockyard Museum. We all realised we wouldn't cover all the sites in one visit so Greg and I will have to return some time.
Greg and I decided to dress as the locals do (well in Tudor times). Actually we were fascinated by the Mary Rose Exhibition. In the 1970's divers discovered the remains of a huge ship that had sunk in the 1500's during the time of King Henry the 8th (Tudor times). Over a decade they retrieved all sorts of artifacts from the sea bed inside the ship which had been really well preserved under the silt of the ocean bed. The things they collected gave real incite into the people of the time and day-to-day practises. Greg was especially excited by the massive bronze cannons and long bows brought to the surface. On 11th October 1982 the remains of the ship's hull were lifted from the ocean floor and now you can view the preserving of the ship in a big shed. Since then they've been working out how to dry out the ship without everything decaying. So they've been spraying her in this shed since 1994 with PVC (wax) so it penetrates into the wood fibres. next year they'll stop the spraying and begin to dry her out very gradually.

The dockyards also house The Victory, the flagship of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. We were able to walk inside and see what life would have been like on board a battle ship. Rob had to crouch the whole tour and we decided he was lucky he was army, not navy trained.

Rob stayed 2 nights in Southampton to collect some data for work. Some of the CT's that Greg has been doing will be used for Rob's research on Thoracic stenting. It's a small world! So to make him feel at home we made Chicken Parmi (actually it was turkey because that was cheaper!)

We also invited a good friend Paula from work to our Aussie dinner. She's a Scottish radiographer working with us at Southampton General but worked in Australia last year. She was a locum in Geelong earlier this year!!