As usually we headed to Bournemouth for a long weekend in early September but first I had a work event in London. It took place in the Oxford and Cambridge Club, the imaginatively named members club for both universities.
I met 4 of my colleagues at Paddington before we took the underground to Piccadilly and walked to the club via Regent's Street. It was a roasting hot day and the rain they threatened never came so it ended up a very sticky evening. I have to say our first impressios of the place just cemented all the bad things you hear about Oxbridge being stuck up, elitist and full of themselves.
The club has a strict dress code which we had all adhered to, but the person on reception could hardly bring herself to let us in. We were filming the evening to make some promotional videos and lord only knows what the film crew thought because the staff who were meant to be helping were hostile to the point of being obstructive, and yes we had paid a wedge of money to host the event there!
It was a beautiful setting, but I've never had to do registration and apologise to each person as they arrived for the way the staff at the venue spoke to them on arrival, believe me, we gave some very honest feedback afterwards...
The food was amazing and all in all the event went well. At the end a very charming man (yes there was at least one nice person there) gave us a tour of the whole building which was fascinating.
This is the ladies room, I loved the ceiling.
It was a long night and I got home about 12.30pm. Luckily I had the next day off as our holiday started then so could have a lie-in.
We headed off to Bournemouth the next day. As anyone who reads my blog knows we have been going for many years now in September and I have to say we have been really blessed when it comes to the weather. Apart from the odd wet day here and there we have always had gorgeous weather. So I guess we were due a bad year.
As I said to my Mum when we got back, it wasn't a case of wet or dry, more levels of wetness. It basically went from drizzle to torrential and everything in between but it never actually stopped.
We tried a new hotel on our favourite East Cliff side of Bournemouth. It had great reviews on Tripadvisor & Booking.com, but turned out to have been on The Hotel Inspector TV show. I had already booked our stay when we found this out so we quickly downloaded the episode to watch in some trepidation. Thankfully it came out of it well.
The room was fine, one downside was it overlooked the fairly busy road but luckily it had a fan in the wardrobe so we got that out and had it on at night and slept with the window shut. It was randomly very hot still, even though it was so wet.
The only other issue was the size of the shower, which was so small you didn't so much get in it as put it on. This made washing your hair a challenge and meant you could only sort of shuffle around. I dropped my shower gel and couldn't pick it up until I opened the door and stepped out!
In theory the hotel was only a 15 minute walk from the station so Himself insisted we walk, I had suggested jumping in a cab as it was raining. Of course about 10 minutes into the walk it went from fairly heavy to torrential. We arrived looking like a pair of drowned rats despite our umbrellas.
Once we had checked in, unpacked and put on some dry clothes and footwear, we headed out. Thankfully it was now only drizzling so we walked down to the beach and mooched towards Poole.
There had been torrential downpours before we arrived and the water was still flowing down the chines onto the beach. For all the years I have been going I had no idea there was this brickwork at the edge of the beach, it's usually covered in sand!
The rain began to get heavier so we turned around and headed back. Usually we buy chips to eat on the beach on our first night, but it was pouring down by the time we got to the pier so instead we went inside the restaurant at Harry Ramsden's and ate them there. In my case with an absolutely delicious piece of haddock.
The next morning we had a full breakfast courtesy of the hotel breakfast buffet which was delicious and a treat. I rarely eat a cooked breakfast. I don't eat sausages and have to be in the mood for bacon, it was nice to be able to help yourself so I could just have egg, tomato, mushrooms & potato with a cheeky piece of fried bread. Genuinely can't remember the last time I ate fried bread! It was nice as a one off.
Repleat we set out into the rain to have a look around the town centre before catching the bus over to Poole. We spent the day mooching around Poole taking shelter in a cafe when the rain got too heavy. We headed back about 5.30pm to get chaged for dinner.
I usually meet my friend Alison for a day out, but this year she and her husband had something on, so we all met for dinner instead. We randomly co-incided, us walking up the hill from the town, and them walking down it from the carpark at the top.
They have just moved house so we caught up on news and admired pictures of the 7, yes 7 sheds they are now the proud owners of. Why anyone would need 7 sheds was a mystery to us all, but the previous owner of their house clearly was that anyone, even if he did then leave them all behind when he moved out.
We ate delicious Italian food and ended up being the last people in the restaurant, only realising it was time to leave as they were clearing up and closing down around us!
The next day Himself and I walked in the rain to the train station and caught the train to Dorchester. I had heard it was meant to be lovely, and it was also the home town of our late friend Murray, so we thought we'd give it a visit.
The train station is near what was an old brewery which has since been redeveloped into shops, restaurants and bars. We had a look around a couple of the shops there before walking to the town centre.I just had to buy some tomatoes from this amazing display.
I love tomatoes and I will confess there were none left by the time I got back to the hotel. I just kept snacking on them all day like a bag of sweets!
It rained so relentlessly we gave up trying to walk along by the river or going to see the iron age hill fort. The museum was surprisingly expensive at £15 a head so we gave that a miss too. In the end we found a pub near the station where we raised a pint in Murray's honour and watched a group of absolutely drenched walkers, who has visited the hill fort, come in trail puddles of water everywhere and leave again.
Once back in Bournemouth we had something to eat in the Harvester on the beach at Durley Chine, then walked up to The Anvil bar and club for a drink as they have a great rock & metal jukebox. We knew there was a Blink 182 cover band on donwstairs there that night, which we hadn't planned to go and see, but in the end we did. They were great fun and did 2 sets, the second being 90's covers which included Bowling For Soup and Rage Against The Machine so we were both happy.
We went back upstairs to find a DJ had set up so we sat drinking beer and in my case singing along until an extremely drunk Glaswegian chef latched on to us so we decided it was time to leave. It turned out to be 1.30am so probably not a bad thing.
It was still raining when we headed home the next day so it was nice to get home and have a hot shower with room to move!
I was back at work for a couple of weeks then I had another day off this time to visit Kelmscott Manor with Soo, and her friend Gina (who I know from when I used to work at the Bodleian Library.) Gina had never been and whilst Soo and I have been there together before, we were trying to remember exactly how long ago. Then Facebook did it's memories thing and apparently it was 10 years ago. Wow where did that time go??
Kelmscott was the home of William Morris from 1871 until his death, his widow Jane Morris continued to live there with his daughters. His daughter May bequithed the house to the University of Oxford providing they used it to house upcoming artists. According to one of the guides the problem was she also refused to let them update the house so with no electricity or running water noone really wanted to live there and in the end it was sold. It is now run by the Society of Antiquaries. There were major refurbishments done recently and the manor reopened in 2022, so we were interested to see what was new.
We parked at Buscot and walked across the fields to Kelmscott. We were armed with waterproof as the weather was meant to be stormy with torrential downpours. Thankfully it was dry for the walk there.
Sadly there was no photography allowed inside though I did manage to sneak a couple of pics.
There were guides in every room so that wasn't easy. One of them seemed to take am liking to Soo and basically talked at us, we were finally able to escape when another member of staff came to ask him something, good job really we would probably still be there now otherwise!
It was fascinating to see the attic space which is now open and used for exhibitions, the beams were beautiful.I know they have pretty much all been replaced over the years as the house fell into disrepair.
After we have finished in the house we looked around the outhouses, the wash house was amazing, then the gardens which were lovely.
By this time we were all hungry so headed to the cafe. We ordered and were going to sit outside but ominous rumblings started so we decamped to the only free table left inside.
Not a moment too soon. The heavens opened and the most incredible thunder storm with hail and torrential rain.
Very soon the courtyard was completley flooded and I heard one of the staff come in to say the offices had flooded and they were mopping up in the shop when we looked in there.
And just like that it was over.
The walk back along the river was gorgeous though the skies were starting to look like they might not quite have finished after all.
I did love these hay bales that looked like giant humbugs.
All in all a lovely day out.
