Many years ago, my first husband and I were on a cheap holiday sleeping in the awning of a friend's caravan, it was an experience best forgotten on the whole but on the day we were driving home we stopped by a waterway where people were crabbing with bits of bacon tied to string. We wandered down a causeway for quite a while and at the end of it was a castle. This took us by surprise. We'd just gone for a walk. We had very little money between us and we cobbled together together enough for half the entrance fee and convinced the man on the door to let us in for half price. It must have been a slow day, and it was definitely quite late in the day.
This year we were back down in the New Forest and with a bit of map scouring I found out we had parked at Milford-on-Sea and the castle we had stumbled across was the rather large Hurst Castle.
So 25 years later I was back, with an upgraded husband and a daughter. We parked in exactly the same place, and watched people still crabbing off the bridge with string and bacon.
It's a really lovely place, and this time it was about 28C so it was seriously nice, if a little busy.
We walked the 1.5 miles out on the shingle spit (you can get a boat from Keyhaven to the castle if you don't fancy the walk).
So this is English Heritage's photo of it, it's a big place but its interest lies in that true English Heritage way: they've not done much with it!
Henry VIII built it and there is clearly a Tudor part of it, but it has basically been used ever since. Charles I was imprisoned in it, so there is a display on that. I think I recall reading it was used as a salt store but most interestingly it was used full on in the recent wars (starting with the Napoleonic) so it still has huge guns in it and all the workings of an army station.
This is a relatively small one.
The bunting isn't celebrating the gun...
The gun and the theatre shared a room, must have been inconvenient some nights!
New and old are higgly piggly and you walk from one to the next.
Some parts I just wasn't sure whether I was in new or old!
National Trust seem to pick a period for a property and display it in that manner, English Heritage seem to leave stuff alone, it makes for a completely different experience. I like it.
Old, untouched since last used cookers in a room that seemed to be a store room you could just wander into.
There is a huge lighthouse exhibition there which was very interesting.
In fact there are many rooms with different displays and films in.
But mostly I liked being up on the roof.
...which was blistering in the heat and 'some people' seemed to enjoy standing on the bubbles whilst others warned them that they would be moaning later when their shoes were ruined and the castle wouldn't thank them for it either!
We had a wander around the outside and then a lovely walk back along the split.
I remember enjoying it the first time I went and this trip sealed it. It is a fascinating place to visit.
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Across the years I have made the odd resource like the Learning Look Wider game or Lucky Pig Game available for download but I've never got around to putting them into one place for easy access.
Another Ranger leader has put together a Google Drive of her resources and made them available for Ranger leaders to share. But Google drive is one of those things either you get it or you don't, it's not the most obvious of tools to use and it was clear immediately that some Guiders were struggling to access it. So I have created a new area here:
It gives direct access to all her resources and it has actually spurred me on to start to group together some of mine.
I have often thought about how I write about so many programme nights that are good to do but they just disappear into the history of the posts. I must find a better way to catalog them together to be used. Another thing I need to get around to!
for now though enjoy the new area, it is linked as RESOURCES from the bar across the top of the blog.
Leading up to Remembrance I wanted the Brownies to think a bit about Girlguiding's involvement in the war effort. I told them about how Guides were used to carry messages for MI5 during the war years. The story goes that Boy Scouts were MI5's first choice for this work, but they turned out to be too naughty and too talkative! Britain's secret agents turned to the Girl Guides for help instead.
And with that I introduced them to pigpen code.
Intially they looked confused but once they got going they got it very quickly.
I gave each six 3 sheets of paper, each had a number written on it in pigpen.
Once they had worked out those 3 numbers they put it in the lock that was attached to an envelope. If the lock opened they could open the envelope.
Inside each envelope was another message to be decoded.
I explained that getting it right was most important not doing it fast.
When they brought me the message I gave them a bag of sweets.
They thought that was fabulous.
Next they made their own codes up and passed them onto a different six to be decoded.
The first time they made quite easy ones but after that they really started to come up with some complicated sentences.
Although sometimes the best messages are the short and snappy ones!!
This was a really good evening, the girls were engaged and really enjoyed it.
I was worried that it would be too hard for them but having seen them do this so well I think that I could have actually made it a bit more complicated, perhaps adding another level of the puzzle before they got the sweets. Maybe when they brought the code up from inside the envelope I could have given them another code to decrypt first, maybe with a different simple cypher like a number grid.
Nearly 1 million of the British Army died during the First World War. Everybody lost somebody.
About half are buried as known soldiers, the rest are buried as unknown or have no grave. source
The importance of all of the men who died became very important in terms of the memorial for the lost soldiers. Previously in the history of battles only important people were buried in individual graves or even taken away from the battle field. Triumph or glory in defeat belonged only to the higher ranks.
But the memorials for the First World War are mainly alphabetical, no mention of rank or social status. Just men, fought together, suffered together, died together.
After the war, the French allowed families to move graves to local sites but the British decided to leave our graves as they were, and so many men had no grave. How could those at home grieve fully with no way to out pour?
An army chaplain, the Rev David Railton, had the idea of the grave of the unknown soldier. A common grave for all people.
"One
evening in 1916, Railton returned from the front line to his billet near
Armentieres having just buried one of his comrades. Outside the billet was a
small garden. In one corner of die garden, Railton saw a grave marked with a
rough wooden cross. On the cross was written, in black-pencilled letters, 'An
Unknown British Soldier’, and in brackets beneath, ’of the Black Watch’. ‘It was
dusk and no one was near, except some officers in the billet playing cards,’ he
recalled. ‘I remember how still it was. Even the guns seemed to be resting.’ The
sight of this unmarked grave made a huge impression on him. ‘How that grave
caused me to think,’ Railton wrote later. ‘But who was he, and who were they
[his parents]?… So I thought and thought. What can I do to ease the pain of
father, mother, brother, sister, sweetheart, wife and friend? Quietly and
gradually there came out of the mist of thought this answer clear and strong.
“Let this body – this symbol of him – be carried reverently over the sea to his
native land.” And I was happy for about five or 10 minutes.’ " source
In November 1920 it all came to fruition. On the 7th of November four (possibly 6) soldier's remains were exhumed from different battle sites, the remains were taken to a chapel at St. Pol. The General Officer in charge of troops in France and Flanders, Brigadier General L.J.Wyatt, with Colonel Gell, went into the chapel, the bodies were covered by Union Flags. They had no idea from which area the bodies had come. General Wyatt selected one and the two officers placed it in a plain coffin and sealed it... it was completely unidentifiable, It could be anybody, rich or poor, any rank...anyone. (Although wikipedia says it seems highly likely that the bodies were carefully selected and it is almost certain that the Unknown Warrior was a soldier serving in Britain's pre-war regular army and not a sailor, territorial, airman, or Empire Serviceman)
The coffin was brought to England on a destroyer and then taken by train to London. The carriage had a white painted roof and people stood at every station to see it go through. There are many special details about the whole course of events such as the train carriage used had also been used to transport the body of Edith Cavell, the sword place on the coffin came from the King's collection in the Tower, the casket was made of oaks from Hampton Court and the earth used to fill in the grave was brought from France.
On the 11th November, it was taken from Victoria to Westminster by Gun carriage and the public numbers and atmosphere is compared to Princess Diana's funeral. This is the funeral of service. It included the 2 minutes silence at 11 o'clock, the first of which had taken place the year before in 1919.
What I find most important is that there were no foreign dignitaries or government representatives at the service, the guests of honour were women that had lost their husband and all their sons in the war.
Special permission had been given to make a recording of the service but only the two hymns were of good enough quality to be included on the record, the first electrical recording ever to be sold to the public.
The grave is one of the most sacred places in Westminster Abbey. It is the only part of
the floor that the congregation are not allowed to walk on. It is a tradition that Royal bridal bouquets are laid on the grave. Started by the Queen Mother who laid her own bouquet in memory of her brother who was killed on the Western Front in 1915, followed by the Queen, Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York and more recently Kate Middleton the Duchess of Cambridge by a soldier later in the day after the photos were taken.
I confessed many years ago I was a landlord, I still continue to make a steady loss every year.
I've had many tenants some good, some not so good. There was the airing cupboard converted for a use that clearly required warm air and plenty of light! And the one with the cupboard full of stolen and part opened post. Of course these are the things you find after a tenant has moved out.
There are the things that happen whilst the tenant is in like a mouse nest under the bath (this is a modern house, how the hell did that happen?!), the new boiler, the new integral fridge/freezer, yet another new cooker, a new shower, a broken shower door, fixing mouldy grout. Sometimes it seems endless and frustrating as I know that my own bathroom would get mouldy if I didn't keep it clean and aired but some tenants just don't seem to get that houses need looking after. But my last tenant has completely broken the mold.
There was the usual cooker woes. This seems par for the course with tenants but this cooker was only 18 months old.
The house definitely had mice (I guess as it had them 10 years ago it is clearly prone to them) but the kitchen cupboards were left with lots of food in them, unwrapped, next to open plates of mouse poison (and packets of dog and cat food - they weren't allowed pets).
There were layers of carpet in the garage each with mouse poison scattered between them. Nice.
The kitchen had a few cupboard doors off, the floor covering ripped and stained. The new fridge was left with rotting food in it, mould growing in it and the seals black with dirt.
But lets move into the garden with piles of dustbin bags of rubbish, more carpet (none in the house had changed!) , bedstead, a couple of plastic tables, a broken child bike and scooter. The shed still full including 2 broken lawn mowers and a broken tumble dryer. The outside house walls had been drawn on.
In the house there were a couple of pieces of furniture and a lot of children's clothes and bedding. In the garage lots of toys, boxes of personal belongings, ornaments, wedding photos, broken hoover. You could only assume that they had confused the concept of 'move out' but after a lot of trying to get them to collect their stuff I gave up, including the inevitable packet of drugs which, like the cooker, seems a tenant change par for the course!
The garage door lock and entire mechanism had completely disappeared. The backdoor lock was broken from someone unsuccessfully trying to pick it. The bathroom was the usual mould fest and both toilets in the house had stains that took me over a month of trial of different cleaners to clear. The living room carpet was soiled beyond saving and the whole house smelt so bad it was wretched.
I stood in the hallway and sobbed. I always find it hard to do maintenance on the house, it was my home when Cog was born and the place of my marriage break up. It is a brick basket brimming with emotion for me. This mess just seemed insurmountable.
So I have had a summer of hard work and workmen management. Once the house clearance had started I thought it might get easier, but each step of the way seemed to reveal another issue to be resolved. Like finding that the meters had been changed to pay as you go but were in debt so each time we topped up it sucked the money away to clear the debt, took us a while to discover and sort that one!! There was a large amount of clinical waste left in the house, 3 buckets worth of needles. It was actually quite hard finding someone prepared to dispose of them and of course I had no medical paper work to go with them. A final beg to the council for a one off collection worked. But the surprises, like the lollipop stick, just kept on coming.
I was so lucky that some workmen I know really pulled out stops for me and they recommended friends with integrity to do other jobs that needed doing. So whilst the money has flowed out and the work seemed endless I was at least confident every step of the way that they really were working hard, at a good price and were doing their best for me.
So here I am 3 months later:
All tenant rubbish cleared
complete new kitchen including fridge (again), cooker (again), extractor, lights, tiling, cupboards, work surfaces, sink taps.
New bathroom tiles (again), taps, bathroom cupboard, window sill.
Electric extractor fan fitted in the bathroom
All light switches and plugs replaced.
All door handles replaced
Entire house redecorated (inside and out)
Wooden banisters and balustrades scrubbed and restained
New carpets in living room, bedrooms, stairs and landing
New flooring in kitchen, downstairs toilet and bathroom.
New window panes in almost every room (double glazed panes had blown)
Downstairs toilet fixed, waste, taps etc
All builder rubbish cleared
Gardening done, rubbish cleared
Drive cleared of weeds and brushed hard.
Smashed outside lights and sensors replaced
Patio door fitting fixed.
Locks fitted/replaced
House fully cleaned
Glass light shades all taken down and washed, and broken/missing ones replaced
Windows cleaned inside and out
Outside walls scrubbed
New light shades in bedrooms
New bedroom curtains and landing blind
Pest control check (with the rubbish gone, the house clean and a few holes blocked up there is no sign of them at all)
(Each time I read this list I add to it, it was seriously never ending)
I have done as much work as I could myself. But through it all, I've still been working and looking after Cog. At one point I got to the house and there were 6 work vans there, 6! I felt my bank account empty as I sat there looking at them.
But now the final snagging is done, I have scrubbed and scrubbed until the smell is no more and even more reassuringly after a few weeks of being on the rental market without a sniff, finally people have started to show an interest in renting it, so hopefully soon it will be occupied again - remember whilst it is empty I also have to pay the council tax on it.
So all that is left of this current nightmare is trying to work out how the hell to carry that much loss over in my tax return....
Oh yes and the fact that the old tenant is in dispute with me to get the bond back. This amazes me and frustrates the hell out of me. I appreciate that not all of the work that has happened is attributable to them but you actually have to have paid your rent to get the bond back! They never paid the last months rent. So just adding the cost of house clearance and cleaning and nothing else to the rent owed is still more than the bond. But I know I will be lambasted as a bloodsucking, money grabbing landlord to be maligned.
From around the age 14-17 I had a very good friend. We were probably 'best friends' but she had other 'best friends' and I had other 'best friends' so we weren't dependent on each other. But it's fair to say we spent a lot of time together. A lot.
She was pretty and self-assured. She got the 'best' boys, I was the friend that the best boy's friends got. Did that make sense? I did not have 'the allure'! She did. She was graceful and seemed to know where she was going in life.
We stopped being friends at some point. I do remember us having a bit of a fall out over something and nothing but not enough to kill a friendship. I just think I left school and she didn't and our lives took different paths. About 20 years ago I remember getting a letter from her that seemed to have been prompted by me but I don't really remember the circumstances of that either and whilst she said it would be nice to meet we still didn't. Probably because that would have taken effort on my part and I am a lazy friend.
But at the start of this year I was thinking about Morrissey and about when I went to see the Smiths live. Fantastic concert in a fairly small venue and I was at the stage edge and touched Morrissey's legs and daffodils! But what I couldn't remember (and still can't) is who I went with or how I got the tickets. In those days you had to go to the box office and queue for miles in the cold and wet to go to a sell out gig. I know I didn't do that. So I made a determined effort to find my old friend and ask her because I know her father got tickets for Depeche Mode (twice) and Duran Duran for us.
I found her on the book of face and messaged her. Now it seems her memory is worse than mine, she doesn't know if she went or not and struggled to even remember Depeche Mode despite me reminding her that her dad drove us home from Birmingham! But she did want to meet up. And so we did.
She lives very close to me, and one of her sons did work experience with Cog, it's a small world isn't it.
Anyhoo, this friend is still beautiful, graceful, self-assured and whilst she is still lovely to talk to and such a nice person, sitting in front of her I was feeling 15 years old: rather plump and spotty, lacking in finesse and well, a bit second rate really.
We were talking about yoga and body balance and her very sensible long-term plans and goals in terms of physical health. Sounds deeper than it was; we were just discussing old age aches and pains really and how best to manage them now and in the future. I think body balance would be great for me but I know I would be an uncoordinated elephant trying to hide in the corner of the room. She was talking about the beautiful music and I was groaning inside knowing my uncouth tastes would hate it.
And I felt stupid and a bumbling mess and I hadn't even actually done it yet, I was only thinking about the prospect and I realised this is how I used to feel when I was with her.
And then I had an epiphany...sat eating a big fat deep, covered in sugar mince pie whilst she ate a healthy wrap and sipped black coffee...I had the best damn thought I have ever had...
"I'm REALLY REALLY GOOD at running through muddy puddles and hitting stuff really hard whilst listening to tubthumping music. It's ok that I am who I am (and that I would always rather eat 2 puddings than a main course.)"
So 25 years later I was back, with an upgraded husband and a daughter. We parked in exactly the same place, and watched people still crabbing off the bridge with string and bacon.
This is a relatively small one.
Some parts I just wasn't sure whether I was in new or old!
But mostly I liked being up on the roof.
