Wednesday’s long and winding road

Mary Ann and Antoine had another day off, and since they had decided by then to leave their jobs at Marwell (and the boss had decided he couldn’t keep them on in the slow season and couldn’t house them in the cold season that is approaching), they had packed up their stuff and were ready to ship it to La Wantzenau.

Neil decided to stay home at the hotel and work on his presentations for the conference. Mary Ann, Tony and I loaded the car with bags and loose stuff and headed off, first to Winchester, to drop Tony at the train for London. He was going “up to London” to pick up the freshly-bound copies of his thesis, and would join us in Portsmouth. MA & I tried to go to the Mail Boxes Etc. shop in Winchester, but were frustrated by traffic and so went straight on to Portsmouth instead. There, we found a parking place right next to Mail Boxes and the most helpful people in the shop. We left them to sort out the repacking and took a long and frustrating road to lunch at the big outlet mall -– Portsmouth Quays--MA was keen on visiting. She went back to complete the shipping transaction while I did one corner of the mall. Did not buy much, but had a good time looking. Even bargain prices are too high for me. Tony met us (train station is next to mall, next to harbour) and he shopped for desperately-needed shoes.


After shopping, we tried to see Nelson’s ships, but the museum was closed. Hung about at the docks for a while, then returned to Marwell. By then we were hungry and all went to the Ship Inn for a lovely dinner. More internet, booked flights and got bus information for them.

Very sorry, everyone: the pictures are all sideways this morning!