Get Sporked

We are now the proud owners of a brand new pair of sporks. Mine is a green one and Mike’s is a blue one. This is just a small part of our big plan for cycle touring with as little weight as possible.

The spork – if you haven’t heard of one before – is an all in one spoon and fork, it’s made of plastic and is very light. This is to replace our other knife, fork and spoon set with can opener and will save us a massive 280g in weight.

Imagine how much weight we could save if I shed 3 kilos!

ETA for starting our cycle tour is Tuesday 19th June.

Our new Sporks

Outlook for Thursday

Your guess is good as mine…

We had a sunny day yesterday so we dusted off our bikes and cycled from Poole to Bournemouth. Our bikes have just been serviced so they are rolling nicely. We are still very keen to do a bike tour.

We still haven’t decided where we are going but Mike’s latest idea is to cycle around Jersey, but I think it is raining and cold there too.

We are going to see what the weather does this week. It looks like outlook for Thursday might be fine.

Last Day at Butlins

On Sunday we awoke a little hungover after our messy night out. We ventured out from the concentration camp yet again for a coastal work.

Coastal walk

All the cows were laying down so we knew there was a 100 percent chance of rain:

Cows laying down indications 100% chance of rain

We then caught the steam train back (this was the highlight for Mike)

We then joined Matt and Sonia and listened to the Oompah band:

Oompah band

Holiday Camp or Concentration Camp?

On Saturday morning we escaped the concentration camp and went for a walk along the seaside at Minehead.

Beach outside the Camp

Pub at the end of the harbour

Looking back at the hideous structure that is Butlins

The reason we went to Butlins was to celebrate Mikes sister-in-laws 60th birthday. About 30 or so of Mikes family came along to celebrate. On Saturday afternoon we had a picnic lunch.

Mike and his kids

On Saturday night we saw Tom Jones live on stage:

Tom Jones

Followed by an acoustic band at another pub, then onto a club until about 1.30am.

Clubbing

Butlins worse than imagined

We’re at Butlins holiday camp and It’s worse than expected.  It’s like stepping back in time. The complex was built in 1962 and it looks like it hasn’t been updated since. Our room is like a really bad hostel.

We took the room and food option which means we get breakfast and dinner. It’s all you can eat stodge in a buffet style. Stuff like lasagna, floppy pasta, curry and chips. It didn’t taste as bad as it looked.

Stodge

The beer bellied men I mentioned in my last post are all here with their beer bellied wives and beer bellied children. A lot of these people also have brightly coloured hair (reds,greens,yellows etc).

Funny looking people

Hi-De-Hi or Lo-De-Lo

Tomorrow we are going to Butlins. This is an English holiday camp like on the TV sitcom Hi-de-Hi. I’m not sure whether to be excited or apprehensive.

I have visions of fat middle aged ladies in bikinis, lounging around the pool, while their kids run and scream unattended all over the place. Then the awful visions of smelly middle aged men sporting giant beer bellies while sitting at the bar drinking pints of Stella.

Guess we will out what it is all about tomorrow, we’ll keep you posted.

 

London Fix

We decided to head up the London for the afternoon as it is only an hour on the train from Banbury to Marylebone Station. We wandered up Baker Street, then down Oxford Street and this turned out to be a rather expensive route (or a cheap route depending which way you look at it).

We stopped at a Sunglass hut and both bought a new pair of Maui Jim’s each. I’d researched the prices in NZ and we actually ended up getting 2 pairs of sunnies for $200 less than what I would have paid in NZ for 1 pair. So in that way it was a bargain. Mike can replace his superglued pair, and I can replace my pair as the lenses are corroding.

We also found a bike shop and I finally got myself a new cycle jacket. On my past cycle rides my jackets have always leaked, so I spent a bit extra on this jacket as it is GUARANTEED to be waterproof, and highly breathable so you don’t sweat inside the jacket. We’ll see. I also bought a new pair of cycle shorts as mine are starting to disintegrate.

We met Ang, Kirsty and Alison at the Waterloo bar and grill for drinkees, then went into Soho to my favourite Korean barbeque restaurant. The tables have a small barbecue grill in them and we had a selection of marinated seafood, followed by a selection of marinated meats. These are eaten wrapped up in lettuce leaves and rice. Absolutely yummy!

We then raced to the station to catch the train back to Banbury, but arrived late.Thankfully the train was delayed so we ran and jumped on it. Turned out all the trains had been delayed as there had been a fatality on the line. So what should have been a 55 minute train journey turned into a 2 hour journey and we didn’t get back until well after midnight.

We didn’t take too many photos but here are a few. The flag photos are because of the Queens Jubilee (I had to be told that).

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Tesco Fix

Today we got our Tesco fix. When we live in England we NEVER venture into Tesco due to large queues and screaming kids. But somehow, after being in NZ for so long we are tempted by the large supermarket with it’s variety of cheap stuff.

Our first stop was a cheap Tesco breakfast. This is something we would NEVER eat when living in England, so not sure why we do it now. It’s a buffet of bacon, eggs, hash browns, baked beans etc that has been sitting on display and it really is quite disgusting but for £1.50 ($3.00) each, it is pretty cheap.

Then just the usual grocery items – beer, beer and more beer. OK, it was on special and we got 3 cases for the price of 2 (sort of).

 

Banbury

Our first day in Banbury was a wonderful sunny day and warm too. We went for a canal walk with Matt and Sonia to a pub in King Sutton – about 4 miles away (7 kms).

Walking to the pub

Pub's way over there...

Having little frollic

Finally – there’s the pub. Matt and Sonia look thirstier than us.

The pub

My first pint.

first pint

We caught the train back to Banbury and had wood fired pizza for tea. Matt made the pizza sauce and Sonia made the bases. It’s was really yummy.

Wood Fired Pizza

My pizza before it was cooked