The first one

Who would have guessed it, Laura Dutch was the first Redcliffer to get married. All money was on Ally but no, Laura beat her to it and yesterday married Kevin. Its very odd going to your friends weddings, you were there when they had braces, when we all fancied the same boy, when I had to ask her the definition of 'getting off' with someone :) Here is the three of us.

Flirting

This weekends adventure included a drive down to Portsmouth and camping overnight on my own. You would have thought that I would have remembered the essentials like a torch but no. I was in bed at 9.30 becuase I had no one to talk to and couldn't see a thing. On the Saturday I drove into the centre of Portsmouth to the historic docklands. As I parked, the car park attendant asked me how I was and whether I wanted a coffee! I declined the offer, had a chat and then headed to the ships. Half way there I realised that I had chocolate locked in a car and the outside temperature was already 28 degrees. So back I went to chat up the attendant to put my chocs in his fridge...and it worked. I have been accused of flirting recently with call centre people, this time it paid off.

I visited the Warrior, Victory, Mary Rose and took a harbour tour of the naval ships. They are huge! One ship ran aground and it cost 27 million to fix! One of the helicopters cost 50 million! And I had to pay £1000 per year tuition fees. Tut tut. I had a rest stop as the heavens opened and drenched me in my skirt and vest top without waterproof coat. Trust. In the afternoon I went on a bus tour where I quickly fell asleep and missed half of it. I woke up drooling, nice :) i visited the Spinnaker tower which was a massive disappointment. I even stood on the glass floor without my hands sweating like when we visited the CN tower.

So Portsmouth (friend not city), I've actually visited Portsmouth and thought of you. We must visit together soon.

Peach and Yoghurt

What a weekend. I drove up to Berriew, Mid Wales on Saturday with the aid of Sat Nav, oh my gosh I am going to get one. The guy's voice is kind of annoying and I will change it to Bob Marley or something slightly more interesting but oh my god it was good. Archie is now 7 months old and a real cutie. We had a lovely weekend talking wedding plans, covering archie in Peach and Yoghurt. Rae and Jue trusted me to feed Archie, see the piccies. He was a big covered in it but I've never seen anybody get so excited over yoghurt. Rae and Jue thrased Al and I in a game called Buzz and found it highly amusing when they have 6000 points when we had 0 :) Things never change. Neither does my name, I was called Dave, Davoir and Dav all weekend :) Today we met Amanda, Andrew and Chloe, it was so nice to see Archie and Chloe in the same place. Rae and Amanda haven't seen each other for 5 years since university. We had a walk around the lake. Great weekend.

I was the Queen on Concorde

Why oh why did they ground Concorde? Today we visited Concorde at Filton airfield in Bristol. Little do people know that Concorde was designed and made in Bristol. Her first flight from Filton was April 1979, my father went to see her fly. As she is based on the Airbus site we had to be bussed to her. She is spectacular. Volunteers show you around in small groups. Not one for being at at the back I got seat 1A. Purely by chance I was sat in the seat that had formerly been occupied by the Queen, Joan Collins and Princess Diana. Fran (who sat next to me) was in Joan Collins' handbag seat. This amused her greatly. We were talked through what would be served on the 3 hour flight to New York, what you got for your £3000 ticket, who flew on her, you were allowed only 16lb of luggage etc. We even went to see the captains hat which is always stored in a crevasse. What did surprise me is that Concorde stretches during the flight. We were allowed into the cockpit. It really was an amazing day and I can't put it into words. I really don't understand how we can go backwards technologically speaking. Everybody must go if they get the chance. http://www.concordeatfilton.org.uk/