A little bit of everything - 20 July

The ear plugs did the trick for me, so a good sleep.

Should mention three aspects from yesterday:
1. There is a severe water problem in the south of England, with a long and consistently hot summer so far - and no rain. It looks pretty much like conditions in Victoria in the middle of a hot summer;
2. My admiration of the skill of bus drivers on local roads over here has again been reinforced; and
3.  We saw an old Pug struggling in yesterday's heat and it travelled upstairs on one of our buses.  Pat was not her usual self, failing to fawn over the Pug, and dismissively telling me "I am not keen on old females!!!

Liesurely wander this morning, to and along, the High Street, lots of people in town with 3 big cruise ships having turnaround days.  Another very pleasant day in the low 20's with good sunshine.

Our friends coming down to spend two days with us rang to say they were at a standstill on the Motorway. Their anticipated two hour driving time became 4 hours. It turns out that today is the day when everyone heads off on summer holidays - and was the equal of yesterday when Heathrow immigration queues exceeded 3.5 hours waiting time!!

We used the extra time to walk back along the old city walls and the Southampton (Old) Bowling Green. The Club was open with 4 members in attendance. The Club is the oldest Bowls Club in the world - circa 1299!!!  I was able to get some information on the history of the Club and some of the traditions it maintains. My Aberfeldie Bowls club BowledOver readers will be in for a treat!!!

We bought sandwiches for Tom & Jeanette to share when they arrived and after catch up time we headed up to Winchester with them. Roads still jammed.  Very pleasant town with beautiful old buildings and the large and magnificent Winchester Cathedral - the original founded as Old Minster in 642, with work commencing on the adjacent Cathedral in 1079. A substantial amount of the fibre of that construction remains today, with the Cathedral being one of the largest, and with the greatest overall length, in Europe.

Some of those buried within include Henry of Blois,  St Birinus and Jane Austen.

Headed back to Southampton for dinner at Simons at Oxford again and parted company at 9.30pm.