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Where in England is Grumpy?
(A day by day account of Alan's trip to England with pictures and topical comments. Tune in every day to see the latest account of activities.

Friday July 23. Gennie trusts me to drive home from Gatwick in the amazing Daewoo Matiz. (Tony is a development engineer with Daewoo) Described as a city car, it is quite able to hold 4 adults without squashing and returns 45-56 mpg. Even when driven continuously at full throttle at 80+mph - which is most of the time.

Somethings just don't change. A bloody VW beetle -still going- leads the way down a lane near Findon in West Sussex. We are on the way to Worthing, and Gennie's home, which is on the coast southwest of London

Lunch on Friday is chicken curry and a pint of bitter shandy at the Black Rabbit Pub on the river at Arundel. Off to the left are picnic tables on a dock above the river Arun.
It is hot (82 deg) and the sun is strong and bright. There is no A/C in the car but at 75+ mph the breeze is adequate. Once off the country lanes we can go faster

Saturday July 24 (grandson Edward's and my Birthday).

The morning was consumed chasing around electrical and computer stores trying to find out why there are so many PC modem-to-wall socket cables that don't work. Eventually PC Parts in Salvington break the secret code and sell me a cable that allows me to connect to AOL so I can get to this web site.

The afternoon proved to be the most fantastic trip down memory lane. I set off in Gennies' car to drive some country lanes (with NO plan Kathy!). I couldn't go wrong. Every 20 minutes some new event confirmed that this is a very different and marvelous world to my normal daily life: First, I pick a turning that goes to some interesting looking lanes and immediately I am confronted with Stoddington Carnival. Apart from the usual attractions, there is a 30k mile, perfect Rover 3.5 Coupe on show and then I find (for Alex) an 'Observers Book of Cricket'. When I left there I passed (and stopped for a walk in) Petworth Great Park which was laid out (I think) by Capability Brown some 300 years ago. At Liggershall I find a village cricket match on the green and an open pub. On the way through Fernhurst I pass a TVR dealer and stop for a chat with a fellow called Simon and a few minutes later I stop in Midhurst to look in the 3 or 4 shops that are actually open. At the roundabout on the A27 I see a steam traction engine (with turn signals) making a respectable 30mph down the highway on its way home. What a day!

Back at Gennie and Tony's, Edward has decided he would like to go to Pizza Hut in Worthing for his birthday dinner. As Worthing is in the throes of its 'beach' festival, the place is a madhouse but Gennie promises Tony and me a trip to the pub if we behave ourselves so after dinner we walk along the front and find (for Alex) a terrific cricket game complete with little plastic cricketers.

10:00pm and Gennie drops us off at the pub which is well stocked with some top notch beers and is 1 mile DOWN A BLOODY GREAT HILL! from the house. A couple beers and the slog up the steep hill will be a test of something. I survive the slog and live to vacation another day

Gennie and Tony's Salvington home high up on the hill overlooking Worthing. The only sound to break the intense silence as I took this picture was the cawing of a blackbird.

Friday evening I pick up Fish and Chips from the Drayon Chippy and Mum and I enjoy them back at her flat

I'm sure there were other things at Stoddington Carnival but this was the reason I was divinely guided down that lane and to the village event. For those who do not know this car it is a 1972 Rover 3.5 Coupe. This is the holy grail of my vacation - Oh, and seeing my mum, of course.

By now I have spotted 40 or more establishments like this and I make a commitment to study closer this type of architecture.

A right hand turn down another interesting looking lane and I am presented with this idyllic scene. A village cricket match is underway in Liggishall. It is 3:30 and know Alex should be here. So I put my personal schedule aside and soak up as much of the scene as I can.

Not very professional, but this pasted together panorama should show better what a village green cricket match looks like. Note the equal balance between numbers of players and spectators. This is, for most foreigners, not a spectator sport. In fact has been likened to watching paint dry. That's the pub to the left and the church is behind me. Those are just people's houses scattered around the green. Cricket matches have been played here like this since soon after the game was invented. Turn of the century photographs in the pub show a rougher pitch back then but not much else has changed - Oh, except that the world became 'colorized'

Sunday July 25th is the day made for car boot sales. Ford Prison car boot sale yields the usual cornucopia of goodies. I needed lots more rare A4 binders for Jag and LR workshop manuals and find a hord of 20 new ones for pennies. We find model cars, games, books and even some non essential stuff.

Back 'home' Tony has pulled out the tent trailer to chase off the mice and ready it for the holiday in 2 weeks time (they are going to Cornwall to see the eclipse. Actually, most of the British Isles seems to be going too) Thomas and Edward start WWIII by trying to push Grumpy into the paddling pool but Grumpy wins - just. Time to adjust my role from now on.

In the afternoon I drive over to Portsmouth again to stay with mum for a few days. She starts the stay of badly by not letting me get Fish and Chips - bloody salad again!

The Guv'nor pulls me a bitter shandy while Bloke 1 (who had been there since 11:00am) pauses for breath between stories. "Ted, "he says "has tickets for Goodwood next week (sport of kings). They are twenty quid seats and he only wants a tenner for them". The movers are coming that day and apparently the missus won't let him out of helping.

This one's for you John. A view over one of the finest (George VII loved it here) race courses in England - Goodwood. Those are the Royal Stands on the right and this hill has been a favourite picnic spot for watching the Gee Gees for those with binoculars. The track is really close to Andover, John!

Monday July 26 Mum has an 11:00am appointment at the hairdresser in Cosham. While she is keeping up appearances, I walk around a smaller version of the town I knew as a child. Against every probability, I find Mick some wooden darts! They are 20+ years old, unused and in perfect consideration in their plastic case.... and I get half an hours education in how to make darts like those used by Jim Pike, Johnny Ross and Leo Newstead.

Tuesday July 27 Mum agonizes over whether to go to Whist at the Denmead Church (church, cards, gambling, unemployed people - I'm confused). In the end I convince her that she does not have to cancel her public engagements for me. I will be alright for 2 hours. We drive the lanes to Denmead and then on to Hambledon to the Bat and Ball pub (above). Alex needs more cricketabilia and this, c1730, was the home of, the cradle of, the ground zero of the game. But first things first: inside I enquire about the tasty comestibles and renew my acquaintance with the brewer's art over a non Kaiser approved lunch. Two more cool things are added to the Alex bag who by now has streaked ahead of everyone else in the "What did you bring me?" game.

So here it is Alex, The first cricket pitch in the world (back in the early 1700s, they only used two stumps). The pavilion at the right is the 'new' one. The original was on the left and sketches of it can still be seen in the pub. Don't think that this is some idle monument to the game. There are no less than six parallel wickets and there will be matches here tomorrow, Thursday, Friday and on Saturday there will be a match to re-enact an old game played in period costume. It will be televised for broadcast in November as part of a show dealing with the last thousand years of growth of Hampshire. (maybe it will be on ESPN).

That's my rented DB7 outside the Bat and Ball.

The village green in Denmead where I was born. To the right, that's the White Hart pub where Mum and Dad came and danced in the street on VE Day and down the road to the left is (or was) the cricket pitch that has hosted matches for most of this century. Now the Harvest Home looks across at construction of a housing development.

Wednesday July 28 I rise early and go to Gatwick to pick up sister Sue then back to Mum's to take her to her lunch at Southwick D-Day Memorial Hall with 20 or so other seniors from that village. Sue and I go to Worlds End (Yes. It was a very small world then) to the Chairmakers Arms for lunch, pick up mum after her lunch then drive by the thatched cottage that I was born in. The next farm along is Dowling's farm and we know that Mrs Dowling still lives there and her daughter who is my age. I am the only one bold enough to stop and say hello and it is Pat's husband who is working in the garden who I meet. He calls Pat out and she is perplexed by this stranger she is supposed to know and can't guess until I give her a clue: "Alan" I say. "Briggs?" she asks and we both agree that we would not recognize the other after last playing together at the age of five! but we are here for the mums and learn that Mrs Dowling is at her monthly 'Golden Age' club bingo in the same church hall mum was in yesterday. They have not talked since they were wartime neighbors 51 years ago which even then was 35 years after the invention of the telephone.
We drive to the village hall and I quietly enter the room of 30 and ask the nearest person if there is a Mrs Dowling here. "Oh yes my dear. This is her". I kneel down beside her chair and whisper to her that there is someone whom she has not seen for a long time who wants to come in and meet her again. Her bingo buddy knows who it is and prompts her. Suddenly I realize that the bingo calling has stopped dead in its tracks and all eyes are on us. I feel like the host from 'This is Your Life'but there is no being discreet now. We are an event in this otherwise sleepy village. Mrs Dowling takes my arm and we walk outside to the shade of the chestut tree to talk with my still timid mother. The time machine is in fast rewind. Recent memories may be shaky but these two nonagenarians are back in 1948.

Thursday July 29 A day at the pool in Arundel. In the car park, the boys show me all the features of the Daewoo while we wait for Gennie to arrive. For the past few days, all the talk has been the plot to push Grumpy in. I am caught by surprise and the plot is executed succesfully by Edward, Thomas and their equally tiring friends Eddie, Ollie, Ben and Tim.
The weather is like every other day since I arrived: Hot and sunny and a perfect 83 deg. The pool is delightfully refreshing because the nighttime temperatures actually drop here.
We call the Daewoo Roadside Assistance number for a jump start at the end of our swim because the battery is flat. Something was left turned on! The operator talking the call needs to know the color of the car, the license plate number and the colour of the car. I have to hang up and go back to the car to collect the information because she "cannot process the call until these answers are known".

Mum didn't seem at all uncomfortable in a pub in fact ...well never mind.

Friday July 30th. Leave the south coast to drive to Calne in Wiltshire to visit with Gerald and Carol. This is Stonehenge but the crowds and tour busses are so numerous that I pass on going up to the stones. Besides you can no longer going in amongst them because of the deterioration from tourists in recent years so I snap a shot to prove I was there and motor on in the 800cc marvel. At lunchtime we satisfy 2 of my cravings: Gerald takes me to the George for a pint and then we pick up fish and chips from the local chippy to take back and eat with Carol. (they're foreign you know). In the evening I play the video that I brought and I recount all the family goings on. Suddenly I realize that, with Simon's new e-mail message, that makes Toby, Sarah and Simon all with wedding plans. Is there something in the water at work?

Saturday July 31, I leave Gerald's to drive the 2000 year old roman Fosse Way (thats it going through Morton-in-the-Marsh above) to Stratford. In Morton I see a 1930ish Bentley 3 litre pulling into a parking spot then a massive 1920ish Royce. Apparently this is on the route for a classic car tour and in the next few minutes I am treated to 50 or so wonderful vintage machines purring through town. The damn camcorder batteries are getting worse and I am afraid I missed capturing much of the action so I calm my frustration by following the signs to the 'Boot Sale' where I get more really cool stuff.

Well the plan for Saturday evening was simple: A barbeque with Sue and Roger Huband, daughter Harriet and sister Barbara. However, I was selected as the barbeque operator and the coals, barely adequate when I started, are not hot enough to finish the cooking process and I flub my only responsibility of the day......

....Now its getting dark and we all have part cooked kebabs on our plates. Roger suggests more charcoal and says they have some bellows (now WHO has bellows these days?) I suggest a hairdryer to the perplexed family but Sue knows that, while I may be crazy, I am the McGyver capable of retrieving the situation and obliges with a powerful hairdryer. Coals are piled on, extension cord is found, hairdryer plugged in and within 30 secs we have a cast iron barbeque approaching melting point and sparks spitting 10 feet with ease. Roger will never admit it but this display of raw power was seductive and he had to have a go (see picture above). Sue could not believe the blast furnace effect (or Roger's firework display) and rushed inside for her camera. 3 minutes later we were burning kebabs. 5 minutes later we were eating. I failed as a chef but somewhat recovered my self respect with the impromptu entertainment.

Sunday August 1st. I am in in Coventry with Ron and Sue Dewar who I have known since just after I finished my apprenticeship and took a management course at the college. After breakfast, they indulge me by coming with me to a car boot sale (where I get some really, really cool stuff). Then on to the Canal Basin below that is now an upscale little cluster of shops and stalls and where I buy some really cool stuff.

Back at the house, we make a cup of tea and Sue shows me her 'Quilling'. I have seen the artform but did not realize it was so old nor considered how it was done. It is very painstakingly detailed work involving rolling up 1/8" wide paper strips to make the various shapes which are then assembled onto a card. Sue has won awards for her creations and above is detail of one of her pieces which is approximately 3" across.

....and this is a 3 dimensional model of a piper created out of paper for a show in Edinburgh.

Coventry is still a muddled kind if city with mediaeval bits scattered among post war bits. The picture to the left is the Canal Basin which was once the terminus for barges bringing coal and other supplies into the city. All the time I lived here, you would have been well advised to stay away from this derelict area of the city but now it is paved and open and populated with vendors and shops and (this day) a display of cars from the Coventry Motor Museum.
Sue and Ron and I go out for dinner and they suggest the Anchor at Leek Wooten. That's one of my old regular pubs and I can't wait to see it again but surprise! its been 'done up'. The bog is tarted up and moved indoors to where the lounge was. The Snug and the Bar have been knocked into one restaurant and ...... well you get the idea. But the Bass is excellent and the food HOT and delicious.

Monday August 2nd After breakfast, I set off for Portsmouth again forsaking the motorways for the country roads I used to drive in my 1947 Morris 8 series E and my 1934 Wolseley Wasp. The fields of cereal are golden and ready and some harvesting has already begun. The traffic is now on the fast roads so I have the villages and country roads to myself but after a couple of hours I head for the fast roads and join the 85mph crowd. Minutes later I am back in Portsmouth at mum's flat.
BIG NEWS! it rained this evening. First shower since I arrived

Its Applebees tonight back in Chapel Hill but it will be 1:00am here when you guys are at the bar so please excuse me for not calling. I am thinking of you but please realize that I've got the real stuff here.

Edward, friend Tim, Thomas, and friend Ben ...off to cubs

Gas, er petrol, at $4.45 per US gallon
....and a Rover 3 litre passing by

Tuesday Aug 3rd. (Final Day) Big News! It's raining again this morning - but the sun comes out around 10:00am and rest of the day is beautiful. Sue sets up her iMac in Mum's living room and makes first UK contact with AOL which is much more expensive here (AOL fees plus local phone charges) so Sue wants to know how to get mail and read it offline. We do some planning on Mum's behalf, Social services girl arrives to help mum (she broke her leg in January) and Linda comes to do housework. With Sue and me here, Mum is overrun with activity. I convince both that I should be allowed fish and chips for lunch and Sue (ever thrifty) discovers the advertised OAP (Old Age Pensioner) special at the chippy and embarrasses me by getting me to order one.
Dinner is spent with Tony and Gennie at "The best Chinese in town" and I am actually packed and ready to leave on time for Gatwick in the morning. It was all just too short.

THE END

p.s. What a great vacation with great friends. Thank you for making me so welcome and for recharging my memories storage.

This was Alans last entry the night before his flight back to the U.S. He went to bed and did not wake up.

Thank you to all our friends who sent their best wishes and support during the trying times that followed, We all miss him very much.


Friday July 23. Gennie trusts me to drive home from Gatwick in the amazing Daewoo Matiz. (Tony is a development engineer with Daewoo) Described as a city car, it is quite able to hold 4 adults without squashing and returns 45-56 mpg. Even when driven continuously at full throttle at 80+mph - which is most of the time.	Somethings just don't change. A bloody VW beetle -still going- leads the way down a lane near Findon in West Sussex. We are on the way to Worthing, and Gennie's home, which is on the coast southwest of London	Lunch on Friday is chicken curry and a pint of bitter shandy at the Black Rabbit Pub on the river at Arundel. Off to the left are picnic tables on a dock above the river Arun. It is hot (82 deg) and the sun is strong and bright. There is no A/C in the car but at 75+ mph the breeze is adequate. Once off the country lanes we can go faster
	Saturday July 24 (grandson Edward's and my Birthday). The morning was consumed chasing around electrical and computer stores trying to find out why there are so many PC modem-to-wall socket cables that don't work. Eventually PC Parts in Salvington break the secret code and sell me a cable that allows me to connect to AOL so I can get to this web site. The afternoon proved to be the most fantastic trip down memory lane. I set off in Gennies' car to drive some country lanes (with NO plan Kathy!). I couldn't go wrong. Every 20 minutes some new event confirmed that this is a very different and marvelous world to my normal daily life: First, I pick a turning that goes to some interesting looking lanes and immediately I am confronted with Stoddington Carnival. Apart from the usual attractions, there is a 30k mile, perfect Rover 3.5 Coupe on show and then I find (for Alex) an 'Observers Book of Cricket'. When I left there I passed (and stopped for a walk in) Petworth Great Park which was laid out (I think) by Capability Brown some 300 years ago. At Liggershall I find a village cricket match on the green and an open pub. On the way through Fernhurst I pass a TVR dealer and stop for a chat with a fellow called Simon and a few minutes later I stop in Midhurst to look in the 3 or 4 shops that are actually open. At the roundabout on the A27 I see a steam traction engine (with turn signals) making a respectable 30mph down the highway on its way home. What a day! Back at Gennie and Tony's, Edward has decided he would like to go to Pizza Hut in Worthing for his birthday dinner. As Worthing is in the throes of its 'beach' festival, the place is a madhouse but Gennie promises Tony and me a trip to the pub if we behave ourselves so after dinner we walk along the front and find (for Alex) a terrific cricket game complete with little plastic cricketers. 10:00pm and Gennie drops us off at the pub which is well stocked with some top notch beers and is 1 mile DOWN A BLOODY GREAT HILL! from the house. A couple beers and the slog up the steep hill will be a test of something. I survive the slog and live to vacation another day
Gennie and Tony's Salvington home high up on the hill overlooking Worthing. The only sound to break the intense silence as I took this picture was the cawing of a blackbird. Friday evening I pick up Fish and Chips from the Drayon Chippy and Mum and I enjoy them back at her flat

I'm sure there were other things at Stoddington Carnival but this was the reason I was divinely guided down that lane and to the village event. For those who do not know this car it is a 1972 Rover 3.5 Coupe. This is the holy grail of my vacation - Oh, and seeing my mum, of course.	By now I have spotted 40 or more establishments like this and I make a commitment to study closer this type of architecture.	A right hand turn down another interesting looking lane and I am presented with this idyllic scene. A village cricket match is underway in Liggishall. It is 3:30 and know Alex should be here. So I put my personal schedule aside and soak up as much of the scene as I can.

Not very professional, but this pasted together panorama should show better what a village green cricket match looks like. Note the equal balance between numbers of players and spectators. This is, for most foreigners, not a spectator sport. In fact has been likened to watching paint dry. That's the pub to the left and the church is behind me. Those are just people's houses scattered around the green. Cricket matches have been played here like this since soon after the game was invented. Turn of the century photographs in the pub show a rougher pitch back then but not much else has changed - Oh, except that the world became 'colorized'
		Sunday July 25th is the day made for car boot sales. Ford Prison car boot sale yields the usual cornucopia of goodies. I needed lots more rare A4 binders for Jag and LR workshop manuals and find a hord of 20 new ones for pennies. We find model cars, games, books and even some non essential stuff. Back 'home' Tony has pulled out the tent trailer to chase off the mice and ready it for the holiday in 2 weeks time (they are going to Cornwall to see the eclipse. Actually, most of the British Isles seems to be going too) Thomas and Edward start WWIII by trying to push Grumpy into the paddling pool but Grumpy wins - just. Time to adjust my role from now on. In the afternoon I drive over to Portsmouth again to stay with mum for a few days. She starts the stay of badly by not letting me get Fish and Chips - bloody salad again!
The Guv'nor pulls me a bitter shandy while Bloke 1 (who had been there since 11:00am) pauses for breath between stories. "Ted, "he says "has tickets for Goodwood next week (sport of kings). They are twenty quid seats and he only wants a tenner for them". The movers are coming that day and apparently the missus won't let him out of helping.	This one's for you John. A view over one of the finest (George VII loved it here) race courses in England - Goodwood. Those are the Royal Stands on the right and this hill has been a favourite picnic spot for watching the Gee Gees for those with binoculars. The track is really close to Andover, John!

Monday July 26 Mum has an 11:00am appointment at the hairdresser in Cosham. While she is keeping up appearances, I walk around a smaller version of the town I knew as a child. Against every probability, I find Mick some wooden darts! They are 20+ years old, unused and in perfect consideration in their plastic case.... and I get half an hours education in how to make darts like those used by Jim Pike, Johnny Ross and Leo Newstead.	Tuesday July 27 Mum agonizes over whether to go to Whist at the Denmead Church (church, cards, gambling, unemployed people - I'm confused). In the end I convince her that she does not have to cancel her public engagements for me. I will be alright for 2 hours. We drive the lanes to Denmead and then on to Hambledon to the Bat and Ball pub (above). Alex needs more cricketabilia and this, c1730, was the home of, the cradle of, the ground zero of the game. But first things first: inside I enquire about the tasty comestibles and renew my acquaintance with the brewer's art over a non Kaiser approved lunch. Two more cool things are added to the Alex bag who by now has streaked ahead of everyone else in the "What did you bring me?" game.

So here it is Alex, The first cricket pitch in the world (back in the early 1700s, they only used two stumps). The pavilion at the right is the 'new' one. The original was on the left and sketches of it can still be seen in the pub. Don't think that this is some idle monument to the game. There are no less than six parallel wickets and there will be matches here tomorrow, Thursday, Friday and on Saturday there will be a match to re-enact an old game played in period costume. It will be televised for broadcast in November as part of a show dealing with the last thousand years of growth of Hampshire. (maybe it will be on ESPN).

That's my rented DB7 outside the Bat and Ball.	The village green in Denmead where I was born. To the right, that's the White Hart pub where Mum and Dad came and danced in the street on VE Day and down the road to the left is (or was) the cricket pitch that has hosted matches for most of this century. Now the Harvest Home looks across at construction of a housing development.
	Wednesday July 28 I rise early and go to Gatwick to pick up sister Sue then back to Mum's to take her to her lunch at Southwick D-Day Memorial Hall with 20 or so other seniors from that village. Sue and I go to Worlds End (Yes. It was a very small world then) to the Chairmakers Arms for lunch, pick up mum after her lunch then drive by the thatched cottage that I was born in. The next farm along is Dowling's farm and we know that Mrs Dowling still lives there and her daughter who is my age. I am the only one bold enough to stop and say hello and it is Pat's husband who is working in the garden who I meet. He calls Pat out and she is perplexed by this stranger she is supposed to know and can't guess until I give her a clue: "Alan" I say. "Briggs?" she asks and we both agree that we would not recognize the other after last playing together at the age of five! but we are here for the mums and learn that Mrs Dowling is at her monthly 'Golden Age' club bingo in the same church hall mum was in yesterday. They have not talked since they were wartime neighbors 51 years ago which even then was 35 years after the invention of the telephone. We drive to the village hall and I quietly enter the room of 30 and ask the nearest person if there is a Mrs Dowling here. "Oh yes my dear. This is her". I kneel down beside her chair and whisper to her that there is someone whom she has not seen for a long time who wants to come in and meet her again. Her bingo buddy knows who it is and prompts her. Suddenly I realize that the bingo calling has stopped dead in its tracks and all eyes are on us. I feel like the host from 'This is Your Life'but there is no being discreet now. We are an event in this otherwise sleepy village. Mrs Dowling takes my arm and we walk outside to the shade of the chestut tree to talk with my still timid mother. The time machine is in fast rewind. Recent memories may be shaky but these two nonagenarians are back in 1948.	Thursday July 29 A day at the pool in Arundel. In the car park, the boys show me all the features of the Daewoo while we wait for Gennie to arrive. For the past few days, all the talk has been the plot to push Grumpy in. I am caught by surprise and the plot is executed succesfully by Edward, Thomas and their equally tiring friends Eddie, Ollie, Ben and Tim. The weather is like every other day since I arrived: Hot and sunny and a perfect 83 deg. The pool is delightfully refreshing because the nighttime temperatures actually drop here. We call the Daewoo Roadside Assistance number for a jump start at the end of our swim because the battery is flat. Something was left turned on! The operator talking the call needs to know the color of the car, the license plate number and the colour of the car. I have to hang up and go back to the car to collect the information because she "cannot process the call until these answers are known".
Mum didn't seem at all uncomfortable in a pub in fact ...well never mind.

Friday July 30th. Leave the south coast to drive to Calne in Wiltshire to visit with Gerald and Carol. This is Stonehenge but the crowds and tour busses are so numerous that I pass on going up to the stones. Besides you can no longer going in amongst them because of the deterioration from tourists in recent years so I snap a shot to prove I was there and motor on in the 800cc marvel. At lunchtime we satisfy 2 of my cravings: Gerald takes me to the George for a pint and then we pick up fish and chips from the local chippy to take back and eat with Carol. (they're foreign you know). In the evening I play the video that I brought and I recount all the family goings on. Suddenly I realize that, with Simon's new e-mail message, that makes Toby, Sarah and Simon all with wedding plans. Is there something in the water at work?	Saturday July 31, I leave Gerald's to drive the 2000 year old roman Fosse Way (thats it going through Morton-in-the-Marsh above) to Stratford. In Morton I see a 1930ish Bentley 3 litre pulling into a parking spot then a massive 1920ish Royce. Apparently this is on the route for a classic car tour and in the next few minutes I am treated to 50 or so wonderful vintage machines purring through town. The damn camcorder batteries are getting worse and I am afraid I missed capturing much of the action so I calm my frustration by following the signs to the 'Boot Sale' where I get more really cool stuff. Well the plan for Saturday evening was simple: A barbeque with Sue and Roger Huband, daughter Harriet and sister Barbara. However, I was selected as the barbeque operator and the coals, barely adequate when I started, are not hot enough to finish the cooking process and I flub my only responsibility of the day......	....Now its getting dark and we all have part cooked kebabs on our plates. Roger suggests more charcoal and says they have some bellows (now WHO has bellows these days?) I suggest a hairdryer to the perplexed family but Sue knows that, while I may be crazy, I am the McGyver capable of retrieving the situation and obliges with a powerful hairdryer. Coals are piled on, extension cord is found, hairdryer plugged in and within 30 secs we have a cast iron barbeque approaching melting point and sparks spitting 10 feet with ease. Roger will never admit it but this display of raw power was seductive and he had to have a go (see picture above). Sue could not believe the blast furnace effect (or Roger's firework display) and rushed inside for her camera. 3 minutes later we were burning kebabs. 5 minutes later we were eating. I failed as a chef but somewhat recovered my self respect with the impromptu entertainment.

Sunday August 1st. I am in in Coventry with Ron and Sue Dewar who I have known since just after I finished my apprenticeship and took a management course at the college. After breakfast, they indulge me by coming with me to a car boot sale (where I get some really, really cool stuff). Then on to the Canal Basin below that is now an upscale little cluster of shops and stalls and where I buy some really cool stuff.	Back at the house, we make a cup of tea and Sue shows me her 'Quilling'. I have seen the artform but did not realize it was so old nor considered how it was done. It is very painstakingly detailed work involving rolling up 1/8" wide paper strips to make the various shapes which are then assembled onto a card. Sue has won awards for her creations and above is detail of one of her pieces which is approximately 3" across.	....and this is a 3 dimensional model of a piper created out of paper for a show in Edinburgh.
	Coventry is still a muddled kind if city with mediaeval bits scattered among post war bits. The picture to the left is the Canal Basin which was once the terminus for barges bringing coal and other supplies into the city. All the time I lived here, you would have been well advised to stay away from this derelict area of the city but now it is paved and open and populated with vendors and shops and (this day) a display of cars from the Coventry Motor Museum. Sue and Ron and I go out for dinner and they suggest the Anchor at Leek Wooten. That's one of my old regular pubs and I can't wait to see it again but surprise! its been 'done up'. The bog is tarted up and moved indoors to where the lounge was. The Snug and the Bar have been knocked into one restaurant and ...... well you get the idea. But the Bass is excellent and the food HOT and delicious.
Monday August 2nd After breakfast, I set off for Portsmouth again forsaking the motorways for the country roads I used to drive in my 1947 Morris 8 series E and my 1934 Wolseley Wasp. The fields of cereal are golden and ready and some harvesting has already begun. The traffic is now on the fast roads so I have the villages and country roads to myself but after a couple of hours I head for the fast roads and join the 85mph crowd. Minutes later I am back in Portsmouth at mum's flat. BIG NEWS! it rained this evening. First shower since I arrived Its Applebees tonight back in Chapel Hill but it will be 1:00am here when you guys are at the bar so please excuse me for not calling. I am thinking of you but please realize that I've got the real stuff here.	Edward, friend Tim, Thomas, and friend Ben ...off to cubs	Gas, er petrol, at $4.45 per US gallon ....and a Rover 3 litre passing by
	Tuesday Aug 3rd. (Final Day) Big News! It's raining again this morning - but the sun comes out around 10:00am and rest of the day is beautiful. Sue sets up her iMac in Mum's living room and makes first UK contact with AOL which is much more expensive here (AOL fees plus local phone charges) so Sue wants to know how to get mail and read it offline. We do some planning on Mum's behalf, Social services girl arrives to help mum (she broke her leg in January) and Linda comes to do housework. With Sue and me here, Mum is overrun with activity. I convince both that I should be allowed fish and chips for lunch and Sue (ever thrifty) discovers the advertised OAP (Old Age Pensioner) special at the chippy and embarrasses me by getting me to order one. Dinner is spent with Tony and Gennie at "The best Chinese in town" and I am actually packed and ready to leave on time for Gatwick in the morning. It was all just too short.
THE END
p.s. What a great vacation with great friends. Thank you for making me so welcome and for recharging my memories storage. This was Alans last entry the night before his flight back to the U.S. He went to bed and did not wake up. Thank you to all our friends who sent their best wishes and support during the trying times that followed, We all miss him very much.