Around about & things.

The Burgeoning lower & middle classes are causing traffic kaos. It seems that as house ownership is a pipe dream for many the next best thing is to own a nice late model car, and as the housing model never allowed for its tenants to use anything other than public transport, the roadsides and footpaths are congested with cars all week as the owners still can't use them on a daily routine, there just isn't enough space, when they do they need to still park up outside the city areas and get park & ride buses into work places. This still doesn't stop the roads being very very busy..... all the time...... The public transport system is very good at getting you round but quite costly. As mentioned earlier the train to London which is a popular commuter trip worked out at 70 pounds return off peak, fot two, there will be concession and monthly pass savings but still....

We returned to Portsmouth after looking at a motorhome on Monday as we were still able to use our fortuitously gained tickets, again, and visited the submarine museum at Gosport across the harbour from Portsmouth. It was interesting stuff and a tribute to the privations endured by this arm of the Royal Navy.

Its been a little eerie for me discovering this area as Dad (Jim) was part of it here at Portsmouth as a navy recruit during the war. We don't know all the details as its been lost to the family over time but just recently I was going thru papers with Mum & found all his Service papers detailing different ships, postings and ratings acheived. To think that if I looked in the right places here his name records and signatures would still be in some archive, as a lasting reminder to his efforts in WW2 particularly on the Russian Convoys.

The country is laced with a roading system that moves vast amounts of traffic around at a goodly 70MPH(and we still talk in MPG as well). This was ideal as yesterday we drove to East Sussex to view a motorhome. We are using Google GPS on the phone and largely it works well except on a couple of occasions when either we fail to comprehend it's intentions, or it details its instructions a little late for us to implement.

Old cobble road in Rye- East Essex

But She (the voice) never chides us and sulks only briefly before rerouting us in a most professional manner.She has though, on a few occasions "ratted" us through the small country lanes which heaven forbid she ever does when we get the Motorhome. "Dumb Womans Way" being a twisted example just near Winchelsea. We just got thru this snaky lane  ok but a local told us of the foreign truck getting wedged in for two days before a digger was got in to remove a tree and scrape the corner out, as the roadside bank still testifies to.

Port of Rye