It's Saturday 23rd April. We've been back in the UK for almost three weeks. Today we had organised through Facebook messenger to meet up with Hayley, who John had taught at Bay House School in Gosport back in the 90s.
A few years ago Hayley had tracked John down via Facebook as she wanted to thank him for being a positive influence in her life and was one of her favourite teachers. Since then, she and Barb have been Facebook friends and shared lots of exchanges. Now we get to meet in person and Hayley is bringing her husband Steve and two youngest children with her, Quinn and Danni. (She has Leighton and Lauren also who are now grown-up)
We went down to Portsmouth early to secure a carpark at Gun Wharf Quays and have a look around. In fact the parking was both easy and relatively cheap for the day.
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| A bonus to get underground parking for less that we paid for park & ride yesterday |
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| Can't park closer than this! |
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| There's lots of cafes right on the wharf |
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| John at the wharf |
We took a walk around the precinct's high end shops and were rather shocked at the prices, so were not tempted to buy anything (think duty free fashion shops at the airport). By now there were quite a few people milling about and so we walked out from Gun Wharf Quays to the old naval docks - in truth only a few hundred yards - to have a further look around. The place where the Victory and Mary Rose ships are kept are now behind high walls, and we chose not to pay to go in as we'd seen the displays before.
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| We couldn't understand this statue HMS Warrior in the background - first armour plated iron hulled warship ca. 1860 |
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| Not sure about this one either |
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| Having fun in the sun (yep - UK and sun!) |
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| It was nice watching all the boats in this busy harbour No, Warrior is not still in commission! |
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| There's constant comings and goings of ferries to the Isle of Wight, France and Spain |
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| Finally we spot Hayley, Steve and the kids |
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| Steve helps Danni look through the telescope |
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| Quinn has his turn too |
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| Barb and Hayley hit it off and went on the glass floor together Erk! John doesn't like seeing how far down it is |
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| Quinn bravely walked across the glass floor |
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| It's a long way down!!! Those are not John's feet |
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| John and Hayley had lots of Bay House gossip to catch up on |
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| Hayley's kids are quite delightful and bright as buttons |
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| The views are spectacular Not one but two aircraft carriers! |
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| Gosport |
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| We finished the afternoon with lunch at the cafe at the bottom of the tower. A great catch up! |
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