| The 'Shoes is a great little pub, in a tiny village (two pubs and a post office) entirely owned by "the Heritage" and adjoined by a large farm. The clientele is mostly local. My bedroom was on the first floor (2nd floor for our American friends), the middle window over the front door in this picture. The car belongs to a regular, a nice chap in the local CID. |  |
| Not long before I left, one of the local girls (Mick Goodliffe's daughter) got married. It's a short walk from her parents' home to the village church, so the bridal party stopped at the pub for a wee dram before the ceremony. The landlord made her a house speciality called "Lou's Livener" for the occasion. As you can see, The 'Shoes goes to a lot of trouble with floral displays - there are more troughs and boxes of flowers out of shot. |  |
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I didn't take many pictures of the pub, and this is the only interior shot - generally, I was too busy either working or having a damn fine time drinking and socialising when I wasn't working. This photo shows the back of Sharon's head (the other full-time barmaid, a great mate) above the green t-shirt, to her left Colin (a part-time helper), to his right John the landlord, then a bloke whose name I forget with his back to the camera, then Floyd, a fabulous bloke who plays rugby, is a Falklands veteran (Navy), who also did the Gun Run (many years ago, but still!) and now fights fires for a living.
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| This picture is a postcard of Letchworth, the town just over the way - where I did my shopping, and where Sharon and I did some of our drinking. By "garden city" is meant "planned city" and I've since learnt that some of the streets in the Canberra (planned capital of Australia) suburb of Reid are based on streets in Letchworth. How coincidental is that? |  |
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Rachel, Fifi and Paulie came up for a visit, we had Sunday lunch at the 'Shoes and slipped over the road for a game of pool at "the competition".
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Early April 2000 brought the Portsmouth Gathering. After a big (liquid) night out, I was at Hitchin station by 09:00 - without a coat or umbrella (I was a little vague that morning). It was drizzling a bit, but it wasn't too cold, and I was feeling fine. I met Jordi at London-Waterloo, and together we took the train to Portsmouth.
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| Arrival at Portsmouth - fine. We found a taxi, dropped our gear at the Sally Port Inn, then made our way to HM Naval Dockyard. Then the weather hit us - or rather, hit me. The wind, the rain, the intense cold - unbelievable. Jordi and I wandered about, looking for everyone else, but amazingly, we were early. We tried to stay warm, looked in shops, toured HMS Victory (wonderful) . . . but yes, this must be the worst picture ever taken of Victory. |  |
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Finally, we found the rest of our party, and Kevin Danks became my saviour for the day, producing a spare Barbour from his trusty rucksack. I was saved indeed - this picture is of me (and Barbour) on HMS Warrior. |
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After a wonderful tour of the Royal Naval Museum (especially Colin's Nelson exhibit) and the RNM Shop, back we all trooped to the Sally Port Inn for a quiet libation and some chat. Those who were up to it went for an historical walk with Colin, while I piked and tried (in vain) to find an iron - and since I couldn't wear an unironed linen shirt to dinner, I had to appear in the same old blue flanny that appears in most of my Big Trip pictures. A girl just can't win sometimes.
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The Gathering itself took place in "the 2nd floor front room of Monk's Wine Bar (18th Century), which is a mere biscuit toss from the historic Sally Port in Portsmouth's seawall." These pictures were taken throughout the evening, and feature the following people: Colin White, Peter, Colin's friend, Marian Van Til, Elizabeth Wild, Kevin Danks, Ray Martin, Lawrence Edwards, and me.
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About a week before I came home, I moved across and down the road to the other village pub - The Fox Inn. Here I organised (poorly) the changes to my flights, and attended the manager's fancy-dress birthday party. The theme was "60s, 70s and Bad Taste" - you can see that everyone got into the spirit. Luckily, I have no pictures of me at this party - I went in "Bad Taste" mode, my top half being reasonably dressy (slinky blouse, formal waistcoat, jewellery and even makeup) while my bottom half was "beach" - shorts and Dr Martens sandals. Divine, I must say. You should be grateful you're spared this vision. |
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| The Willian Village Fair happened not long
before I left.
Shown here is the Fox, with carpark, which adjoins the green. You can see the church tower on the right. |
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| Here's some more of the fair, and what looks like the vicarage garage. |  |
| This is the village pond, just across the
road and down a bit from the Fox, with swans, ducks and coots.
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Homeward bound on 12 July, after a very liquid evening at The Fox, where a number of people came to say goodbye and wish me bon voyage - and not many of them let me buy my own drinks. Once the pub was closed and locked for the night, Vicki the manager drove Sharon and I down to Heathrow, where I sat up all night (steadily sobering up) waiting for the Lufthansa desk to open at 05:00 - whereupon I found I was a day early for my flight to Frankfurt. Oh dear. Never mind, the nice Lufthansa lady had me changed to a flight that day, and I was off. I left Willian on Wednesday night, and arrived in Melbourne on Saturday morning. I was taken home to bed by good friends, where I slept about eighteen hours. |
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| My brother-in-law collected me on the
Monday and took me to Sale, where a very touching reunion with my car
awaited me.
My car - a 1966 Holden HR Premier - built from three cars, over five months from September 1997, registered as one car February 1998. Shown here before registration, still wearing the old NSW plates of the first HR I bought (from Bondi, Sep 97). |
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A few days later, my sister and I shared the driving home to Canberra, where I was just in time to mind the house while my mother went touring the UK for six weeks. Here endeth Big Trip 2000 |
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