I spent a lot of time in March in Basingstoke - 11 nights spread over 3 visits - due to my Dad being in hospital. JC and I had driven up after work on Monday 11 March as his health was declining and he (my Dad, not JC) went into hospital on Tuesday. So therein began a daily trek up and back to the hospital.
Caitlin came down at the weekend and we went over to see Dad. Caitlin was pleased to find the rugby on!
We took ourselves off to Old Basing which neither she or JC had visited before. Oooh, benchmark.
The next weekend JC and I drove up again. This time Riona joined us as she was down visiting Exeter, so Dad got to see his other granddaughter.
We saw family on Sunday and drove back to Ottery that evening. I had booked Monday off to chill with Riona so we went to visit the Lower Otter Restoration Project to see the changes since they had breached the path.
On Thursday 28 March, JC went off to Luxembourg, so I hopped on the train with him and returned to Basingstoke. I worked from Dad's home and, over the time I was there, managed to see him each day which was great.
On Good Friday I took myself off for a trip down memory lane. I walked from Dad's via Brookvale where I grew up. This is the park where I learnt to ride my bike (I recall riding into a tree at one point), and this is the house we lived in.
Basingstoke also does a pretty good line in subway decor.
St Michael's church, near the city centre, survived a bombing raid during WWII. This is just as well as it has a beautiful old benchmark on it. The very old ones have a nail in them: I think they were actually referred to Liverpool datum not Newlyn but that could be surveying hearsay.
This is the bike rack where someone stole the pump off my bike. I showed this picture to Robin and his first comment was, "my mate had his bike nicked from there"...
The town centre had random lego animals dotted round which were fun. I liked the baby elephant.
On Easter Saturday I popped up to London to meet two of my aunts, Linda and Maggie, and my cousin, Kate. Linda and I had a stroll along the south bank and I was fascinated by the survey marker pavement party we found. I've never seen such a high concentration of survey markers in one patch. They were obviously for setting out, but you don't usually use the yellow markers for these.
We met Kate and Maggie and ate a Japanese meal in OKAN. Our post lunch stroll took us from the south to north bank where we passed Globe House.
Maggie took us to 2 Temple Street. What an amazing place! The wood friezes are scenes from Shakespeare plays.
Even more amazing was that there was a glass exhibition on too. This chimed very well with beautiful stained glass windows showing sunrise and sunset.
On Easter Sunday Caitlin came down to keep me company, so we headed off to the Vyne for a stroll and their Easter egg hunt.
It wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped but there you go - but we still had a lovely walk and talk. I think I've seen the girls more this year than I have for the last few put together which is fabulous. PS. If I install these in my house do you think anyone will at my beck and call?
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