Lovedean - Saturday and Sunday (Chichester, home)

Saturday 11 August 2018

A while ago I promised a friend in Australia that I would try and visit her sister in Birdham, which is not far from Lovedean.  We had, in fact, passed the place a few times on the way to Arundel Castle.

The weather was right for a visit on Saturday, so we drove to Birdham after we had picked up some flowers.  It wasn't much, but we didn't want to arrive empty-handed.

From the moment Mabs (as was her name) opened the door, we felt very welcome and at home.  She lives in a wonderful house.  Also very English, but quite different from the one where we are staying in Lovedean.

Mabs showed us around and told us all about her house, her pride very obviously, and after that she made coffee, which was offered, not only with cheese scones, but also chocolate cake and biscuits.  All freshly made that morning!

Jose, taking pictures

Mabs and Marion

We talked about Mabs' sister and family and she showed us the pictures of them and also her grandchildren.  It was a lovely morning and all too soon it was time to leave.

As it wasn't raining at the time Jose and I wanted to visit Chichester, which also has a cathedral and the usual English style old houses.  Much like Winchester, but pleasant enough to spend some time walking around.

We visited the cathedral and wanted to walk through the nearby Palace Gardens, but it started raining again, so instead we found a dry place in a pub and had an early dinner.  The pub, The Dolphin and Anchor, wasn't too bad, but very busy and noisy.   I also had problems ordering the meal.  The girl forgot to give me the drinks to take to the table and later only one of the two meals arrived.  The order had been taken wrongly and so I had to wait for my meal to arrive, which took a while.  We had British Beef Chili with corn chips and sour cream, accompanied by rice.  It was quite nice, but I had to finish it too quickly to really enjoy as we had to be back at the parking lot in time.

Luckily we didn't have much rain on the way home and we ended the day with a quiet night.

Sunday 12 August 2018

Originally we would have like to go for a walk at Rowlands Castle, but the rain spoilt it again.  We were up late, as there was no reason to hurry and stayed at home all day.  We chatted, played games (on our phones!), I got my card making stuff out and besides all that we had lunch and dinner.

The second plan was to go to the pub at the end of the day, but Jose wanted to have a rest in the afternoon, which went a bit out of hand, so in the end we didn't go.

Hopefully we will have at least a sunny day before she goes home on Wednesday.  Not much of a holiday for her if it keeps raining, because it's not easy to find anything to do that doesn't involve driving and/or walking outside....