Bell X1 and The Upper Room

Bell X1 hail from the Emerald Isle and are an established rock act with a small but fanatical following. The Wedgewood Rooms at Southsea was the place to be last night - where else of course!





The Upper Room are a Brighton based 4 piece with beautiful pop melodies.


There is a remote chance I may have posted a very brief review on Music to Grow Old to.

Grey Day

I called off my planned trip into the forest today due to the weather. Instead I trundled around wet and windy Hythe. When it dries up I'll take my camera into the pine-clad moors of the New Forest.










Dead people have these benches named after them so that nearly-dead people can sit and watch the boats.


It doesn't matter if that sinks beneath the grey waves now.


In the grey distance is the city I no longer need to visit for work. Sharp eyes will spot the small red ferry beyond the blue tipped piling as it carries the unfortunates to their treadmills.

Brighton, East Sussex

Brighton is vibrant trendy and cosmopolitan - we three felt somewhat out of place. We took the train from Goring with Mike and spent the day wandering the Lanes, perambulating on the pier (yes it does have a funfair at its far end) and turning our collars against the bitter cold.

Rain...

... bow

Hurst Castle

This naturally occurring 2 mile spit (reinforced with shingle) protects important mud flats for wading birds. Historically it also protected the port of Southampton from attack to the west by reducing the shipping lane between mainland Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to a mere 1000 yards.







We walked for an hour in bitterly cold winds and returned with red faces and frozen extremeties but Cocoa the Springer Spaniel was barely out of breath.








You can almost reach out and touch the Isle of Wight from here. For the the return walk we had the wind beating on our backs. Conversation had been virtually impossible so we took Matt and Gemma out later for a meal and to thaw out.

Goring-by-Sea, Sussex

A Saturday drive to visit Mike at his pub, The Mulberry in Sussex.






Mother and son taking the sea air.