Sherford

It is usually straightforward leaving the A38 at Plympton and driving through the lanes to Plymstock, but not now!!

It has been a while since I was in the area, but I was startled to find a new town had sprung up in the countryside outside Elburton. It is a complex of mock Georgian style apartments and town houses together with more modern houses and flats.

There are two schools, a coffee shop and a 5G sports field which we could make out, and many of the farmers fields bordering the development are fenced off presumably for more expansion. There are at least three major construction companies involved in the building work with presumably many sub-contractors working along side them.

It has been compared with Poundbury, the new town championed by The King when he was Prince of Wales, and the word is that it is a pleasant place to live albeit that it is still a work in progress and the infrastructure is a bit slow in keeping pace with the house building.

Ashes to Ashes

 After a few years living in our downstairs gym, it was time for my mothers ashes to be scattered in various parts of Plymouth, which had certain memories for her.

It was delightful that eldest son Tim and his girlfriend Tay could join us from Switzerland and mums friends Lydia dn ian joined us for the first scattering.

That was initially at Effort Crematorium where my father was scattered in June 1980 so they had been apart for the best of 43 years. At Lydia's suggestion we then retired to Saltram House just outside Plymouth where both of them had worked as volunteers. We had a cup of tea and cake before nipping into the impressive floral border area where we did a bit more scattering.

Tim and Tay were not arriving until the next day, so SWMBO and I went to the Barbican for a trip down memory lane. We had a pint in The Dolphin, a pub made famous by Plymouth artist Beryl Cook, and then into the Queens which is one of the oldest pubs in Plymouth before going into the Trawlerman,

Now the Trawlerman is a cider house with a number of brews registering over 8.0% on the alcoholic scale, but many years ago it was called The Friary, and was our school pub. I first drank in there in about 1970 but had not been back there for well on 50 years. It was a very emotional visit as there were a group of young locals singing sea shanties, one of which 'Haul away for Rosie-o' was a favourite of the S -Club ably led by Stu.

The main part of the scattering took place the next day at Wembury beach. Tim did the honours and scattered his Gran in a suitable rock pool which was soon to be engulfed by the English Channel. We watched her start her final journey and were just able to keep a wretched dog owner from allowing his trio of Scotties to desecrate the site. She would have gone mad!!

We then trotted off to Stadden Heights golf club to toast her memory and show Tay one of the best views of Plymouth Sound.

During the trip we ate at Fletcher's, a fine dining establishment near the Theatre Royal,  Supha's, a market stall type restaurant at Sutton harbour and for Sunday lunch, The Dock in Millbay. We also spent some time on Dartmoor and visited Pricetown, Tavistock and Lopwell dam.

They must farm pheasant near Lopwell as I have never seen so many running around on the roads and in the hedgerows. I think SWMBO was a bit nervous of the narrow lanes but we survived and are now back in Scouseland, while Tim and Tay continued their adventure travelling to Falmouth in Cornwall for a few days.

Whether we will ever make it back to Plymouth remains to be seen, but if it is our last trip, then we did pretty much all we wanted to do and we leave with fond memories, the hotel we stayed in, the Moxy was also an experience, and recommended.....proper Job!

Georgia on my mind

I thought I might have used this headline as far back as 2007, because 15 years ago I was also in Bordeaux to watch Georgia play in a Rugby World Cup final. On that occasion they played against Ireland, and really should have won...... check out the entry here

This time they were playing Fiji, and once again they gave a good account of themselves  and very nearly fashioned a win with the last move of the match. At the final whistle both teams were collapsed across the length of the pitch as they had given their all in oppressive heat, as has been the case over Southern Europe for some time.

The match was played at the new football stadium which we travelled to by tram. I must say if I was building a new city somewhere, I would definitely model the tram system on the one in use in Bordeaux. From the airport it is about 35 minutes into the town centre. All the lights give priority to the tram over the cars, and there really are not too many of those compared with other major cities. On exiting the ground after the match, we were on a tram within 20 minutes with another 30 minutes until we arrived back in the city centre.

We went to the seaside on Sunday, Acheron, about 45 minutes on the train, where they have the largest sand dune in Europe. We did not scale it although there were maintained pathways to the top, but on our return to Bordeaux, there were two large cruise ships in port, mirroring once again our experiences all those years ago.

So after three days of good food, company and alcohol, we are back in Blighty where it is wet and windy. Plus ca change!!