Gary’s in heaven

Today we took the bus and train down to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard so I could show mum HMS Warrior, my favourite ship. Sadly the weather was decidedly unpleasant while we were on it specifically but the rest of the day was considerably better.

There’s been a few additions since I last went (2001/02 when the Frangletons came to stay) though sadly, not the new Mary Rose Museum which is closed till July 2016. We did, however visit the wonderful Boatshed 4 where boats are built and repaired. They also have a couple of mighty fine steam pinnaces.

RY Osborne pinnace

Of course I took mum to see HMS Victory but I thought the tour through it would have been a bit difficult for her to manage. She was satisfied with seeing it from the outside while I gave a thrilling lecture on what went where and why…

HMS Victory

We then went aboard the wonderful M33, the luckiest boat in the navy. It’s the newest acquisition for the museum complex and it’s brilliant. I thought the film of the Gallipoli campaign was particularly moving and beautifully done.

I was then surprised by a chap coming up and saying “Hi Gary!” He looked vaguely familiar but it took me a while to place him. Then I did.

Back in my archaeological dig days (Liss and Selhurst in particular) I made the acquaintance of Matt, a soon to retire police officer who was rather keen on history and digging things up. It was he who had so quickly recognised me. I couldn’t remember his name (I had to look it up on Flickr having gone through lots of old photos). I introduced him to mum and he knew instantly that she was from Oz. I guess he figured because I was from Australia, my mum would be as well. Anyway, we chatted then spent a lovely half an hour aboard the M33. Where I left my brand new hat. Which I bought yesterday.

It wasn’t until we were ordering lunch that mum asked where my hat was that I realised I’d taken it off to watch the Gallipoli film. I raced (slowly) back to retrieve it while mum tended the pizzas.

We then, having bought out the gift shop, caught the train back to Haslemere where Mirinda came to pick us up.

It was a lovely day out and, to top it off, we managed to stay awake for the New Year (not mum though…she was in bed by 9:30) watching Hootenanny as usual.