Hello all!

'Tis a long post this one!! Just a friendly warning. :-)

We had a lovely weekend. Saturday was a catch up day. We had to wait around for two sets of people to come and fix things in the flat. Our cooker broke last week (when I say broke, that's not quite true. I asked them to have a look because I could not use the oven or the griller). The person who came to look at it on Wednesday said that we need a new one, and turned it off. So we have had no cooking facilities in the flat since then. We also needed to get the timer on the boiler replaced. The boiler man came in the early afternoon and replaced the timer with a shiny new one. He also turned up the temperature of the hot water, and will recommend that the boiler be re-wired, as apparently as it is now we cannot turn on the hot water without turning on the heating. That will become a pain in the winter time so he says. I asked him how old he reckons the boiler is, and he said 25 years. So it's almost as old as me! About time it got rewired methinks!!

The cooker man did not turn up as apparently our supremely well organised real estate agent did not approve the order until Friday evening so he could not go pick up the new cooker on Saturday morning. So he will come tomorrow, as it is a bank holiday here today.

After we got rid of the boiler man, Scott and I walked up to Canary Wharf to see a film. We saw X-Men The Final Stand. I don't remember seeing the other ones, I mean I must have. Anyway, it was very good. A good story, with an ending that could mean they will make a next one. And Hugh Jackman is cute. After that movie, we decided to see another one. We saw The Wild. A kids movie, but very funny. The best line in it? There was a part in the story where they were all running away from something, and the koala says "I don't want to run anymore". The giraffe, Bridget, says to him "Good, because you really need to buy a good sports bra". Tops. That had tears rolling down my cheeks.

Sunday morning we got up early and met Isa at her house. Then we travelled to Victoria station on the tube and took the train to Chatham, as we were headed for the Chatham Historic Dockyards. The train took about 45 minutes. Chatham is in Kent. Scott and I had been meaning to go there for a while actually, not only to have a look around, but Scott had tracked down the records of one of his ancestors at one of the museums there. Constable Gibson was Scott's great grandfather, I think. His service record lives at the Kent Police Museum, which is in the dockyard complex. Scott had written to the curator last year sometime, and he was there on Sunday. We spoke to him and he told Scott that his next step would have to be the Centre for Kentish Studies.

We arrived at the Dockyard at about 11.15. Coincidentally they had a maritime festival on at the dockyard. It was not all that big a festival, but there were displays from various maritime organisations, stalls for fundraising, food stalls. The dockyard complex is huge. We headed right to the far end, so we could work our way back towards the exit. We started with the Ropery. We learned all about rope, how it is made, what it is made from. Very really interesting stuff. And we saw a demonstration of rope making, using some kids from the audience. From there we wandered about, taking a look at the sailing boats on the River Medway, listening to canons being fired.

We had a wander on HMS Cavalier, which was interesting, but there were few signs to say what things were, and there were no audio guides. But, Scott and I made the decision yesterday that we will go back there, as there was no way we would get to see everything in one day. Usually the dockyard issues annual tickets, like my work, and rightly so. We didn't even attempt the large museum on the site, as it had 23,000 square feet of displays - something we would need a whole day to do properly. I really must find out how many square feet my museum is, then at least I would have something to compare it to. My museum is huge, and really needs several visits to do it justice.

After a busy day, we were all tired. We caught the bus back into Chatham, and hopped on a train home. Luckily the next train went to Charing Cross, which meant it went a slightly different way from the train we took to Chatham. We did not have to go all the way into central London, as the train stopped off in south east London, which meant we could connect to the Docklands Light Railway to get home quicker. I had a lovely day, and we had a quiet evening when we got home. A nice long hot bath topped it all off. :-)



This photo was taken in the ropery. Once the fibres have been combed and straightened, they are placed into buckets, and are then drawn into the machine and twisted to make rope, or depending how thick the rope is, strands of rope.

I love this photo. The display of historic divers were drying off the suits used in previous dives, upside down of course. Behind the suit is one of the warships, HMS Cavalier.
These very fine young men were putting on a display of unarmed combat. It was pretty much like wrestling, but involved plastic weapons as well. They were all very good actors, and the display was fun to watch.
These floor boards were found a couple of years ago under 7 layers of flooring. There was a practice of reusing timbers, so the timbers which were found are in fact from ships various. Archaeologists are studying the timbers to find out about ship building practices, and about repairs as well.
This is one of the divers we saw going under. You can't see them when they are under water, as it was a bit murky, all you can see is the bubbles. This is him hauling himself out of the water. His suit weighs 90kg, which is the weight of another person! I have seen these divers before, but it never ceases to amaze me how they did it, and how they manage to pull themselves out of the water!!
This is in the ropery, the real working bit. You can see plastic fibres in the photo, which will be combed and twisted and made into rope. At the end of our tour, we had the opportunity to buy rope they had made there.

This is Scott and I, looking very Victorian, don't you think? I love these, they make me laugh.
This is Isa and I. Ahoy!
Another upside down suit from the divers.
I love these cranes. We have some near work and near where we live. They look so graceful and majestic, and yet sad, because they are no longer working. They are idle after many years of loading and unloading ships various. It looks almost like they are keeping watch over the docks.