Isle of Wight (Part 1)

I thought I would write an account of my trip to the Isle of Wight, so here it is.

The trip away started on the Monday when I stayed at my grandmas. When I arrived at my grandmas I was given ?50 as my grandma. This was as had recently paid for things for my sisters and nephew, but she felt she had left me out.

For the evening meal my grandmas made a delicious Chicken Casserole with roast potatoes and various vegetables. I spent the rest of evening watching TV and then some time on Internet to start poll for photo contest on my 7650 Yahoo group.

I then went to bed.

I the morning I was woken about 7:30 and after a shower I had sausages and bacon for breakfast. It was a while (few hours) before we left as my granddad always takes an eternity to get ready. At about 10:30 we left for the hour-long journey to Portsmouth. Before I headed off to catch the Fast Cat (catamaran) service to the Isle of Wight, they took me for a meal in Southsea. I had Chicken covered in cheese, chives and a few other ingredients and was called Mississippi Chicken and came with potato wedges and onion rings.

After the meal and whilst they freshened up, I headed outside for a quick cigarette as although they know I smoke, I don’t normally smoke in front of them.

I was then taken to Portsmouth and we said our goodbyes and I was dropped of at the Hard Interchange outside the harbour train station, which is also the home of the Fast Cat (catamaran) to Ryde. I got my ticket then waited in the smoking area for about 20mins.

During the Fast Cat journey I watched the video they play for safety and with info on the Isle of Wight which this time featured Godshill including the Model village, with replicas of Shanklin Chine and Godshill. When I arrived at Ryde Pier Head, I headed for the train, which was waiting, and whilst on train I tried to phone my dad to let him know I was almost at Shanklin. I got no answer. When I got to Shanklin, I got a taxi to Broadslade Court (I still think of it as Fairy Court as was the name of property when I was there).

I phoned my dad from there and I got though and a few minutes later he turned up on his Matchless motorbike. Almost as he pulled up the next door neighbour came round to ask for some help later in the week with some trees in their back garden and I popped around with them as they showed him the trees. It had been a while (since I moved from the Island) since I had last seen them and they had made quite a few changes to the garden. Whilst I was living on th island I had spent a few times mowing their lawns for a bit of extra money.

When we got back to my dads caravan my dad cleaned up as had touched the sap from trees then opened his birthday cards. I also gave a loaf of bread made by my grandma in her bread maker. We then decided to head for the pub where we met with some people who later in the afternoon would be taking us to the Speedway at Smallbrook Stadium in Ryde.

At the speedway, there was 14 races in all and quite a few crashes a well (“Ouch”). By the end of the evening I was very drunk and fell asleep not long returning to the caravan were my dad lives.

On the second day I slept till about 10 then watched ER on TV then decided that I would visit my friend in Sandown. She was still at work, but said I could meet her when she finished at 2:30. When I arrived in Sandown at 2:15, I checked but when was still going to be working till about 3:15, so I went and had a coffee. I then went to the monument on Sandown sea front where I would meet her about 20mins before she finished, and made a few phone calls before she arrived.

When she arrived we had a drink on the sea front the wondered back to her flat collecting her bike on the way. As we were almost back at the flat, her boyfriend phoned to say that he had finished work and was on his way back to the flat as well, and arrived about the same time, which was lucky as her had forgotten his key.

We spent the afternoon catching up and then about 6 we went into the town to get something to eat. the evening was spent watching TV like ER and Big Brother. At 11:00 I decided to make a move back to my dads caravan.

My friend had a timetable and realised I would have to leave promptly to catch the last bus. When I got to the stop, I check that timetable as well and thought I had to get the 2B bus. At 11:15pm a 3B bus turned up and I nearly didn’t get on the bus, but thought would be prudent to check with driver. He said was last bus. I had apparently misread the timetable and had I not got on would have been a long walk, or expensive Taxi back. The bus didn’t go the full journey, so had to get a Taxi from the centre of Shanklin.

When I got back my dad had gone out and I realised I hadn’t taken my dads spare key. I sent a text message to my friends to apprise them of situation and sat down of the step of caravan to gather my thoughts to have a cigarette. After the cigarette my friends sent had sent a message back and said to come back over and they would put me up for night.

I decided before getting back in contact I would phone a taxi to make sure I could get back to Sandown and phone 3-4 taxi numbers but was unable to get hold of one. As I was trying to think of what to do my phone rang. It was my dad saying sorry he had missed me phoning and where was I. I said was round corner and would be there in 5 secs. It was lucky I hadn’t decided to go back to Sandown earlier or I could have missed him completly.