Grandson Time

The bank holiday weekend is upon us, and our grandson J came to stay for a couple of days.

He's a wonderful chap who is always happy and adventurous, but at the same time very well behaved and good mannered, a rarety it would seem in this day and age.

Once he had arrived and settled in and had some lunch, we then went off for the day and decided to head into Bournemouth and visit the Oceanarium.

This is a great place to spend an hour or two. There are sharks, pirahna and giant turtles, and even an underwater observation tunnel, and so always something exciting for a young one (and not so young one!). In the picture below, I am with J looking down at the giant turtles and the people walking through the tunnel underwater.

http://www.oceanarium.co.uk

Of course they have the obligatory gift shop where I just had to buy J a shark on a stick, the one where you press the trigger at one end, and the sharks mouth snaps shut at the other.....I came to regret doing this as the weekend progressed!

The Oceanarium is at the pier entrance square, and it is here that although not to my taste, there are other attractions such as an old fashioned steam carousel, climbing wall, a bungy-flick you up in the air-thingy and a flight simulator, along with other stuff. We chose the carousel which was all reds and golds, and sat on our respective ponies Tommy and Hayley. Great fun!

Then it was over to the Fire Brigade display where J could climb into a real fire engine and see what goes on. By now we were all quite thirsty and so headed into town and Beales department store where just as I did as a kid, J enjoyed pressing the lift buttons to take us to the cafe. We also bought colouring stuff and paints for him to use when we got back home.

A walk throught the lower gardens took us back to the avn, but I couldn't resist taking some snaps of the flower beds there and the parks departments use of Alliums this year, quite effective. This is only one of many beds, all featuring different types.

We hadn't got much planned for Sunday, and so didn't think to take the camera with us.
We headed into Christchurch in the morning and parked alongside the quay at the river.
A while was spent playing on the slides and swings before we took the lovely and relaxing walk along the tributary that goes into town. This is a must if you visit Christchurch as it runs parallel to the main river and takes you past the 900 year old priory, the abbey ruins and an old mill house. Into the modern and swish Soho's we went and had some drinks before heading back to the quay via the priory grounds........and the fete that had materialised in the time it had taken us to go into town. Three bouncy castles in one long row, two with adventure tunnels and the last a giant slide.....why didn't we have these when I was a kid!! We had bought some grain earlier and so fed the swans before one last play in the park, and then back home for lunch, and then time to take J back home to his parents.......whew! what a couple of days! The afternoon saw A and myself asleep on the sofa like a right couple of duffers before we headed to the evening service at our church. This was a reflective communion that was held in a circle with only about twenty or so people and had a sermon read by a guy from the local bible college on a weeks placement. Very good, and all I have to say is that I came away with a lot to think about!
And so here I am now, sat with my fresh coffee on a bank holiday Monday, looking out on the sun shing on our garden, A reading studiously across the room. A day of garden centres, lattes and gardening is planned.............I will let you know more later!