Wednesday 7th October Day 197 Thursday 8th October Day 198
Wed 7th 6.30 Straight out of bed this morning, an early start in the hopes of beating the traffic.
I have to confess to being a little trepidatious about the trip today, having been pretty hermetic for so long.
Worry peeps out from my open suitcase; is she hoping I might take her with me, or is she trying to stop the inevitable i.e. me leaving her? Audrey will be staying with my daughter.
9.30 I set off for Singleton to meet Pat Janet and Sarah at the Wealden and Downland living museum. We are so lucky with the weather, it is set to be a
warm sunny day today.
11.00 We meet and get the masked entry over with. After that we can remove masks and the only stipulation is that it is one person or one ‘bubble’ party allowed in the houses at a time.
This is a special and unique place, acres of land with houses from all over the south east, saved from demolition in order to make way for modern buildings and brought here where they have been faithfully restored and rebuilt. It was the brainchild of the late Dr. J. R. Armstrong MBE to save some of our historic buildings, however humble, from the demoliton ball and chain. Dairy, bakehouse, mills, medieval dwellings, animal pound, a market square, a forge, amongst others.
Not only are we lucky with the weather but there are not so many people and we do not have to queue for the most part, only a short queue to the yeoman’s large house where the draw is to see the ‘long drop’ loo, situated in the corner of an upstairs bedroom. The long drop being to a pit dug in the ground beneath. It must have been a bit of a shock to the system in the winter with only fresh air underneath you. It’s a great day and Janet returns home while we press on to Southampton for the night.
Thursday 8th After breakfast in the Pig in the Wall, a lovely little bijou hotel in the old city wall, we pack the car up and walk to the Titanic Exhibition. We are very struck by the wall of names, some with old photographs, of the eight hundred and something crew who lost their lives on that fateful night. It is an excellent exhibition and full of interest. There is a lot of detail about those who survived and about the very personable captain who sadly did not. We are shown newspaper footage of the agonised waiting of loved ones waiting at the docks for news. There is also a mock courtroom and re-enactment of some of the court exchanges of dialogue after the Titanic sank.
It has been a therapeutic couple of days with much laughter and it felt good to be walking in the streets and seeing a bit of life going on albeit with the constant reminders on the pavements, coloured in circles containing a drawn pair of shoes and two metre arrows, plus the masks of every hue. I did not see one person flouting the mask rules. Quite something.