Good Day Sunshine

Oh what a fabulous day we had yesterday - for the first time in months we had sunshine the whole day long and for the second day in a row...yeah, I know! We could hardly believe it and made the most of it by hopping on the bus and getting ready for a hike around the Island.

The plan was to walk through Firestone Copse and the carry on to Bembridge - around about a three to four hour walk. 

We set off and I was celebrating the return of the sun with my interpretive dance pose.

Notice the Wellies? Because it had been raining pretty much non stop for about four weeks all the grounds were kinda muddy, so I came prepared...and a good choice that was as we came across some areas that were just yuck!

Next stop was a duck pond which amazed the heck out of me, because it appeared to have a gazillion of different kind of ducks, swans, geese and and and.

There were small ducks, big ones, but my favourite ones without a doubt were these fellas at the back, with the tuft of fluff on their heads (you can't see it on the white one too well in the picture though)

They so looked like punk ducks and were quite the rebels in the water too :)

While I was totally excited over the ducks, Mr P got heart palpitations when we came across his beloved rapeseed fields. I don't get his excitement but each year he's like a kid in the candy store when we come across all the yellowness

Look at the happy face :)

Afterwards Mr P thought he died and gone to heaven when the road took us right through the middle of two rapeseed fields...gnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh. The yellow was SO dang bright that I was thankful I had my sunglasses on.

Like I said, I don't get the obsession and I made my point quite clear, me thinks.

We didn't quite make it to Bembridge because after two and a half hours I was done. I used to be so fit and we would walk and walk for hours on end but since last November I have had the difficulty with every step I take being painful. Once the doctors found out what it was (fibroids of the larger kind...) it made perfect sense why I have been unable to exercise or even do a longer walk without crumbling down in pain. 

So, once I started to get my "twinges" we knew that was it and had to carry on home by bus.

But we decided on the spur of the moment that we should go to the cinema and watch The Avengers in 3D.

That was one of the best decisions we have made in a long time.

LOVED the movie and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it in 3D. Would you believe that this is the first time ever I have seen a 3D movie in the cinema? Yup, I am almost ashamed seeing that I was around when 3D became hugely popular in the 80's.

I kinda liked the 3D effect, it was fun to enjoy it but I would not need to do that again. But what I need to do over and over again is to watch this movie. So far it is my favourite of this year. I laughed my behind off, got teary, slid to the edge of my seat - it just has it all: action on comedy.

Here is one of my favourite quotes from the movie

Thor: Have a care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother. 
Natasha Romanoff: He killed eighty people in two days. 
Thor: He's adopted. 

Happy Birthday Mr P

It's only been a few weeks since we celebrated my birthday and yesterday it was Mr P's turn. I remember in the past people always used to say that relationships where both partners have the same star sign are extremely difficult and pretty much doomed.

Take into consideration that we are both Aries, which are quite head strong and stubborn, you could be excused for thinking that we are a disaster waiting to happen.

Well, that's what I thought 14 years ago...and look where we are now :)

I just remembered that I never shared the pictures we shot when we went out for a pub lunch with Mr P's mum and step dad for my birthday, so let's rectify this straight away.

As we were blessed with the most amazing weather at the end of March, we took a leisurely stroll down to the Lifeboat, a lovely pub situated on the waterfront of the River Medina. Can you believe that we have been living in this area of the Island for around ten years now and not once managed to walk ten minutes down the road to the pub? Yeah, shocking, I know!

It looks lovely from the outside

And it looks lovely from the inside too, shame about the rowdy crowd tho'... (wink, wink)

We had a most wonderful day, so of course we decided that for Mr P's birthday we are going to do something similar.

Oh, we had plans to go to the mainland and take a stroll along to Hamble, or alternatively to walk to Bembridge as we haven't been there for quite some time. But  the weather had other plans for us and decided to be grey, overcast and downright miserable...

Now, we don't mind if it is not overly sunny but for a nice walk you want at least clear skies. So we settled for a walk over to  Cowes and Gurnard, and stop off in a few pubs along the way.

Our first stop was the Portland Inn, which we have passed so many times when we walked through Gurnard and we always said that one day we should check it out. So, the birthday boy decided that it was time :)

It looks not that inviting from the outside:

But the inside made us fall in love with the pub straight away. It looks like someone's living room/dining area. So cute with the many vintage touches. The pig and sheep blackboards on the top shelf and the condiments served in a vintage cup and saucer, had me squealing with delight.

The area in which we sat in was so cosy and cute, look:

The locals were really friendly as well and started chatting to us, someone's cat (she looked like a cross between a Persian and a Maine Coon) just strolled in, took a shine to us and jumped straight onto my lap - as you do...

It was surreal but really enjoyable.

We then walked along the seafront back towards Cowes and stopped off in The Woodvale, where we've been once before and as it was packed at the time we thought we should give it another try.

The outside looks typical for a seafront hotel/pub

The inside..well, it was heaving with people again and the only space we could find was right at the back, next to the pool table...ugh, a big pet peeve of ours to have pool tables in an eating/drinking area.

We did not take pictures (it's not that nice looking anyway) as there were people in the way everywhere and quickly downed our drinks and took off.

So,  the birthday boy had to make the choice - carry on pubbing or get some chips and go home?

See for yourself what Mr P decided:

Yum Yum.

The odd bits you see on the right are actually sausage in batter. The other day we watched Man vs Food again (I LOVE watching Adam pig out) and were introduced to the cozy dog. Mr P told me that you can get battered sausages in the UK too, so our idea was born to try it next time we'd go to the chippie.

Well, while Mr P enjoyed his battered dog, I really did not dig it and seeing that it was his birthday, I let him have both pieces. Mr P was one happy camper (spot the b-dog in his hands?).

The day didn't end there though - as was his wish we carried on with our fatty/greasy day, bought some pizzas for later and got back home to have another movie night (as is the custom on our birthdays...)