12th June 2000
Greetings from the UK, I've been absolutely hammered for not getting any information up here earlier, allow me to explain... Getting a phone line connected has been an absolute nightmare, I only managed to get it connected last Friday!! So for all you who think I have been avoiding you (Biz and Stu) relax, I can communicate now. We moved into our flat on the 3rd and have got it how we want it finally.
Most of the past week has involved trying to get online and catching up with some work for Planetel along with dealing with the various government agencies that want money from us. I can't get over the tax's you have to pay here -- council tax is fair enough (although extremly excessive). However, what I couldn't get over is the £120 odd tax for, wait for it, a TV licence! I asked what the licence entitles us to, apparently "it's too allow the BBC to provide us with their high quality programming.." HA! Have you ever seen East Enders!?!? Who do they think they are kidding??
Perhaps it went into making the program I saw the other night, it was aptly titled "Naked Jungle" -- a gameshow which has a bunch of (horrible) middle-aged men and women nudists running around a fake jungle collecting fig-leafs, the couple with the most lig-leafs wins, high quality programming my ass.
Enough of that, yesterday Lucy and I drove out to a place known as The New Forest (not to be confused with the Naked Forest). I took along my (now loved) England - The Rough Guide, this book is great, if it comes along a town or place that is crappy, it tells you so, unlike the Lonely Planet that looks for good things, this one focuses on what you'll actually get. Neither of us knew exatly how to get to the New Forest so we headed down the M4 and hopped for the best, as you would expect we got a little lost and decided to pull into Southampton. Before I continue with my experiences of Southampton, I'll quote a passage from the Rough Guide.
..unfortunately, since it's pummelling by the Luftwaffe and some disastrous post-war planning, the thousand-year-old city has changed beyond reconition. Now a sprawling conurbation easily bypassed by motorways, it'll be pretty low on your list of places to visit in Southern England..
Joy! Actually, to be honest it was nice to see the place where the Titanic left for her maiden voyage, and the Mayflower set sail for America, but the place was a hole. There was a chance for it as the ruins of the original city walls are there, but they have done very little to show them off or to develop the area properly. I have to agree with the Rough guide on this one, a big thumbs down.
After downing a beer in the local we headed off to find the heart of the New Forest, a town known as Lyndhurst I was actually looking forward to seeing the place as it got a good write up in the guide, I decided to look up lyndhurst and see what they had to say about it;
LYNDHURST, its town centre skewered by an agonizing one-way system, isn't a particularly interesting place ... it's mainly valuable for the resources of the New Forest Museum & Visitor Centre in the central car park off the High Street...
I put the book away for the rest of the day... Funny thing is I noticed it's not available in any of the local bookshops in these small towns. Lyndhurst was disappointing, although the surrounding area is very nice. I wouldn't exactly call it a forest, it actually looks like a scrubb area. The amount of wildlife needs to be seen to be believed. They have wild horses all over the place, and you need to be careful when driving as they are always on the side (or middle) of the road eating the grass/shrubs.
We're planning on coming back here for a weekend to do some walking or riding as it looks like a good place to get away from it all. We also toured though Beaulieu and Lymington on the way back. Lymington is the town that saved the trip it has a fantastic harbour that has the original town right on the edge, complete with the cobbled streets and Georgian houses. We had a Devonshire Tea here which was nice as they used real cream for once!! We set off back home after this. We're hoping to visit Stonehenge next weekend.
Thats it for now, will make another update shortly. Take care!