Summer Holidays 2008

As I reported in the previous entry, there was nothing 'summery' about the summer this year in the UK.

I think we had at most about 5 good days. The rest were just rain and clouds.

But Mr S and I managed to take the kids out and about, thank god. Mr S took 2 weeks off, the first week was spent around the south of England, the 2nd week around London and in the Midlands.

Below are some pics taken from our trip to the south.

First though, we went apple picking and strawberry picking at the farm in Esher.

We actually stopped here to see some old friends on our way to Brighton. Thus, we didn't do much fruit picking as we were travelling and all - I was just excited because there were apple trees here - the farm where we normally go to in Epping doesn't have apple trees.

Somehow the apples on the trees were mostly green..

..as most of the red ones have fallen onto the ground.

The strawberries on this farm were planted on the ground and the field where they planted them was huge. We didn't actually put much enthusiasm in the picking and just picked the ones nearby but I saw some people who went to pick at the far end of the field come back with really huge and juicy looking strawberries..we just picked about half a small basket - for tasting.

After going for lunch at our friend's place and meeting some other friends (some ex school mates) there, we went straight down to Brighton. It was only a 1 hour drive from Kingston where my friend's place was. We went straight to our hotel and had our dinner there and rested for the night - ready to go out and explore Brighton the next day.

Surprise, surprise it rained the next morning but it cleared up by about 10am and so we headed straight to the beach and pier.

Brighton's pebble beach

Fish and chips on the pier

Just a quick click of the camera when the sun came out from behind the clouds.

Also went to visit the Sealife Centre..apparently the oldest aquarium in the world (so u can imagine the condition of it!)

After 2 nights at Brighton, we headed for the Isle Of Wight.

Had to take a 50 minute ferry ride from Southampton to the island.

Went to visit an old windmill on the island. The mill man (a mat saleh) was born in Melaka and used to go to school at SFI in Bandar Hilir. We spent some time melayan him reminisce about his good old times in Melaka.

The day was cold and very windy so the kids just played for a bit at Sandown beach.

The next day, took the chairlift down to the beach on the west end of the island to visit a geographical feature - some broken cliffs nicknamed 'The Needles'.

Down at the beach.
You can see behind the boys where the chairlift ride ends.


The boat ride we took to see The Needles at closer range. It was pretty cool, I thought.

The boys on the boat - behind them is part of 'The Needles' and also the lighthouse to warn off ships at the end of the jutting rocks.

The boys 'picked up' golf there too! :)

The view from the top of the cliffs.

After that, since the weather was really very good, we took the boys to the beach as that was what they wanted to do all along.. This time we went to Shanklin beach.

Spent 3 days on the island.
We then took the ferry back to Southampton and on the way...

..our ferry passed by the QE2.
It was really a lovely sight and a really cool ending to our IOW trip, I thought...
(I've always loved ships!)