27.1.08
January 2008(October 2007)
Well here we are in January and the blog has fallen a bit behind,'tho as some may know I was rather wiped out by a somewhat serious bout of pneumonia for a month. So I've been back for over a coupla weeks and can finally access this blog-I did have difficulties logging onto here when it switched to being powered by google, who allegedly will take over the planet(along with Facebook?)soon!
Back to Steppin Stone and the last proper outing which was at the end of October to the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth Harbour. 6 members and a volunteer came with me and 'tho it was raining all day it was action packed! We had to park a bit further away than we would have liked due to the Bupa South Run but once we walked the 10-15 minutes there was loads to see.Most of spent a long time on the H.M.S. Victory (built in 1759)and the slightly more modern Warrior 1860,which was the 1st ironclad steam and sail driven warship. It must have been quite the deterrent as it never had to fire a shot in anger! We also saw the remains of the Mary Rose, which is preserved by being sprayed with some liquid waxy mixture.We also went on a 45 minute tour of the harbour which featured some decommissioned ship which are either now used for cadet training or in one's case target practice! Amongst the ships were the Invincible and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to name the most well known. We did see the Naval museum but there were 3 sections and time was running short, so while they were interesting we rather had to somewhat skim thru them. And to finish off the day (which was about 10 hours from leaving to arriving back) we had fish'n chips by the harbour front. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and 'tho we all got wet more than once nobody was the worse for wear afterwards.
The other news is that Jane is leaving us for a more regular hours job with a housing agency we work with-so at least those who miss her may get to see her from time to time when she comes by. She did some good work and wont be forgotten, and will take some long lasting memories from here-and probably miss us from time to time too! Though we thought we had found someone to replace her in December, the person turned us down in the end, so what with me being ill it's been a struggle staying open. But thanks to the regular and casual staff we did and we have found a new full time worker called Ian,who starts February 1.
Now that we are in January I wont say much more but to say I will try another posting next weekend, when volunteer Ed will be taking anyone interested to the big "Open Art" exhibition at MAO and we will have met the newest member of staff! The 2nd weekend of Feb was supposed to see a selection of objects from Oxfords museums being brought here for a "show and tell" of sorts,but the woman has had to postpone until March-will keep you all posted.Let's hope a few of you turn up,and am still lacking comment from you who read this(have put some photos on but they seem to have gone to the top of the blog rather than next to their associated article by date) Other bloggers have had problems putting photos with archived articles.
Back to Steppin Stone and the last proper outing which was at the end of October to the Royal Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth Harbour. 6 members and a volunteer came with me and 'tho it was raining all day it was action packed! We had to park a bit further away than we would have liked due to the Bupa South Run but once we walked the 10-15 minutes there was loads to see.Most of spent a long time on the H.M.S. Victory (built in 1759)and the slightly more modern Warrior 1860,which was the 1st ironclad steam and sail driven warship. It must have been quite the deterrent as it never had to fire a shot in anger! We also saw the remains of the Mary Rose, which is preserved by being sprayed with some liquid waxy mixture.We also went on a 45 minute tour of the harbour which featured some decommissioned ship which are either now used for cadet training or in one's case target practice! Amongst the ships were the Invincible and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to name the most well known. We did see the Naval museum but there were 3 sections and time was running short, so while they were interesting we rather had to somewhat skim thru them. And to finish off the day (which was about 10 hours from leaving to arriving back) we had fish'n chips by the harbour front. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and 'tho we all got wet more than once nobody was the worse for wear afterwards.
The other news is that Jane is leaving us for a more regular hours job with a housing agency we work with-so at least those who miss her may get to see her from time to time when she comes by. She did some good work and wont be forgotten, and will take some long lasting memories from here-and probably miss us from time to time too! Though we thought we had found someone to replace her in December, the person turned us down in the end, so what with me being ill it's been a struggle staying open. But thanks to the regular and casual staff we did and we have found a new full time worker called Ian,who starts February 1.
Now that we are in January I wont say much more but to say I will try another posting next weekend, when volunteer Ed will be taking anyone interested to the big "Open Art" exhibition at MAO and we will have met the newest member of staff! The 2nd weekend of Feb was supposed to see a selection of objects from Oxfords museums being brought here for a "show and tell" of sorts,but the woman has had to postpone until March-will keep you all posted.Let's hope a few of you turn up,and am still lacking comment from you who read this(have put some photos on but they seem to have gone to the top of the blog rather than next to their associated article by date) Other bloggers have had problems putting photos with archived articles.
Labels: Jan 2008
