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Jul. 12th, 2006 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71Had to haul my carcass from bed at 6 to go to Test Valley's Civic Day. Maria greeted me with an enthusiastic kiss as usual, but was strangely muted for the rest of the day - perhaps as hostess she felt she ought to be on her best behaviour, but we'd all rather have had the Mad Maria we know and love!
We started with tea/coffee and chocolate biscuits in the Town Hall and were invited to walk round the room admiring the tapestries, very well done by the ladies of Test Valley and depicting scenes from all the different villages. Then it was onto the bus where Glyn, the Mayor's PA, treated us to a witty running commentary. Our first port of call was the Museum of Army Flying. As we got off the bus, Pat, the Chair of the County Council, joked to my mother and me that she hoped we'd brought our flying helmets as we were all going to have a go in a military plane. The museum was very interesting, and as Jim was an ex-RAF man he indulged in quite a bit of banter with the guide, who was of course an ex-Army Flying officer. My mother took quite a lot of photos, and was very affected by the section on D-Day, especially as there were a couple of photos of troops arriving on Sword Beach, where my late grandad landed.
On the drive from there to our lunch venue, we passed through some beautiful countryside, and Glyn pointed out a big distinctive house where Reg Presley of the Troggs used to live. Pam, the Deputy Mayor of Test Valley, told us all he'd now moved into a semi on Weyhill Road, Andover's main street.
Lunch was at a delightful hotel, in the middle of nowhere surrounded by wonderful scenery. Before we got to eat we all had to line up for a group photo. The slightly camp photographer kept making people move a little bit this way, or a little bit that way, or turn slightly that way, in between taking ten shots of us all. Most of us stuck to the traditional 'Cheese!' as our word to say to make us smile, but a couple of people went for 'Curly-wurly' and I always said 'Drinks!' When the photographer'd finally finished with us, Sue from Winchester, who'd been stood in front of me, said "Who kept asking for drinks?" then turned round and said to me "So it was you!"
We did get drinks - Jim and Maria had arranged for us all to have a complimentary drink each from the hotel bar. I went for a rum and coke. After a little drinking/chatting time we went in to dinner. The food was superb, I went for goat's cheese and lettuce, then calf's liver, bacon and veg, with chocolate and Bailey's cake for dessert. Among those on our table were Katrina, Deputy Mayor of Fareham, and her husband Peter, who revealed he's appearing in an amateur production of Terry Pratchett's Maskarade in two weeks' time - much to the amusement of my mother and myself, as we're attending that show as official guests!
After dinner we went off to the Hawk Conservancy. We passed through the gift shop on our way through at the start; I looked at the stuffed toy hawks, idly wondering whether one might make a smart mascot to take to Havant & Waterlooville matches, but with my bank account's continuing redness I couldn't justify £3.50 on a cuddly toy. We were split up into groups between those who wanted to see the wild flower garden and those who plumped for the bird of prey hospital - I opted for the hospital (my hay fever was bad enough already, the wild flowers would have played havoc with it) but our group had to wait around for the dozen or so (my mother included) who wanted to have a go at flying one of the birds. After a quick tour of the hospital, and a peek through a board with little holes in it at a very rare sea eagle, we were taken to watch a demonstration. One of the birds, a sagar falcon called Drifter, kept flying off out of sight, causing the poor old guide to fill in time by talking about the trees and stuff, but always came back in the end. The guide asked 'Hands up everybody who thought we'd lost a segar falcon?' Next was a lovely grey-green owl called Molly, who was very quick with her movements from post to post. She also landed on one of the ladies in the audience, prompting the guide to say "If you'd been a vole, you'd have been eaten by now."
After the demonstration ended, while the others were going on to a craft shop we had to be off as my mother had to get back for a Council meeting. So we said thank-yous and goodbyes to Jim and Maria; Maria had had no idea that she'd be seeing us again tomorrow at the Solar Challenge at Thruxton and was delighted when we told her. Then we headed for the waiting Mayoral car.
Got to go watch Comedy Doubles.
We started with tea/coffee and chocolate biscuits in the Town Hall and were invited to walk round the room admiring the tapestries, very well done by the ladies of Test Valley and depicting scenes from all the different villages. Then it was onto the bus where Glyn, the Mayor's PA, treated us to a witty running commentary. Our first port of call was the Museum of Army Flying. As we got off the bus, Pat, the Chair of the County Council, joked to my mother and me that she hoped we'd brought our flying helmets as we were all going to have a go in a military plane. The museum was very interesting, and as Jim was an ex-RAF man he indulged in quite a bit of banter with the guide, who was of course an ex-Army Flying officer. My mother took quite a lot of photos, and was very affected by the section on D-Day, especially as there were a couple of photos of troops arriving on Sword Beach, where my late grandad landed.
On the drive from there to our lunch venue, we passed through some beautiful countryside, and Glyn pointed out a big distinctive house where Reg Presley of the Troggs used to live. Pam, the Deputy Mayor of Test Valley, told us all he'd now moved into a semi on Weyhill Road, Andover's main street.
Lunch was at a delightful hotel, in the middle of nowhere surrounded by wonderful scenery. Before we got to eat we all had to line up for a group photo. The slightly camp photographer kept making people move a little bit this way, or a little bit that way, or turn slightly that way, in between taking ten shots of us all. Most of us stuck to the traditional 'Cheese!' as our word to say to make us smile, but a couple of people went for 'Curly-wurly' and I always said 'Drinks!' When the photographer'd finally finished with us, Sue from Winchester, who'd been stood in front of me, said "Who kept asking for drinks?" then turned round and said to me "So it was you!"
We did get drinks - Jim and Maria had arranged for us all to have a complimentary drink each from the hotel bar. I went for a rum and coke. After a little drinking/chatting time we went in to dinner. The food was superb, I went for goat's cheese and lettuce, then calf's liver, bacon and veg, with chocolate and Bailey's cake for dessert. Among those on our table were Katrina, Deputy Mayor of Fareham, and her husband Peter, who revealed he's appearing in an amateur production of Terry Pratchett's Maskarade in two weeks' time - much to the amusement of my mother and myself, as we're attending that show as official guests!
After dinner we went off to the Hawk Conservancy. We passed through the gift shop on our way through at the start; I looked at the stuffed toy hawks, idly wondering whether one might make a smart mascot to take to Havant & Waterlooville matches, but with my bank account's continuing redness I couldn't justify £3.50 on a cuddly toy. We were split up into groups between those who wanted to see the wild flower garden and those who plumped for the bird of prey hospital - I opted for the hospital (my hay fever was bad enough already, the wild flowers would have played havoc with it) but our group had to wait around for the dozen or so (my mother included) who wanted to have a go at flying one of the birds. After a quick tour of the hospital, and a peek through a board with little holes in it at a very rare sea eagle, we were taken to watch a demonstration. One of the birds, a sagar falcon called Drifter, kept flying off out of sight, causing the poor old guide to fill in time by talking about the trees and stuff, but always came back in the end. The guide asked 'Hands up everybody who thought we'd lost a segar falcon?' Next was a lovely grey-green owl called Molly, who was very quick with her movements from post to post. She also landed on one of the ladies in the audience, prompting the guide to say "If you'd been a vole, you'd have been eaten by now."
After the demonstration ended, while the others were going on to a craft shop we had to be off as my mother had to get back for a Council meeting. So we said thank-yous and goodbyes to Jim and Maria; Maria had had no idea that she'd be seeing us again tomorrow at the Solar Challenge at Thruxton and was delighted when we told her. Then we headed for the waiting Mayoral car.
Got to go watch Comedy Doubles.
