Plates

Many years ago, the first day of August was an important day each year, because the new registration plates would be released. I particularly remember this happening around the time of our family holiday to the Isle of Wight, and I would spend many a happy journey looking out for the brand new "B" plates or "C" plates, or whichever letter we'd got up to.

I expect that it is partly through doing this that we realised what the number plate code was for cars registered on the Island - they all had "DL" as their second and third letters, so the plates would be in the form A123 BDL, or for even older cars, XDL 123Y.

Somehow, number plates became less fun when we got round to the end of the alphabet with plates starting with the age identifying letter. Now we have numbers to signify the age, and they change every six months rather than every year. Don't know exactly why, but I don't approve (maybe it signifies my age in some way!).

I also find number plates in the AB51 CDE format much harder to remember. Perhaps this is because there are more letters to remember in this version. In the old style, it was easy to remember that you had a "G-reg" or whatever the age letter was, and then there was only one more group of letters to remember. Now there are two groups of letters to recall, and as is well known, I do better with letters than numbers (mind you, then again, maybe this also is something to do with my age again!). I can clearly remember the number plate of my first car which I got over twenty years ago (as well as several of Mum and Dad's cars from when I was little), but struggle to remember the registration of the IQ.

One other gripe - it is much harder to make words out of the new format - no more MAG1C when you have to always have seven symbols with two digits in the middle.

Tomorrow marks the tenth anniversary of our new formats. Having started in 2001 with 51 plates, so tomorrow we get onto the 61 plates.

As always, a prize to be awarded for the first sightings - the flashier the car, the better the prize!

Who knows, if I ever get around to ordering one, I might get a 61 plate sometime over the next few months.

Tuesday

Tuesday today, not Monday.

Wednesday tomorrow, not Tuesday.

Weeks with bank holidays at the beginning are confusing.

Ikea

Ikea on a bank holiday Monday.

Busy.

But the meatballs were still nice.

One Day

Back in January, I read One Day by David Nicholls, and pretty soon after reading it, I persuaded Nicky to do the same so that I could talk to her about it properly.

As can be seen from this post, I was alone when I finished reading the book, which really wasn't ideal, and resulted in an emergency late night phone call.

Thankfully, my very own Emma Morley was sat next to me this evening holding my hand whilst we watched it at the cinema. Apparently, I nearly crushed her fingers at the awful moment.

I'm never letting Nicky go out on her bike again.

Saturday

Haircuts for me and Jake

My parcel arrived from Amazon

Food shopping at Waitrose

Shepherds Pie followed by cheesecake for dinner

Chelsea won the household football clash, beating the Canaries

Been uploading some more Florida pictures to Flickr

Played cricket outside with Jake

Usual Saturday stuff

2nd year

When I was in the second year at junior school, I was in Miss Fox's class, and we were in a mobile classroom next to the main school building.

One morning, Miss Fox told us about the opportunity to purchase a publication of some sort. I cannot remember anything about the publication, other than the fact that I wanted one, and that it cost 50p.

If we wanted a copy, we were to ask our parents, and if they agreed, we could bring in the money.

Some children in the class went home for lunch, and so at afternoon registration, a few presented the 50p's that their parents had given them.

I did not go home for lunch.

However, seeing that others were already signing up, and not wanting to miss out, I went forward and presented my 50p as well.

I had taken the 50p from my recently acquired wallet, in which I kept all my worldly wealth.

Having money in school was not allowed. It should have been handed in at the start of the day.

I got a copy of the publication, but I got in trouble in front of the rest of the class as well, and was made to hand in the remaining coins in my wallet.

Thinking back, three things occur to me about my younger self:

Firstly, money played an important role. My eight or nine year old self was proud of my wallet and that I was grown up enough to have some of my own money. I don't think that it was the fact of having money meaning that I could buy things that pleased me, but rather just the fact that I had some.

Secondly, I'd obviously decided that rules were things that other people needed to follow. I knew that money was supposed to be handed in, and I understood why, but that wasn't my concern. I had my wallet, and I would look after it how I considered best.

Thirdly, I clearly wasn't as clever as I thought I was. If I'd stopped to think a bit more carefully, I might have waited until the following morning to hand in my 50p. Then my wallet and its contents may have remained undiscovered by the powers that be.

I'm not entirely sure what reminded me of that episode, but I found myself thinking about it on the drive home this evening.

Still, at least my grown up self has changed significantly, and doesn't share any of the same traits from thirty or so years ago!

Joke of the day: I'm rubbish at spelling - I don't even know how to spell armageddon. But never mind, it's not the end of the world.

Gone to the dogs

A whole new experience for me this evening - a trip to the dog track. We had a packed race card - 12 in total. Unfortunately I was a little delayed in leaving work and so missed the first, but then saw the next nine before creeping out prior to the last two to avoid the rush.

Betting on each race was pretty much compulsory.

Won some, lost some.

Sadly, more losing than winning.

Still, good fun, especially successfully picking the top three (not necessarily in the right order!) in one particular race.

Joke of the day: I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Different days

Me - meeting at bank this morning followed by client meeting in Brighton this afternoon.

N&J - trip to the seaside to meet up with our friends who are there on holiday. Paddling in the sea, football on the beach, ice creams, and to top it all off, Kate's famous chilli for lunch.

Ho hum!

Birthday

Spreading out the fun of your birthday is great, and this is a bit of an extreme example.

Bec and Mark got me an Amazon voucher this year - just over 6 months ago, and today I have finally got round to placing an order. Five books and one CD are now on their way to me.

Thanks Bec and Mark!

Season

As the cricket season (for test matches at least) draws to a close in fine form, the football season is getting into its stride. All of the Premier League teams have now played at least one game, now that Spurs have played their first one.

Unfortunately, their fixture for the opening day, which should have been at home to Everton, was postponed, due to the riots that had taken place just down the road, and this meant that our season opener was a rather tougher fixture - away at Old Trafford.

I was out for a curry with work this evening, and I turned on Five Live on the way home. The second half was under way, and I was pleased to discover that it was still 0-0, and in fact Spurs were pressing forward - things seemed encouraging.

That didn't last.

By the time I arrived at home, there were only a few minutes left to play, and we were 2-0 down. Now that I check the final result I see that we let in another one before the final whistle.

So, now that everyone has had a game or two, where are Spurs in the table.

20th.

And so starts another long and frustrating season.

Still, we can only improve our league position from here!

Pablo

"The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him."

And for anyone who might still be having a little post op trouble with reading, here's some music to go with the quote.

Coincidence

So, according to one of last week's blogs, the final test was going to be an anticlimax. Well, Bell did a good job of helping to avoid that earlier on today by getting yet another double hundred for the England team. Shame about the rain at lunchtime, otherwise we could have been looking at another 700+ total. Still, India are five down (thanks to three late wickets from Swann) and looking down the barrel once again. England need 15 more wickets in the final two days to wrap things up, possibly less as one of their top order batsmen failed to make an appearance at the start of their innings.

Today we had a trip out to Bluewater, and it was lovely to catch up with the Pitt family on their way to their week by the seaside. We had lunch at TGI's and then headed off on various shopping expeditions, meeting up for coffee once we'd all found what we were looking for.

My 'must buy' of the day was a copy of the Guardian, as recommended by Mum this morning as there was an interesting article about the mathematician Simon Norton. That's as much of the paper as I've managed to read so far, but the entertaining thing is that one of the books that I bought at the airport on the way to Orlando was called "Finding Moonshine" by Marcus du Sautoy, and it is all about symmetry and group theory, and one of the central characters in the recent history of group theory (one of the authors of the Atlas of Finite Groups), and who therefore gets lots of mentions in du Sautoy's book (including his love of public transport and his fascination with timetables) is Simon Norton. Spooky coincidence.

Doctors

Been to the doctors today - reason being that a couple of recent bruises on my legs have seemed fairly extensive despite having no recollection of bashing myself, and have taken a while to disappear. Doctor confirmed that this was most likely a result of the half dose of aspirin I have each day, and should be nothing to worry about. However, I have to donate some blood for testing some time next week. A trip to the blood testing area at the hospital will be a trip down memory lane for me!

Whilst I was there, the doctor checked me over - blood pressure 110/70 - tick, heartbeat regular - tick, and heart rate 68 - tick.

Loo roll

I can now officially claim to be an expert in the manufacturing process for loo roll.

If you are really, really lucky, I might have to tell you all about it some time.

But not now!

My

Back to the familiar surroundings of the Brighton myhotel. Today's answer is pink!

28th

Blogging when I really should be tucked up in bed, as I am supposed to be meeting my American colleagues from their train when it arrives in Brighton tomorrow morning just before 8am.

So, just a quick post today before I head off to find an overnight bag to put a clean shirt in, as I will be staying in Brighton tomorrow night.

This evening we had dinner at Galvins, which is the restaurant on the 28th floor of the Park Lane Hilton. If you click through the link on here, there is a photo on the website showing a couple of tables in front of an enormous window looking out to the west over Hyde Park - that's where we sat.

The food was fantastic - almost as good as the view!

Monday Meetings

Monday meetings done - but I finished my last one in London just after four and so was home in time for a game of street cricket, followed by a couple of goes on Gran Tourismo, so mustn't grumble.

Also home in time for a lovely pasta followed by crumble tea, so that was even better, especially as I will be out for the next two nights, tomorrow in London and then Wednesday in Brighton.

Summer

The summer is on its way out.

How can I tell? Lots of ways.

Nicky was sowing name badges into uniform ready for the beginning of the Autumn term earlier today.

The sporting calendar is moving on: today is the last day of the final major of the golfing year, we've wrapped up the summer test series (even if there is one left, it can only be a bit of an anticlimax after the last few days) and to top it all off, the Premier League is back up and running.

And one other thing - we've had our summer holiday.

Could be a bit depressing really, but as always to counter these things we look forward to holidays to come. We'll be back to Orlando at Christmas, and after lunch today we were planning some of the places we will go for meals whilst we are there (back to Teppan Edo is a must, Christmas Day at the Turf Club at Saratoga is looking like the favourite, and we've all agreed that we must finally make our first visit to the Red Lobster).

However, as well as our Christmas holiday, now that we've had our summer holiday for this year, we can start plotting and planning for next summer. A cruise would definitely be nice, and a trip to Alaska would be a new experience for all of us. Most of those cruises start in Seattle, and by happy chance, we were watching the Food Network (one of our favourite channels!) earlier on today, and there was a programme on all about places to go for delightful desserts and sweet treats.

Some of the places that got a mention were in Seattle.

There was The Confectional, who make mini cheesecakes, the Macrina Bakery, whose coffee cakes looked like a slice of heaven, The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co, who were cupcake-tastic, and the Volunteer Park Cafe, where the homemade treats looked superb.

I think that a few days "sightseeing" in Seattle before getting on a cruise ship could be a great idea.

We're not obsessed by food.

No, really, we're not, honest.

Promise!

Stats

One of the reasons that watching cricket is fun for a nerd like me is that it is non stop unless facts, trivia and statistics. The game that finished today was a great example of that as we were bombarded by them:

- whatever happens in the final test next week, England will go to the top of the world rankings in test cricket, deposing India from top spot

- it was the first time ever that England have completed an innings in test cricket with a score between 700 and 800

- Cook scored his highest ever test match innings, obviously disappointed to fall 6 short of getting 300, but still he posted a total 6th on the leaderboard of all time top innings for an English batsman.

- the last man to score 300 for England was Graham Gooch in 1990 (against India) and Gooch was there today, and helps Cook and others in the England team with their batting

- we've now had 6 double centuries from England batsmen in the last 15 months. It took 15 years for English batsmen to manage the 6 before that

- the game lasted nearly 4 days, and Cook was on the field for every minute of play

- Anderson moved up another spot in the list of leading English wicket takers in test cricket, and is now 7th (Botham and Willis are 1 and 2)

- Tendulkar is still stuck on 99 first class centuries, getting out in a really unlucky way today, being run out backing up at the non strikers end after the ball was deflected by the bowler - first time that has happened to him in test cricket

- Sehwag had the unfortunate honour of achieving a King Pair - being out from his first ball in both innings - something that has only happened 15 times in test cricket

... and no doubt there are loads more from the last few days as well!

News

So, made it to the end of the first week back after holidays, and looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

The news has been pretty tough going this week, what with riots and financial turmoil. For a while, I was thinking that the only relief was to be found in the cricket scores (still liking my prediction from yesterday - should be all over tomorrow), but then I found this story, and it made me laugh!

456

Loving the cricket - two days gone and England are already in a commanding, and very probably unbeatable, position in the third test. 456-3 in their first innings, with Cook looking like he can carry on for as long as he wants to. Could be all over before the weekend, but my reckoning is that it will last into Saturday, simply because England will choose to carry on batting for most of tomorrow, put India in to bat towards the end of the day and get a few wickets, and then finish them off on Saturday to win by an innings and some.

There, that's my prediction!

Points

What do points mean? Well, for once, not prizes, but rather time, and just like time, it always seems like we don't quite have enough points.

The points in question are DVC ones, which we used to purchase our stay at Bay Lake Towers and Kidani Village over the last couple of weeks, and which will also be used for our Christmas stay at Old Key West.

The problem is that once we've had our Christmas stay, we will be basically be all out of points until our allocation is refilled at the start of October 2012. Which means, as always, I find myself wondering about whether topping up the points with an additional purchase is worth considering (a condition known as "addonitis"!)

Disney have just upped the price of "new" points once again, to the surprise of a number of people in the online discussion groups, given the current economic situation. However, as others rightly point out, they seem to be able to continue to shift the things, even as the price increases. New Bay Lake Towers points are now going for as much as $150 each.

However, there is also a second hand market for points, most notably (as far as I know) on the DVC by resale website. At the moment they are listing someone selling 210 Old Key West points for $57.50 each.

Now that is a little bit tempting I must confess! It will be even more so if we discover that we really like OKW when we go there at Christmas. It would leave us with a grand total of 690 points, which really would give us some good holiday options, although the annual dues might start to get a little painful.

I think that I'll have to try not to think about it until Christmas, and then I may have to consult my accountant!

Jet lag

Always seems to be worse heading home from America rather than heading out to America. This may well be perception rather than reality, as on the way out, the lag impact is significantly softened by the simple pleasures of being on holiday, whereas the return involves having to go back to work!

Still, strangely today seems to have been worse than yesterday. After a sleepless night, working from home seemed to be a sensible approach to the day - and I probably ended up getting more done here than I would have done in the office anyway.

Hopefully tonight will be better, as I really do need to make my way round the M25 in the morning.

Uniform

1 blazer

2 jumpers with school colour edging around the V neck

4 white shirts

2 ties

2 pairs of shorts - one blue for games, one white for PE

1 PE polo shirt

1 gum-shield

2 rugby tops - one hooped and one white

1 pair of blue games socks

1 pair of PE trainers - non marking soles

... so far ...

Home

We are all safely back home, rather tired and a little jet-lagged, but having had a great holiday.

Our last day went according to plan. We were packed up and away from AKL by about half past ten, and went to Downtown for a final bit of shopping, followed by lunch at the Earl of Sandwich, before hitting the Interstate and heading north to Sanford.

Everything went smoothly with handing back the car and checking in for the flight, and there was enough time for the boys to enjoy a final bit of arcade play before we boarded our flight.

Back here most of the unpacking is done, and now we are heading towards the more routine stuff for a while again. Off to work for me tomorrow, and Jake has an appointment at the school shop tomorrow to get some uniform.

Ah well, 132 days until next time ...

Day 10 - Magic

Our first ride of the day today was boarded at our hotel - we decided to take the bus to the Magic Kingdom, so that we could bypass the TTC and monorail / ferryboat, and head straight to the front gates. Unfortunately we watched a bus pull away as we walked out of the lobby, but we didn't have to wait too long for another one to come along.

Today was to be the day of the Mountains, and so on arrival at the park we walked down Main Street, and took a left and headed to Splash Mountain. The wait was only about 10 minutes, and we all enjoyed the ride. The on ride photo was very funny, but due to the face being pulled by one member of the party, a purchase was vetoed.



Next mountain next door - Big Thunder. By now it was around half past ten, and the wait time was posted as twenty minutes. However, we walked through the queue, and pretty much straight onto the ride.



Two mountains down, one to go, so we marched across to the other side of the park. The Space Mountain queue was showing as 40 minutes so we grabbed some fastpasses, and whilst we waited for our time to come around, we went to see Stitch and his great escape, and then to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. I think for the first time ever I didn't get picked on in the show - which was a relief.

By now our fastpass window had opened at Space Mountain. Once the fastpass window opens, you are able to pick up another set, so on the way out of Monsters Inc, we grabbed some for the Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin, and then took great delight in walking straight past everyone in the standby line, and onto Space Mountain.

Nicky screamed all the way around, but we had done it - all four of us had completed the mountain hat-trick. We felt rightly proud of ourselves!

The Space Mountain ride deposits you in a games arcade, and so we played a couple of games in there until it was time to head back to Buzz.




Aboard Buzz, Nicky decided to do the decent thing and come last for once! Taking the vehicle total scores, the boys were the winners, so we got some on ride pictures to mark the occasion.

By now we were ready for lunch, and a special request had been made to go to Pecos Bill, back in Frontierland. Back we went, and being fastpass experts that we have become, we picked up some at the Jungle Cruise on the way.

The reason for the special request was that our usual spot for pulled pork sandwiches (the Studio Catering Company at Hollywoos Studios) has stopped serving them, and we'd spotted that Bill's still had them on the menu.

They were yummy!

Our timing was bang on, and we could wander back into Adventureland and onto our cruise. The jokes were as corny as ever, but that's what we love.




I took the boys on a walking tour of the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House whilst Nicky gave her ankle a rest, and then we moved on to dessert - we had some of the famous pineapple dole whip - also yummy!

By now we were running a little low on energy, but made it over to Liberty Square and onto the Paddle Steamer for a ride. Once we got off, the parade was about to start, and so we found a spot at the castle end of Main Street to watch from.





Last but not least was a tour around the park on the Magic Kingdom Railroad (seems to be a bit of a last ride tradition) and we declared that to be a Magic Kingdom day well done.

By the way, as is also tradition, I couldn't help myself today - have to take lots of photos of the Castle!




We've just had some tea back at our villa, and if it stops raining later on, we may have a final dip in the pool.

Plan for tomorrow is to get packed up here and then head over to Downtown for a final shop and lunch before, alas, the airport.

Day 9 - studio tour

Up and away today so that we were at the gates of the studios today at the 9am opening time. As is compulsory these days, we made our way straight to the Toy Story Mania ride, bypassed the queue for fastpasses and went straight for the standy queue. We were on in about twenty minutes, and much as it pains me to report, Nicky was the winner again. We are going to have to gang up on her at Christmas.

Next on today's must do list was the Rock n Roller coaster, and all four of us went for the super stretch limo ride along with Aerosmith. So, this was a new experience for both Jake and Owen. We have the on ride photo to prove this, but for now we will have to make do with a blurry photo of the preview screen!




As the line was getting fairly long by now, Owen and I grabbed some fastpasses for the Tower of Terror, and whilst we were waiting for our time to come up, we had time to go to the Starring Rolls bakery for some sustinence, and to go on the Great Movie Ride.

Nicky and Jake had a look in the shops whilst Owen and I braved the Tower of Terror, which I think sent us hurtling up and down the lift shaft three times, although I must admit that counting is quite difficult when you are hanging on for dear life. Grandad will be pleased, and a little surprised, to hear that I managed to refrain from swearing this time, and Owen declared the ride to be "awesome".



Definitely time for a more leisurely pursuit, we went to the Animation building, and learnt how to draw Winnie the Pooh. Here for your consideration are our efforts.








Checking our times guide, we noticed that an Indiana Jones stunt show would be coming up soon, so we grabbed some drinks and snacks and headed inside.





Coming out of the stunt show, we picked up some fastpasses to Star Tours before going to enjoy the Backlot Tour and Catastrophe Canyon.




When we came out of the tour, we realised that we might have a bit of a timing problem, as our return times for Star Tours were 4:15 to 5:15 and we wanted to go to the 4:30 Lights, Motors, Action Stunt show. So, I went back to Star Tours to see if I could get some later passes. However, speaking to the cast member there, I learnt something new and useful about fastpasses: whilst they have a one hour time window on them, they can actually be used any time after the start time for the rest of the day. So, no worries about heading off to the motor stunt show, picking up some more food on the way.

The stunt show was as good as always. The slight change from before is that the guest appearance is by Lightning McQueen rather than by Herbie!






After the show we made use of our fastpasses on Star Tours, and were taken on an intergalactic tour by C3PO. The new version of the ride is excellent. Whilst I hadn't been on the old one for quite some time, I think that the new version is much better, and the simulator effects had definitely been toned down a little - good news for me!



By now it was almost 6pm and we decided that we'd had a pretty good day at the Studios, and we'd successfully taken in all of the major attractions (apart from Fantasmic - and there was no way we were staying until 9pm!) and we we headed out, via the shops and trying on a couple of hats, then taking a detour on the way back to the 192 to have dinner at IHOP.



Back here we've all been for a relaxing evening swim, and I think that the time has arrived to head off in search of some hot chocolate.

Day 8 - safari and soaking

(Hi Mum and Dad - welcome home from holiday - hope that you had a great time, and looking forward to catching up with you when we get back.)

The observant ones amongst you may notice a certain similarity between today's title and yesterday's!

Up slowly today after yesterday's long day and late night at Epcot, and we didn't make it out the door until almost 11am, and we headed just down the road to the Animal Kingdom, which was already pretty busy by the time that we arrived.

We walked in without a clear plan of which attraction to head to first, and noticing that there was an 11.30 Nemo performance, decided that would be as good a place as any to start. The theatre was full, and we only just managed to sneak in with a few minutes to go until showtime.

The show was up to its usual great standards. Jake was the official photographer for the show, and whilst it is difficult to take photos from a fair way back in a dark theatre, he got some great shots.





When we came out of the theatre, it was raining, and this seemed to set a bit of a theme for the rest of the day. So, on the basis that if we were going to get wet we might as well do it properly, we made Kali River Rapids our next stop. Our review of the ride was that it wasn't as good as the Grizzly River Run in California, but you got wetter!



Mind you, if we thought that we were wet coming off the ride, we didn't appreciate what was to come. Whilst Nicky and I were in the queue to pick us all up some lunch, the heavens really opened, and after a minute or two, we were soaked to the skin.

Once we'd picked up our food, we managed to shelter in the Flights of Wonder show area whilst we ate and watched the rain come down. After twenty minutes or so it eased off so we crossed continents over to Africa and got in line for the safari. The posted wait time was twenty minutes, but we ended up waiting for about 50 - a rare occassion on which the wait time was underestimated.

Still, safari was fun as always. The elusive lion was on his rock, but he was sleeping on his back, and most of the time as we drove past him, we could just see one of his paws sticking up in the air.




We took Owen into the Tough to be a Bug show, and then watched the jungle parade.





By this time we were ready for a rest, and so after a quick look around the shops we came back to the hotel and relaxed here for a while.

This evening we've been over to Jambo House for dinner, and sat round the campfire there for a while before coming back over to Kidani and having a go with the night vision binoculars.



Time for bed now. Studios tomorrow.

Day 7 - sushi and soaking

As expected, today started fairly slowly, and once we were all up the boys headed down to the pool for a swim. Nicky and I sat poolside and enjoyed a bit of time to relax and read, and I wandered off for a while, as it is very difficult to resist taking more and more photos of animals when staying here.






We headed to Epcot just before lunchtime (parking in the Boardwalk) as we had a lunch reservation at Teppan Edo. This was considered by all to be a great success, and the chef did all of the usual tricks, including the famous onion ring volcano.





After lunch we let the boys loose for a while (staying in walkie talkie contact), and they made their way over towards Future World. Nicky and I strolled through the World Showcase at a more leisurely pace, and took in the Impressions de France movie. (Particularly enjoyed the soundtrack, details of which are helpfully included on the attraction's Wikipedia page!)

We then went to see Figment, before catching up with the boys at The Living Seas, just in time to see Turtle Talk with them (it was Totally Sweet!!).

Next up we braved Mission Space, but sensibly decided to go for the "Green" ride (the one in which they don't spin the centrifuge!) and successfully made it to Mars. However, we were less successful on our next ride, as Ellen's Energy Adventure packed up just as Ellen was about to go back onto Jeopardy to win the show.

A quick detour through Innoventions, where daredevil Owen was the only one brave enough to design and ride his own roller coaster, and it was nearly time to stake out our Illuminations spot.

The boys headed to visit Figment, and Nicky and I set up camp in the Rose and Crown garden. The boys joined us a little later, and we got fish and chips for tea (very nice but no longer Harry Ramsden's) and we settled in for Illuminations.

Unfortunately, a few minutes before the end of the show the heavens opened, and we got completely soaked, but stuck it out anyway!