Southampton Water Again

A few weekends ago I went to Southampton water again to watch a battle of Britain flyover. The flyover was short but impressive. The roaring drone of the planes made me think about what it must have been like to hear those sounds for real 70 years ago.

After the flyover we decided to have a picnic since it was nice and sunny. However, when we got out of the shop the weather had changed and we had to eat her ice creams in the cold, wet wind.

We then had a stroll along the beach by the water. Well I say beach but actually it was mainly stones. All the industrial stuff in the distance makes for an almost apocalyptic landscape don't you think?

Finally we explored Victoria Country Park which used to be home to a massive military hospital. All that remains now is a single chapel which you can see in the picture above.

Farnbrough Airshow

Last week I went to the Farnbrough airshow on a work trip.

I got to see new fancy new commercial aircraft like this Airbus 380.

As well as the latest military aircraft.

And aerial displays. Since it was a trade day there weren't too many people watching the shows which I quite liked.

But my favourite plane was the Boeing Dreamliner 787 which I was lucky enough to see before it left to go back to America. I really likes how graceful it seems in the air. One day I hope I can ride in it. The two small planes on either side are a hurricane and a spitfire by the way.

Pumpkins!!!

Its been a while since I posted a pumpkin update and the only surviving original has grown really big.

Over a month ago it looked like this...

and now its grown this big!

First Male flowers started to appear...

then female flowers....

and finally one tiny pumpkin fruit.

Already there have been a few problems with the plant. I am currently battling what seems to be a fungal infection in one part of the plant and the first fruit was not pollinated so rotted and fell off but fingers crossed I will have at least one pumpkin by Halloween!

Versailles

While in Paris, my sister and I also went to the palace of Versailles.


This is somewhere I've also wanted to visit but never got the chance to on previous trips to Paris. And because I'm an EU citizen under 16 I got to go in for free.


The hall of mirrors was particularly stunning. I really like overly decadent periods of history like pre-revolution France.

The only downside was that it was very crowded and we couldn't go into the gardens without paying €8 because there was some fountain show going on. We didn't bother but the gardens looked really beautiful from what little we saw.

Paris!!

Last week I went to Paris for a few days with my sister.

We mainly went for the Japan Expo and the Morning Musume concert that was being held there, but we also found time to take in a few of the typical sites. Such as;

Notre Dame! (Probably my favourite place in Paris - I love the all the little restaurants in the side streets around it)

The Eiffel Tower! (Which we could also see from our hotel window despite it being quite far from the centre of Paris)

And La Grande Arche de la Défense, an intriguing cube shaped building from which you get a good view of the city, in particular the Arc de Triomphe. I never even new that this building existed so it was quite fun exploring the futuristic area in which it is located.