Isle of Wight Tweetup 2015
17-20 July 2015
Day 1: To the Isle of Wight!
My stuffie buddy Reddy (@reddy1408), his wife Pink Ted and their human mummy were coming with us to the Third Annual Isle of Wight Tweetup. They had come down to TGT Towers the night before so we could get a relatively early start.
We picked up another Isle of Wight Tweetup newbie, Kenny Koala (@kennykoalabear) and his sister Sheila (with their human) at Birmingham New Street station, where they'd arrived from Leeds. They too were making the trip down with us. Once we were all aboard, we headed south, stopping at the services on the way down. They had proper Cornish pasties on sale here - as well as Greggs - but they had just run out of Cheese and Onion Pasties so Di didn't get me one. Hmph!
We made good time, arriving in Portsmouth - where we'd catch the ferry - at around 2pm. Our ferry wasn't due until 4pm so we had an hour to kill (as you can arrive up to an hour before). Knowing our good furend Tabitha (@TabithaTeddy) worked with her human at the University of Portsmouth Library, we thought - if we could find it - we'd pay them a visit, even though we would see them for the next two days over on the island. As we drove towards the ferry terminal we drove straight past the Library! We turned the car around and parked up outside.
Typical! Tabitha had just popped out to get lunch, but we knew another member of the University Library and that was Pablo the Penguin, and his work experience penguin, Pip. We asked if they were available and they were! We got a few photographs around the Library.
They have pods with round desks surrounded by benches so we sat in there and got some pictures. Then we found an old-fashioned red phone box where you can still make calls around campus. Of course we all had to squish in! The official guy from the Uni took some pictures so we're hopeful we'll feature in next year's University Prospectus (but it's probably unlikely!) Who wouldn't want to go to a stuffie-friendly university?
We had a bit of an Apprentice moment, while Pablo gave us a little talk on the benefits of Penguins in libraries - he was very convincing.
Then we had a bit of a whizz about on the book trolley - I mean, a serious discussion about books versus electronic documents in a library. Of course, Theo had to get some hot tips about good bars locally.
Soon it was time to leave and we said goodbye to Pablo and Pip - Pablo was off to a Library Conference that evening so he had packing to do! We said bye to Tabitha's human and left. The ferry terminal was just around the corner. It is alongside the Spinnaker Tower, which seems to have been painted blue at the bottom, as part of an Emirates sponsorship deal. We had time to go get a coffee, so we walked over to Costa Coffee. We spotted another Greggs at the dock but again, we didn't get one. Stoopid humans.
Soon it was time to board. We were travelling on the St Cecelia - the Patron Saint of Music, Asst Paul tells me. If you were wondering, that's Russell the hedgehog behind me on the dashboard (over my right shoulder). We drove up a ramp, which was new for us - we'd only driven onto the flat deck before - once the ramp was full of cars, it was raised up to horizontal.
We left the car on the deck and headed up the stairs to one of the internal decks. There was a shop on board, another Greggs and another Costa Coffee. We took a seat by the window and made ourselves comfy for the journey. Before we left, I popped outside the back to see them loading the rest of the cars.
We were soon underway and got a better view of the Spinnaker, as well as some apartment complexes.
During the crossing I headed outside a couple of times to take a look at the passing ferries and even the hovercraft.
I had bit of a look around the boat, but didn't go far. Don't think I fancy sailing in one of these little sail boats - looks a bit of an angle to me. Hate to think how Di would feel on that! (Passes bucket). Outside up the back stairs I went up a deck and found this lifebelt (good information!) Meanwhile, Flat Stanley (from Chicago) took a look at the lounge area on deck. It's been done up since last year!
It's not a long crossing and we soon spotted land (to be honest, we never lost sight of land). This was where we were heading. I also spotted these drum-like things. Not sure there's a lot of sharks in the Solent, but these look like the barrels they used in the movie Jaws, though I'm guessing not.
They made an announcement and we returned to our cars to disembark. We had to go down a ramp to get back to ground level and drove off. As we left, I spotted the Welcome to the Isle of Wight sign. To be fair, it's not as impressive as the Welcome to Las Vegas sign from our Route 66 trip but what can you do? As we drove to our Bed and Breakfast, I spotted this ship in a field, a marker for the Shipwreck Centre and Marine Museum. We didn't realise at the time, but we'd be seeing a lot of this over the weekend!
We were soon at The Edgecliffe where we would stay for the next three nights. The proprietors, Mick and Dru welcomed us - it's our third year staying here - and it was nice to see them again. We went to check out our room on the first floor. Woohoo! We got our own bed - the assistants could have the little one...
Soon it was dinner time so we headed downstairs where Kenny and Reddy were waiting. Here we also found BooBooBearGreen @BooBooBearGreen and his Mummy, Lou, who had arrived the previous week. It had been ages since we'd seen them in bearson so it was great to meet up again. We had decided to get an Indian meal at The Jasmine - where we'd been for the last two years - so we did. It's only about five minutes in the car so we soon arrived and found a parking space opposite, free after 6pm.
It was pretty quiet inside. Our waitress for the past two years was obviously not working here anymore. We were given a round table in the window and we made ourselves comfortable-ish. The single chair was a little crowded for our group photo. As we sat - the drinks were a little slow to arrive - various people came in and out of the restaurant, mostly to pick up takeaways, some waiting for a while.
During the evening a few people came in to eat so the restaurant got a bit more crowded. The food was good, though didn't stay that hot with no plate warmers, like you get in some Indian restaurants. We had a good time, catching up on lives and what we'd been up to, outside of Twitter.
Soon it was time to head back to The Edgecliffe and, as we'd brought a mini-fridge with us (full of beer and cider) it would have been rude not to invite everyone back to ours for a continued chat and a bit of a party.
We had so much fun and weren't too rowdy.
Soon we were getting tired so we kicked the others out of our room (well, they may have just left as it was late) and we went to bed. Not forgetting our pawesome bedtime treats - teddy bear brownies Kenny had made for us! They were lovely! Thanks Kenny!
