I was sort of in the area of Portsmouth between 16th & 18th January 2006 and decided to catch up with a couple of friends who I hadn't seen in a while! I met up with Gemma who I know since school and then with Tom who I met in France (see St. Martin). The reason this is in the 'Wolverhampton' section is because any small roadtrips are not entitled to have their own 'section' unless they are taking me to a new country. Make sense? Probably not...
 

I arrived at gemma's flat in Portsmouth on Monday and was wondering what we could see and do here...

Apart from seeing boats and ships, I came up with the original idea of going out for a few drinks (seriously, I should call this site 'chad's unplanned dive into alcoholic life' or something)

We did go out for a *few* drinks, quite a lot to be fair. We ended the night with a burger which Gemma kindly revealed again the next morning...
This is the Guildhall in Portsmouth. When I was at London College of Music I actually played in a concert here with the Royal Marines band. Not very interesting, but hey.
I'm definately getting old now, perhaps too old. I actually find stuff like this interesting. Architecture, sculpture - you know. The fact that somebody, a long time ago has actually carved and chiselled this out of stone. It must have taken ages. Not many people still have a talent like this. In this manufactured world, stuff like this stands out to me.

Back to Gemma's...

I've known Gemma for about 16 years now, if not more. We played together in many bands during school and I think she's the dog's bollocks. She's a top bird. Here's just a few of her qualities: She's warm, kind, generous, a good listener, funny, insightful, clever, knowledgable, helpful, caring, admirable, different, beautiful, appealing, exotic, interesting, sweet, successful and dependable to name a few. I respect her a lot for everything she's done in life but am always too embarrassd to say stuff like the above! Well, there you go.

 

We'd spent most of the day in bed and then a lot of the day in Portsmouth. We didn't really want to go out drinking so Gemma suggested the cinema. Me being me though, I needed my alcohol intake just to 'wind down' from the previous night.

I knew that Tom lived near here so I gave him a call and we arranged to meet up in Romsey.

This is Tom.

Gemma looks slightly happy here! She'd never met Tom before and she came along for the ride and to help me navigate! We were both really tired (both from the previous night drinking and from the day walking) but we soldiered on.

The drive to Romsey took about an hour - we kind of went the wrong way, but it was a nice adventure.

We drank a pint of HSC I think. Or was it HBC. Or something similar to HSBC the bank. Anyway, it tasted good. I was tempted by a pint of 'Thatcher's Gold' and then realised it was cider.

This is Tom's photographic entry for 'the nearly finished pint' exhibition which is being held at the Guildhall in Portsmouth. hmmmm...

Just for the record, we visited the 'Three Tuns' establishment. Romsey has quite a lot of history and most of it's public houses are quite old. I like that.

I also like to believe that the English are a nation of Drinkers. It's nice to know your heritage and culture.

We moved on to the 'Duke's Head'. Another old pub. According to inscriptions on the wall, there has been a pub on this site since around 1500 and something.

Ok, so I'm getting old, but I'm kind of into my old drinking establishments as well. You know what they say though - try everything at least once. Personally, I like to try everything twice. I always believe in giving someone or something a second chance.
As nice as the pub is, it did have a bit of a strange seating arrangement. I was 'perched' on an old church pew which was obviously designed to make you sit up straight! My fat ass was way too big for it's 6 inches of perching space!
 

The bar wasn't that busy, but we were in the back room on our own. I prefer a quiet mid-week pint though.

Tom and I talked about what was new in St. Martin de Belleville whilst Gemma just sat there wondering what the hell we were going on about (she doesn't know tom, St. Martin or Genepi, so I felt a bit guilty for dragging her along)
 
Tom's always been good at posing. Perhaps he should quit his career as a ski bum and become a model? Ok, he's gonna kill me for that comment. He does actually have a job, unlike me...

There was a jungle type hat thing hanging around and I don't really have much more to say than that.

Tom did ask what the hell I would say about the photos on the site. What can you say about 3 people meeting up for a couple of drinks and then going home? I think I've done quite well to be fair. It's not remotely interesting, funny or graphically outstanding, but you've read this far haven't you...?

Well, I'd just like to say thanks to Gemma for being a legend in her own right and Tom for meeting me for a couple of drinks - and for the coffee back at his...
 
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