Saturdays Walk

are we there yet.

And so another saturday is upon us. Again it is a bright, sunny morning here in Portsmouth on the South Coast of England, I have woken at 7.30 and after making a coffee go into the lounge and watch the news on TV, The main story today has got me in stitches, apparently robbers have tunneled into a bank and raided the ATM Machine, the size and distance of the tunnel leads the police to believe it must have taken several people about 6 months to dig the tunnel and the ATM had limited cash inside it, Not a very profitable venture I would have thought.

Portsmouth 8.30 14-01-12

Anyway I check the weather and it is supposed to be Dry, Sunny and cold today so decide to get some breakfast before the carer gets here and then will see about getting a Taxi down to clarence pier and have a walk along the sea front as Pauline said last night that she and gordon would come with me so that I can leave the wheel chair at home. so that will be nice, so hopefully the carer will not be to late coming today. The picture of portsmouth harbour today was taken at 8.30 from the live webcam on the Point, overlooking the Spinnaker tower.

What tie to wear

The carer today turns up at 9.45, and it is Mick, so he gets me washed and groomed and is then on his way, he did not stay long today so I text pauline and she phones back and said they would meet me down at the pier if I wanted and would go with me on the walk, so I arrange to meet them just after 11.30, that will give me chance to get a shave and get dressed, so I book a taxi for 11.30 and then go on the laptop to check emails and facebook and then go and get shaved and dressed ready for when the taxi comes, I also make sure the camera is charged up as I want to take some Photo,s.

Bus Terminal at Clarence pier.

Well That is all done and dusted and I am ready and waiting for the taxi with a little doubt in my mind as to if I should really be doing this without the wheelchair, but if I don't try I won't know and I do not want to have to keep relying on the wheelchair, I walk to Tesco Express, every day and also often over to B&Q, this is just the next level forward and I will have Pauline and Gordon there in case I have problems.
Well the taxi arrives and off I go to meet Pauline and Gordon by the Hovercraft terminal at Clarence Pier.

Here I am with Misty at the start of the walk.

As I arrive I see that Pauline and Gordon are there and also Misty the labrador, we decide to walk along the promenade from Clarence Pier to the Garrison church at old Portsmouth, It is not a great distance so we get a coffee and armed with my Walking stick off we go.  at the start of the walk we get a coffee and Gordon has some chips and then we walk along past the fairground and the arcades. and head towards the Garrison church. this is quite a popular area for the youngsters in the Summer but not very busy this time of the year.
Pauline decides that she wants to take a photo of me and misty so here we are, Is it really treasure Island or not ? That is the Question.

I can't walk with Misty on the lead, as she is to strong for me but it is nice to have her there, ( It is someone intelligent to talk to LOL), anyway we make our way slowly along past the arcades and the weather is still very sunny, although it is cold so glad I war a heavy coat and Scarf, I am very stiff at the Moment ( No I have not been taking viagra), but hopefully I will loosen up as the walk progresses, I think I need to relax more as I feel very tense at this moment in time. There are a few other people out with their dogs and it is starting to get busier

We have terrible trouble trying to stop Misty from going into the Slot Machine Casino, But she makes no  bones about the fact that as she is a Pawper , and gets Collard all the time and it makes her barking mad, anyway I think she has found a new friend and has fallen in love with Garfield. I have not got the heart to tell her it is not the real Garfield.

Anyway after a while she gets bored and gets back out of the ride, think she left her purse at home and we would not give her any money to make the ride work and so we carry o our merry way along the sea front.

As we make our way along the promenade the sky is starting to cloud over slightly although the sun is still shining, hopefully the weather will stay nice for a while longer, looking out from the promenade to the left you get a good view of the forts and the shoreline of Gosport and at this point you get a good view of the ships leaving and entering the harbour, when I took this photo the Isle of wight ferry was leaving to cross the Solent.

We are now approaching the end of our walk and I am feeling a lot more comfortable walking now, although I am feeling it in my lower back I am quite pleased with the way it has gone today so far, some of the building around here are very old and some are very new, and in the right spot you can see the old and New together, in this next Photograph you can see the spinnaker tower, and the new Funnel, block of flats either side of Portsmouth Cathedral, Formerly St Thomas Church, the original Parish church of Portsmouth Build in the 17th century. with the 18th century Garrison church in front.

Made it this far.

Well we made it to the end of the walk so we will have a little bit of a rest and head back to clarence pier and then I will get a taxi home, I could get a taxi from here but I feel really good with very little aching in my legs and feel quite exhilarated that I have managed to walk this far, although to be fair we have taken our time and stopped quite often to take photo's along the way. so here I am at the Garrison church end of the promenade and feeling "Perky"

The weather is starting to deteriorate at the moment but I take another couple of Photographs and then we start to head back the way we came.

Misty made it to.

Misty decided that she wanted to pose for her Photograph

The Garrison Church.

This is the Domus Dei, better known as the Garrison church, the roof was destroyed by an incendiary bomb in world war 2 it is now a designated historical monument.

So now we are on our way back to Clarence pier, it has been a very enjoyable hour, so far, just hope that I do not suffer for it later today or tomorrow, but I do not think I have over done it and I am feeling quite positive today, ( so Sod you Myositis, you will not win today ). as we are going back Pauline decides to take misty down to the waters edge to have a bit of a paddle, don't think misty was to keen on the idea, anyway off they go but misty does not stay there long.

So we carry on and we are soon approaching clarence pier. The weather has certainly turned now the clouds have gathered and the temperature has dropped and the wind is increasing, so not a nice afternoon in store. It is now 1.15 so I have been down here for 90 minutes, it took about 1 hour to walk to the garrison church and 3o minutes to walk back, that is because I did not stop to take as many photographs on the way back, The pier is insight and the SS Normandie is coming into the harbour from france, the Normandie is a Brittany Ferries ship.

So Now we will get a coffee and then I can phone City wide Taxis for a cab to take me home. I have enclosed a little graphic showing the route our walk took, so far so good,

Pauline, Gordon and Misty.

I will now go for a lie down after I have some lunch and a coffee but Really enjoyed that today and apart from feeling tired my legs and hips feel good, hopefully it will stay that way but glad that I did it, could not have done it without Pauline, Gordon and Misty. I took about 30 Photographs so this evening I will post them to my facebook  wall. So I should sleep well tonight, just having a complan shake and then of for a cap nap for 30 mins so until tomorrow Tatty bye.