My visit to Sandwood bay … plus
Spent the weekend at a family wedding just south of York. Visited Cawood on the river Ouse. It has an old bridge that used to turn for river traffic. There are the remains of a palace of the Archbishop of York.
Here Cardinal Thomas Wolsey lived. He was arrested for high treason in 1530 and died on his way to London. This is believed to be the origin of the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.
We recently completed a small West Country tour. Initially at Swanage in Dorset, which is a nice old fashioned beach resort town. Stayed near Sherborne, itself an historic Saxon town with Abbey.
Here were interred the remains of two kings of Wessex and England.
We then travelled to Devon to stay with friends, then to the Cotswolds to stay with friends. Here we attended a service at St James Chapel, Postlip a restored 2 cell Norman Chapel with no electricity.
In March we visited Avignon via train, stopping overnight in Lille there and back. It is a historic walled town on the river Rhone in the south of France. It is famous for its bridge that goes half way across the river that used to collapse periodically and also the Palace of the Popes that used to reside there in the 13th century. Also good for wandering around looking in shops / cafe’s etc. Wines are good here, there is a nearby village Châteauneuf-du-Pape where the wine of the same name comes from.
Almost spring. Has alternated from cold and grey to wet, warmer and windy. But we are almost there. Traveling in France by rail in March. Noticed Nitter is back, no longer liking Nim and preferring Go, maybe a rewrite in Go. Sunderland have lost touch with automatic places and lost form at home. Players need to be rested / rotated. So need to use squad to do that and get back in form for playoffs. Can be done, but will it ?
Christmas is officially over today, suffering with cold / flu so staying in and weather has been wet and cold. But not too bad from relaxation and results. TV was mainly Wallace and Gromit and Gavin and Stacey. Football results mixed in that they could have been better i.e. conceding late equaliser and Blackburn and late defeat at Stoke but thanks to 2 home wins over Sheffield United and Portsmouth we are now 50 point (2 games over half way) and just 2 or 3 behind Leeds, Sheffield United and Burnley. FA cup next week. The real plus is playing 2 quick strikers Wilson Isidor and Eliezer Mayenda and despite missing chances we often look threatening. With injuries to come back it puts us in with a chance for the race for the automatic promotion places.
