Thinking inside the box

Jof went off to work but we didn't fancy getting up that early. Because of the imminent house move, we have to put our whole life in boxes and stack them up ready for the moving people. The loft is already quite full so that lot is coming down first, lucky that Bud labels and stacks boxes for a living.
Actually there wasn't much for me to do so I ditched him for Lego Heroes. Even the bottlebank walk was severely truncated due to drizzle and coldness.

But then after pepperoni pizza, Ben arrived. He is doing a school project on modes of transport and BensMum is out of the country and Jof is working so us chaps had the day to ourselves to go forth into the world and travel by different means.

So we planned on a reprise of "A ferry long walk" last year in almost identical weather conditions, ie cold and wet. We waited ages for the bus and 2 came along at once, for that is how they operate. We gurned and quacked to pass the time.

We actually had to pay to use the bus, a real downer. But it took us to the Hard (bus station at the end of the world) even though we sat right behind the driver and quacked and kicked the little booth thing he sits in. From there we boarded the Gosport Ferry, a mega-frequent service that plies the busy Bosphorus between Pompey and Beirut (aka Gosport).

We arrived in the rain. It is a measure of the affluence of the hallowed turf of Gosport that as soon as the main drag starts, the high street is full of low-rent charity shops with a range of novel aromas. I believe we found about 8 and graded them out loud ("This charity shop is really crap". "This charity shop is medium") and we didn't find any £10 bags of Lego at all but I got 2 boxes of bath fizzers and gave one to Ben because we were quite cold by that point and looking forward to a hot bath.

Once the charity shops were exhausted, we cut across to the same cafe on top of the boating club and had Chupa-chop lollies. Ben actually cut his tongue on one, you'd have thought they'd make sweeties safer. But they had to close so we high-tailed it to the swingpark in the admittedly lighter freezing drizzle.

There we used the roundabout and both fell off (muddiness) and the zipline (bottie wetness) and ran around the skatepark (slippery danger) and by then my gloves were soaked and my hands were turning blue. 

Bastion #1 (old fort with expense magazines and cannon turrets and unknown pits in the ground - all overgrown) was in our way. Because BensDad said he couldn't go in the old shopping trolley we found in the car park, we went in the fort instead. (You're allowed to, it's ok) It was quite damp and muddy but there were loads of sticks and we broke the twiggy bits off and carried them around with us, attacking trees, cannon pivots, bricks, each other, anything we could get our hands on really. The slopes of the fortified battery were quite slippery and treacherous, we all made it up but we had to have assistance and we all got muddy - but that is what chaps of all ages do - get muddy and brandish sticks.

The ferry was not far away and the bus got us home to the warm even though we quacked and jumped up and down etc. In our Lego room, Bud has sorted out all the flat bits and the block bits because he wanted to make a new tower of doom. So he just said I'm going to get a few bits ready, can't do much because we're moving house. 

Oh really. We are 4 Lego experts with forty naughty fingers and we made our own production line providing components to Bud's specifications. The repeating formula is fairly simple so we all joined in and it's got these massive picture windows all the way round just like Stonehenge and that means there's loads of standing positions for the humanoids and the decorations and the bricks will go further making a bigger tower because of all the gaps. In meedle of no time we had 5 layers. You can just tell it's going to be awesome. We marauded the adults by singing an acapella duet of infinite length in fluent TotalRubbish.

Sadly Ben had to go but it's been really good fun and he got lots of pictures and tickets for his travel challenge thing.

Later, Jof joined in the Lego Build. The formula is simple enough for a girl and it's quite a therapeutic finger-action so with me as super-helper, we finished another couple of layers.

And we bonfired. Most of it was damp wallpaper from Bedroom 1, but we also submitted to Bonfire Rule #1 (Thou shalt Burn with Joy, and in so burning, will conflagrate at least one strange item) which in this case was an old bead curtain of origin unknown which has graced our hallway for the last 17 and 1/2 years. I think we shall have to sweep up afterwards.

Is that enough? No. Bath fizzer night meant pinkness of skin and of bathwater. I hope Mr Ben has had as good a time as I did with the fizzy water of fun.
You know what? It's been an entirely acceptable day. Give me Ben anyday.