Wet Play Away Day

Last chance to soak up the rays and the weatherguessers predicted 25 degrees and hot sunshine.
So over my fried egg breakfast, he gave me the hard choice.
Stoke Bay Splashpark by bike, stopping at every park on the way, seafood restaurant on the beach for lunch, chance of minigolf and diving museum
OR
Southampton Common Splashpark by car and bike, explore the common, nip down to Houndwell Park for the Pirate ship, pub lunch, chance of ice cream.
It was a tough choice, but the pirate ship swung it. Trying to score a companion for the trip, we discovered that Pops had broken her leg again and Ben was in Cornwall getting thunderstorms so I drew a blank.
We drove to our neighbouring city and football rivals and took time out to cycle gently around the Common looking for the Ornamental Lake and anything else of interest.
As it happens, the lake itself was distinctly un-ornamental but it's very countrified with mature trees everywhere and rampant wildlife including toads, frogs and newts. But it wasn't too long before I headed where the hills went downwards and that was back to the playpark, Tiggleton Corner.
Only 10 minutes away (at my speed) is Houndwell Park which is part of yet another massive set of green areas in the middle of Southampton. Now, I've already got a picture of it on Google Earth but I'd forgotten just how big it is. Memorials lurk behind every tree-lined avenue and the playpark itself had a fortress, pirate ship and its very own Titanic, not to mention swings, tunnels and climbing frames.
Back up the hill to the Cowherds, we put our shirts back on for the first time since arriving and I had scampi medley again and polished my plate, which is a good habit. Then I co-opted many sturdy Southamptonians into my games of shoot-the-stranger-in-the-face and stayed in the extremely busy splashpark for an hour and a half with 3 of my favourite weapons. That's how I earned the £3 worth of New Forest Ice Cream, strawberry and chocolate, 2 scoop heaven.
The journey home was swift and the signs said A27 closed after A2025 which turned out to be a plane crashed onto the road by Shoreham Airport, lots dead.
Film night was Blazing Saddles. Now, I'm not going to know that Governor Le Petomane is a fart-related joke or anything about Marlene Dietrich but the campfire bean-farting scene and similar were funny. That's the problem with youth, being wasted on the young (and wasted).
Right at the end (nearly 11 pm) Bud and I had a sing-off, I did musicals like Singing In the Rain and he did Flanders and Swann like "The Gas Man Cometh".