My Latest Adventures On My Days Off< My Week Of Visiting Winkworth, Sheffield And A Friends Birthday Party | Blog | My Birthday And Brittany > I decided to take Thursday and Friday off work this week, due to the Bank Holiday Monday, so I had some more free time to myself. On Thursday I didn't do much, as I had to get my car serviced at the Ford centre in Guildford. I had something fixed on my front suspension, I don't really know what it was that needed fixing, or care, because I don't understand mechanical things, but as long as can I still drive from A to B, then that's cool with me. The rest of my day was spent loafing around in the garden, enjoying the sun and reading, which was a really relaxing and peaceful day, better than being at work anyway. On Friday I was planning to catch a train to Brighton with Frog to meet his artist friend Owen, to enjoy the seaside, the pier, as well as the cafes and bars etc. But, Frog called me on my mobile on Thursday, whilst I was in the Ford centre. He was worried that it was going to rain on Friday, due to what was said on the weather report on TV, so we decided to go for lunch in a country pub instead. I suggested driving us to The Parrot in Forest Green, as Frog had not been there before. Friday turned out to be a completely random, but a fun and interesting day, as you'll later find out by reading this blog. So Friday arrived. I took my camera out with me and I drove round to Frog's cottage near St Catherine's in Guildford at around 11.30am that morning. Frog's girlfriend's pet dogs were in his cottage too. They were alright, but a bit playful, mad, and kept jumping on me, or licking me. I'm not used to dogs, as I've never owned any myself. Frog showed me a new music video that he had made on his PC, which I've included below.
We sat in Frog's garden for a while and he played his guitar. The two dogs came in the garden as well and they saw Frog's neighbour’s dog through a hole in the fence. They are just like children and funny to watch. Both dogs are very different, one is very happy, but calm, the other is a bit coy, regal, and unpredictable. After about an half hour later we left his cottage and headed towards my parked car. We met one of Frog's neighbours, who is a very hot and pretty young blonde lady, she had her young son with her in a pushchair. We chatted to her for a while and she offered Frog a go jumping on her garden trampoline, but we were on our way, so had to decline her offer. We got to my car and I drove us towards Forest Green. It turned out to be a very nice, warm and sunny day. It was a good drive there, and seeing the countryside pass by. I told Frog a story about the actress Mollie Sugden who was in the BBC series "Are You Being Served?" her catchphrase in the show was "Have you seen my pussy?" and she had a purple rinse perm. Mollie Sugden lives in Forest Green, close to my aunt, and they know each other as neighbours. We arrived at The Parrot in Forest Green, and I parked my car there. As we walked towards the pub and the garden we noticed it was quite busy, we got stared at quite a bit, probably because we're not local, or not snobs like them, or it was maybe because Frog was dressed like a Rainbow Warrior. We got our drinks from the bar, and sat outside, then we read the menu. We were really stared at when we sat down, which felt a bit unsettling to me, maybe I'm just paranoid. Frog ordered a burger and chips and I ordered a prawn dish, which I had no idea what it was, until I received it. Our food arrived and I was really jealous of Frog's meal. He had a lovely big burger and huge thick cut chips. Whilst my prawn dish, was really disappointing! There was hardly anything on my plate to digest! I had two sticks, which had a total of six small prawns stuck on them, a few pieces of rocket lettuce, four cherry tomatoes and a tiny bit of seafood sauce, it was rubbish and over priced. I ate it all in about four mouthfuls. Frog kindly gave me one of his huge chips, which was like a fat mens fingers, so I didn't stave to death that lunchtime.
After we finished our meal I had the idea to visit my aunt and uncle, as they live in Forest Green, not too far away from the pub. I tried calling aunt's mobile and home number, but her mobile was switched off and her home telephone number was busy. I decided that it would be ok for us to pop in their house unannounced. On the way to my aunt's we walked past a Church, we saw an old lady come out of it, so we decided to go in it and have a look round. Inside we noticed on one of the stain glass windows that there was a black and white photograph of a young man's face on a figure of a knight. We later found out some history about the Church. It was built by Charles and Christina Hensley of Pratsham Grange, as a lasting memorial to the eldest son, Everard, who was fatally shot by his cousin while rabbit shooting in 1892. Everard Hensley had been born on Trinity Sunday 1874, hence the reason for the dedication of the church to the Holy Trinity. Frog wanted me to video him singing one of his songs inside the Church, but in the end we thought although it would have been funny to do, maybe it wasn't appropriate. We then walked around the grave yard to look at some of the tomb stones.
We left the Churchyard and made our way up the road to my aunt's house. The road was quite narrow without a path, so we had to watch out for oncoming traffic, but we got there ok. We arrived at the gate and entered their front garden. I knocked on the front door and my uncle opened the door. He was surprised to see me and Frog standing on the doorstep, but he went back inside the house to get my aunt. I introduced Frog to my aunt and uncle and we sat outside on their patio by their pond drinking tea and chatting with them. My aunt's three black cats came to join us. One of her cats called Wendy is deaf, so it gets people attention when it wants to be stroked by touching you with its paw. Frog got into some deep conversations with my uncle about life, humans and what we choose to do in life. I asked them about local walks around Forest Green, but there was no where exciting to walk round. We left my aunt's place after about an hour, and my uncle showed us his latest garden creation in their front garden as we were leaving. It was a wheelbarrow with plants and stones in it. We walked back to my car parked at The Parrot, and I had the idea to walk round Shamley Green, Wonersh and around St John's Seminary in Wonersh. I drove to back through Cranleigh and we briefly stopped there at the Co-Op to pick up some snack food and drinks to take with us. We parked at a school car park in Shamley Green and we got out for our walk. We walked down a leafy narrow road, then through a woodland path passing an old water mill and some very old and nice houses. We crossed the road to wear St John's Seminary was. I saw a footpath and I suggested that we walked down it. The pathway was quite overgrown with Stinging Nettles and veered off in a different direction to St John's Seminary, but we decided to follow the path anyway, as we thought it would eventually lead us there. It turned out it didn't. We passed a number of fields of cow's and horses and across peoples gardens. I thought to walk up along the edge of a slope and I found a well kept graveyard in the middle of nowhere. We looked at the graves and found a freshly dug one. It was quite sad as it was a grave of a young boy. There were some small toys placed in a jam jar and on top on the grave. We looked round the other graves then left. We were a bit lost by then and couldn't work out how to get to St John's Seminary. We climbed over a gate and walked across an apple orchard. We were in some sort of farm, it looked quite run down as there were old rusty vehicles left around the orchard, it looked like Hilly Billy country, and I was a bit worried that we were on private land. We came to a barbed wire fence and we were in someone's garden! We walked along the edge of the garden looking for a way out when the farmer's dog found us. It came up to us barking aggressively, but luckily it was an old Shepherd Dog. An old bald guy came out of a house and started shouting at us, 'What do you think you're doing in my bloody garden?' We apologised and Frog jumped over his gate, as the dog was ready to go for us, but I kept my cool and opened his garden gate to get back out. We both laughed when we back on the path again, but we both felt a bit nervous of the dog and farm owner. We walked back the way we came along the path. I spotted a young cow, or calf, or bull, I can't really tell the difference, in a field, and it was by the fence along the path. It was busy eating a black bin bag, which was lying on the grass. The calf was very friendly and we able to stroke it, and it enjoyed the attention we gave it. It kept lifting up its large head and pushing its face close to ours, like it wanted to be kissed, so I thought it was an ideal photo opportunity to take my only pictures of the day. Frog took a few pictures of me and it looks like I'm going to kiss the calf/cow creature in one of the pictures. I took some of Frog too. See below.
We left the cow and carried on back down the pathway and we came back to the road again. We went up the correct pathway this time to where St John's Seminary was. It is a very huge and impressive building and is used to train Catholic priests. Myself and Frog went up to the entrance, and we thought to try and get inside the place. The entrance had two very large locked wooden doors, with a Latin inscription above the door. I rang all three door bells several times and eventually a barefooted man opened the door, and he was surprised to see us there and wanted to know what we wanted. I said that my friend Frog was interested in filming inside. He let us in, but said that he only worked in one of the offices there and did not know all of the building himself. He showed us the huge Chapel and told us a little bit of the history and what goes on in there. He said he was not allowed to show us the library, or anywhere else inside, so we had to leave. Frog did not film anything, but at least we caught a glimpse of what was inside there. Frog thought it hilarious I had the nerve to ask the guy to show us round the place.
We walked back the way we came towards Shamley Green. On the way we passed the old water mill. Frog saw that the part of the fence the water mill was knocked down. We walked up to the entrance of the water mill and saw that the door was partly open. The water mill was derelict and very dark and damp inside. We walked round it and up and down wooden ladders, it was quite creepy, dangerous and dark, but it was fun, and the sort of stuff I did as a kid. There was woodworm damage to the wooden floorboards and some of the floor had fallen through leaving big holes to fall through! My newish white trainers got covered in brown gunk, but it was worth it, apart from the hassle of me having to clean them at home afterwards. We saw all the mechanics to how they turned grain into flour with the stone grindstone. I should have taken some pictures, as we found out that they are turning the water mill into a house. We left there and got to my car. We drove through Wonersh and we parked at the reconstructed train station at Bramley. It's a bit weird, to why they've rebuilt the train station, as there is no rail track there anymore, or trains, as it's now a cycle path that leads from Guildford to the coast. Myself and Frog are thinking of walking all the way down that path to the coast and camping down there this summer. I've got a map of the route; I just need to get some camping gear. Frog wanted to stop in Bramley to buy some milk and groceries. We got starred at again, but this time by some Bramley village locals. After Frog bought his milk and stuff in Bramley I then drove us back to his cottage in Guildford. His girlfriend's dogs were pleased to see us when we entered the cottage. I ate my sandwiches and the dogs watched me eat. I gave then some of my food. I also gave them a tiny bit of my chocolate and Frog paniced, as I didn't know that that chocolate is poisonous to dogs. Frog made the dogs spit it out. I'd be useless owning a dog; it would probably die after a week of being in my company. Frog burned me a DVD of radio talk shows about conspiracies, and then Julia, Frog's housemate returned to the cottage from her day at work. I chatted to them for a while, then my new friend Ian called me on my mobile to check if I was going out in the evening in Guildford. Ian had just returned from America with two of his American friends Erin and Jon. I arranged to meet Ian and his two American friends at 8.30pm in the Star in Guildford. I got home and I rang and texted a load of people to see who was free to join me and Ian that evening. My mate Tom called me and said that he could meet at 9pm that evening, as he was returning to Guildford from London that evening. I got to the Star at around 8.30pm and both Ian and his two American friends, and my friend Tom arrived at 9pm. It was nice meeting Ian's American friends. I drank and chatted with them until around 10.30pm, Tom left to see his girlfriend, so I then left to catch my last bus home to Cranleigh. I might go out this Saturday night in Guildford too, as Tristan and his friends are out as well. Ian might be coming to Guildford Saturday night as well. Ian's taking his two friends to London first, but may be out later. Nothing much else to report at the moment. I return back to work next Tuesday. Related ContentComments on My Latest Adventures On My Days Off |
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