I am back and doing the Washing!!

I have just returned from a very interesting week at UNISON Conference.I enjoyed lots of great debates and inspiring speakers. I think its a great time to meet other like minded folk (although there is quite a large variety of opinions voiced along the way!!) It was great to hear speakers such as Billy Bragg and the

Legendary anti-apartheid campaigner Denis Goldberg. I always come away from these events thinking that I can do things differently, think that in some way I can change a little bit of the world,

who knows maybe one day I will!!

One afternoon we decided to take a boat trip. There was a boat that left the pier at Bournemouth at 16.05, so we left Conference a few minutes early and took at trip!The trip from Bournemouth to Swanage took around 50 minutes, it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. I paid for that sun the next day, as I had just a touch of sunburn!!It was a really good trip, the boat was bouncing all over the place it was far rougher than the cruise on the Oceana!! We sat at the back and had the whole place to ourselves.

The above picture was taken as we were leaving Bournemouth.Our hotel was in front of the big building on the far left of the photograph. It was set back a bit so you can't actually see it. Each day we walked along the cliff down towards the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) The back door to the centre was half way down the hill so it meant a walk of around 1/2 a mile.

Another shot looking back at the beach, The big 'brick' coloured building is the BIC, the Oceanarium on the front had a lovely little cafe where we had a freshly made baguettes for lunch!

When we arrived in Swanage we were greeted by beautiful views, a real picture post card town. Better than that it had lots of little antique junk shops. It was in Swanage that I made the purchase of the holiday, an antique brass horn, complete with black rubber bulb and a very satisfying deep HONK!!!!

Once we had looked around the place we stopped at a pub for a cider, I had a very nice one called Rosie, locally brewed and very tasty, I think it was called Rosie as that's the effect it had on our cheeks!! The pub that we picked had outside tables, but we hadn't realised that it was also the hang out of the local winos, so we were treated to all the local going ons, very loudly! They were typical winos. dog on a string and a bottle of white lightening under the table!! We then treated ourselves to a nice fish and chip dinner eaten outside it was heavenly.

On the way back we took a ride on an open topped bus, which was another amusing experience. All was well until we got to a stop in the very exclusives 'Sandbanks' when we were joined upstairs by a crowd of youngsters. They were all dressed up for a night on the town, but they were frightfully posh, very loud and in possession of vodka cunningly disguised in coke bottles. They were from a different world, discussing their school fees and the fact they were enjoying taking the bus instead of having one of daddies drivers take them out! The funniest thing was when they decided to to do drive by compliments. As the bus slowed they would shout at the people in the street things like ' You are wearing lovely shorts' ' Your hair colour compliments your skin tone' We were in fits. When we got off the bus, I treated them to a few honks on my horn which they were most impressed with as well!! As the bus disappeared into the distance we could still hear them shouting and laughing, I expect the bus driver was glad when they finally got off!!