2017 Flashback, #2 - Blogger Meet Ups

I'm sharing some of my posts from the year.  This post  (first published here) was all about a blogger meet up that almost didn't happen.  

29 October 2017

Hi darlings!  You haven't heard from me for a few days.  I'm back home now and, no surprise, I am kicking off my restart with a post of epic proportions, sort of like a small Enid Blyton adventure - but without the choccie biscuits and ginger beer.  So I suggest you get yourself a coffee and cosy up before you start reading.

Four Two Go to Batemans

So who are our Four?  Anna and Mr Him from Mutton Years Style and Pout and her Photographer.  If one of us took a pet it would make Five, but so dedicated to the legacy of Enid Blyton we are not. 

You've previously met our Four out on their jolly japes in Lewes and Wakehurst.

Continuing their adventures, our Four arranged to meet up to visit another historical place in Sussex (be warned, there are many!).  They chose to meet on the day when Storm Brian pelted his way through most of the UK.

The Pout Two set off from the Sussex coast and had a hairy drive through flooding and debris-strewn roads but made a timely arrival at their destination.

The Mutton Two didn't.  They had decided to have their own adventures, which you can read about here  and  here.

Their drive was hairier still and they found themselves in a place called Heathfield with a motor car that had decided to , err, stop.  They thought at first it was quickly fixable after a short pit stop. 

So what does the Pout do when faced with a short delay?

Why, she eats a yummy cheese scone, of course, whilst she finds where her friends are stuck on the map. 

Hmmnn, not far, it seemed.  About 1.5 inches, as the crow flies.

But not far was too far as without a working car it doesn't get you to this fine building here

Soon the Mutton Two's car stoppage had been upgraded to not-working car status, requiring some emergency AA attention.  Yes, there was much more exciting fun to be had with a broken motor car and a hang-around in a storm-exposed Co-op car park whilst waiting for a friendly AA man and his tool bag of tricks.  And who can blame them?  It certainly makes good copy.

So all hope of a meet up at this historical place was abandoned.  Instead, The Pout Two continued the tour and acted as proxy for The Mutton Two, who were at Brian's mercy in a place called Heathfield.

But where were The Pout Two?  Let's look at the clues.

Here's Mr X whose house it was, BITD.  I'll kick-start you a BIG clue - this one didn't make cakes!

A list of books titles and beautiful animal prints lined the walls.

Desks and cosy reading spaces could be seen; a book casually left to the side of comfy sofa.

An early typewriter and an overflowing waste paper basket.

Ephemera of the time.

Books.

 

More books.  And more books still.

Our gent was obviously an admirer of well written works. If he were around today, he would surely be a reader of The Pouting Pensioner.

So, dear reader, those are my clues.

Who lives in a house like this? Well, here's a big clue.

Yes,  four two went to Batemans, the home of Rudyard Kipling.  Did you guess right?

    I'm sure I don't need to tell you who he is as you are obviously someone who enjoys reading great literary creations if you are reading this Pout post :0) !!

And so the tour continued.

Here we two saw Kipling's school boy gear, his place of ablution and his bed.

We saw his aga, and TP asked our Pout to rustle him up a quick omelette.  Typical!

We saw where he dined with illustrious guests of the time.

Where he enjoyed post-prandial drinks.

The state of the art gadgets he installed.  He liked all the latest gizmos, like electricity.

He certainly did well from his writing.  Here's his Rolls Royce.  I wonder how many more posts I have to write before I get my first roller :-) !!

Mr Kipling's house is now owned by the National Trust.

And as always with these properties, egress is not possible until one has admired the beautiful scares and homewares on sale.  It is nigh on impossible to walk away from these shops without one of these gorgeous scarves in a carrier bag.  However, on this occasion I  succeeded.

It is nice to walk through the gardens, which I did on a previous visit.   But with Brian finding me every time I poked my head outside, these shots represent as far as I ventured.  Eventually Brian caught me proper when returning to the car and belted me with one of his deluges.  Drowned rat, you get the picture don't you.  My carefully coiffed hair ;-) now wet. bedraggled and flat as a pancake.

Whilst all this culture was being taken in and coiffures were being dismantled, The Mutton Two had met with the AA man who had done the business to get the Mutton Motor back on the road.  And that road led to the nearby Star Inn, a delightful 14th century Sussex pub, where they arranged to meet with The Pout Two for a hearty luncheon.

However, The Pout Two's satnav decided to have its own fun.  It chose not to include this pub on its normally reliable Places of Interest section, despite the pub having been there for more than 700 years.

The Pout Two drove and drove with no sighting of the olde worlde pub.  So when a modern-day satnav fails, one has to resort to the olde satnav.  The Pout popped into a hairdresser's and asked the way.  The successful collusion of a receptionist, a barber and the gent whose hair he was cutting resulted in step by step instructions being given on the back of an envelope.  Turns out the pub was in Old Heathfield and we were driving around well, just plain-vanilla Heathfield.

Thanks to the excellent directions of those kindly Heathfield people, The Pout Two found themselves finally reunited with their friends and Two became Four.

Anna and The Pout were united with a bottle of grown ups' ginger beer and all was good.

And the chatting commenced.

We managed to pause the chat long enough to order some fine fare.  

TP's banger and mash and the Pout's starter prawns.  With chips.

We four chatted and chatted.  It's so wonderful what frendships are made in Blogland.  To meet a fellow blogger is special indeed.    And as we have met several times previously, we chatted for Blogland.

At times, most of the time the men talked amongst themselves and Anna and The Pout talked much blogginess.  Outfits, collabs, blogger meets, bot issues, family, work, the universe. 

We paused to take in the splendour of what was around us.

The pub smells welcoming, a lingering smell of old log fires.

We took in the quirkily cosy pub décor.

The decor got blurry.

Wine bottles were mistaken for fuel.

So we thought it time to leave.

Maybe it was for the best.

I'd like to thank the erudite and funny Mr Him and the witty, delightful and stylish Anna for another lovely outing.  It's great to meet up with old friends and The Mutton Two are already feeling like friends we've known forever.  Maybe next time we'll just cut out the middle man and head straight for the pub!

And thank you , dear reader, for joining us on another Four Go To ... adventure.

A la perchoine.