number two son's birthday and he wanted to go bowling so bowling we did. This was one of the main reasons for heading down to Hampshire, I'm fed up with the bowling alley in Ashford, it's just not a nice place to be. But Gunwharf is a different proposition altogether.
A few visitors came up to see the birthday boy in the morning, then we had a soupy lunch and headed off. We decided to get the train down, partly for a bit of a change and partly because we heard there was football on and the road into Portsmouth was chocka. Train was also busy with football types, and then it terminated at Portsmouth and Southsea, and then there was a delay on the next one to Portsmouth Harbour. So not a great start, but still a fun outing for the boys. And off to Gunwharf!
The boys were in fancy dress, not sure how they were warm enough really. Thing one wore his Iron Man, thing two was a pirate, Clare and I were just cold.
The bowling alley is still a bowling alley, the game was much the same, and thing two even got a bit bored part way through the game. Not as much as usual though. Really he wants to be in the place and to go on the machines and have the slush puppy and things, more than he wants to actually bowl. We all had a good time though. We got a load of free coffees because someone was being trained. The machines there are a bit odd, they have a "penny slider" type machine that is thoroughly modernised - they've not got rid of the convenience of any money actually coming out of the bottom, instead you get tickets, and you can trade the tickets in. It's a SHOCKING exchange rate, I'm sure the fairness of arcades has got worse. But the boys like it, they know they're just spending money and seeing the lights flash.
They particularly liked the simulator there, so did Clare. It's a simple one, not even enclosed, but it meant it was good for thing two. I have some pictures that I will upload.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe in Kent. Married to Clare and father to two, I am a full-stack web engineer, + I do mostly js / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home-automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, tree stuff, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.