[FLYING BANANA]

................................................we lost the car. Had it been Banana we would have spotted her ok, but alas we could not find the Bear. We was parked on the end, on the tarmac, not on the grass. Being Silver did not help. We walked around the various car parks at Croombe House. Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted a familiar grill. Found her. We was still on the end of the tarmac but two larger cars were now parked on the grass between us and the gate.
Thus that ended a fabulous day at Croombe House.

What an amazing place, fantastic grounds. Beautiful house, which will be even better once they have got the refurbishment done and some furniture in. The church is in fine condition and stands on top of the hill overlooking the estate.
Capillarity Brown laid out the fabulous lake, which fooled us as we thought it was a river, but no it is a lake that twists and turns through the estate.
There is a beautiful Chinese style bridge over part of the lake.

But for me the icing on the cake had to be the unknown RAF base that was there. RAF Derriford, home of the radar spotters. An operational base which at one point housed over 3000 staff. The Radar for spotting U-Boats was pioneered here. Plus in 1945 the first automatic landing happened for aircraft. Wellingtons, Lancaster’s, Mosquitoes, Spitfires and Hurricanes flew from here. There was also quite a few unknown aircraft that took part in the various trials.

After WW11 the jet age arrived but the end of the base was on the cards. It kept going till it ceased to be an operational base in 1957. It continued up to 1981 as a supply base, but that was it. Over and done with. A few of the RAF buildings are still there, the NAAFI is now the restaurant, the ambulance station now houses a Canberra cockpit. A former Canberra pilot now works in the museum.
The medical centre is now the National Trust entrance.

We stopped for tea, and a bun. We had been there for nearly 5 hours, so much to see. Very enjoyable and well recommended to visit.
We then went in search of the Bear. Once finally found and loaded up we set off back to the hotel via the scenic route via the Malvern Hills. Again the weather had been kind. Lots of sun and very few clouds.
We got back to the hotel car park and squeezed into a space close to the wall. Unloaded the car, she is still quite clean but will be treated to a thorough clean once home.

We arranged to meet in reception at 4.45pm and head across to the tea room we had found tucked away in Ledbury. Off we set, the weather had turned warmer so no coats were needed. I still had my camera with me though.
But our tea shop was closed. So we headed to another one we had seen earlier in the week, but that was on the point of closing at 5.30pm. Michael wanted to argue the toss with the owner as it was only 5.29pm so therefore still technically open. I chose to ignore and carried on walking, but not Michael. No, he had to argue but the owner then said it is now 5.32pm and I’m now closed.

We carried on walking till we came across an ice cream parlour that sold hot drinks, but our luck was out yet again as on the door their was a notice politely explaining that they had no hot water and was waiting on the water engineers to come out. But that still did not stop Michael as he now wanted to have a look inside. But what was the point ? I asked. “cake” replied Michael. He had seen some ice cream citrus cake and he wanted some. So just to keep the peace I bought him a slice.
By now I was wishing I had bought that shovel. As he was now getting on my nerves again.

The staff put the cake into a take away box for him. Michael was surprised that I did not have any cake, I was hoping he was going to offer me some of his. But no chance, although I did make a comment about it but it fell on deaf ears.
We sat on a bench outside whilst he scoffed the cake. But I got up and wandered off to look in a shop window. Basically I was counting to ten, slowly and under my breath.
Shame the iron mongers was shut as they had some shovels on show.
Not even a thank you from him. But that was soon rectified by me making another comment about not only did I buy him the cake but I got no offer to try some.

After the grovelling apology he bought me a cider in the Prince of Wales pub.
After I had calmed down we sat in silence whilst we drank the Mortimer cider. Nearly six per cent. Would have had another one but we had a table booked at the hotel at 7pm for our evening meal.
We arranged to meet in reception at 7pm for dinner. Guess who was late? Guess the reason?
The remote control on the telly would not switch the telly off. He had to go and report it at the desk. Why not just turn the on/off off. No he had not thought of that.

Well, dinner was different as they stuck us down by the back door and forgot about us. The waiter finally appeared and took our order for starters, mains and the wine.
He managed to muck, (there are better words to use but the swear filter will kick in, but just use your imagination), up the entire order. We got the wrong starters, they were meant for another table. Instead of getting a bottle of Merlot we got 2 pints of Lager. We complained and the waiter was never seen again.
No doubt someone else had bought a shovel, hopefully.

Got the right starters, then the wine and finally our dinners except mine was wrong. I wanted the saddle of lamb but got a veggie burger. How on earth could they get that wrong. Then the duty manager appeared with another bottle of Merlot for us to drink. No charge for the meal. My veggie burger was taken away, and replaced it a piece of sirloin steak.
Still at least it ate ok. By now neither of us were very happy with the service. But the meal was free and we had a 2nd bottle of wine to drink.

Homeward bound tomorrow and I cannot wait to go. This will be the last time I go away with Michael. I’ll even consider not stopping with him as, and, when I travel up to London, which will not be that often now.

But thanks for reading.