The Average Sex Life of a Brit and walking forever.

Friday 3rd April 2015

I have wanted for some time now to find enough time to do some more reading, but with work and now the need to find work in this country it is becoming a bit more difficult to find the time.
What would I like to read? Well perhaps a bit more Shakespeare or even War and Peace - both things that can "easily" be accomodated in a few extra minutes (maybe hours) every day.

I need to become more assimilated with the average Brit - these would stand me in good stead I would think.

Just a week ago I did get a chance to read some of the newspaper that Diane had finished with and was surprised to learn that the average couple in Britain - that's the average couple - so there will be a variance either way - some more and some less - the average couple in Britain only has sex 3 times a month - I am of course discounting couples who are over 80 - it is not fair on them to have to keep the average higher than the rest of the country.
But just 3 times a month seems a tad on the "I've got a headache everyday side of things".

So there is another chance to assimilate more with the average Brit and the benefit would be that I would definitely have all of that extra time to spend on reading more of the books that I have mentioned above.

Anyway getting back to things of a canal nature, we untied today early to head down to Fenny Stratford where we have moored up.

Diane (and I) were keen to visit Bletchley Park - home of the wartime codebreakers. Sounds a bit like a football team - "Who we playing this week then?" I can hear someone say "Oooh it's Bletchley Park Codebreakers. Better be careful of them, they do get some numbers behind the ball".
In addition there was a short side trip to Ikea - I was less keen on that one, but in the interests of peace (not war) on the boat I went along.

The Satnav was saying 2 miles to Ikea and then another 1.9 miles to the Park followed by about 1.8 miles back to Ferndale - nearly 6 miles.

Weather was saying a little bit of rain.

All would have been fine but there is always a small detour along the way - this time through B&M; getting to Ikea was a bit like getting to the moon - just because you can see it doesn't make it easy to get there.
Eventually we made it there - found what we were there for; paid for it and very pleased to be on our way to our primary purpose for the "stroll".

Note to self for future reference: do not go to a public attraction on a public holiday; do not go to a public attraction on a public holiday during school holidays; do not go to a public attraction on a public holiday during school holidays if it happens to be Good Friday - I really didn't expect so many people to be there - and the guy in front was drenched in some type of perfumed sheep dip - really, if you don't want to shower, please don't hide it with the some horrible smelling odourous concoction.

As a side note - Diane has a sensitivity to perfumes as I now also have, but more importantly, I can tell you that they all contain respiratory sensitisers, no matter how much they say it's all natural ingredients - nature doesn't concentrate them so that your olefactory senses cease to know the difference between cayenne pepper and diesel fumes.

Anyway, we finally got through the queue to the cashier - Diane cleverly had brought the 2 for 1 offer from the voucher booklet (see below) which allowed us the discount if we produced a valid National Rail ticket - I had mine from my Watford trip yesterday. The discount paid for the return rail ticket.
 

The booklet is free from the train station.

So we wandered around the complex, which has been restored almost thoroughly - still a bit of work to do; we had the audio tour headsets to listen to the relevant information.

The Mansion

We already knew a fair bit about them but there is always room for learning more and we can never turn our backs on doing that.
 

The codebreaking "computer"

one of the enigma machines

The nurse and the ambulance

After a good 4 hours we felt that we needed to head back to the boat - yes, it was only that 1.8 miles figure that I mentioned earlier.

By the time we finally collapsed on the chairs in the lounge the step counter had broken through the 15000 mark for a second consecutive day.
Exhausted and dead we had trouble doing too much without a bit of a sit down and a cuppa - we had to toss to see who lost that one.

Still, the way we feel at present there is every chance that I will be on the way to being that average Brit, if only I could stay awake to use the extra time for my reading instead of falling asleep.

4 Miles, 1 Lock, 1 Swing Bridge
YTD: 234 Miles, 100 Locks, 6 Tunnels, 2 Lift Bridges, 9 Swing Bridges
Totals: 3128 Miles, 2221 Locks, 104 Tunnels, 36 Lift Bridges, 160 Swing Bridges