Alex's ........?

[find me an appropriate word beginning with "A" I'll use it]

I've been thinking over the past few days about something that happened in Winchester Cathedral last month. Dan and I were wondering round (him climbing on everything he could) and got talking to one of the tour guides - this seems to happen a lot when you have a small child! As we were chatting an elderly American tourist came up with a camcorder and Dan started smiling and waving. We exchanged a few pleasantries and the tourist decided to take a picture of Dan. Dan stood to attention and smiled.

And then the tour guide stopped this and said that photographing and videoing children wasn't allowed. At the time I said nothing; feeling slightly nonplussed by this woman's comment and wondering if this was some kind of policy the Cathedral had. But the more I think about the more I think what right had she to decide that for me? Okay the guy didn't exactly ask if it was okay to take Dan's picture but it was all perfectly innocent and fairly obvious that I was relaxed about the whole thing. It's not illegal to take pictures of children - though I know in this paranoid, nanny world we live in it's getting banned more and more often. But that's not the point.

I got the impression that the tour guide was saying it was illegal rather than it was against Cathedral policy: which it just isn't and surely it's up to me whether I allow people to photograph my son??? Should I have said something? Rik said he would have (unfortunately he was in another part of the building at the time) and the more I think about it the more I think how ridiculous she sounded!

ah well, thank god for Mica :-) [big girls "we" are beautiful ...... apparently]

Dan's Doins Vol 10

Hello, yes it's us again. Well I did mention in my last post that you wouldn't be hearing from us for a while. I'm afraid May was a very dull month and the beginning of June was not much to write home about (particularly as we forgot to take our camera to St Ives! though the weekend itself was fab - many thanks Sonj & Tim) but then we went on holiday!! Yes we've just returned from a week on the Isle of Wight and three days in Wiltshire and Hampshire. And they were all delightful - despite the sometimes questionable weather.
So here we have (no particular order) Dan in the cottage at Freshwater, Dan at the Garlic Farm, IoW and Dan n me at Salisbury Cathedral ......
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You will note on the picture of him at the cottage that he is sitting on the stairs - he is actually in the process of coming down these stairs; a trick he mastered using the split levels and shallow treads of the cottage.
No pictures of Winchester Cathedral unfortunately as heavy rain and several thunderstorms prevented standing around outside much! But I can confirm that the Cathedral is magnificent and Winchester a very nice city - yes we did manage to get to it. Also no pictures of Stonehenge which we did not make: Why? Well when we went past on the 21s June at midday it was still closed so unable to visit that day. We said, ah well we'll be coming back this way on the 30th so we'll do it then .... except it was raining. We're just gonna have to make a special visit!!

Despite the weather we did have a wonderful time and when the rain stopped the weather was fantastic - not particularly warm so no beaches and shorts but enough to enjoy views like these (taken from the Needles headland)

The shadows on the horizon are the seaside towns of Dorset!