Widgets!

We have now returned from our trip to the Isle of Wight (or the Isle of Widget, as some of my friends refer to it).

Sandown was not quite what we were expecting - sort of Chav-on-Sea, although not so bad as Ryde. And the traffic was sheer bloody murder. Not quite the south of England of twenty years ago, as many had said, more like the M25 on an island.

Not that I'm moaning at all, because we had a pretty great holiday!

The hotel was quite literally surrounded by a park: originally the main building was a big manor house set in seven acres, and most of that is now Los Altos park in Sandown. The grounds of the hotel are still big enough to house red quirrels (the IOW is one of their last UK strongholds) as well as a fox and - really excitingly! - a badger! A real live badger just snuffling around the back of the hotel, visible from the bedroom window.

We went to Amazon World, where we watched a falconry display, and I somehow managed to volunteer to be a tree for a Harris Hawk, who swooped down and nabbed some chicken from the top of the head. Then I was asked to make like a ballerina with my hands clasped way above my head, and he flew through the space between my arms. That was incredible - I never expected to come so close to such a beautiful creature. Apparently I didn't flinch at all. Which is funny, cos I could have sworn I had my eyes squeezed shut.

We also went to the Tiger Sanctuary. That was also incredible - the tigers were pretty impressive, the staff very knowledgeable and there were loads of other animals and birds to see.

The Needles were a bit less impressive than I'd expected, though we didn't take the walk to the Battery to get a good look at them. We did take the chairlift down to Alum Bay...I feel sick just thinking about it - and I let him persuade me to go back up again as well! I swear, if I could have jumped out and run away 200 feet up, I would have done. I was bloody terrified. I didn't think I was afraid of heights, either. *Greening*

Shanklin Chine at night when it's all illuminated was pretty good. Very pretty. Shanklin itself, beachwise anyway. Although it was dark when we got there, the sea front looked far less commercialised. Much more Whitby-esque, which is what we were expecting.

The ferry trip over and back was cool, too. And apparently on the M40 we missed seeing Paul Daniels' car by about 40 minutes, with it's MAG 1C number plate. *lol*