Victoria Park

It’s taken one full week, poking our heads into at least a dozen different supermarkets of all different types based on the ‘London Vegemite map’ I had found online. No luck - plenty of Marmite, but no Vegemite.
Neither Fortnum and Masons nor Harrods could help either. Getting desperate, we turned for guidance and help to Kiri Scott (née Mansfield) and as a savvy expat Aussie she was able to provide the direction we needed- ASDA supermarkets stock Vegemite.
Sure enough, when we finished our day here in Portsmouth and realised there was an ASDA supermarket nearby (is it just a coincidence that our Vegemite Victory was gained at said supermarket located on Winston Churchill Drive ?😉), we walked there after dinner - and viola! - the iconic Aussie spread that had been purloined in SIngapore was now replaced.

Our day started well and ran much more smoothly than I had anticipated.

The first task of the day was to pick up our hire car. I was just a little anxious about the whole thing as I was not dealing with one of the major rental companies. I had found a company online called ‘EasiRent’ who were WAY cheaper than the others and as they had only 50% more negative reviews than the major rental players, I thought ‘what could possibly go wrong?’

The collection point was at Marble Arch at an underground car park - where no one would be in attendance. The whole transaction would be done via an intercom link to ….. Romania …. Or Kazakhstan . . . Or somewhere similar. The emailed instructions I had received were reasonably clear (once I had used Google Translate to decipher a few of the Cyrillic words that had slipped through) and the ‘excess’ was a very reasonable sum
equivalent to the GDP of a small Pacific Island nation. Still, the rental price was right - and they had been very consistent in answering my queries via email - they had totally ignored them.
On top of all this, I had been chatting to Andrew Ward about our impending trip a few months earlier, and he had mentioned HE had used a dodgy rental car company last time in the U.K.
“Oh, who might that be?”
“It was a company called ‘EasiRent’ - the vehicle pick-up was nightmarish etc etc…. I think they should change their name to ‘Not-So-EasiRent’ “

Hmmmm.

We got ourselves and our luggage onto a bus from Euston station at 8.15am that went directly to Marble Arch, found the underground car park and followed the CyrillicoEnglish instructions. I pushed the intercom button and waited - an accented voice came out of the speaker - and once I had identified myself to his satisfaction by giving him all my passport and driver’s licence details as well as bank account passwords, it was ‘G’day maaaate . . . can I interest you in an upgrade at a VERY reasonable rate?’
Even though I declined his kind offer, I was then instructed to push another button on the panel - and a magic little door opened to reveal a car key - for a car that actually existed!
The car seems to be in quite good condition - and the airconditioning even sort of works once you get the speed above 80km/hr.

We were pleased to leave the increasingly busy London behind as we travelled south to Brighton on the Sea. I had warned Loss not to have expectations set too high for this ‘Riviera’ of the south coast of England. Sure enough, Brighton beach (river stones) and the Pier (tired and neglected) were somewhat underwhelming. We walked to the end of the pier and back, found a place to have a coffee and snack indoors away from the windswept, deserted beachfront and then headed for Portsmouth.

We checked in to the motel then walked down to the harbour front area which was much livelier and more inviting than Brighton’s. We took a ride up to the top of ‘Spinnaker Tower’ and enjoyed the view across to the Isle of Wight which we are due to visit tomorrow. We found a local Nandos and enjoyed quite a reasonable meal. A further walk to ASDA to achieve the Vegemite victory then back to the motel and our ‘V for Victory day’ is done.Read more