The Brits on Holiday...........In England

One of the benefits (?) of working in the New Forest is the annual Grockle invasion. Thousands of sun burned or rain drenched families piling into Woolworths to see if the pick n mix has anything different to offer than the one in their hometown. The New Forest is now a National Park, woohoo!, famous for its ponies, deer, thatched cottages, pubs and car thieves.

The nearest village to my office has ponies, donkeys and other members of the horse family walking peacefully up and down the main road to the accompaniment of "Ah, look at that pony Dad," or "Dad, can I have my photo taken with that horse." Of course what the children, and some of the adults, don't realise is that the animals aren't extras from Rolf's Animal Hospital or models for the next My Little Pony accessory, they are wild. A few misplaced tugs of the mane and the smiling photo opportunity quickly turns into a visit to A & E.




A couple of locals go shopping.









A lot, but not all, the B roads in the Forest have a 40 m.p.h speed limit which has reduced the number of animal deaths dramatically - however you still get the odd idiot who thinks that a mile stretch of dead straight road is an invitation to see whether the 0-60 figures for his car are the same as those in Top Gear. The straights where these speed trials occur are easily identified by the collection of dead flowers at the end of them.

The New Forest is the sort of place where you are considered an outsider if any of the members of your family weren't born in the town/village during the last three hundred years, you can be an honorary local if you've fathered four children by different mothers, know how to strip down a Ford engine in a couple of hours and can count up to three without phoning a friend. Local town rivalry is rife, Ringwood people look down on Fordingbridge people and Fordingbridge people look down at the ground and make patterns in the gravel with their wellies.

Jokes aside the country's newest National Park is great for a day out, some of the locals are strange but that's the same everywhere.