Bristol and back to London

Where did we leave off? Ah yes, children, we were deep in Dingly Dell when Flopsy Mopsy.... hmmm, perhaps not.

On Tuesday morning we had two viewings, both harbourside (that is, in the centre of the city). The first was in Buchanan's Wharf and was a converted warehouse. The walls were about a metre of brick, and there were cast iron columns supporting 30cm square beams. It was OK, had some sun, a glimpse of the harbour and the great advantage of a carpark. The current tenants had some cleaning to do but we could see past that. It was also reasonably cheap - L595 pcm, + council tax. Yes, that's right folks, a mere NZ$1900pcm for a 1 bedroom apartment!

The second was a purpose built apartment and it was beautiful but we decided a little beyond our budget at L750 + council tax. It had no park either, although for another L20-34 per week, we could have got a space in a neighbouring carparking building.

We put down a deposit on the first and are now waiting for credit checks, etc to be done. The agents couldn't seem to believe that we wanted to move in "tomorrow".

That done we went to the pub for lunch - a British Ale, locally brewed and suitably room-temperature in a pub that was built in 1606. The Maori population at the

time would just about all have fit inside, and not a single European had been seen.

We hadn't heard anything from the bank, so went into the local branch. It seemed that nothing had happened since we went into the Tooting branch, so the friendly bank dude set everything up for us then and there. Bloody marvelous. We could then take that piece of info back to the letting agent to help with the credit check.

Later that day we returned to London. Lovely countryside en-route, when you can see over fences, etc. Fields of yellow rape contrasting with the normal lush greens and brown of fallow land, and the odd 'Ye Olde Englishe Village', but for real.

This morning our mission was to buy a car. We did some internet searching and eventually found a possibility just down the road. We popped down to an insurance broker to arrange (compulsory) insurance and arranged the household insurance while we were there (as it's also compulsory when renting), then headed off to see the car. It is a Nissan Primera 1.6l and is in reasonable nick. It has some rust which may be a problem next MoT (WoF), but otherwise is OK, although we have to take the radio out because it has some loose wires. We paid L500 for it so fingers crossed it lasts. That means that today alone we spent or committed to L1400 and if the flat comes through we'll need another L1400 odd. That's half our money gone already, so it's time to start earning!

Tomorrow we are going to load all our gear into the car and head to Bristol by a rather roundabout route, taking a short trip around the south coast. Tonight we'll watch Milan v Man U as Brian's a keen football (never "soccer") fan.

I finished reading Crosby's book. His basic argument is that had infantry support been planned for the attack on the 19th March 1944, OR if Freyberg had been flexible enough to provide this infantry support once the attack progressed, then the attack could have cut the Germans on Pt 593/Pt 569 off and forced a withdrawal from the town as well. The book is rather repetitive as if stating this argument enough times will make it true. I'm not entirely convinced. Even if support had been given, it would still have been a difficult job to winkle the paratroops out of their positions on the ridges. Jeff tells me that a gunner told him that they struggled to elevate their guns to fire on the ridges at all. Enemy artillery fire would only have intensified, and infantry support or not, the road to the Monastery would have been a choke point. However, an attack from the valley onto the slopes of Pt 593/569, with support from tanks and perhaps from Snakeshead Ridge may have been successful given the extra space to move. A company or two on each side of the valley may have at least cleared these slopes to the point of the bottleneck. From there on they would be under observation from many points so progress may have been more difficult. Given direct fire from tanks (particularly if reinforced), this may still have succeeded, although Crosby may underestimate the effectiveness and numbers of the German personal AT weapons. There are also a few minor errors in detail. A Schu mine is not the same as an S mine; the PIAT differs from bazooka or Panzerschreck in that it is a mortar not a rocket propelled warhead; the number of vehicles is debatable.