Since selling our home we have lived in Southsea, a pretty suburb of Portsmouth, for a month. We’ve really enjoyed it here amongst the small boutique shops and cafes. This is the start of our adventure. Exploring new places on foot, meeting new people, trying new things including getting small tattoo’s under our wedding rings.

One of the new things we’ve started doing is cycling on our fold up Brompton bikes between our AirBnB apartment and the boat across the ferry in Gosport. The apartment is just about functional but we’re due to move at the start of January to another place closer to Gunwharf Quay and the ferry terminal but away from Southsea and the beach.

Given it is the start of winter we endured weeks of driving wind and rain during our initial stay here but recently it has started to get colder and the skies blue and clearer bringing a sharp morning frost. This doesn’t seem to prevent some of the elderly locals taking an early morning swim in the sea.

It’s really nice to be able to walk along the seaside each morning, being only a few blocks away, stopping at one of the many coffee stands. At the weekend we’ve walked along the coast to the historic fishing port in Old Portsmouth stopping for a pint at the Bridge Tavern pub and on to the outlet shops at Gunwharf Quays and a few steps further to the harbour railway station and ferry terminal.

The dockyard is home to the 1860 HMS Warrior and we often see aircraft carriers and serious looking navy ships tugged in and dock up.