"It's as good for you today ....

..... as it's always been." Iconic Hovis advert, boy on a bike.

Day in Southampton today, less than an hour's drive but a different world from our quiet little corner of this good earth .

This is the view from Ikea's restaurant, so taken through glass and at a distance, and a tiny part of Southampton Docks.

West Quay with the Queen Elizabeth tied up to the right of the pic, looking immense as we drove past, but no view point to get up close for pics. She is 294 metres in length, and 64.6 metres high, keel to funnel, and came into service in 2010.

The building is Solent Mills, home of Rank Hovis which manufactures a surprising amount of foods other than bread - cakes, jams, ready meals, sauces, stocks and gravies, meat pies and desserts to name but a few. Under the banner Premier Foods it has purchased some major commercial enterprises such as Campbells, Typhoo, Birds Custard and Cadbury Drinks. Notably it purchased Branston Baked Beans with a view to swamping the market currently occupied by Heinz. That didn't happen, then. But it is a major player in the food market and a major employer in Southampton.

Ikea was it's usual crazy self, and I managed to walk round without purchasing so much as a candle

Another image that's better in Large.