I've hardly had any
sleep last night so having got up early I thought I'd take the
opportunity to prepare my latest blog post. I can't publish it yet
as the campsite we're on has rubbish internet, and it's expensive.
We invested 1 euro for 30 minutes to try it out and it was really
frustrating. I'm just glad that we didn't invest 20 euros for the
week as you can't even connect most of the time. We're in Oostende at
the moment, whiling away a week before going off into Holland. We're
only here because we've heard that campsites in Holland are really
expensive in August.
Last night was one of
the worst for weather that we'd experienced in a long time and I was
woken at about 3am with the rain splattering in my face, I'd left my
window and fly screen open and the wind was just in the wrong
direction and blowing the rain in. I closed the fly screen but the
breeze was still too much to sleep, so had to close the window as
well. Then I noticed the banging. Bang, Bang, Bang, that was just
too much. It sounded as though something was banging on the side of
the motorhome under my head. As this was an unexplainable sound, I
just had to get up to investigate. So off I went, out into the
rain and the dark with my torch and found that the electricity cable
cupboard (yes it is just about below my head) which hinges from the
top was being blown open slightly with the wind and then banging back
down. Stupid thing can't be closed when the electricity cable is out
so it's normally left ajar as it was last night. So I stuffed an old
rag into the cupboard to deaden the bang and back to bed. But it was
too late, I was awake but as per normal my beloved slept soundly
through it all. I should be able to get my blog uptodate over the
next couple of days as it looks like we are going to be confined to
barracks while the remains of hurricane Bertha does her worst.
In my last post I
mentioned all the people that we met up with while we were back
“home” but I just thought I'd say sorry to all those that I had
meant to meet up with but just ran out of time. Less than 3 weeks and
we couldn't fit everyone in.
A memory from before we left Fillongley
Anyone who knows us
will know that our dog is a bit mad, she does circles, sometimes very
fast small circles when she is waiting for her dinner or a walk, and
sometimes very large circles when she runs off lead in a park. I've
often thought that we should have called her (spinning) Jenny,
instead of Connie. We had wondered if she would remember the park
that we used to walk her in. Even though we had not been there for
over 8 months, she'd probably done over 5,000 laps in the 8 years we
had her. Firstly we got to the park and she got out of the car, saw
where she was and dashed back into the car and I had to prize her
out. I don't know what is so frightening about the park. Then she
finally decided that she might as well follow us rather than get left
behind. The run began, big circles and then she remembered her
routine, big circles twice around the scout hut. This was something
that she always did when we walked anti-clockwise around the park.
Why, we haven't got a clue? But it's just something she always did.
Not once, not three times, but always twice around the scout hut as
she always did.
Who says dogs have
short memories. We think she might have a bit of dog aspergers, but
we love her anyway.
While we were in
Fillongley, we came the closest we have ever come to losing Connie.
One day took a walk down into the village and as it hadn't rained for
a while we trotted off down the footpaths and across the fields,
which gave us a chance to let her off her lead for a good sniff and a
run. We dodged the cows without udders in the first field, the next
brought us into a wheat field, down the lane and then through a field
of oil seed rape, then another potential cows without udders field
before passing through the park. It happened in the oil seed rape
field. Those of you not familiar with oil seed rape, this grows to
about 3 feet tall on spindly stalks which then spreads out into a
blanket of leaves and pods (wish I'd had my camera with me). It's a
bit like a mini rain forest. Unfortunately for us, Connie must have
smelled a bunny or some other interesting creature and decided that
it would be great to follow the smell into the field. OMG the dog had
gone. We couldn't see her at all. In wheat, you can see the ears
moving as the dog passes through the field but here – NOTHING.
Unfortunately when she gets into a panic and can't see us she has a
tendency just to run, in any direction – like she did on the beach
in Spain. There we were, calling and calling her name and –
NOTHING. This situation is of course exacerbated by the fact that her
radars don't work properly. Since she had cauliflower ear in both
ears (at different times, caused by excessing spinning and banging
her head on something in the way) she has had a bit of trouble with
direction finding. So there we were calling and calling. The
“forest” was so dense that we couldn't see her and there was no
way of finding where she was in the field, and it was a BIG field,
she could be anywhere, running around like a headless chicken not
being able to find her way out. I thought this was just typical,
we'd travelled some 4,000 miles and here we were in our home village
and we'd lost the dog. After what seemed like a lifetime but was
probably about 20 minutes, she just popped out of the field back onto
the footpath about 10 feet away from us. Of course when we got to
the village we just had to lower the stress levels by embibing in a
little drinkie at the pub before walking back to the Weavers.
Our first stop when
leaving Fillongley was Cheltenham, where we were to get a service on
the van and the dreaded 6 new tyres. Motorhome Medics is a short
trip from the campsite and after leaving the van we hopped on a bus
into Gloucester for a day out. Having picked up the van we went back
to the campsite and parked up, although it wasn't very far it felt
like we had a new van. It was a lovely evening and we sat outside
until quite late. Strangely, the next day our neighbours said to us
that they hadn't been able to sit outside the previous evening
because of the smell of burning rubber and oil emanating from our
van. Well that was news to us and we hadn't noticed anything.
While we were in
Cheltenham at Briarfields, we might have been filmed for TV. I would
have been up for it, but we were walking the dog when the TV people
came around interviewing for a travel program about holidaying in the
Cheltenham and Gloucester area. Although we didn't get interviewed,
we might still be on there as they were taking quite a few shots
around the site. So if anyone sees our van on TV, let us know what
we missed.
Off then to Cheddar to
visit Connor on our way back to Spain.
Connor lives at
Daneswood Care Home in Shipham, about 3 miles outside Cheddar in the
Mendips. It is a converted hotel and it never ceases to amaze us
that they find so many nice, young and caring people to work for
them. We met Lauren who is Connor's newest carer. Carehomes get a
lot of bad press but we've always been very pleased with Daneswood
and the way they treat their Clients. There is also so much
creativity around and here's a picture of the mural outside which as
all the initials of all the clients on the end of each branch.
As I've said before, we
have found a very basic campsite near to where Connor lives which is
a close as we can park, so it's very convenient.
Iain's dad was coming
up from Exmouth to join us for a night and it's the first time we've
ever had anyone stay with us in the van so it was going to be a bit
strange. Our instructions to dad were to bring your own chair (we
don't carry chairs for visitors) a duvet or sleeping bag and a
pillow, and he could sleep on our sofa bed (which we hadn't used
before). At the moment the campsite doesn't have any EHU so we knew
we would need the generator to blow up the bed as it is a fixed unit.
On the few occasions we have needed it, the generator had never let
us down and had been serviced only a few days before, also we had
tested the blow-up unit on the bed when we got the van, so we were
confident that this would be ok. We thought we'd just put it on
earlier in the evening as I wanted to use the electric cooker. The
generator fired up beautifully, but there was no electricity coming
through. Iain had a look in the locker but couldn't find anything
wrong or any trip switches etc to indicate what the problem was. And
of course the sofa bed is a fixed unit and can't be pumped up
manually. So who was going to break the news to dad? Of course this
was left to me. Oh well, time to improvise. Some of the bed covers
the sofa cushions and I covered the rest with as many duvets and
blankets as I could find to stop the metal bits digging in, this
thankfully gave just enough room to sleep on.
 |
| Basic, but we like it like this, the only van there and a few tents up in the field. Lovely views |
In the morning, Iain
rang Motorhome Medics to see if they knew what the problem was and
having gone through some checks, hadn't got a clue. I was really
glad that we had needed to fire up the generator when we were only in
Cheddar and not when we had already gone over to the continent. At
least a visit back to Cheltenham after leaving Cheddar would be only
about 40 miles out of our way. Iain then went back to the generator
locker and having had a good look around, found a small switch on the
side of the control panel and lo and behold the electricity came back
on. It's amazing how many small switches you find in a motorhome that
you haven't got a clue what they do and yet they are really
important.
As we now had the means
to pump up the sofa bed, I asked dad if he'd like to stay another
night with us and it took him about 2 seconds to make up his mind
with an “I might as well”. So with the sofa bed inflated a much
better night's sleep was promised. However with the bed inflated,
there is no way that we can get out of the van without disturbing the
occupant so I told dad that he was on “Ticky Ticky” duty in the
morning. A puzzled look came back and I explained that if he heard
the Ticky Ticky then it was his job to let the dog out, the Ticky
Ticky being the sound of her nails on the floor when she spins around
asking to go out in the morning.
It was ok having
someone to stay with us but I wouldn't want to do it for too long and
it was a good job that we were able to sit outside most of the time.
We had originally
intended to spend about a week travelling across the UK after leaving
Cheddar, but we wanted to see Neil and Anne in Folkestone before
getting the ferry, and to pick up our post. However they were going
on holiday so we cut short our journey and decided to get to
Folkestone earlier. This meant that we would stop over only one
night on the way to Folkestone, and also meant that we wouldn't be
able to visit some other people that we had planned to see on our way
through. So sorry Diane, but we were unable to pick up our “special”
clothes from you that we had left in February, hope you don't mind
keeping them a bit longer – although hopefully we won't be needing
them for some time.
We found a very nice
“CL” in Bracknell, not far from the M4 to break up our journey
and I would have been happy to have stayed there a few days but we
had already made arrangements to be in Folkestone. On a walk with
the dog we found a rather lovely community orchard and an enclosed
paddock for dog walking. It was hard to believe that we were so close
to Heathrow.
I had ordered some
prescription sunglasses in Coventry and arranged to have them sent to
the Dover store for me to pick up there. On the way to Folkestone,
we went out of our way to Dover to pick up my sunglasses and also to
get a prescription for me. This failed on both counts. Having
persuaded the doctor to give me 6 months supply the pharmacy didn't
have enough and then the opticians proudly opened the case for my new
sunglasses only to find that they weren't sunglasses at all, but
clear lenses. So they had to go back. The problem now was where to
have them sent. So they are being sent to Folkestone for Anne to
post to me in Holland. I can see these sunglasses following me
around Europe at this rate. I wonder if I'll ever get them.
We had a very pleasant
evening with Neil and Anne and Iain's younger brother Sean joined us
for the evening. It was great to catch up.
We had booked in Ypres
for 3rd August so we had a few days to kick around East
Kent before getting the ferry. We wild-camped in Folkestone
overnight and then took the short 20'ish mile journey to Ramsgate - down memory lane
