47 Years ago today it all started

Well, its 47 years today that we got married in a ceremony in Shepperton at the local church followed by an excellent reception at the Thames Court Club, as it was in those a days, a private member club right by the River Thames but now its a large pub, oh how things change.

31 st May 1975 What a young pair.

Our plan for today was to go out for lunch but the weather was really good and unfortunately Noel had eaten something the previous which did his digestion no good and was partly grounded for the day and so as the weather was really nice we decided to have a nice lunch at home  with a fresh prawn starters from our local fish shop and then some really great Pork steaks with a nice bottle of red wine to complement the mean and then a sit in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.
In the evening we enjoyed some BBC tv and because we are one hour ahead of UK we get the early programs and its a shame that the decent after 9pm programs only start here at 10.pm. So Jennifer was deep in to her book and the other half did somethings with the photos.
Lets hope the weather stays good

Weather is nice

The usual shopping this morning in Courmeilles and we went to the fish shop and purchased a sea bass which they gutted and filleted for us for later this evening. We also bought ten large shrimps for Noel and a nice quiche with shrimps for Jennifer before checking out the restaurant in town. It is our wedding anniversary tomorrow and we have decided to either go for lunch or dinner but not yet decided so we took a look at the menu of the Restaurant Florida, and Gourmandaise in Courmeilles and also the the restaurant Normandy where we have eaten before. We are also considering to go to Trouville where we know a nice place called le Noiret where we have eaten just over a year ago when Noel was waiting for his op in early Feb. 2016.

We had a light lunch as it was quite warm and then at 14.30 headed back to the Toyota Garage for them to fix the lights, very expensive lights I may add but the units are sealed and the complete unit is replaced and not just the plastic covers. This took about an hour and a bit and so we went for a walk trying to find a shoe shop but the one we knew about had closed so back to the garage and a crappy cup of coffee from their vending machine whilst waiting for them to finish the car.

Once the car was complete we then went to a clothing and shoe place about a mile away where Noel purchased a set of shoes to be used as slipper in the caravan and also an apron for the BBQ cooking and subsequent cleaning.. We were preparing dinner and our Dutch colleague came to see if he could help with the broken lights only to find we had them fixed already and so we had a chat for about ten minutes and then we had our dinner of shared shrimps 6 to Noel and 4 to Jen, and the sea bass which had been grilled with new potatoes and beans. When doing the washing up Jen said I can hear running water and we found that the hose in to the Water Hog had become stretched and was spraying everywhere and so Noel put on his plumbers outfit and fixed it and hopefully will be good until we leave. The hose is actually several years ol;d and plastic hose does lose its strength after a while as demonstrated here.

An then a  peaceful evening with a little TV and mostly reading and music..

Time to relax a little

After a busy few days we decided to take it easy although the weather was not that great and with more rain and thunder although nowhere near as last Saturday.

We enjoyed the BBQ chicken which had been previously cooked and stored in the fridge for a day and that was quite tasty. We did our usual reconnoitre around the site to see who is new etc and its mostly Dutch here at the moment.  A group of  Dutch bikers turned up because they have been before and then discovered that the Creperie was closed and then decided to go elsewhere to stay for a few nights and so they went to the Camping le Brevedent which has a full time restaurant  and the other thing is we cannot understand why the reception is only open from 08-11 and then closed for five hours until 16.00 hrs till 20.00 hrs and so people have been turning up during the closed time and did not know what to do and so a number of them also went of to Le Brevedent. Hutopia, the new potential owners, need to get their act together.

We spent the evening watching some TV, of course decent TV does not start until around 9pm which is 10pm for us a running a little late and so we watched some old Grand design programmes which we had not seen before. There was a bit of rain overnight and a bit of a storm but not as much as earlier this week.

Lisieux visit and Photo scanning day

After the problem with the car park incident and the car we need to get the rear lights sorted or we could be in breach of the French regulations regarding car lights and so we headed in to Lisieax to the main Toyota dealer and posed the problem to them. Of course there was no one with any any English and so it was a follow mois to the car to show them the problem. A deep sigh and head scratching and then back in to the service department where he spent ten minutes on the computer and occasional writing things on a piece of paper.

‘Not in Stock’ was the final reply and so we said how long, many days he said and so e said Ok by us and so he ordered the stuff via their system and worked out how much is would cost to supply and fit and the total was over £ 800.00 ouch!! however hopefully the insurance would pay. This did not include the repair to the bodywork which can wait till we get back to the UK and sort it out there with the help of the Insurance Company.

We also did a little bit of shopping on this trip to Point Vert the garden centre to get a piping joint for our waste system and Jennifer a mask as the smell from the old photos (mostly dust)causes her to cough quite a bit and then back to the site to do some more photo scanning.

By the end of the evening Noel had scanned about 850 photos so far but they all need to be improved using software but we cannot do this on the small PC as it is beginning to struggle after all it is 8 years old and designed for Windows 7 and not Windows 10 which is currently runs. However when we get home in July with a fast computer and large monitor it wont take to long to do.

Gosh its hard taking it easy but we watched the Motor Racing

The morning was spent quite slowly and then in the afternoon we watched the Monaco Grand prix which was rather boring, its may have the glamour but with limited places to overtake it can become a procession. Only the mad Dutchman Max Verstappen seems to be the only one able to overtake however he did have a fast car and did start from the the back of the grid. Well that took about three hours of the day which had occasional but vary minor rain showers.

The site is fairly quiet and looks busier as the Dutch Rent  a Tent Company have put up about twelve tents but in the meantime some of the regulars have returned including the two Dutch gu(a)y’s and also Peter and his wife who have been coming here for more than thirty years. Both these people spend about a month here and so Ingrid is planning a big dinner for all of us.

The BBQ of lamb chops and hot dogs went very well and together with some salads, baked potatoes and then a nice strawberry tart desert it all went down very well. Then and exiting evening scanning more photos and it was good to come across the photos that Jen’s dad took when they visited us in Japan in October 1986 we we left the kids with them whilst we went off to Hong Kong house searching. Cyril took quite a few photos inside our Tokyo house which was something we did not do and its good to have these memories.

During the afternoon we also made contact with Noels sisters  whilst on Sunday we used a What’s App video contact to keep in touch with Joanne and the children.

Not the best day

Well the morning was spent shopping in Cormeille and we visited a garden centre just outside of town to see if they sell plastic piping, as Noel left some caravan bits in the garage!!, and they do and so we need to go back to see if they have the right size. For some strange reason caravan waste water plumbing is a different size to most other plumbing and its difficult to get the correct sizing as most people use the flexible stuff which does not suit what we do.

Then on to the local fish shop which is as good as ever and we bought a large chunk of Cod which we plan to have later in the evening. Then on to Carrefour where we found some excellent double lamb chops and then plus some other shopping and we put all the shopping in the car and Jennifer took back the shopping cart and as Noel backed out slowly watching all wing mirrors and reverse camera and came out far enough to stop and start moving forward there was an almighty  bang as a car reversed in to the back offside corner of the Land Cruiser. Damn and blast…. There is not a huge amount of damage bust it has shattered the offside rear light cluster and so will have to get that fixed as water may get in and damage the electrics. The guy that reversed in to me must have been blind as the Land cruiser is truck size in that car park of small French cars and not to see the car he cannot have been looking. he was happy to give me all his paperwork required but did not want to see our insurance stuff etc as kept saying he was sorry and it was his fault.

This is doubly annoying as this morning I made the final payment on the car and three hours later bang!!!.

In the afternoon we went to visit Ingrid in the Chateau and she is really struggling financially as Hutopia do not appear to be paying her it seems???anyway she has had to fire here cleaner of many years and this makes her doubly cross.. In the evening we enjoyed the cod with loads of rice and and spinach followed by a nice bit of apple pie.

In the late evening the skies started to ruin cloudy and Noel went off to the TV room to watch the ill fated Liverpool goalie allow Real Madrid to win the  European Cup. He made two really stupid errors and its just not good enough at the level of football.

However at half time Noel returned to the caravan as the heavy rain and strong winds had started and bashed in some more tent pegs and guys to ensure we don't lose the awning. And so to bed

An easy day

The sun was shining and so we decided to have a lovely quiet day around  the campsite.

We are in the middle of a process to convert all our and family photos and transparencies to digital by scanning them and we started the process when we returned from Florida in mid February and in the meantime we have succeeded in converting all Noel’s photo’s and transparencies and have arranged for all the cine film to be converted to digital and we now understand this is waiting for us until we get home when we have to visit Sweindon to collect it. We have also converted  all  of Jens dad’s transparencies  and the remaining photo’s to bring away with us along with our trusty lightweight scanner to finish whilst we are away.

Ando so in the afternoon we scanned loads of photos but unfortunately they are very, very dusty and so it brought on one of Jennifer's allergy to dust and so much coughing ensued. Also spent some of the time chasing up some money transfers but the rest of time was spent taking it easy and enjoying the weather.

Another day in Hell-not quite

Well it was a little cooler this morning and we had grey overcast weather for most of the time up till lunchtime. We did a few jobs around the caravan including a good ‘hoovering ‘ if that's a proper word and also the BBQ needed a good clean after two times use. The trouble with BBq’s is that if you cook something on their which is coated in say a BBQ sauce it leaves quite a big mess on the grid and below and you need to clean it otherwise it would be unhealthy to cook on it again although we have visited people who don't seem to care about this.

We had purchased some good size prawns from our favourite fish shop in Courmeilles and had them for lunch today and boy there were really good and you could almost taste the sea. Then an afternoon of relaxing in the sun whilst monitoring some financial matters as Noel has a final payment on the Land Cruiser soon and needs to ensure there is sufficient cash in the bank to cover the payment.

Our cruises are fully booked and so are the flights to Seattle where we will stay for a couple of days then plan to drive to Vancouver as its easier with suitcases in a car rather than on the train which would be nice but when you have two large suitcases, two smaller roller bags carrying essentials like medicines and then camera etc. its very difficult to get on train. The first cruise takes us from Vancouver on the  31st August with eleven nights on board the Seaborne ‘Sojourn’, ironically this is exactly the same ship that we went on in 2012 from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso in Chile, and then we get off on Seward in Alaska near to Anchorage. We then have to wait 56 hours to be able to join our next cruise with Silversea ‘Silver Shadow’ which will take us via a Russian Port then on down to Hokkaido where we visit three different ports and the we get off after 14 nights on board in Tokyo Yokohama Port. Following this cruise we plan to spend a few weeks in japan and then on to Hong Kong and possibly Taipei to see friends and finish up in the Philippines for a few days R & R in the sun,possibly on the island of Palawan  before heading home in very early November.

This will be quite a trip and also expensive but it just might be the last long trip that we do as we would like in future to explore some areas of Europe which we have not yet visited.

Whilst on this trip we plan to spend a little time organising the final details of this long Asian trip although we wont purchase the intra-Asia Airline tickets just yet as its still a bit early.

Well Jennifer has just finished making the spaghetti bolognaise for this evenings meal and so I will finish this blog now and look forward to a quiet evening perhaps with some TV, or not as they case may be..

Almost a quiet day's May 22 and 23

With the Caravan in place and everything connected and the awning up we have very little to do except play with some electronics. The site Wi-Fi is quite good if you are close by but if not, as we are this time, there is a half a chance that it will not work most of the time. Noel had purchased a Signal enhancer which had to be set up which took not long but although we expected that we would be to far from the the main Wi-Fi aerial it worked quite well and so we packed ourselves on the back. Other people staying nearby will also find that they can use this link as well although we wont publish it.
Then on to the setting up of the TV satellite system so that we can watch UK programs. In the past years it has worked much better than expected in setting up but after getting everything in place we got lots of German TV and no BBC or UK programmes. So we got in touch with the supplier who came back quite quickly with a reply and all it needed was q little tweak of the satellite dish about three inches to the left and bingo up popped the BBC programmes although Channel 5 and ITV were still missing and then back to the supplier who informed us of what to do next and so later today we will try again.
We had a quiet afternoon after that and decided to eat up the leftovers of the previous day BBQ rather than waste money and chuck them away and so we tested a bottle of Chablis which went down well but now the BBQ is in need of a good clean but that can wait until we have purchased some extra cleaning stuff and an apron for Noel as we forgot to bring one of our many aprons that we have bought over the years for the same reason.
In the evening Noel caught up on some blogging and emails and then we were both quite tired and ready for an early night.

The weather is perfect

Sunday weather was great and so was Monday although the Yahoo weather channel had indicated a high chance of rain which never turned up.  We decided to put up the awning in the morning and Arie and Hennie duly arrived and their assistance really was good as it was quite warm and after about half an hour Noel strength was departing rapidly and so their help was invaluable. |As a thank you we said why don't you come for a BBQ in the evening and we will also invite Ingrid to which they accepted.

After lunch we decided to go shopping in Courmeilles for some BBQ food and arrived at Carrefour and it was closed, Mein godt vat is this???. The sign on the door said open from 0900 unto 2000 Monday to Saturday but it was bloody closed. Oh well nothing for it but drive the twelve miles in to Liseaux to the Large Leclerc supermarket and can you believe it that was closed as well, we know that restaurant close on a Monday  but not the major shops and we went then to Lidl and that was also closed and then we discovered it was a National Holiday for Whit Monday, dams and blast, what to do as we had no food or booze at the caravan with three people coming for a BBQ Dinner. Should we cancel or what. So we decided to head back to Courmeilles where there was a shop which used to be called the ‘Cocci Market’, now known as Rapid Market where we able to purchase pre-wrapped port loin steaks, pre roasted chicken breasts and some other stuff but did wonder about the quality and then back to the site with little or no time for a shower and rest prior to our guests arriving at 17.30.

Well Arie and Hennie turned up with Ingrid forgetting all about the arrangement but the food was much better than expected and not complaints at all whilst they demolished quite a bit of the wine we had provided. And so it was a very good night but we were both very tired and thank heavens they decided to leave at about 2100 and so by about 21.45 we were in bed after disposing of the washing up  etc.,  Lets hope we can have a quieter day tomorrow.

An early arrival in to Caen

We were awoken by music in the cabin at around 0500 Frog time, and proceeded to have a shower and in my case a shave before finding the café for breakfast. All we could fancy was a cup of tea, a yoghurt and a bread roll or croissant, but there were people everywhere tucking in to their two eggs and bacon, fried bacon and bread etc., how they could eat this stuff at 0500 Hrs UK time beats me.

The ship docked on time at 0645 and by 0715 we had passed French Customs and were rolling south on the main roads in the direction of Liseaux and then on to Courmeilles and out caravan site where we arrived at shortly after 0900. We checked in and we had decided that this year we would perhaps move to a different location as the past few years where we had placed the caravan was ideal for water and waste eater but was near a road with lots of dust. So we did a walk around the site and chose a location which was nice but we were concerned that the Wi-Fi would not reach us but perhaps we may be able to overcome this. By about 10.30 the caravan was parked and the gas and water connected  and first cup of tea was on the way but we both felt a little tired. In the after Ingrid the site owner came to say hello for about half an hour and the we also found the Dutch couple Arie and Hennie who we had met several years ago and had helped us a lot when Noel was taken in in UK. So we chatted to them and they offered to help put up the awning as last year they helped us take it down when Noel had little strength following all the operations

So they went on their way and they said they come back the next day to assist whilst we were both so exhausted we had an early night getting in to bed at around 2100 and straight to sleep. Noel had tried setting up the TV satellite system but messed it up as he was so tired and could not tell his North from his South and so it was pointed in the wrong direction, although other matters occurred later.

A week or many things and then off to France

Well the last week has been very busy for us both as we collected the caravan last Sunday from its storage in Chertsey and brought it home and immediately set about giving it a good clean after standing for a year in a field near the M25.

Also during the past  week we have been been bringing together all the bits and pieces that we take with us on our caravan holidays and its usually far more than we need but we do it every year on the ‘just in case’ basis. But by Friday evening we had all the paperwork together, Jennifer has got all the bedding and towels organised whilst Noel gets all the bits of equipment required for a safe journey and also to comply with the law. This includes Caravan tyre pressures being checked and wheel nut torques and extra mirrors and many more bits and pieces and not forgetting the awning and  flooring,  plus tyre pressure gauges and pumps, and electric drills, so much to remember but we both have lists that we have created over the past years.

Come Saturday we were nearly ready and had some spare time to watch the famous wedding of Prince Harry to Meeeeghan something or other who has a really mixed up family, I don't think it will last!!!, but I have been known to be wrong. The American preacher was over the top and went on far to long and in the end we left the room whilst the guest at Windsor all went to sleep.

Then Noel watched the first half of the FA Cup Final with Chelsea (Noels team) playing Manchester United and quite frankly after the way they played in Newcastle a week earlier I had no hopes of a win, but I was wrong it would appear. Chelsea had most of the ball in the first half and after a clear and blatant foul on Hazard we got a penalty and that was it, we won the game. Quell surprise as they say.

At 18..00 we left the house and prepared the caravan for departure and by 1845 we were on the M25 heading for the A3 and Portsmouth where we arrived at around 20.00 in ample time for our Brittany ferry at 22.45. We were second in the caravan queue which we thought would be good only to be stopped for a security check which lasted about 15 minutes and then this put us at the back of the caravan queue.Bastards…. and so we only got on the ferry about fifteen minutes before it sailed whilst all the other people were already in bed. The MV Good ship ‘Normandie’ departed Portsmouth on time with an arrival time in Caen at the ungodly hour of 0645 French time, or 0545 English real time, and so a short night.

Ah well the advantage would be an early arrival at out caravan site.