Three nights at the De Vere Cotswold Water Parks Hotel

Well we had a great three nights at this Hotel as we felt we needed a break away from the caravan and the chance of a proper double bed and somebody else to do the cooking and no need to empty the chemical loo, heaven!.

Our journey from Waterrow took just over two and a half hours and we were able to check in right away in to our Studio Apartment which was quite large but a view over the garden and car park rather than the lake, oh well, better luck another time. We spent quite a lot of time on the first and second day in the room with walks to dinner and as breakfast was being delivered on a daily basis although not suitable for Noel which required a walk to reception to collect some bacon and scrambled egg buns. On Friday we went for a longish drive going via some of the lovely Cotswolds Villages and also some shopping in Waitrose Cirencester which was a big ship and with the café newly opened we tested out a cup of tea and a cake before heading back to the Hotel. In the evening we went to the Boathouse restaurant but the choice of food at the Hotel is limited by the amount of chefs they can have working in the kitchens which is such a shame.

In the evening we watched a bit of BBC Tv and I can honestly  say its quite rubbish and I am am not sure what type of audience it catering to, certainly not us and so I doubt I well re-sign up for a BBC licence when most of the time we watch streaming stuff.

After a nice nights sleep on Saturday morning we headed off to our next hotel…..

A day trip to Penzance by train

Well after several weeks living in the caravan and not being able to go away overseas as we normally would we decided to get out and about a bit more but leave Somerset for a few days and so for the first day out we have booked a train journey from Taunton down to the end of the line in Penzance.

And so an early morning for us getting up around 0730 and we left the site just before 0830 en-route to Taunton station, we went a little early as we have no idea how busy the parking is and just to be safe and eve though we got stuck behind school buses and road works we arrived in plenty of time to find that the train was running about 20 minutes late. Oh well!!!. We had booked first class tickets to ensure we would not be in a crowded train and the arrival board showed that the first class carriages were at the front of the train so down the station we went and board the the first coach only to find afterwards that the first class was at the back of the train and so off we went to claim our correct seats.

The train journey took about four hours and passed thro some nice country and then along the coast line in one place we could see about three large cruise ships parked and we eventually arrived in Penzance in the bright sun and it was really lovely and the place was buzzing. We walked along the coast line in the direction of the restaurant we had chosen and it was very nice and we both had the largest scallops I think we have ever had and then Jen had the fish pie and me a large steak and we saw this off with a bottle of wine. The food was lovely but the service was extremely slow and by the time we had finished we had to go back to the station for our train which noel thought was 16.15 but on arriving we checked out tickets and it was actually 16.50 although Jennifer discovered that actually there was no 16.50 train and so we had to rush to connect with the 16.15 which got us back to Taunton around 20.00 hrs. Of course you had to wear your mask on the train at all times and also there was no buffet service so you could not get a cup of tea.

It was a most enjoyable day out but were were both rather tired by the time we got back to the caravan. Tomorrow we have booked to stay away for six nights with three in the Cotswolds and another three nights in a interesting hotel in Wotten-under-edge in Gloucestershire.

A very busy last week getting the caravan ready for winter

As we have not really ever caravanned in the winter we recognise that we have some things to prepare so as not to have a frozen water system either in or outside the caravan.

So with a trip in to Taunton we purchased some very thick insulation to wrap around the pipes and then this took a couple of hours to fix and also in the recent storm the carbon pipes moved quite a bit we followed our neighbours advice and purchased some jubilee clips to hold all the pipes in place. We also changed the water outlet to two rather than the one to ensure there would not be any risk of one pipe freezing and blocking the other and so over the few days it took to purchase and complete allowing for the poor weather all is complete. The weather was so bad at one point that the wind was so strong that it blew over over our gas BBQ.

Finally as part of the clearing up process we stripped the contents of the awning and laid down new plastic to protect the rubber matting and then moved the refrigerator to the far end of the van and so inside the awning it looks so much nicer and much tidier.

We are also changing the control panel in the van as the current one is old and getting quite difficult to read and so the during the annual service on Saturday 12th the engineer will hopefully fit it. The site has been quite full in September and according to Jamie the site owner they are pretty much booked up fully for September and also October which is great for them. The demand for caravans and motorhomes this year has been enormous and it has been quite difficult this year to purchase a new van as the manufacturers were closed and the only stock second hand or what the dealer had on the forecourt which was immediatly sold out. Sites have been overwhelmed with bookings and one small thing I discovered was that there was a big shortage of chemical toilet stuff and so I have had to stock up big time to cover us thro the next couple of months.

Anyway we plan to have a few days away from the caravan not because we are bored but we do like to travel around and so we are in the process of fixing up a few days away and also it helps if the days go by faster that we can get to house move quicker, we shall see what happens.

 

Where has the time gone??

Well time seems to have flown by in the last few weeks with us enjoying time with the family plus a trip back to West Byfleet to see how the new house is coming along.

So starting with the house visit a couple of weeks ago the journey up was appalling with with heavy rain all the way but when we got to to Weybridge we were unable to visit the Cafe One which has been a regular haunt and ended up in a new place for a a bacon sandwich for lunch followed by Noel getting a haircut for the first time in a few months. We stayed the night in the Hilton Cobham, good rates and near West Byfleet, and then we went to building site and found that our house was being painted, which is great, but the wrong colour which was not so great. Because they were painting we could net see anything really as all the kitchen and bathroom furniture was covered so not really a good visit but they have in the meantime repainted the house as required.

We found that on the Wednesday night when we were there that all restaurants were fully booked due to the Government assistance and so we had difficulty finding somewhere but e chanced upon a Fish and Chip restaurant in West Byfleet which had a special room upstairs, called Jane upstairs, where we could enjoy table service Fish and Chips from down stairs plus a bottle of wine and its walking distance from the new house.  Following that we did a quick visit to Waitrose across the road and it at least twice the size of the one in Weybridge and we are really hoping they have as good a fish counter as the Waitrose in Wellington, Somerset, time will tell.

Last weekend it was Noels birthday on the 22nd of August and it was great that our son and daughter and connected families were all together in Taunton and we could enjoy their company and have lunch together in the local farm shop café which was really nice. It was fun to watch the kids demolish ice cream sundaes.

We have experienced very strong winds and rain during the past week and the awning was taking a battering and the locks on the legs not holding and then the neighbours suggested putting jubilee clips on and so on last Monday we went to Wickes in Taunton and got some jubilee clips and also some pipe insulation for later this year to stop all the water pipe freezing up. We fitted the jubilee clips on Tuesday and that required a complete tightening of all poles and this resulted in a much tighter and stronger awning.

Well this is being written on yet another wet day, in fact very wet and it has not stopped all since we woke up. We did have ideas of going to the seaside and eat fish and chips in the car but changed our minds as its so bad weather wise and opted for a steak and salad in the van and then a pleasant afternoon nap. We also recd a photo of the repainted front entrance and downstairs corridor from the site including a photo of the guys preparing the front pathways, looking good.

This Covid thing keeps on going and is ruining daily life for millions of people but I suspect as some time we will just have to accept just like the flu and hopefully they can find and antidote soon as the number of deaths is working its way to one million which is not good at all. Oh well lets see what happens.

Various comments on life

Hi. Have just watched the full footage of the arrest and killing allegedly of George Floyd which has caused riots all over the world as this was classed as a racist attack. The Washing Post that rubbish newspaper printed a report as they were the only newspaper allowed to see the complete tape which clearly indicated that the police were very much at fault, but when you watch the video from start to finish things are not what they seem. Why they did not publish the video earlier I do not not know but in the meantime the BLM were calling for the death penalty or at least being charged and jailed for murder but once you see the full video, there is perhaps no charge to answer for. The guy was drugged up to to the eyeballs and already complaining he could not breath even before the police touched him, take a look .

Anyway this single event has caused the riots all over USA and Europe and all were incorrect. A well known Black American has said that Black Lives only matter when there is a white man involved but in the majority of cases its black man killing black man which nobody seems to care about in the daily press? you work it out.

A  bit quieter week last week after quite busy few days in the pervious week. We have decided to buy a new television for the caravan as the current is is a bit small and when you watch a film with subtitles its a bit difficult to read. This TV has been excellent but we had a small one as we were using it on our touring holidays and it needed to be packed away each time we moved location and a bigger TV would have given us a storage problem but now being fixed in ne location we have jumped for a 18 inch to a 28 inch smart tv which is really great. We were planning a lunch out with our daughter but the usual places were packed out due to the current government incentive on Monday to Wednesday inclusive and so we visited Waitrose in Wellington and bought salad stuff which we ate inside as the weather had turned rather wet.

Lexus seem to have buggered up the installation of the Wi-Fi hotspot in the car by allowing the dealer to put in a part which was not fully supported. This problems has resulted in endless phone calls and three visits to Exeter over the past three weeks but know they seem hopeful t may be finalised next week, we shall see as I have told them if it does not work by the end of next week then money back please.

We resorted the layout in the awning and its much better with lots more room and all it took was ten minutes and a bottle of wine!!! Ha not true but now its easy to use the table in the awning for eating rather than having to fight our way past relaxer chairs.

The caravan site is still quite full and is apparently so for the rest of August and in to September which is really good for the site owner as they had a tough start to the year. COVID 19 has impacted everybody's life during this year and there still some stupid people out there not following the rules of social distancing and its appears its is mostly the younger generation and the Asians who all live in large families and close together and as one Mayor said that many of the people in Leicester who cam from Bangladesh did not understand either written or verbal English and totally ignored the requirements of social distancing.

Moving on lets hope somebody sorts out the every growing amount of people crossing the English Channel in Boats is its dangerous enough and its the French Authorities are supporting it seems with the   government taking no action, send in the submarines….that's what I say.

Finally Chelsea lost, as expected, in Germany yesterday with only half a full team, lets hope that Frank can sort it out.

Quite a busy week really

As the weather was nice ths last week we decided now that we have pretty much sorted the paperwork and the caravan that a few days out would be nice so as Noel was committed to a Video Conference on Monday lunchtime for an hour or so we planned to take a trip out on Tuesday and Wednesday as follows. So on Tuesday we drove over to the old town of Dulverton for lunch at the Copper Kettle which we have visited before and had a very good lunch indeed although the service was a little on the slow side but they had tables well spaced and and the staff wearing either masks or facemasks.

On Wednesday we took a trip down to the Clatworthy Reservoir and walked around there for a while and then headed of to Wimbleball Lake which was quite busy with a lot of campers and people on the lake fishing and sailing and so we stopped and had a cup of tea and a cake before heading back via all the small country lanes to the caravan for a quiet evening watching TV and packing for the trip up to the smoke, as they say.

On Thursday we drove back to Weybridge area for both of us to meet u with friends at two different locations but then we ended up together and finally left to check in to the Hotel just before 9.30 PM but a lovely day with friends whilst Jennifer's group celebrated her up coming birthday. On Friday Jennifer had a dental appointment then Noel had the car seen to at the Polish car wash before Jennifer met with a group of lady friends in out old road whilst Noel did the same and had lunch in the steak house in Ottershaw followed by a few glasses of plonk in the beautiful garden by the River Wey whilst watching the boats and canoes etc go by.

We had enjoyed two nights in the Cobham Hilton Hotel and although we had been offered beds by friends we do like to have our on space and not be beholding ,as they say. We then headed to see our son and daughter-in-law and grandchild for a light snack sandwich lunch before we headed to the dreaded A 303 which we new woud be slow and in the end we diverted via Salisbury to miss the usual huge delays at Stonehenge where peope seem to stop driving normally and look at this pile of stones whilst slowing down the traffic and having accidents causing even more delays.

We finally made it back to caravan with a trip that was about 45 minutes longer than usual but in time to see Chelsea to get beaten in the FA Cup Final, shame as they started of well then followed by two serious injuries and an incorrect sending off, so bit of a disaster really.

Oh well we have a much quieter week next week apart from a planned trip to Exeter and Salcombe.

A few interesting days

As reported in the last Blog we planned a trip to Highbridge near Burnham on see to a caravan dealer to look at other awning flooring but frankly after about 15 minutes it became clear that the good stuff from Isabella was really expensive whilst we already had some of the cheaper stuff and so we left after buying loo chemicals, so not exiting visit. From there we went to Burnham on sea which was quite crowded and we had intended to visit a little beachside café for a snack but it looked crowded with long queues and with little car parking space we agreed that this was a waste of time and so went shopping in Wellington Waitrose then home for a fish dinner. The fish counter in this shop is the best we have seen of all supermarkets either in Weybridge or near us now.

Last week prior to visiting the West Byfleet new house we visited Lexus in Exeter to have a Wifi Hot spot fitted  similar to that in the Land Cruiser, or previous vehicle, this was due to take an hour and bit but took three hours and since then it has not worked. After lots of phone calls and email complaints it now appears that instead of fitting the requested unit where I have to supply my own SIM card they fitted a brand new system to Lexus, the trouble is it doesn't work yet. Apparently Lexus are introducing this new system on all new cars in the UK starting soon but as those cars were not in the UK they have not finished the set up and so here I am holding the baby having paid lots of dough for a superior system which does not work and they are unable to also advise what the running costs are as it is not set up yet. This is rather annoying but lets see what happens.

On Wednesday we had lunch with our daughter and grandchildren and then Thursday paid a visit to a bed retailer and eventually ordered some new mattresses for the caravan as the existing ones are quite old , nearly 9 years, and we both seem to be waking with back problems. They are of course not standard size and have to be made to measure which always puts the cost up but now we are waiting to find out what the delivery time will be.

We have pretty much got really organised know with the van having a been completely sanitised  from end to end and so know we can relax a little more knowing there is not much to do except the odd day out and shopping.

The caravan site is quite busy as you would expect after everybody being locked up for so long but when speaking to my brother in law about visiting Salcombe he said it is a nightmare there at the moment with so much traffic chaos and although we were panning a visit as in the previous week both of us had attended either a dentist or other crowded places we decided it would be wise to stay away rather than risk either catching or passing on Covid to the family.

Just seen the news about the three travellers who were charged with manslaughter rather than murder after dragging a policeman to his death. a disgusting decision!! what has happened to real Law and Order.

I am also a bit pissed off with the BLM protest, its rubbish as proven by the fact there are so many black people who have been successful either in sport or other professions it just goes to show what you can do if you work hard. And as for the BLM movement in America I understand there is a movement to try and close down the Democratic party as they had actively encouraged Black slavery for many years, although they have tried to deny this, and with the intention of closing down the Dem party, sounds good to me.

Oh well its fish for dinner tonight and some TV..

Well its been a busy couple of weeks

Well following the announcement that caravan sites can open we urgently chased the opportunity to move to the caravan ad so we did on the 6th of July via a night stop in the the White Hart Hotel in Wiviliscombe.

It takes a littlw while to set up a caravan for a long term stay as there many things you suddenly need which you do not need for short terms holidays but after two weeks being here we are are now well organised, well nearly. We had to purchase a few things to aid creature comfort but now beginning to feel we are in our other home for a while. During the past couple of weeks Noel got his health results back and they were good which is pleasing but then on about 8 days ago broke a back tooth and so we decided to take a look at the new house and see how it was coming along and therefore we had a quick trip back to Surrey and stayed the night in the Cobham Hilton Hotel which was nearly deserted and no restaurants but not a bad price for such a good Hotel.

The visit to the new house was good and we have approx. completion date of 2nd October but this all depends on no more COVID outbreaks and the work catching up on site whilst they appear to be selling or at least reserving a lot more so we will not be the only people in the state it seems. The kitchen units are part way fitted as is the ovens and fridge freezer but still a lot to do throughout the building but the quality is good. The garden being being fenced off and looks bigger that they that had advised but will measure in due course.

The weather in Somerset has been really good and in the last few days we could actually do some sunbathing, well at least sit in the shade as neither of us like lying in the sun and trying to look like an African.

We had a nice visit to see all our grandchildren in Somerset when Michael and Becky came with Ethan to stay with Joanne and Tim and family and so was able to get some nice candid shots of the kids, much better that the formal ones.

We are on a nice site which is quite large right at the end of the caravan park and mostly surrounded by other seasonal pitch people who only appear for weekends mostly and so it fairly quiet. We decided to get yo know our neighbours and invite them round for drinks and nibbles on Saturday night but they all brought their own drinks  and so the effort to get some good wine and beer was wasted except no doubt we shall just have to drink it ourselves.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip up to a caravan retailer to look at awning carpet followed by lunch and then a tour along the coast back to home and if the weather stays as nice as it is now it should be a pleasant day out as we think we deserve it.

So here is a photo of our home for a while..

Nearly there

Well finally they announced that Caravan sites will open on 4th of July and so we can go to our once the existing caravan can be moved which is due to happen today and so we are planning to travel down to Wiviiscombe via our daughters house in Taunton then pen the night in Wivi and collect our baggage trailer from the Storage Container with the view to getting the awning up and the caravan ready for occupation the same day. We had originally planned to leave the apartment on Monday and then via Taunton to Wivi and that would take about four hours out of our day and we need the time to set up the caravan whilst recovering from the journey as we are not getting any younger.

During the past week we have seen friends in Reading and Weybridge and over the next couple of days need to reorganise the post box to forward our mail to the caravan site in Waterrow. We had a visit from Michael and Ethan yesterday which was lovely and great to see such a beautiful growing boy who is almost potty trained and less than two years old. We have decided to help Michael purchase a new car as his existing Volvo is very old but now has done 145000 miles and not reliable which is the last thing to have when you are travelling with a young child and dog and of course a very important wife.

We will be reaching our 50th Wedding Anniversary next May on 31st 2021 and have been considering how to celebrate and have finally decided on a cruise in the Eastern Med and so late May we fly to Istanbul and then take a Seabourn Ships cruise around the Greek Islands and finishing in Venice, but we also plan to have a few extra days around Istanbul and perhaps other places in Turkey but we have to work an an itinerary.

Noel has had his 5 year cancer check up with a blood test and CT Scan earlier this week with the result being advised next week, its a little slow at the moment as all resources are busy due to COVID but hoping for a good result. Also had a biopsy on my leg where there is a wound which will not heal and so waiting for the NHS to report back and if there is any delay then will go private as my insurance will cover this.

Have been watching the shenanigans with China over Hong Kong where the UK has offered a special citizenship to nearly three million people, where we will put them I don't know but then again a lot may be living in the Uk currently, we shall see what happens but the Hong Kong Chinese are very industrious people and very hard working and if they come to the Uk they will add something unlike other nationalities currently residing here.

The death toll due COVID is very bad but difficult to compare to other countries as the stats are produced in a different way by each country so we will have to wait but the problems in the USA and Latin America is very bad as is further break outs in Australia and Germany so we shall have to be careful.

Finally on BREXIT the EU still does not seem to understand that we do not wan their rules and regulations because if we do accept then they can still rule what we can a cannot do and it looks like our chief negotiator is doing an exvellent job as he is really pissing off the Mr Barnier and his colleagues in crime.

Well we have left our home of 40 years in Weybridge

As some of you may know we have decided to downsize our house to something a little smaller, not a lot smaller, but just a little smaller and we have just exchanged contracts on our new property in West Byfleet built by Octagon Builders who have a very good reputation.

Following Noels health issues in 2015 it made us think what would happen if there was just one of us to live in this rather big Piplin House and then the need o move would be more important and any moving is challenging. So in early 2019 we put the house on the market with a local agent at the time that the country was in strife with poor Government and everybody debating BREXIT and so the umber of viewings was very small and so we knew we would have to wait a bit. At the end of January after quite a few viewings had taken place as now we had a stable Government and Brexit would take place the market picked up and we received an offer on Piplin which after some haggling we accepted.

So where to go, over the previous year we had visited a number of areas but not really looking at specific houses but to look at the area and the house price within but really did not see what we would like and meet our criteria for the future. We had visited a new building site in West Byfleet and decided the concept was nice and after thinking about it overnight decided , lets go fo it only to find the house had been sold later that afternoon, damn.

Over the next few weeks in Florida were were offered several others on site and then finally one that was Ok was offered as somebody had to withdraw and down went the £1K deposit and over the next few weeks in Florida we had to do quite a lot.

Moving forward a few months we have moved out from Piplin with some cash in a safe place and now waiting for September for the house to be finished as all this COVID19 stuff slowed down the build. In the meantime we are in a rented apartment in Wraysbury near Staines waiting for the caravan sites to open so we can move in there.

So now time to kill and try to relax and plan the stuff for the house which we hope to see for only the second time next week as they should have put the stairs in, we hope.

These two anchors should be left in the sea

Well when you have two very vicious middle-aged women fighting to see who can become more well known than the prime minister than you automatically think of Laura Ginsberg and Emily Maitlis of the BBC ( the Biased Broadcasting Catastrophe) . Watching these two supposed intelligent females is like watching hyenas snapping at each other each trying to get the dead meat on the desert floor. The BBC has really gone down hill and entered the level of other broadcasters by reporting both fake news and some they have just twisted to suit their own ends.

They should be left on the bottom of the ocean along with all the other rubbish.

Its about time that Government broke this pile of rubbish up and hived of the so called news programme which nowadays is the ‘OUR BIASED OPINION CHANNEL’ and sell the other off to the highest bidder and close down all the enormous salaries being paid for by the the British Public.

What a load of old rubbish!!!!!

I fully agree with Alan Sugar

Finally the numbers are improving- but should it have happened?

Well finally the number of deaths around the world sees to be dropping and many countries are now trying to re-open and allowing people to return to work.

As usual there still to many newspaper and TV journalists all trying to point a finger at the Government for handling the pandemic badly but as previously expressed its hard to handle what you don't know about as just every country of the world has discovered. If we had experienced with great pain the SARS bug then we would have been prepared a bit more to handle this thing which hangs around for a couple of weeks and then pounces when you least expect it. One good thing it appears to leave children alone but on the bad side it is hitting hard at the elderly and frail and those with other health challenges and they appear to be in the majority of those people dying. Non whites are also badly affected and there is a current study in to why this is and it will very interesting to find out why.

We were hoping to spend some time in Europe this year and also our caravan which is based about 25 minutes from Taunton in Somerset but all caravan sites were closed in mid march and so now its nearly four months since I changed the battery and so I hope its holding up until we can get down there, perhaps after 1 June there are some indication there will be more relaxation of the rules.

On a Political note, labour have a new head chef and bottle washer who makes a good appearance then discovers that not doing you homework can creates a problem when quoting government stats. Thank heavens Boris is OK after his bout of Covid as he is the driving force behind the Conservative Government and of course whilst he was away the press loved to say ‘Rudderless Government ‘  and ‘Out of Control’ what a lot of bullshit, if up pardon my French. Also the press like to adapt the truth and then ask questions back to the originator and hope they agree with adaption. Its a shame that the British Government does not bite back to the Press as Trump people do which is good to watch.

On the US front it looks like that the Obama regime were up to some naughty stuff as ‘OBAMAGATE’ has now appears to be a hot topic and what with the famous Mt Biden being unable to remember his name!!! really he is not electable and they desperately need to find somebody else as Trump will surely win again, but then what do I know.

The weather is improving a bit and the leaves are out on the trees and the grass is growing at last spring is here. lets see what the next two weeks brings.