Day 34-35

On the move again after some relaxing times in Scotland. We drove onto Herding Hill Farm in Northumberland for the night before heading to North Yorkshire for one of the main events on our trip, the Deershed Festival.

Whilst we were in northern England we made a few stops along Hadrian's Wall for the benefit of Bear who has recently been learning about the Romans at school. We had a look around the Roman museum and then Vindolanda, the roman site. It's currently a working archaeological site which I thought was brilliant!

We drove along the road parallel to the Wall and stopped in a car park for lunch. One of the best things I will remember is the little coffee cart sat in the corner. He had a proper coffee machine in the back. We enjoyed a cappacino and a white coffee in the carpark overlooking the Northumberland hills. The guy used to have a Type 2 van and then progressed to a Type 25 which he said was just like driving the type 2 but more practical and a tad more reliable!


Incidentally, this is the name of the area the carpark was in. Hubby mentioned 'Broccolli-shire' and I can't stop my childish giggles when I see this picture. I'm sorry.

Betty meets the Angel of the North (on the horizon)

Day 28 - 15th July - Happy Anniversary

C-Pops has had wicked hay fever pretty much since we have been here. He is susceptible to respiratory probs we think, having had croup twice and a cough every other month. (We have seen the doctor, don't worry. Asthma has not been diagnosed as the doctor thinks if we keep on top of it, it could clear without getting that far). Anyway, he's been wheezing and struggling with his breath after running. So he's back on the liquid Ventolin. He's also had itchy eyes which quickly turned in to allergic conjunctivitis. But he has been a brave boy throughout, barely complaining. He says he doesn't want to go to bed because he'll wake up with his eyes stuck together if he does. Joy.

We're camping near Arisaig in the Scottish Highlands with hubby's family. It's our 11th anniversary today. (It's Steel apparently. I like the modern one though, Jewellery). It's pretty cloudy and cool but hey it's dry!

We've had a lovely breakfast with posh coffee and we're off rockpooling on the nearby beach. It did end up with me 'escorting' my son from the premises as he was carrying out an almighty melt-down. Who says romance is dead?

I thought I’d listen to the radio to catch up with latest music (albeit overplayed chart music no doubt). However in the space of no less than 25 minutes, 2 songs were played. My god, it’s never-ending random chat with DJs and featured presenters (the showbiz correspondent for instance) talking over each other and just not being funny at all. So I now have the iPod on and so far, it’s been Beautiful South and Ashley MacIsaac. Love it.


Grampa's babysitting so we're off to dinner tonight in Arisaig. A table booked at Cafe Rhu.

Post-edit:16/7/11

Our evening was wonderful! We drove and left the car at the cafe. We managed to get a window seat and had a lovely view over the harbour. We had some beautiful wine and some amazing food. It was just gorgeous. The owner is also the chef, he's a South African who I think said has been here 4 years. His mother is Scottish.

So we had scallops, black pudding wonton, Cape malay Bobotie with veg pilaf and sambals, braised beef, chocolate and nutella torte (drooooooooool....) and cheese and bisuits and 2 bottles of 2010 Freedom Cross Pinotage from Franschoek.

We knew that we would walk back (about 2 miles!) and I'm glad we did. We passed the local pub with music floating from within so we had to stop by for a dram and a listen to some traditional live music. And that set us up for the walk back in the darkness.

A lovely day, happy anniversary, hon X

Summer Trip Update - Days 24 and 25

And so we are on the road again. This time heading to Amsterdam to get the ferry to Newcastle, then onto Scotland to see hubby’s family.

We had a lovely buffet meal in the restaurant. Hubby remembered a family holiday to Norway; they took the same ferryline and had a very similar meal. He remembered him and his family being shown by the ship’s chef how to eat shrimps.

So we had a big selection including plenty of gluten free food. I was pleasantly surprised to see all this; I’m not gluten-intolerant myself but I’ve become more aware of it as a close friend of mine is G.I. (is that how you refer to it?!). Then thinking about it, the European supermarkets had an aisle just for organic, sugar-, gluten-, dairy-free etc food. It was refreshing to see. In the middle east, it seems barely a fifth of one side of the aisle contains such food, whereas both sides of one aisle is all for chocolate and candy, and that doesn’t include the chocolate biscuits in the next aisle!

Ok, back to the ferry. After dinner the kids went to the kids club where they made a sunhat out of card and then went on a treasure hunt around the ship. Bizarrely going through the sports bar and ending up in the disco! But they played musical chairs and the Dutch multi-lingual clown made them balloon shapes. A bit random, but fun!

It was a 14 hour overnight ferry journey so we booked a cabin. A spacious 4 berth cabin, very comfy!

We arrived in Newcastle, 12th July, day 25.

We drove to Scotland, stopping in a layby for lunch!

Continuing on we overtook a Porsche! I got a video of the momentous event…

(blogger won't let  me post it!)

...but literally 10 seconds after that our hubcap fell off! So we had to come back the other way and I ran out to retrieve it! It was one of the two VW ones that the original restorer didn’t get his dirty thieving mitts on.

Scotland update next time.

Summer Trip Update - days 21 to 24

We made it to our furthest destination, Wildenrath in Germany, seeing our friends who had left Oman last Spring. I was over the moon that we had made it this far and anything that happnes after this point will be a bonus. Betty has got us here to see our dear friends.

We were here for the weekend and were invited to their Summer ball. Both of their families were there too and we were made to feel so welcome and relaxed. It was truly a special time, getting together with the Other Mitchells again. We left the party at the very end (4am), we got the last transport and arrived home with the dawn arriving. I haven’t done that (apart from the baby-feeding in the early hours which I remember wasn’t anywhere as much fun!) since we went to the Naval balls in Scotland in the late 90s.

I laughed, danced, talked, ate, drank, played air guitar (my husband still told me he loved me so I must have ROCKED!), sang, embarrassed myself doing the bar fly, gave myself friction burns from the bungy run, sucked in helium balloons...! I think I can say I really did relax. I think with fancy dress there's an instant air of informality.

The kids had a super time too seeing their old friend. C was so excited about seeing him, every hour he'd ask which country we were in, and whether it was Germany. I think it was good for him as it didn't register with him that they had actually left Oman...he talked about lots of us all getting sharp knives and cutting out our Oman house and moving it next to theirs in Germany. Bless... So, thank you W for entertaining them, hope you had fun too!

A wonderfully awesome weekend.

This old MG was at the end of the little lane on the way to the ice-cream parlour

Summer Trip Update - Days 17 to 21

And so it seems we are well on the road trip now! I’ve bought the kids camper t-shirts with road trip on!

Our Uckfield friends waved us off from Thriftwood campsite near Sevenoaks and we started to pootle along on the M20 heading to Dover to catch the 1200 ferry to France. I couldn’t help but start smiling, especially driving through my home county. We should start to compile a soundtrack to the holiday!

So we arrive at Dover happy as anything, plenty of time to change some money, freshen up, have a coffee, buy a magazine (I bought Q incidentally… summer highlights plus 25 year anniversary celebrations…reminiscing when Spike Milligan interviewed Van Morrison for instance, along with an album review of REM’s brilliant Life’s Rich Pageant along with interviews with Mumford and Sons and Arcade Fire…they played Hyde Park on the 30th June. :-(   (That would have rated very highly on my must-see gig list.)

I digress!

And so we hit our next hiccup with Betty, Yes, it appears it continues. I kept this quiet (this is for the benefit of my Dad!) as it would be all I could do to stop him driving to Dover to come and get us and drive the van into the Channel I think. Well, if I haven't driven her in there myself.

The bus would not start when it was time to embark. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Our resident mechanic (whom I’m thinking of asking to be my Facebook friend as we seem to spend so much time speaking with him!). He guided the Captain (who was probably cursing his inferior lack of spanner/screwdriver set-ownership at this point) on how to check the connections from the solenoid to the starter motor and how to short it to see if the engine will turn over. Engine was fine (which was the issue last year)...

...so the very nice AA man was called out. He checked the ignition barrel, it was seized, probably welded itself in place over 40 years. He showed us how to hotwire my van! We obviously missed the 1200 but made the 1400 ferry. She’s feeling a little temperamental at this stage to me (much like I am to be honest…) ... last year’s shenanigans aside.

Destination: De Lilse Bergen campsite in Belgium.

We arrived after a lovely couple of hours driving. I waited in the van in the car park and kept the engine running. I was asked to turn the engine off by a rather irate lady but I had to tell her I couldn’t as it probably wouldn’t start again. So I drive around the carpark waiting for hubby to check in. Combining the facts that he was taking ages and that I thought I was seeing engine fumes in the back, I turned off the ignition.

It wouldn’t start again.

Hotwiring = 2 sparks and nothing else except a fuming husband who couldn’t look at me for fear of throttling me I feel. Correct me if I’m wrong darling… ;-x

We were towed to a temporary spot at 2230…by a golf buggy. At least there weren’t too many people to have a double- and triple-take. Like there were at 1000 the next morning when said golf-buggy came to repeat the procedure to get us to our booked spot. I was wheeling the luggage alongside it. Oh I laughed… :-/

Anyway, long story short, we managed to start to relax…although I had a migraine…One of the super staff at the site called the garage in his town and a mechanic came out the next day. He did his magic and she was brought back to life again.

We were even brave enough to venture into the nearest town, a rather run-down Gierle. We found a supermarket and stocked up. We happened to be in the only supermarket in town and the one that didn't take visa, mastercard or the topped-up currency card from Travelex. I had to stay in the shop whilst hubby ran in the rain to the nearest ATM.

As an aside, I have never seen such a high number of cows in the fields here. But the campsite shop and the supermarket did not stock fresh milk. ????

UK trip update

So we've been back in the UK for nearly two weeks!

One of the things that I notice being back here is the reaction of people when I ask them how they are. One of the Costa baristas responded and returned the question, most others look blankly at me and think I’m That Special Person that every town has. Ha ha, I don’t mind! It’s been rather nice to see the faces of the counter staff light up because someone has stopped and asked how they are before getting down to ordering a coffee or paying for the shopping. That’s one thing I’ve gained from Oman for sure.

I’m reading ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom at the moment which has prompted a few maybe not revelations, but contemplations certainly. Staying on the subject of a cheerful greeting, Albom writes when greeted by his old lecturer so happily every week, “how much better would people get along if their first encounter each day were like this – instead of a grumble from a waitress, bus driver or a boss?” referring to how Morrie would really greet someone and listen “as if you were the only person in the world”. I plan to carry on greeting like this…but I wonder how long it’ll take for me to resume my typically British manner and grumble a ‘hello’ if anything at all!

Weather- it has varied between rain, 14C and partly cloudy and 24C (relatively cool but it was humid!). I wonder how Mimi, (Shy Rebellious Arab Chick LINK, not my sister!) is getting on! I haven’t been on the internet for so long that I can’t even check in to see how she is faring in the UK (she is here from Oman).

Aaaargh!!

Having problems commenting on other people's blogs!!!!!

Olga K -
*girly sqeeeeeal*
Thought so! This is a start of a new chapter in your life, how exciting! I'll be thinking of you and look forward to the updates. Take lots of care of yourself. X

Mimi -
Hope you're still enjoying your UK trip! Thinking of you. We're in Dover heading across to France and the weather is beautiful. Hope you are having fun! X

Currently stuck in a lane trying to get on the ferry. The van is not starting so I thought I'd take the time to start slowly putting on a few entries.

If it lets me.

X

UK Trip Update - Day 10

We collected Betty!

Betty was running perfectly with a few funny sounds on start-up but the main thing was that we made it to Mr and Mrs Gee’s house…one of the stops we were meant to make last year. A lovely couple of days with them and then back on the road.

Although one ‘hiccup’ with the engine…being the engine-savvy girl that I am (NOT) I’m going to pass on describing what had happened as it won’t make sense! So we headed back to the restorers on our way to Kent. He did his thing and we were on our way. Stayed overnight in the campsite in West Witterings where I honestly felt at my lowest on the trip last summer because of the issues we had with the van, cash flow, no money to pay for the campsite, raiding the kids pocket money to pay for the pitch…made me very aware of those less fortunate than us and those that financially struggle day to day. I’ve always been very humble and thankful that we are comfortable but it really did bring it home.


But on a happier lighter note this year!


We’re at a super holiday park near Sevenoaks. And we set up everything without a hitch…are we getting the hang of this now?! Betty looks so pretty in the dappled sunlight.

Next on the agenda, the ferry from Dover to Dunkerque. The furthest she will have been.