Back In The Sunny UK!

 I haven't done a blog for a while as the signal where we are moored up is very dodgy, but tonight we are getting a lot of bars!

So back to last week.........So what do you do when driving for five days on your own......take automatic selfies of oneself driving of course.

A week ago today this was my overnight mooring, a lovely little French Village called Salasc. 

I took the boys for a walk round the village, it was like most little French villages, very quiet, but oh so fascinating. 

The next day I continued heading north right through the centre of France, I drove over the famous Millau viaduct, it is a spectacular piece of engineering. 

A shot nicked off of the web!

As I continued north the weather deteriorated, it was bloody cold and the rain was hammering down, the Spanish weather was well behind me.   

My next stop was yet another lovely French village called Menetou-Salon, the free motorhome Aire here had free electric hook ups as well as the usual water and waste disposal. For motorhome touring France is easily the best in Europe for facilities, with most of them being free or a small nominal charge.

This chateau was just behind the parking area. 

I left early the next morning stopping at a small town for my breakfast cross ants! 

I then got pretty lost because the roads were flooded and the sat nav couldn't get me out, it kept sending me back to the same blocked roads. Luckily Mr friendly white van man in front of me helped me out of my predicament and I managed to escape.  

Now the fun part of the trip happened......I had been using toll roads all the way and had been doing about 500ks a day. When I crossed the Spain/France border I was pulled over by the border control police, they asked me how long I had been in Spain, where I was living down there and where was I heading, no big deal I thought.

Two days later and I am at the last toll gates before Paris, nothing unusual, but I did notice some cops on motorbikes just after the tollgates. As I left the toll gates I was struggling to put my belt on as I have to climb over the other side of the van to pay the toll,  no big deal I thought. A couple of ks down the motorway two police motorbikes pulled up alongside me and signaled me to follow them, one went in front and one behind, the had the lights and sirens on and slowed me down to about 50 ks. I followed them for another 5 ks or so until we came to a slip road, we went up the slip road with the bike in front clearing and stopping the traffic as we went. We went though the little village then turned off down a side track and stopped.

I got out of the van, to have a chat with the two cops, they had balaclavas on, which Im not sure was for the cold or to protect their identity. One spoke pretty good English, they then asked me loads of questions of where I worked where was i going, where do I live what was I doing in Spain, I explained about Elaine flying home and I was following with the dogs.  

Next a cop car and a cop  van arrived, they asked me to get the dogs out of the van and put them on their leads, they then brought over the dog and he went rummaging through the van.

They did a lot of talking amongst themselves then said I was free to go and they would take me back to the motorway.

I asked them if I could take their photos for the blog!!! A very definite kin no chance.

I asked what they were looking for, they wouldn't tell me they just said you are English, on your own, not touring but doing 5oo ks a day and they have been monitoring me from the border. I can only presume they use the toll cameras to pick up certain activity.

What they didn't realise was that I had the whole being pulled over and follow me on my dash cam, but in my haste to download it later in the day I managed to erase the file....doh!!

So Im guessing it was either drugs, illegal immigrants or explosives etc. It was rather exciting, a lot of the villagers were poking their heads down the lane to see what was going on.

Back to the humdrum.....

Bombo navigated for the first half of the trip, Sammie navigated for the second half, he was also crap! 

This was my mooring for Friday night, its a great Aire for the ferry or the tunnel, you cant get much closer.

There was a van full of cops parked up on the Aire, I presume he was there to make sure the illegals didn't try to climb in any motorhomes. 

It was an uneventful foggy crossing, I slept the whole way, I was feeling a tad tired by now. 

Elaine's sister lives in Maidstone so I picked her up on the way through to Macclesfield. She was going to spend a few days with Elaine.

I arrived in Macclesfield on Saturday afternoon after a 5 day drive. 

I am staying at Jarman farm, its a lovely working farm just on the outskirts of Macclesfield.

Of course the next problem was what are we going to do for transport, the little Citroen was still in Spain!

Elaine's lovely friend Jane came to the rescue and has lent us her lovely Volvo car, it is much appreciated and makes it so much easier to get around and to visit Elaine in hospital. 

So finally and most importantly the reason we are back in the UK......Elaine's health! 

As soon as she arrived back in the UK she went to Macclesfield A&E  they did various test etc and relieved the pain but passed her over to the Christie specialist cancer hospital in Manchester.

She has been in the Christie hospital since Sunday, she was admitted in excruciating pain, today they fitted a drain to her belly so she will be able to drain her belly herself, obviously a district nurse will come to visit us to show us how to do it at first. This is the op that they couldn't do in Spain, she will be in hospital for a few more days yet as they are also going to recommence chemo treatment, and she need to rest before they start.

The care at the Christie hospital is absolutely amazing, they have all the latest equipment and the place is absolutely immaculate. From Elaine's point of view she also feels a lot safer being able to communicate in English.

One of the things that Elaine wasn't looking forward to was  seeing  the oncologist, she was worried that they would scold her for running away to Spain and refusing treatment here back in January. She was so wrong, the head oncologist came to see her, which is pretty unusual, she told him of her worries and having egg on her face etc. His response was that they are not there to judge, only to help, he said this whilst holding her hand, it was quite touching.    

So that's that all up to date.

One last thing........and it has been bothering me for well over a week.....

As well as writing the blog I also write to a few friends mostly in Australia giving them updates on what is happening with Elaine, and yes its usually not such good news, plus of course I am focused on Elaine 24/7 so probably don't ask what is happening in their lives which of course in no problem to them at all apart from one person!!!

The reply I got from this friend was absolutely shocking beyond belief, apparently I wasn't interested on what was happening in their lives and only sent them bad news!! It made me so angry and continues to do so It also upset Elaine no end which pissed me off even more.

Twenty minutes after sending me the disgusting email this person then sent a very long email to Elaine detailing every event that had happened to them over the last month but not once asked how Elaine was!!! We have have been what I thought was really good friends with this person for probably 18 years or so. 

It was without a doubt the worst email I have ever received in any private or  business dealings. 

I was tempted to publish their email but better not lower myself to their standard.

Thankfully 99.99999% of people are terrific and supportive and for that we are eternally grateful.