Busy Day

Elaine had an appointment at Manchester today, but it was just a quickie for a change so we took the dogs with us - we decided I would take them for a walk whilst Elaine popped into the hospital.

An Emirates A380 Airbus passed over us as we were driving up the M6 ... it was on its final approach into Manchester ...

We parked up and Elaine went in for her appointment whilst I went for a walk around the area.  I found this lovely private road with some rather substantial houses in it ...

At the end of the private road there was a lovely park, with all the spring flowers ... well ... springing!

When I met Elaine we sat on the bench outside and had a cuppa in the lovely sunshine.  We noticed this though ... I hope they didn't pay the signwriter!

We got back to the boat at about lunchtime and after a quick chat with Ray and Diane plus Andy and Sue we both got stuck into our respective jobs.

I carried on using the heat gun to get the old varnish off the cratch whilst Elaine spent the afternoon sorting out cupboards, transporting stuff to the motorhome and generally preparing it for our trip next week.

It was another lovely day but a tad chilly in the wind.

By the time we had finished the sun was setting over the Aston Church ... lovely!

... and the marina was looking superb!

Back to Manchester tomorrow for an all day visit :-(

Monday Boaters Get Together

After a peaceful nights sleep in the motorhome we headed back to the good ship. 

We stopped at the Macclesfield B & Q burger van for brekky, no expense spared on our travels.

We also stopped to get some supplies at the Posh Tesco at Meir Heath.

By the time we unloaded the van and cleaned it up and sorted out the boat it was time for the Monday boaters get together.

The weather was superb so we all sat outside in the blazing sun, I reckon the temp got up to 14 degrees!!!

I was a little disturbed though as no one was drinking alcohol.....I had consumed plenty over the weekend so wasn't too concerned,  I am pretty sure the others had done the same.

The group is still quite large,  Dot and Gordon being the only ones missing so far.

Truma Trauma

We left the marina on Friday to go to Macclesfield for the weekend.  I needed to get another 3 months supply of drugs, plus there was a pub in Bollington that was in the Brit Stops Book which we wanted to check out.

Once the animals were all aboard we were off.  When we cruise on the boat the dogs assume the position on the roof, sitting in the life ring but when we start off in the motorhome the 3 cats assume the position on the bed.   Our animals have a hard life !

We popped in for a swift one at Sutton Hall, which in my opinion must be the most flash, dog friendly pub in the UK ...

Next stop was The Poachers in Bollington village.  We arrived late afternoon and were met in the car park by the landlord and his missus ... he told us to park in the corner where we could use the electrical hookup.  They said that the pub opened at five if we fancied a drink!! 

We settled in and levelled up the van on the ramps, then went to turn on the Truma heating ... nothing!  It wouldn't work on gas or 240v . The only tools I had onboard was my trusty leatherman, so I didn't rate my chances of fault finding the problem.  Elaine's friend Jane lives in the village so she came round with her dog then they all went off for a walk, leaving me to play with the defective heater.  I kept thinking it must have something to do with having the new alarm fitted the other day, it seemed so coincidental.

All of a sudden it just started working ... fantastic, it was soon very toasty inside.

We went to the pub at 19.00 with Elaine's friend Jane and her hubby Andy.  We had dinner there as well, it was a fantastic pub with good food and doggy friendly.

We left the pub late, walking 50 paces to our mobile hotel - it was a good job we didn't want to move as we were completely blocked in!  It is a very busy car park.

Oh, and once back in the motorhome the 'kin heater wouldn't work, so all seven of us snuggled up for a chilly night !

This is the pub, I love Brit Stops!  Total cost for a nights stay and elec hookup ... £0.00 ... mind you we did have a few pints plus dinner, so we all benefit.

The following morning we left the motorhome in the car park and went for a walk around the village.  The Landlord said we could stay there days if we wanted, the book says 24 hours only, but obviously if the owners don't mind it's no probs. (The owners are motorhomers and Britstops members themselves).

I love Bollington. it's one of the places that I really feel I could call home ... for the summer. 

We passed this house with many bird houses in the trees - it still amazes me when you go to a hardware store that you can buy a myriad of bird feeders, bird houses, bird food etc.  You do see them for sale back in Oz but on a very small scale compared to here.

By the time we got back all the drunks from the night before had come back and picked up their cars ... it is nice that they don't drink and drive.

The 'kin heater still wouldn't work and dollar signs were flashing in front of my eyes.

We drove to Macclesfield and parked up around the back of Elaine's dad's house.  It was then down town to get my drugs and for Elaine to do some retail therapy ... she did very well whilst I was given copious amounts of tea and coffee by the shop assistants!

When we got back to the house Elaine's brother Trevor popped around in his Moggie Minor, so we decided that we would go and attack the 'kin heater. 

We started off by checking the various fuses which are located under the dashboard, under the bonnet, next to the B pillar and in the habitation compartment, there must be about 50 fuses!!. 

Trevor went home to get his multi meter whilst I was pulling and checking fuses as we couldn't find anywhere in the manual which fuse supplied the 'kin heater!  Trev came back armed with many electrical-checking gadgets, the problem being that the heater was now working fine!!  It seems it was probably a dirty contact and that I had inadvertently fixed it.  The trouble is I didn't know which fuse it was, as I type this it is still working fine....

Where we are moored behind the house there are many trees and loads of squirrels.  The dogs hate them and go mental ... here they are looking out of the motorhome bedroom window ... what you can't see and hear is the squealing and shaking of their bodies in anticipation of ripping the squirrels to pieces!

So to today, and what a fantastic day it was.  I just love spring when new growth is starting and you can feel the heat of the oh so glorious sun ...it's been a while I tell ya.

After breakfast we decided to go for a walk up to the canal ...

This is the door of an A***hole - you can read about our meeting with him nearly 2 years ago here 

He obviously had his way and had the the water point moved away from his house but now it is a 24 hour mooring ... serves the miserable old bastard right.  He still has his surveillance video cameras in place around his gate ...

The buttresses are all repaired now from last year and the towpath is fully operational ...

We walked for miles ...  it's only been about five weeks since Elaine's major op, but she managed it with aplomb ... she said that she now feels the best she has done in years!

This has to be one of the prettiest bridges on the canal system ...

We stopped for a beer break at the Kings Head at Gurnett.  This Massey Ferguson tractor pulled up outside the pub and the driver went in for a drink.........

...... and here she is!   She told us she keeps it in her driveway and goes for weekend drives on it when she cruises at 12 MPH and has a top speed of 16 MPH!  It is a 1956 model and cost her £1000 on eBay.  Insurance is £29.00 a year and road tax £0.00 ... I want one - as does Elaine !

We will head off back to the boat in the morning.  Hopefully the weather will still be good so I can carry on varnishing the cratch boards. 

Here Come The Hercules

The things you find when out dog walking....we went for a walk over at Hixon and stumbled across a plane scrapyard.

There were all sorts of military aircraft and helicopters there.

The Hercules was the biggest

Another wingless Hercules  

                                                                         

This poor old Phantom had seen better days

And these were its better days, I googled its rego number and came up with this nice pic taken in 1977.

Other happening things today were taking the Citroen for its MOT test, which I am pleased to say passed.

The alarm man turned up on time and spent four and half hours fitting an alarm to the motorhome.

Preparing the Furry Ones For Europe

We took all five furry creatures to the vet the other day, to get their Pet Passports for Europe.  We had them all vaccinated for rabies when we left Oz - the total cost for this, including blood tests, was £1257.  This time it cost £272.50 for all five - but this was minus the blood tests and the vet gave us a £50 'bulk discount' on the vaccinations!  They are already microchipped, and up to date with their other vaccinations, so they are now all fit for travel.

We are all set with our European campsite books also.  Ann and Kevin from NB Rock n Roll gave us an Aires book, which lists over 2000 municipal motorhome stops in France, which are either free of very low cost (usually about 5 Euros).  We also bought a  ACSI book so we can book sites for a flat fee of 12, 14, 16 or 18 euros.  There are over 9400 European sites to chose from but during July and August it reverts back to the normal rate.

Well, that's the European bit!  We are getting there bit by bit with our plans.


Yesterday we had a mega Chinese buffet lunch in Stafford with Roly, Bev, Heather, Dot, Ray and Diane.  I say mega because we ate at 14.00 and that was it for the day, we didn't need dinner!

After lunch we took Dot back to Stafford Boat Club, where Gordon was busy blacking and painting the tunnel bands on their boat. We blacked our bum there last year ... if you want to do it yourself at a very reasonable cost I cannot recommend this club enough.

Gordon hard at it!

Now to today ... (the blog has gotten a bit disjointed with our 'being away' for the weekend but also we ran out of data again).

The motorhome is having a u-beaut alarm fitted today to repel pesky European thieves, or English ones to that matter!  They are also coming to have a look at the boat so that can be alarmed as well, there is nothing like a frightened boat!

Also, today the little Citroen C3 has gone for its MOT.  We fitted a new tyre a couple of days ago and had the tracking reset ... the tyre chappie said that one of the tyres on the car was still the original ... 2003!!  Good ad for Michelin.


I forgot to mention on an earlier blog ... when we were 'daan saaf' we went to sort out our phone contract with 3 as it is still in my brother's name from when we arrived here 2 years ago.  We went into the same 3 shop in Milton Keynes main shopping centre to see what we could do.  My brother started off the conversation with, "Now this is a tricky one for you ..."  Straight away the chap replied, "No it isn't, I remember selling you the phone and wifi 2 years ago when your brother arrived from Oz".  Plus he remembered what phone and wifi we had!!  He was such a helpful chap, no wonder he won the the 3 salesman of the year comp 2 years ago ... apparently he went on an all expenses paid trip to the far east!  He said he would have won it again this year except for the fact that they closed down the Milton Keynes store for 2 weeks over Xmas for renovations.  He also had the advantage of being incredibly handsome ... Elaine spent the whole 30 mins drooling!

Out and About

When we attended the Birmingham Motorhome and Caravan show at the NEC a couple of weeks ago we bought a book called Brit Stops.  It basically contains hundreds of places where you can stop overnight in the UK for free!!!  They are not campsites but are places where they hope you may spend a few bob whilst parked up ... unfortunately most of these places are country pubs!!  Some just have a secure parking spot overnight, some have basic amenities as in water and grey water waste and some go the full monty with free power etc.  They only cater for motorhomes, not caravans.  These type of sites have been popular in mainland Europe for years, now they are becoming popular in the UK.

Armed with our £25.00 book off we went.

First stop was the Fancott arms which is a nice pub just outside of Luton (my home town) ...

We parked out the back and popped in for a pint, introduced ourselves and checked that we would be OK parked up for the night.  This place had water, elec, waste dump ... the lot but the field was a bog and off limits so we just parked in the carpark.  We also booked dinner for the two of us, then sent messages to my family who live in Luton and Milton Keynes to tell them where we were.  Two hours later we were joined by seven of my family who joined us for dinner, so for this pub it worked well!  Nine people for drinks and dinner all for giving us a parking spot ... I will say that you are under no obligation to buy anything from your hosts, also you can only stay for one night. 

My sister recently had a lot of old cine films transferred onto a DVD and invited us and the rest of the family around to her place on the Saturday night for a movie night.  She also said it would be no problem for us to park the motorhome in her driveway!  Luckily she has a friendly neighbour that didn't mind us blocking his driveway for the night ... we hooked up to her electric in the garage and were set for the night!

My sister lives in a part of Luton where I lived from 1960 to 1963, so we took the dogs for a walk and found the house where I used to live.  It was brand new then, and the whole area was a building site ... my dad built the garage from excess building materials he found in the area!!!

When we got back to the house, the family dispersed into the many and various takeaway outlets just around the corner and came back with a bizarre mix of foods to eat while we watched the movie!

Elaine took some shots off the film while it was running, so they are not fantastic quality but pretty funny nonetheless !

This is me dancing with my sister in law at her wedding in 1974, as you can see I was a fan of Robert Plant! 

This was me showing my feminine side in 1976 (it was for a fancy dress, honest!) ...

It was a fantastic family get together and now that we know we can easily park in her driveway we will be having a few more visits back to my hometown!

On Sunday morning we didn't fancy heading back to the boat so decided to head off to the Cotswolds.  We checked out the Brit Stops book and noted that there were four pubs that welcomed overnight motohomes ... what a bugger, I was really hoping for an antique shop or the like!  Never mind, beggars cant be choosers.

What can you say about the Cotswolds?  It is just so gorgeous even on a crap weather day ...

The water levels were up high, and there were a few strategically placed sand bags about ...

We walked around the deserted streets in the rain, stopping for the most fantastic chocolate éclair and coffee ... 'bad weather reward food', as Elaine called it!

We found our pub in the middle of nowhere and sat by the roaring log fire. The landlord was going to shut early (20.00) but as we were staying in the carpark for the night he stayed open and cooked us a yummy dinner ...

There we are on our own in the carpark at the rear ...

This morning we went for a drive around the Cotswold countryside.  We had a couple of tight encounters on the one track lanes, but all good fun ...

We stopped at Bibury and went for a walkabout where we spotted out first duckling of the season ...

The ground was wet but it had stopped raining and the sun was coming out.  These old weavers cottages were built in 1380, originally as a monastic wool store ...

How fantastic do they look?

Once again the sandbags were out ...

I can't imagine what it must look like in the summer, mind you you wouldn't get a tourist-free shot ...

The dogs loved their weekend away with plenty of walking ...

We were looking for Elizabeth Hurley's pad ...

The boys were certain that they spotted Warnie!

Is there a prettier part of England?

We said G'day to this fella, he was a long way from home ...

We headed back to the marina late afternoon but we got caught in a big jam on the M5, which was caused by this poor chap who had jack-knifed and was facing the wrong way.  If you check out the pic you can see he lost his two vintage tractors off the trailer, the poor old Massey Ferguson is laying on its side :-(

We had a great weekend away with the motorhome performing faultlessly!  We will do a few more mini trips before we head off to the continent in May.