Hi Ann,
Great to read all your latest happenings. It is quite a mission. I am all ready to leave in the morning and very excited/nervous about the trip but really looking forward to meeting up with Amanda.
We have seen a little bit of Rob and I am sure the boys will get together while I am away.
The bathroom has been a litle delayed but hoping it will be finished by the time we get back.
We will catch up again when I get back 30th Sept.
lots of love from Mary
Sounds like rain
All you New Zealanders would feel completely at home, instead of rain on a tin roof we have rain on a perspex roof – sounds just the same. This is the first rain for about 10 days and welcomed by those who need the stuff – personally, I can do without it. Still, it is harder for Maureen cause she has to go and put the chickens to bed. Fortunately for me it was not raining when we made sure the geese we tucked up safely away from the foxes earlier this evening.
After a very pleasant dinner at Ticton Grange on Sunday, where I had the restaurant all to myself, I spent the night from 12 till time to get up wide awake. So, I thought today would be pretty awful, and I would need to borrow matchsticks to stay awake, but no, today was VERY successful. After a shaky start where the storage man (Derek, or fabulous Derek as I came to call him) denied all knowledge of why I was there, declared the impossibility of what I wanted and generally did a lot of teeth sucking, we managed to sort 4×20 cubic metre storage containers so that 1 got sent for shipping, rubbish thrown away and the contents of the other got spread out so that the auctioneers, who are coming tomorrow, can view them – and all in 3 1/2 hours! Pretty impressive, no?
Derek is an expert shipper and teaches classes in shipping (yes it is true), had walked all the peaks in the Lake District before he was 16, has 5 siblings, one son (chronically disabled) and a wife who he adores. I told him I did not want to have any more than 1 container, and, bless him, everything I wanted to put in he said he could find room for – even after I kept adding this and that and abit of the other. So, all I have to put in is Rob’s bike, and Gary is putting that on his trailer to take from the house to Kidds on Wednesday.
It was lovely to see Gary again and to catch up on the harrowing family eventsof the last two years. But they – Gary, Ben and Bianca – all seem to becoming through and surviving. The same is not true of Anne-Marie, whose lifeis descending into alcohol and chaos from which neither she nor anyone else can save her – so, so sad.
Continuing my efficiency I saw our house management agents and got all sorts of things agreed with them; I talked to our estate agents and got good advice from, another, Derek. Because of all of this I think it might just be possible to finish here by end of business on Wednesday!
I was early to arrive at David and Maureen’s, so I took the opportunity to look around Hunmanby, a small town on the edge of the North Yorks moors. Requisite Norman church, 2 pubs, 1 hotel, 1 of most kinds of shop including a florist come fruit shop and a shop selling an eclectic mix of fresh pies/bread/pizza and home made preserve and pickles – as well as,importantly, Yorkshire Tea, for all you tea enthusiasts.
I decided to go to the pub. Have you ever walked into a room and had EVERYONE stop and look at you? I thought that only happened in bad detective films, but no, it happens in North Yorks pubs. I reckoned they were up to something illegal to do with CD/DVD’s and were just checking I was not the local police. They all turned out to be really nice and helpful and I think I was the first person ever to be served coffee in that pub. But it gave me the opportunity to sit and read and watch for a while, which was extremely pleasant.
So now I am sitting with Maureen and Polly, who is a beautiful and intelligent black lab (David is out at a Parish meeting in his role as local councillor), with the rain beating on the conservatory roof, while we inside are toasty and warm. Who could want for more. Till later, love to all. Ann
Sunny Saturday
Yes, the sun is shining, the day looks beautiful and it is, according to the weather report, going to be about 21C today.
I have been busy contacting people in Yorkshire and have them all lined up for next week. If all goes well – or at least as I have planned – then I should be finished by next Friday. However, we all know about well laid plans …
We have some belongings stored at Candice and Geoffs and I have been re-acquainting myself with them. Now, do I really need a 3 tier cake stand, an Austrian wine filter and a Victorian flower pot, as well as a framed print of Greenwich University (which I suspect is a a goodbye present given to Rob). I have 3 large boxes to take to Yorkshire with me but I may do some culling when I get there (after mature consideration, of course) and get rid of them!
As I was coming through duty free out of Auckland I picked up a device that I can plug into the cigarette lighter bit in a car and the other end into my (well Rob’s really) iPod and can play all my chosen music in the car – a very nice grey car (a Peugeot, so Geoff tells me) – as I beetle up the motorway to Yorkshire. This will vastly enhance my driving experience early on Sunday morning.
However, first, Ed and Jan are coming over to Candice and Geoffs for lunch today and I am so looking forward to seeing them. Candice and I have prepared lunch, Geoff has set up the table on the lawn and – as I said – the sun is shining. Now, what more can one ask for, good food, weather and friends, so I shall have a very pleasant afternoon, before packing this evening for departure tomorrow.
Ticton Grange, where I am staying on Sunday night has no internet contact, so I will blog from Yorkshire , but possibly not till Monday or Tuesday evening when I am with David and Maureen. So, thats all for now. Love to everyone of you. Ann
I’m here
It doesn’t matter how much or how little I sleep on a flight I still get the 3am wide awakes. So here I am at 5am drinking tea and eating peaches. The flight was long but as comfortable as any flight could be. Unheard of, it took 24 minutes to clear passport and baggage at Heathrow and to come out the other side where Candice and Geoff were equally surprised. What struck me – just lots of people, lots of cars, lots of busyness. Candice and Geoff as usual cossetted and cared for me and fed me – delicious food – and by 9pm (well 8 actually – but that was in front of the TV) I was sound asleep in bed, so that I could wake up totally alert at 3am and wonder why the rest of the world was absent. I am having a lazy day today and collecting the car, shopping for lunch for tomorrow when Ed and Jan come to join us and then after Candice has returned from work (about 2pm) we shall be off to Bluewater for some girl fun. So, I hope all of you are just fine out there. Will log on soon. Love. Ann
Twas the night before ……
Well, OK it’s not Christmas. But the sort of intense work I have done the last few days makes it feel like the run-up to Christmas, and I am exhausted. But everything is done. Rob has his recipes, work has been tidied, Daisy and Sissy will want for nothing – even the worms have been tended, turned, fed and fixed up for the next few weeks. I’ve even finished packing early and have come in at a respectable 36kg. Not bad considering I left with 45kg last time. I have made sure I have no knives (unlike last time) in my hand luggage, and certainly no creams, gels or potions – so I guess I shall arrive like a shriveled up prune.
I think all this intense preparation is my attempt to control what I can and to de-emphasise how open and relatively uncertain/unorganised my time away is at present. Because of not knowing how quickly things will resolve themselves in Hornsea the rest of the time has been left open-ended. So I have not been able to plan my itinerary in the way that I had all dates times sorted when I last travelled. I am not anxious, and although I don’t know where I will be sleeping for a lot of the time, I do know that there are lots of beds available to me and if I am not near one, then there is always the credit card!
Anyway, I hope the next time I log in I shall be with Candice and Geoff in Hextable, waking at ridiculous times of the night as jet lag receeds and getting ready to travel to Hornsea on Sunday 16th. Till then, lots of love to all.
Meanwhile, try these 3-4 second videos taken on a visit to Russell. The reason they are so short was that I didn’t realise I was taking them!! Ann
..
THE WAY BACK
Hiya. So, at the start of the journey, it took two hours down to Dover. Didn’t have to wait long for the ferry. No interrigations regarding the dog, but still had to pay for him to stay in the car. On the ferry, I got a lovely neck massage for a fiver! Country B roads through France. I didn’t know at the time, the capabilities of TomTom. One can tap in ones destination and it’ll take you to the door of a hotel. That would have been handy the day I was ‘taken for a ride’. Luckily, that evening, I saw a big sign from the road for a cheap and cheerful establishment around the time I wanted to stop.Day two I’ve told you about. A very plastic hotel called Etap, in Remoremont, which the kindly man in the cafe took me to after I’d thrown a wobbly at the Frenchman who didn’t know his way around any more than I did. The loo was in a plastic moulded room, as was the shower. In fact, looking around, the only non plastic things were the taps! But, it did have free internet!
Day three I had the most fab lunch in Densburen. Soup and main course plus two glasses of excellent wine for €16. During the afternoon, it started to bucket down and as the road was clinging to the side of a mountain, with a shere drop on one side, I decided to stop at ‘the next hotel’ which was at a place called Sisikon, Swizerland. It was only four o’clock, peeing down with rain and no internet. So I did the only thing one can do, and retired to the restaurant. Couldn’t eat much though, as I was still full from lunch. The beer was good though. In the morning, I took the photos with low clouds above and soon afterwards entered the St Gossard tunnel with trepedation. It wasn’t so bad.
Then for lunch I stopped by another lake and ate my sarnies (right).
As I’d told TomTom not to take me along motorways, it took me at my word, and took me through city centres even! That included Zurich and Milan! Don’t ask me what they were like. I was too busy watching the screen. It was no sweat. I just did what I was told and it worked! HOWEVER, shortly after leaving Milan center, TomTom screwed up big time and I was stranded, hot, tired and very bothered. It kept telling me to take the second exit off the roundabout. But, no roundabout. I tried every road in the area but it kept wanting to take me down a little lane in an iffy area with large dogs in a cage at the end of it! After asking the way in a transport office, I got eventually onto the dreaded motorway and just kept going. TomTom took me to a Holiday Inn Express in Italy. Comfortable but no internet…. well yes it did, but you had to pay.
The next day I started early, got on the autobahn and kept going. Even when the heavens opened and drivers were pulling over onto the hard shoulder, I kept going… all the way to Ancona and hotel Della Vittoria. It even had parking. Very old and decrepid place. My room was in the loft with a small window 6 foot up. I was very worried that the weather would be bad for the crossing but the next day turned out to be sunny and calm. The boat left at 1pm and was better than the one I’d travelled out on. This one was Superfast. Had to pay for Yorgi and his quarters were better than before but he still wouldn’t use it. I’d got a bunk in a dorm of six this time and as there was nobody else in the dorm, he slept with me. In fact, all across Europe, he slept with me, leaving his hairs on every bed he and I slept on!
The boat arrived in Iggomenitsa at 5am but it took until 11.30 to get to Patras, where we got off. It was a short drive to Rio, where I took another ferry (couldn’t stomach the bridge). After that, it was a white nuckle, mountain road through to Volos. We arrived at 6pm. That evening, I got a bit of cash out the hole in the wall on Visa and tucked into my first tchipero and meze in two months.
In the morning, I went to book by ticket. They didn’t take credit cards. No sweat I thought, I’d got my bank book, my cash card having been cancelled because I hadn’t used it in a year (that was a shock, having found out in Germany on the way over). When I got in the bank, there must have been 50 people waiting. I took the next number (just as you do at Sainsbury’s cheese counter) but lost my cool when I saw I had number 63 and the number was at 102! I threw the chitty away (big mistake) and went back to the hole in the wall. However, cos I’d got cash out within 12 hours, I guess, it wouldn’t give me any money. SO, back to the bank. Another chitty and a wait of nearly an hour. I was doing my crust thinking I’d miss the boat.
But I didn’t, and we got the ferry, getting off in Glossa. All the while, the pungent, festering smell of my favour English cheese filled the air. I think it had gone off somewhere in Switzerland.
RIGHT BACK WHERE I STARTED FROM…..
Yes, I made it. Arrived this afternoon back on the island. Will tell all when I get my act together.
Thanks to everyone who has written to me. It was very much appreciated. Have a look here in a couple of days. I should have unpacked and sorted myself out by then. xxxx
ZZZZZZZ
Hi and thanks to those who have written. I am SO tired. Things went swimmingly through to Epinal. Travelled along the roads less travelled; hardly another motorist in site along the stretches of l o n g, s t r a i g h t country roads. The previous night I’d picked up a directory of a certain hotel chain and made for their Epinal one. Close to my destination, I stopped in a car park to collect my thoughts and book the room when I guy asked if he could help. I told him the hotel and he said for me to follow him as he knew exactly where it was. Half an hour later, along a vast stretch of dual carriageway, darkness settling in together with rain he pulled over at a cafe and announced he was lost!! Satnav had taken me within what must have been half a km of the hotel so I was absolutely furious with him. In fact I told him to … off! In the cafe, I calmed down and asked where the hell I was and did anyone know of a nearby hotel. A guy said he knew of one and if I would follow him he’d take me there!!!!!! My brain was numb. I said OK. Bingo. And here I am in.. um… Remiremont, south of Epinal, having put in ten hours of driving. Not to be recommended. Night all!
GONE…
Hi guys! Here I am, sitting in the reception area of a hotel near Arras in France. I really did NOT want to leave UK. It was a terrible wrench to do something I didn’t want to do. Dad had left early to attend a samba band gig and when I couldn’t find anything else to pack, eventually left at 11am. News… I bought a Sat Nav. It is the most wonderful thing ever. Got here without a hitch AND I now have the confidence to drive faster – 100kph, no problem! So, I may even tell the satnav to take me via motorways rather than the B roads – as nice as they are, so far. Just want to get the journey over and done with. As far as I know, Skopelos has not burnt down.
New Blog
Hi Everyone.
As you might know the Blog I’ve been using since 2005 has become corrupted by spams. The way round this – so that I don’t lose my text – is that I have created this new blog and have copied and pasted all my old stuff into this one. So, you can totally ignore everything below because you may have read it already. There is another blog that Rob and I have but that is mainly about Rob’s recent trip to England and some of you are already readers of that one.
I am sorry that all the photos have been lost from the ‘recovered’ 2006/2005 blog – but I shall work hard to get more for this one. Try this address, I have posted some photos there.
Anyway, it is just one week till I set off again. On Wednesday 12th September I leave New Zealand for five weeks to England, Scotland and Greece. The main purpose of my trip is to dispose of our possessions which are in storage in Hornsea. So, after that is done then I have time to play – and to blog. I hope you will keep me company again; it comforts me to know I am not out in the big wide world all alone, but am watched over by my blog friends wherever I go. So, until September, bye for now. Love to all. Ann