Its been a couple of months since I last hit the keys on my MacBook I guess I have been putting it off or maybe I have not been in the right space to post.  I have not been in a bad space just busy and little time for myself to indulge my thoughts, but tonight its 8pm and still 26 celsius I have some nice music playing, a bit of Adele to be followed by a newly downloaded “Chill Out” album and as they say the time is right.

Busy means packing up in Portugal coming home and then packing up again to slope off to the Cote’d Azur for a couple of months. I could leave it at that but guess what I won’t. I will reflect again on how blessed we are to be in this position, I think we are doing it justice, we are giving it our very best effort it can’t be said we are not trying…..

As the Rally approached its end the campsite emptied and the space between the motorhomes and caravans got bigger and bigger and the rally area quieter and quieter but it seemed this made way for more “incidents”.  I think I might have mentioned that we were like the 1st years (year whatever I have no idea what that is now!) going to secondary school, all green round the edges and somewhat under developed.  What I mean by under developed in this context is that we still don’t have a few of those tell tale signs that we are getting on a bit you know hearing aids, walking, sticks, mobility carts and more personal afflictions like bits of the body really going south. I mean bits of me are on their way south for sure and Denise supports some cracking grey hair and the both of us have plenty of lines or weathering we have decided to call it but we still fell into the young un’s category.

The more seasoned members of the rally packed up over many days until they eventually deemed it the right time to hit the road and head for the ports, Santander, Bilbao, Le Havre, San Marlo and anywhere else that was cheap.  If they timed it right things were packed away dry if not it was going to be a nasty job drying out when they got home.  Yes there was still bits of heavy rain visiting us on and off but less often and for less time.  One of the major depart weekends it was a tad wet on the Saturday it left the ground sticky and slippery.  On the Sunday morning Eddie and Ann departed, it turns out that Eddie slipped whilst hooking up, he broke his hip but didn’t realise at this point and having been helped into his car he drove 20 miles in pain, decided he couldn’t drive really, drove back to the campsite where he was helped by a few of us from his car and sent off to hospital to be fixed. That left his poor wife who couldn’t drive to do all the things that needed doing.  Well the benefit of being part of a rally is that the friends you make and the support of the club come to the fore.  Eddie was fixed at Faro and discharged to a hotel in Albufeira until a nurse was flown over to fly back with him and Ann.  Whilst Eddie was being fixed Ann was ferried daily to and from Faro to see him, the club (insurance) arranged for his car and caravan to be repatriated and a nice fella turned up hooked up the van and drove the lot back to the UK (now there’s a job if you can get it, although lets just say not everyone keeps their cars shinny on the inside as well as the out side…) It was great to see the kindness and support given and for us it vindicated our choice to do a rally even if on this rally there were a lot of crusties.

Another injury occurred to our new friend Carlane, she tripped out of her motorhome the evening before their planned depart and broke her wrist.  I clearly had a lot of sympathy for her and was more than happy to take both John and Carlane to the hospital in Faro.  They were in and out in no time really, just enough time for me to observe the people in the emergency waiting room, always a sad place but a great place to see all of life’s special people and I mean the all sorts of special. John and Carlane stayed a couple of extra days and we supported Carlane with her pain management, her preferred choice was brandy we supported with beer, wine and whiskey.  When he got home John, Carlane’s husband wrote a letter to the Camping and Caravanning Club magazine describing his experiences on the rally, he kindly mentioned me in dispatches! I am now in print!

Herman the German that adopted me took two full weeks to dismantle his ensemble, it was precise and particular everything washed and placed where it needed to be placed or stored at a friends, ready to be re assembled in October.  During one of his preparation stages he took his trailer and car to be cleaned. On his return he drove through our neighbouring pitch so he would be facing the right way for phase two of load the car up on the trailer task.  As he drove through he hit our trailer knocking it back and to the side about two metres.  It made a bloody racket and we thought the worst, a quick inspection and there appeared to be no damage except a dirty mark on the hitch cover.  Phew!  Herman didn’t initially realise he had done it, when he did he was mortified as we were.  This guy was going to drive to Germany in a massive converted horse box HGV thing towing a heavy trailer and car, scary.  Let me tell you everything had gone south on Herman he was not a young man by any stretch of the imagination.  A couple of days later Herman came to tell me he had cleaned off our hitch cover and that he had checked and everything was in order, very sweet.

Herman left, he had an audience everyone was intrigued as to how he would actually hitch up the trailer and get out of the pitch.  It took some time and his wife, lets call her Helga was of little help.  She was a very slight women in height and weight, very frail, she was waving her hands and flapping them and shouting odd words at her ever frustrated husband who sat in the big cab fag on cussing in German.  He was back and forwards, back and forwards and the inevitable help from the remaining campers (mostly from the rally) was less than helpful as each of the puffy chested men knew best and where to get him to reverse, move forward, reverse and move forward.  Great entertainment over morning coffee.  In the end he left.  I hope we see him next year.

Before we decided to pack we squeezed in a great day out on the West Coast, the beaches were fantastic getting to them was interesting.  On our map the roads were white roads on SAT NAV they were grey roads in the book it recommended using the roads in an appropriate car.  Dorian appropriate? we would find out.  Actually Dorian wasn’t appropriate but managed the task with aplomb.  I was a bit worried because we had been having to pump up one of the tyres on a regular basis but all was well and the effort was worth it.

We decided to leave a day early.  The plan was to get to the vet when they opened at 10 get Jarjar checked and given the very strong worming tablets and hot foot it up through Spain as far as we could get.  The day early was a Saturday which meant I could indulge in one last “steak on a stone” night.  I righteously suggested to Denise not drink too much and she agreed with me drinking too much would be a silly thing to do.  Well silly me ! Somehow I managed to get slaughtered and woke the next morning feeling very ill, well I didn’t just feel ill I was ill.  I just got that look you know the one, I am not going to shout at you I want to but I won’t because you want me to I am just going to look at you….Oh I did feel bad! poor Denise had to take Jarjar to the vet on her own.  I managed to get myself together and we left around 12.

Having left a bit later than expected Denise still managed to make excellent progress and we made our first stop just south of Salamanca.  Sunday we made our way into France before we got there having filled with fuel and just rejoined the motorway we were greeted with a horrendous noise, we pulled over to discover half of the exhaust was dragging on the floor.  Lucky for us we were on a slip road and very close to a garage.  On the garage forecourt a bit of jiggery pokery and the offending bit of the exhaust came off in Denise’s hand, she gently placed it on the nice greenery on the forecourt and we continued on our way.  We figured that as there was no extra noise we would just go for it and we did all the way back to Derby!

Hot foot it we did, in fact we arrived in Cocquelle two nights early so we stayed in a little campsite overlooking the English Channel for a couple of nights.  We had a lovely day walking and enjoyed a smashing meal.  It was quite an experience looking at “home” from that side of the English Channel. This lovely day was followed by an equally lovely evening in Bearsted near Maidstone.  I lived in Bearsted 30ish years ago it was nice to go back to a pub I hadn’t been to for so long.  The food was still good. All this loveliness was getting us into a false sense of warm and fussiness about being home, we soon came back to earth with a 7 hour journey home (200 miles).  It was horrible, still our fault for traveling on the Thursday before Easter.

Three weeks at home to get Hobster MOT’d and a new exhaust, Dorian MOT’d, me to the dentist, prescriptions sorted and to catch up with the special people.  We had seen Theresa as we left the tunnel, she had taken delivery of a car battery for Molly Murano (remember we missed a hair cut because of a flat battery) and a (Quidditch) pole for the brush to clean Hobby Hobster and we presented her with the Poppy ornament she couldn’t get home on the plane.

Dorian passed its MOT, we had the tyre checked appears we had been driving around with a small screw in the tread, not a faulty valve then, oops. Hobby Hobster passed its MOT without having to have a new exhaust, seems the bit left on needed a bit more jiggery pokery this time done by the garage and it passed all the required emissions tests etc Strange but true, handy as we are a bit lighter now too.

All the jobs done and having caught up with our special people it was time to shove off again, and here we are two weeks into our Cote d’ Azur adventure.  We are staying in a nice campsite in a place called Villeneuve-loubet which is between Nice and Antibes.  Dorothy is staying in Mougin about 15 km away and we have been doing the sites, Monaco, Nice, Saint Tropez and our favourite Cannes.  Cannes has been fantastic as it the Cannes Film Festival and the experience of seeing the boats and the “it” folk in their finery has fascinated us.  It has been great sharing this experience with Dorothy.  Its been roof off in the car and all four of us enjoying the roads and the scenery.

Jarjar gallary

The man in our lives continues to amuse us and the people around him, here are some snaps….

Great day out ….

We had a really cool Sunday morning looking at some super classic cars whilst in Portugal with Jann & Phil, including their super little red smasher