Three weeks in the UK and we're off again

DIY at Rob & Alex's. Dusty or what!

Well the last blog was a long time ago, how did that happen? We’ve DIY’d for Rob and Alex, knocking plaster off the walls makes lots of dust you know? Alex sensibly stayed out of the way running a training course till we’d finished, but turned up to organise dinner, fab.

We’ve taken Ted for a little run to Broadway, taking mum out to lunch, but mainly to give his newly charged battery a bit of a boost. Seen Alex again and had dinner with Fiona and James, and Jenny, Becky and Harry, her man.

The village of Broadway in the Cotswolds on a cold but dry day. On the top of the hill in the centre is Broadway tower

Some of the lovely buildings in Broadway

The gym, haircuts, a new computer (so if the blog posting doesn’t go well, that’ll be why), car MOT and then a weekend at Helen and Ian’s.

The weekend was fab, though not quite as expected, Iain came up from Bristol, but sadly Bev was poorly so couldn’t make it. Then Ian’s mum, Pam, was admitted to hospital on Friday with a low temperature, so that took Ian on a trip to Sheffield on Saturday, to see her, ascertain they hadn’t found a problem, and take her home again. So not the weekend we had planned but still pretty bloomin’ good. Friday was a trip to the eat in

Iain, Ian, Jackie and Helen in the chippy on Friday night

chippy at the end of their road, and a few beers. Saturday Helen, Iain, Brian and I took Monty out for a walk round Stirchley! This is the lamest of excuses for a brewery and craft pub crawl. 

A cold evening walk with Monty Helen & Ian in Cannon Hill Park 

Three pubs, three breweries (though one of them we opened the door to go in and people fell out, so we gave it a miss) two lots of ‘street food’ and 7 drinks later we got back to H&I’s to await Ian’s return, ply him with beer and go out for dinner. We were very full by this point so it was a fairly early night, but a thoroughly enjoyable day. We found a new to us all pub, and a new to us all brewery hidden away on an industrial estate. These places seem to be springing up everywhere providing some good beer (though I hate a ‘sour’ be warned if you’ve not had one before), some with ridiculous strengths at quite expensive prices, but for some reason we are all loving it. 

Sunday was a leisurely start, Iain headed off back to Bristol to look after Bev and we eventually walked into Moseley for a pint and some M&S shopping for Helen to take up to Pam. This was a planned visit, but she’d have gone anyway to check up on her. 

This is the second brewery on our pub and brewery crawl. This is the Glasshouse in Stirchley and you can see the brewery production area at the back

Here it is from the outside with the food wagon selling excellent street food

To round off a weekend of excess was Sunday tea club in the Chinese Quarter with Crystal and Manu, and Pete and Reuben. We say it every time but we love Crystal ordering and food just appearing, it’s great.

Since then we’ve dithered a bit, collected Ted from storage, dithered a bit, had dinner with Abi, dithered a bit, gone to Leamington to the FA, B’s dentist and to put a bet on the first race of the Cheltenham week. (If you placed a £10 bet, you either won, or they refunded your money. We didn’t win, but we didn’t lose either!) Dithered a bit, took mum to see The Military Wives at the cinema, which I thoroughly enjoyed, dithered a bit, had a filling (B) and sorted out Ted.

Walking between breweries and pubs along the canal

The helpful 'beer' sign pointing us to our last stop

We finally stopped dithering this morning and booked a ferry, Dover to Calais. The first dither had been whether to go to France or Spain, our destination is to Spain to do some DIY for the folks so that crossing made sense, but the weather forecasts for the Bay of Biscay have been grim. I’m not actually worried about being seasick, it’s the effect of corrosive salty seawater on Ted’s locks and undercarriage! So we have a shorter, cheaper crossing, but have to drive through France.

Drinking at lunchtime, its never a good idea! Particularly with the strength of these beers

Monty and Jackie having a discussion

The second dither was ‘Coronavirus’, again, not worried for our own health particularly, but what if we should have it and spread it to all and sundry on the way down? There are many more cases in both France and Spain than there are here, though they haven’t had the panic buying. Explaining to the cashier in Aldi that we weren’t panic buying, but cornflakes are less than a third the price in U.K. Aldi than in French or Spanish Aldi and that actually we just needed some toilet roll..... don’t actually think she cared. What is more scary is what does ‘lockdown’ mean? And is it likely to happen in France or Spain? More particularly France as we really only want to pass through! Reading my forums though it sounds like you can get a letter to allow you to travel home to the U.K. from Italy in your mobilehome, so we have to assume it would be the same from anywhere.

Anyway, despite our third dither of bitterly cold weather next week in Spain, we are setting off tomorrow......

This little fox appeared in Helen and Ians garden. Monty was asleep at the window and didn't see it. We didn't tell him!

Ice creams in Cannon Hill Park on Sunday. Helen was there too but she was taking the photo

Pauline and Jackie at our post movie dinner

Big Ted having been loaded up and made ready for our trip tomorrow. France and Spain, here we come!