21. Oct, 2022

21. Oct, 2022

FRIDAY 7-10-22

That was a nice peaceful night at our supermarket car park location. There is suddenly a problem here in France regarding availability of fuel. I believe there is industrial action by workers at the oil refineries. This is resulting in petrol stations running out of fuel completely, so when they do get a delivery long queues quickly form. That happened last night, but luckily we could see the forecourt from where we were parked and so could wait until things died down a bit before going over to fill up.

This morning we were up early and showered, oh the luxury of it! Then it was off to Citi Europe to use the dump station there and park up to await our shuttle crossing from Calais to Albania-on-Sea.

We've ended up being bumped on to a crossing one and a half hours ahead of schedule, so that gives us plenty of time to get home before the rush hour. It means we'll be munching an early lunch whilst crossing under the English Channel.

We return to Broken Britain, where we departed it with a Queen as our Monarch and return to a King. My expectations are low. I just hope he doesn't start talking to his plants in public or interfere in matters of state including Climate Change, very important though it is.

As always, I could not nor would not, have undertaken this trip without my darling Rosina, who does all the clever stuff. I just drive and get my hands dirty. She never ceases to amaze me. I'm sure our almost-domestic-sized fridge/freezer onboard seems to hold so much thanks to her planning. Rather like a magician pulling rabbits out of a hat, no matter how long the trip, The Chef is always able to pull yet another block of Cathedral Cheddar cheese out of it.

As for the future, well we first have to survive the coming winter without dying of old age, malnutrition or hypothermia. If we can manage that then our next trip will be a short one, probably just a couple of days at Wells-next-the-Sea to test out the vehicles systems before crossing the channel in early April.

I don't like to be beaten, and so we plan to return to the Parsonage Museum at Haworth followed by the Whitby area with maybe a stop or two on the way. We gave up on our previous visit because the museum was shut due to filming of the new 'Railway Children' sequel film and the campsites couldn't accommodate us in the Whitby area. I did intend to go there in March, but given the cooler weather and shorter days I think we'll now go in late June.

Our April & May trip will be Greece and Italy plus a bit of who-knows-where as we travel there and back. Hopefully the trip will also include a second visit to Istanbul.

In the meantime I have gone to the trouble of patenting a new device to aide fellow geriatrics. I'm calling it the ‘PeeAlert’. It’s a Bluetooth sensor which sits inside your underpants. At the appropriate time you get a vibrating text message which says ‘You’ve just peed your pants’. Currently engineers are having a problem pee-proofing the vital electronic components, but I live in hope. The royalties will help to pay for next year's trips as this leisure activity is getting rather expensive.

I shall upload the Travelscript followed by the 'Expenditure' in about a month, once the bills for the toll roads arrive online. I have added one hundred Euros to the food expenditure for the first week as a fair reflection of the value of food we took with us.

I shall leave you with one final story, and hopefully it will resonate with that hateful, ugly dyke in Scotland:

When we were at the Villenueve-Loubet campsite I got chatting to an elderly couple who were pitched a couple of doors down from us. They were clearly packing up to leave and we had never engaged in conversation, but I wanted to wish them well and a safe journey home.

They were Serbian by birth. They told me they were leaving to head for Bosnia, their home country to visit family and friends.

They had fled the Balkans War and now live in Santander, Spain. They were concerned about the Catalonian Movement who are demanding independence from Spain. He tells people back home in Spain when in conversation, that if they want to see what separatism means then they should go to Serbia to see what it has done to them. He says, and he's right, 'We're better off together'.

And finally I leave you with this thought:

If our journey through life is not one long adventure - then what is it?

Stay safe and keep warm.

21. Oct, 2022

21. Oct, 2022

6. Oct, 2022

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