South Western England 2021

We’ve both, thankfully, avoided Covid so far and now we’ve both had both of our jabs which makes us reasonably confident that we should be ok from now on. Today is the day after our 40th wedding anniversary and we’ve set off on a tour of various places in the South East of England. We’re heading to Warwick (in the Midlands, not the South East) and we’re there for a couple of night.

We set off around 13:00. It seemed strange to not be looking forward to going through the Tunnel – it’s almost like not actually being on holiday but I’m sure we’ll make the best of it.

The journey was uneventful. Warwick is on the A46 which is the road that almost passes by our front door so that shouldn’t be too difficult. The A46 actually disappears in a couple of places and is replaced by the M1 and the M69. Navigation was made slightly more difficult when the satnav froze – which I’ve not seen before. I’ve learnt a lot having worked in IT for 40 odd years so the issue was solved by the trusty remedy of switching it off and switching it back on again.

We got to Warwick around 16:30. The Caravan and Motorhome Club site is actually on Warwick race course and you have to drive across the course to get to it. We got a pitch right in front of what would be a grandstand on a race day and we are looking out out on the main grandstands across the course.

As we drove to our pitch, Ellie – resting on Dud’s lap and looking out of the front window – saw another dog and went a bit mental. Unfortunately, in doing so, she caught the cables for the dashcam and the satnav and both went flying. It wasn’t until later when I checked the dashcam that I saw that the cable had come apart from the connector. That could mean having to buy another dashcam at around £100 so that could be an expensive dog incident.

Tea was an improvised chicken pasta which was very tasty.

We can hear a few planes overhead. I checked on my Flightradar24 app and they are going in to Birmingham airport. The first one that I checked was a Ryanair coming in from Faro which was a bit unfortunate because the deadline for coming back from Portugal without having to quarantine was 04:00 this morning. Later on, we saw flights going to Faro and more flights coming. I have a lot of sympathy for people caught up in this but it is a pandemic.

The area next to the site is St Mary’s Lands. It’s a large common area with lots of paths and green areas – excellent facility. On our walk, Ellie and I saw another Airedale and its owner and we eventually caught up with them and had a chat. Unusually, this one was off-lead and was not running away from its owner.

Weather was nice so we all went for a walk later on. The racecourse is big (5 Km) and we headed for the back straight. I took the drone with us and we got some decent shots. I’m getting more confident but am still a bit ropy. I wanted a shot with the drone coming down the course and over the jumps but a mother and her 2 kids got close so I chickened out on that one a bit.

We got back to the MoHo and sat out for a while in the sun. One of the commandants came up to us and I assumed he was on his general rounds but he told us that because we were on a non-awning pitch, we could not leave the MoHo with the canopy extended. He was very pleasant but it seems a strange rule.

Tea was breaded cod and chips.

Ellie and I had a really long morning walk around the surrounding Saint Mary’s Lands. It really is an excellent walking area – especially with a dog. One of the things that I’d noticed is that the locals keep it really tidy – there is very little litter – not something that we are used to in Grimsby.

We got away around 11:00. I tried to fix the dashcam cable but failed miserably as I found out when I switched on the ignition. At that point, I assumed that I would have to buy a new dashcam but more of that later.

I set the satnav to avoid motorways and so our drive took us through some really pleasant Cotswold towns. You’ll have to take my word for that because there is no dashcam footage of the drive. We saw some nice cars and some nice towns such as Moreton-in-Marsh.

The lack of dashcam was a real shame when we unexpectedly came to Kemble Airfield. We basically turned a corner and in front of us was a huge British Airways 747 – and then another and then another…… There were also jets from some other airlines. Kemble is like an aeroplane graveyard where they are put to rest before they are dismantled. Quite sad really.

I would have loved to have stopped but any layby or stopping place was filled with aeroplane geeks (says someone who can spend ages watching live YouTube feed of planes landing and taking off at Heathrow).

We needed a few supplies and we saw various signs for superstores and we chose to stop at one of them which turned out to be a Waitrose. I don’t want to sound like some yokel nut I’ve never shopped at a Waitrose. That’s something I can now strike off my bucket list.

We followed the satnav instructions and when we were within a few miles of the Longleat site, it took us down a really narrow single track road. Luckily, nothing was coming the other way.

We picked a pitch that we thought might give us a chance of getting the satellite dish up but we got it wrong and the dish would not lock on.

Terrestrial tv signal is supposed to be poor and there are booster sockets on the bollards but we got a decent reception with our own aerial. The only thing you miss in not getting the signal through the satellite is the ability to get our local regional news program – so we’ll have to do without our daily dose of Peter Levy and Paul Hudson.

The club site is next to the safari park – quite literally right next to it. We could hear loud barking noises which turned out to be sea lions. The warden’s brochure said the you might hear the roar of the lions (actually, it said the roar of the loins!) but we never heard that.

Tea was quiche (from Waitrose) and salad. Very nice.

Telephone reception was poor to non-existent so I paid for a week of Caravan Club internet access. Price was £3.50 per day or £11.00 for a week. Given that we will be here for 4 nights, it was cheaper to get the week than 4 individual days. You can only access it on one device at once. I could connect on the phone and the tablet but the laptop would not connect at all which lead to a delay in getting the blogs posted.

Once I was on line, I checked to see if you could buy just a cable for the dashcam – and you can. I ordered one click and collect from Halfords in Frome – which is around 8 miles away. We can pick it up when we have a run out. At £10, it’s a lot cheaper than buying a new dashcam. Whilst that was a relief, I’m still bitterly disappointed that we missed footage of those 747’s at Kemble.

Ellie’s bed is under the dining table. When she scratches, one leg bangs the side of the moho and so it sounds like Thumper. She did this in the middle of the night and it woke me up, At first, I thought she was scratching at the door to get out – possibly needing to do some business – so I got up. But I could see she was fast asleep. In my confused and tired state, it actually then crossed my mind that something was scratching at the door from the outside and my immediate thought was that it might be a lion from the estate next door. Was it a confused and tired state or was it the white wine that I’d had a glass or two of? Whatever it was, I went back to bed and fell asleep. That’s the way to deal with lions.

Weather was a but cloudy today which was a shame because there was a partial eclipse of the sun. I kept going out when the sun appeared to break through the clouds but couldn’t get any sight of the eclipse.

I’m starting to get to grips with the layout of the site. CAMC sites are rarely linear and the layout is usually quite imaginative. After a few walks with Ellie, I’m starting to get my bearings.

We serviced the moho. The service point is quite close so I did as I usually do on a site and just disconnected the electrics and then drove slowly to the service point but leaving all the vents open and the tv aerial up. Another camper spotted this and came out waving to let me know the vents were open. I told him I knew but thanked him anyway for letting us know. I’m not sure what he would have made of Dud sitting on the side bench with her legs stretched out on the bench – which would not be a sensible way to travel.

We all went for a long walk round the site in the afternoon. Thankfully, it’s a big site because there is little opportunity to walk anywhere with the wheelchair on the road outside.

Tea was Tesco chicken in a leek sauce. A quiet night watching not very exciting tv followed.

I took Ellie out for a walk around 9:30. As we were out on the road outside of the camp, a loud siren sounded from the direction of the safari park. I suspected that the siren is for when a lion escapes but no-one had told us what to do in that event. Given that it was exactly 9:30, I assumed (hoped) that it was a test. In any case, no lion was spotted, That’s the second close lion encounter this week (at least, in my imagination).

We’d decided that we’d go for a drive today. When planning the holiday, I’d thought that we might drive to Weston Super Mare. I went there when I was about 12 years old (Pontins holiday camp – poor man’s Butlins). But it’s around 40 miles away so that would be an hour’s drive there and the same back so we decided against it.

We needed to pick up the dashcam cable in Frome which is around 8 miles away so we decided to head there and then drive somewhere from there.

We found Halfords straight away (actually, the satnav found it) and I picked up the cable – and bought another one as a spare in case Ellie wrecks it again.

We decided to head to Wells because it was shown on Google Maps as being on the edge of the Mendips – which sounds like a nice place. I said to Dud that I thought Wells was famous for something and she said it had a cathedral – which dominated the skyline when we got there.

It looked like the sort of place where you need to park up and then walk into the cathedral area. That poses a few issues for us: firstly the parking up bit in a 7.5m vehicle and then the walking bit which is not easy with a wheelchair and an Airedale Terrier that stops every other step to sniff something. So we drove through.

We drove for a few miles and pulled in for a sandwich and a cup of tea and checked Maps for a likely route back. We needed a shop and saw that there was a Tesco in Saffron Walden so we set the satnav and headed there.

It’s a feature of this area that there are lots of towns that I’ve heard but I didn’t have a clue where in England they were. Saffron Walden is an example of that.

After topping up supplies at the Tesco, we headed back to the site.

There were a couple of vans in the arrivals area and as we got on site and serviced our MoHo, there was a steady stream of MoHo’s and tuggers coming on to the site. It’s a weekend so that is to be expected.

We got back to our pitch and a tugger arrived in one of the pitches opposite us. He started to set up his van as Ellie and I went for a walk. When we got back, the tugger had started to put up his awning,

Tea was pizza which, for me if not for Dud, starts as a pepperoni to which I add slices of chorizo, garlic, chilli, capers, anchovies (lots of anchovies) and extra chunks of mozzarella – lovely.

As were eating our tea, the tugger was on stage 2 of putting up his awning. He eventually finished around 3 hours after he arrived on site. We were tuggers once (never had an awning) but that seems a lot of effort.

Tonight was the first of Euro 2020 – one year late. Turkey vs Italy was on BBC but I don’t really enjoy watching games where I don’t give a toss who wins – so we watched Celebrity Gogglebox – I enjoy Gogglebox but prefer the non-celebrity episodes.

Nice and warm and sunny today so I set off to my secret spot to get some aerial pictures with the drone. The clearest take-off area was on grass but it wouldn’t launch because some of the blades were snagging on grass so I launched it off the carrying case. That was at a slight angle but it launched ok. I’m not totally familiar with the control software yet and I ended up in some kind of training mode. I eventually got out of that but something wasn’t right and when I got back to the MoHo to view the footage, it was very shaky. The drone software should compensate for any movement due to wind but that wasn’t happening.

So I went back again in the afternoon and Dud came along in the wheelchair.

I ran through some calibration routines this time and also took a doormat to use as a launch pad. The picture was rock solid this time. I took it up to 80mtr which is possibly the highest I’ve been (legal max in the UK is 120mtr). You can actually pick out the MoHo so that will go on Twitter as soon as I can get the laptop on the internet.

Our normal stays on CAMC sites are out of season and in the week – or one-nighters at Folkestone. There were lots of arrivals yesterday and quite a few kids are here – presumably for the weekend. There also seem to be meet-ups of various tuggers – some of whom seem to be in some kind of competition to see who has the biggest awning. The end result is a lot of noise from the kids and constant sounds of conversation from the adults. I’m not sure we’re that keen on that type of surrounding. We would stay at Certified Locations but they are generally a lot smaller and possibly grass – which is not good for the wheelchair.

Tea was salmon fillets which I got from the Tesco yesterday. Problem with that is that is causes a smell in the MoHo. We have new neighbours in an old VW camper – that old that it has what sounds like the air-cooled, flat-four engine. They helped clear the smell of salmon by having one of the smokiest barbecues we’ve seen so the smell of salmon was replaced by the smell of incinerated sausages.

While I was in the shower last thing, I heard what I thought was neighbours banging doors. Once I’d got out of the shower, I listened outside and it was some kind of explosions in the distance. I suspect it was some kind of firework display in the safari park but I couldn’t see anything on line. Ellie was slightly disturbed but it also disturbed the sea lions because they started barking. It stopped, eventually and all was peaceful again.

The tugger opposite who took 3 hours to put up his awning is obviously leaving today and took it down. It took a lot less than 3 hours but still what a palaver for just a couple of nights.

We set off to Minehead at around 11:00 which is good for us. The satnav initially said that it was around 60 miles but then came up with a message that a road was closed and it recalculated a route that added another 20 or so miles. At the first junction we came to, it directed in the opposite direction that I knew we should be taking. We ignored it once before in Germany and it cost us around hour and a half. But I couldn’t believe that a major road was closed and there were no warning signs – so we ignore it and we took the obvious route.

Even so, it still took us what I thought was a long way round. I need to check that when I map the routes.

When we arrived at Minehead Caravan and Motorhome Club Site, there was a new Bailey Adamo in front of us. It’s a new model and a departure for Bailey in that it is on a Ford Transit chassis. I’m not sure why that would be of any interest to us but I suppose that it’s to do with brand loyalty. Anyway, I had a chat with the owner and it’s his first van and this was his first night in it.

The site is on a hillside and so the pitches are at various angles. The one we chose meant that we needed blocks under the rear wheels because we were back-end down. The temptation is reverse on to the blocks but when we did that previously in Stornoway, the blocks snagged the waste pipe when we drove off them. So we drove forward on to them.

A danger with that is that if you forget you are on blocks when you drive off, you will go over the edge (done that before) so I put a high tech handwritten piece of paper on the dashboard to remind me. It worked.

After we’d levelled off, I got the awning and all the gear out and we sat outside. It appears that today is the hottest day of the year so far and it certainly felt like it – so we just chilled.

We needed fresh water but I couldn’t be bothered to take the awning in. I normally do that but the heat was making me feel lazy – so I made 3 or 4 trips to the tap with the watering can.

I found that CAMC internet subscription works on all sites – which I didn’t know. So we still had 3 days that we could use having paid for 7 days at Longleat even though we were there only 4 days. In any case, it wouldn’t really have mattered because the 4g signal is reasonable so I’ll be able to get the laptop on line.

Tea was a Tesco cottage pie.

There’s a dog walk on this site. It’s not particularly nice. Also there are notices letting us know that there is a high level of ticks in the area. But it’s within a short distance of our pitch so I can get Ellie to the walk area before she does any business – and she can do it in the dog walk area – which is preferable to doing it in front of people sat outside eating their breakfast.

The site is effectively on the edge of Alcombe which is a suburb of Minehead. There are private fields next to the site but there is a fire station and then houses on the other sides. That means that dog walks are limited so Ellie and I followed the directions in the site leaflet to the town centre. I’m never keen on her being close to traffic but there was little choice. We took a couple of wrong turns and didn’t actually make it to the town centre but I could see where we went wrong so that would come in handy later.

It also means that there will be little opportunity to get the drone up.

It was a lovely warm day so we all sat outside. Ellie is often uncomfortable in the heat and she goes back into the MoHo. We’ve been using the fan to cool things down and she is not averse to laying right in front of it to get the full benefit of the draft.

We went out in the MoHo later for a drive around the area. We drove on to the sea front and saw Butlins. There were quite a few people about given that it is not school holidays and it’s a weekday and we’re not out of the pandemic yet – but it was good to see a bit on near-normality.

I hadn’t realised until we got here that we are on the edge of Exmoor. I knew nothing about Exmoor but had always imagined it to be like Dartmoor. Of course, I am now a Google expert on it.

We decided to have a drive into Exmoor but the roads became narrow and as I’ve commented on previous trips, that doesn’t really bother me as a driver but the concentration levels needed to guide a 2.4m wide MoHo within inches of a hedge on one side and within inches of an oncoming lorry on the other side means that it is not much fun. So we ended up at a town called Porlock and turned round and came back.

That was our Exmoor experience.

Tea was a Tesco chilli chicken and we had some Uncle Ben’s Mexican rice with it.

I’d decided last night that we would park up somewhere on the sea front and then all go for a walk. Luckily, it was a nice sunny day again so that would happen later.

I had a walk down to the Alcombe Co-op which is 5 minute’s walk from the site. I like Co-ops after our experience with them in Scotland. We stocked up on various things (including wine).

After lunch, we set off for the drive to the sea front. We had noticed yesterday that the area in front of Butlins had parking spaces marked out on the road but no-one was parking there. It all looked legal so we stopped and I checked out the notices about paying for parking.

I decided to pay on line which was an easy experience. I must have used this parking company previously because it had the car registration saved. I added the MoHo registration and it was all done. Longer than just putting in the cash but we don’t have much cash with us so it’s convenient.

Guess what happened once we’d become the only vehicle to park in this area. A vintage Triumph Herald estate parked up behind us and then a van and then another van etc. It’s nice to be a trend-setter.

We walked back towards the town and it was very pleasant. It’s always a slight worry that Ellie will decide to have a shit somewhere but she didn’t do that. There were some children’s play areas marked out on the promenade were that would have been potentially embarrassing.

It was really warm so we stopped for an ice cream. Magnum lollies for both of us – and some of the ice cream went to a grateful Airedale.

This will sound really snobbish but there were a lot of stereotypical Butlins people about. Hefty sunburnt woman with white bra-strap patches on their shoulders and people who could do with some dietary advice. We passed one such woman on her phone who was straddling a bench and she lifted her leg over the bench and let out a fart so loud that Dud would have heard even without her hearing aids in.

Tea was the last pack of home-made pork sausages and salad.

We had a new burglar alarm fitted last year and, although we set it at home every night on the night-time setting, we’ve never set it fully until we set off for this break. I check it first thing every morning and can see whether any of the sensors have triggered an alarm. None of them has – so far.

My routine every morning is to get up, sing good morning to Ellie and then make a cup of tea for Dud and I. Ellie stays on her bed under the table but she knows that the next thing I will do is take her for a walk. I don’t even have to say anything – I just put my shoes on and she knows that is the sign so she gets up and waits by the door.

We set off from Minehead and very soon, we were diverted because of a road closure. We should have used the A358 but were diverted via the A39. The signs were saying that the road would be closed during daylight hours between Monday and Friday. I suspect that this was the road closure that the satnav tried to divert us around on Sunday – when, in fact, it was not closed because it was the weekend.

At one point, we saw a huge construction site in the near distance on the banks of the Bristol Channel. A bit later, we saw signs for Hinkley Point C Construction so it was the new nuclear power station. I think there’s been a BBC2 series on the project.

We got to Crossways Caravan and Motorhome Club Site mid-afternoon and the weather was starting to get cloudy. Weather forecasts have been for torrential showers but we are probably on the edge of that. The dull weather didn’t present the site in a very good light and it didn’t look particularly appealing. We picked a pitch on gravel near to the MoHo service point. I went back to the warden and asked if we could move the next day which she agreed to but we decided to stay in the one spot.

One good point about the pitch is that the satellite dish locked on. I wasn’t expecting that because we have trees on 3 sides – but obviously not in the direction of the satellite – 28.2° E to be precise.

Tea was Tesco Pasta and Peperoni Bake.

We avoided the storms last night – just the odd shower.

As well as being next to the MoHo service point, we are also close to the exit so it was quite busy from 8 o’ clock’ish but not a problem.

The site has warnings that any wild deer on site should not be approached. We’ve not seen any on the site but I saw 3 deer just outside the site when Ellie and I were on the dog walk. Luckily, Ellie did not see them. We once saw a couple of deer when on a walk near home. She gave chase to them and they went leaping off like you see on the wildlife programs. I’ve never seen Ellie run so quick. She didn’t catch them.

The dog walk here is a good one. It is on the edge of the site down one side. It is woodland but not as dense as has been on the other sites so it is very pleasant. The walk skirts the caravan storage area. One of the caravans in there had a good graphic on the toilet door – see the photo.

The rain was falling in patches but nothing too heavy. I managed a walk to the nearby Co-op to top up supplies. It’s around 10 minutes from the site.

We were quite happy to while away the day in the MoHo. It gave me a chance to catch up on doing this blog.

Whilst walking Ellie around the site, I’ve noticed that the ratio of MoHo’s to caravans seems to be much more in favour of the caravans. Perhaps because a lot (most?) of the pitches are on grass.

Tea was battered cod and chips.

Our late night walk was around 22:30. Unusually for the CAMC, the site is not very well lit. In the site blurb, they make a point that this is to avoid light pollution. It was, indeed, very dark and I kept hearing noises in the woods – no idea what they were.

There was some heavy rain in the night. It woke me and I got up to check the roof vents. Good job I did because I’d left one of them fully open. Luckily the direction of the rain meant that none of it got into the MoHo.

I need to book a dentist appointment when we get back. One of my wisdom teeth started to feel loose at the start of the break and it seems to get looser every day. When I wake up in the morning, it’s like it’s tried to escape and I have to bite to put it back into place. I’d pull it out myself but I think wisdom tooth removal can effect nerves – nothing to do with the fact that I actually daren’t pull it.

The rain was light when Ellie and I went for a walk round the site but it gradually got heavier.

We’d planned to have a trip into Poole and Bournemouth today but those plans went awry when Dud felt ill after breakfast. I won’t go into the gory details but she was obviously poorly.

We decided she should rest so she laid out on the side seats and slowly started to feel better.

We did get a short trip. We went the 50 mtr or so to the MoHo service point, It’s positioned very badly. We were able to get the waste outlet over the drain without blocking the road but we’ve seen some MoHo’s having to park in such a way that they do block the way for some of the bigger caravan outfits. Not like the CAMC to have something that badly designed.

Tea for me was tuna risotto – which even by my very high standards was excellent. Dud had half a tin of rice pudding. She’s not 100% but feels better than she felt this morning.

The highlight of the evening was watching the England/Scotland game. Actually, highlight is the wrong word because I thought we were poor. Credit to Scotland for bringing the game to us but we didn’t play well at all.

Lots of toads on the late night walk. I worry that Ellie will try and eat them but she usually just ignores them – which she did tonight.

We have a 160 mile plus drive tomorrow. Rather than drive the full distance back (which I wouldn’t think twice about doing in the car), we are breaking the journey at a site near to Baldock Services – my brother-in-law’s favourite service station. That means that we won’t be seeing anything of the area surrounding this site. Shame but these things can’t be helped.

The rain had stopped during the night and it was dull and overcast but dry first thing.

On our morning walk, we saw a couple of queues outside of the toilet/shower blocks. I’ve made the point before but why do people spend tens of thousands of pounds on MoHo’s/Caravans with well-equipped and comfortable toilets/washrooms and then spend time queueing outside of a public facility.

And the toilets on this site are self-composting. I don’t really know what that means but it brings to mind the latrines in Schindler’s List where you are sitting above a trench of sewage.

I bought a new iPhone 11 before we left home. My previous phones have been Android but I struggled to get the drone app running and my contract was nearly up so I switched to Apple. I still have the SIM in the old phone but tether to that with the iPhone. Before we set off, I asked both phones (“Hey Google” and “Siri”) what the weather forecast was for the day. Reassuringly, they both answered with a similar forecast but Dud asked who would do the actual answering. I’m convinced that she thought someone would be sat there with a headset answering all of the requests!

We opted for motorway travel and the traffic was heavy so the going was slow. Traffic round the Bournemouth area was particularly bad.

After a service station lunch stop and a quick shop in the mini Waitrose we set off again and were soon on the M25 – and very soon reached the inevitable standing traffic.

We were still crawling as we approached Heathrow. We only saw 1 plane landing. Normally, they are coming in every 20 seconds or so so we should have seen quite a few. Sign of the times.

The Ashridge Farm Caravan and Motorhome Club Site is tucked away on the edge of the village of Ashwell in Hertfordshire. It’s a small site but we got a decent pitch although it’s another pitch where people short-cut across it.

Ellie and I were out for a walk near the site and we could hear an aeroplane doing what sounded like loops and rolls. Cloud was low but we could see it in the near distance. I couldn’t make out clearly what it was but it had the look of a spitfire and it certainly sounded like one.

4g signal was poor to non-existent so we are on the CAMC wireless again – which means no connection for the laptop.

Tea was pork chops with chips and tomatoes. We always keep supplies in the MoHo. We actually had 2 tins of tomatoes – one was best before 2018 and the other best before 2019. We chose the earlier one. I never have a problem ignoring best before dates – my nose will tell me whether something is edible or not. And, I’m writing this a few days later so it didn’t kill us,

Turn left out of the site and you are on a dirt track lane. After a short walk, you can hear honking, quacking, crowing and gobbling on the other side of a hedge, No, it’s not the people from Butlins again, it’s some kind of poultry farm. Difficult to see through the hedge but there were a lot of fat birds (another Butilns comment deleted).

There’s a Knaus MoHo near us on site. It has a registration of KNxxAUS. We’d noticed this on another Knaus at Maidenhead – different numerical part, of course. Must be a Knaus owners thing – though there can only be 42 of them so for. (Is that right? We started at 51 in 2001, 02 and 52 in 2002 and 2 a year since then).

Dud is feeling better but we’d decided to make today a chillin’ day and basically just sat in the MoHo. It’s not been raining but it was overcast and not very warm so sitting outside was not an option. I even managed to get a Daily Mail 5 star difficulty Sudoku done – took me the best part of an hour.

We drove the 50 mtr or so to the service point to do what will be our last fill and last drop of the grey waste. I got the waste tap more or less over the drain and let it go only to see it running down the side of the service point and on to a path. Normally, if you get it more or less over the drain, the surrounding area will dip around drain so the waste will run into it. Not on this site – the drain appears to be almost raised so if you don’t get it spot on, it will run away from the drain.

I stopped the drain and re-positioned the MoHo and got it right but that’s the second CAMC site in a row where there is poor design on the service point.

Ellie and I went for a walk into Ashwell. This looks to be London commuter belt. There was a Country Estates estate agent and we looked in the window . How do people afford to live down here?

Tea was corned beef hash.

While I was cooking the tea, the Wales/Italy game was on tv. Wales didn’t play very well and were well beaten even if the 1-0 score line didn’t reflect that.

Immediately after that game, we switched over to Channel 4 to watch the French Formula 1 highlights. I always watch the grands prix at home but usually record them and start to watch them an hour after the start so that I can fast forward the processional bits. Today’s race had a very exciting finish when Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the penultimate lap. I’m torn in that I want Lewis to win an 8th title but it’s good that the same person (ie Lewis) is not running away with it.

As soon as the Grand Prix had finished, it was over to BBC1 for the last episode of Time. What a superb writer Jimmy McGovern is and what superb actors are Sean Bean and Stephen Graham – and the rest of the cast. It’s been superb drama.

And that’s it. Last night of the hollibobs and we are heading home tomorrow.

The drive home was fairly uneventful. We had one complete stop on the A1 near Peterborough for what the signs were saying was a police incident. All 4 lanes were stopped and we were there for a good half hour. Once it cleared, all we say was one car damaged but there could have been more. There were about 10 police cars,

We opted to come off the A1 at Peterborough and take the A15. It’s longer but having spent a lot of my working life driving up and down the A1, it’s more enjoyable to take the scenic route.

It took us to the new section of the Lincoln bypass. I think that means that that bypass now goes almost full circle round Lincoln so some money has been spent there.

A dramatic twist to the end of the holiday occurred on Monday night when I got the laptop out to update this blog.

I’d had to change password while we were away. My laptop was the one I used at work and I was allowed to buy it for £25. As IT Manager, I always made sure I had a high spec machine so , although it was 5 or so years old, it was well worth buying. It has been taken off the works domain but some of the old policies are still on it. One of those is the password policy which forced us to use complex passwords – which means they are very difficult to remember. When I change password at home, I always write it down (I know that defeats the object but what else should you do?). I’d written down the new password on the back of the invoice from CAMC Crossways. I must have used it on Sunday night but on unpacking the MoHo, there was no sign of it.

I went through everything and every possible hiding place but it still hasn’t turned up. I even went through the recycling and the rubbish. Did Ellie eat it? There have been no signs of it (I’ll not detail what that means!).

I managed to find a hack on YouTube to get me back in to the laptop and it has even retained my original profile so nothing was lost. Now I know the hack, it’s actually quite a simple process. I don’t keep data on the laptop but it would have been very inconvenient to have to set up everything again on a new machine.

I’m sure that piece of paper will turn up one day.