No Parlez

As many of you will know, the old folks have a place En France. Wanna know where?
Here it be. If you can’t be bothered to look it up and you know France, it’s partway between Bergerac and Poitiers.

I tend to go there most years for the obvious reasons – the weather, the food, the drink and not forgetting that it’s nice to go and see one’s parents every once in a while.

So come 24th July, that’s where we're heading. Normally, being just the two of us, we’d fly. This time we were taking the car. Up at 4-ish and crack on down to Folkestone to get the Eurotunnel. We were in pretty good time and so stood a really good chance of getting a slightly earlier crossing. Here is where we encountered the first problem.
My TomTom is one of the earlier models. It’s served me well for quite a few years now. The one that I own takes an SD card. If I want to switch between countries, I need to select that on the device itself. Sat in the Eurotunnel car park seemed a good place to do this. And so it was, but the Tomtom didn’t like it. Oh no, it didn’t like the France map at all.
So there we are with about 20 minutes to board the shuttle with no Satnav of France and no road atlas. Great.
I’ve driven down there before.... once. The route takes us through the centre of Paris. Great.

So how was this problem overcome? It just so happened that I’d got a new Blackberry through work a couple of weeks before. This particular model has GPS reception and I had recently downloaded Google Maps onto it. As soon as we got a signal at Calais, I quickly looked up the route. Fortunately, it’s fairly straight forward (despite still going through Paris). One other thing was that I had a charger for the phone, but not a car charger. GPS tends to soak up the battery. Back up plan was to check the route and make a quick note of the directions. That was it, simple as. But it worked. Seven hours or so later we arrived, to a well earned drink and some food.




The rest of the week was fairly straight forward. The intention was to have a totally relaxing time. Wind down from work, soak up some sun, and eat, drink & be merry.

It’s all too easy whilst there to be very lazy and you end up feeling very sedentary and generally out of condition. We decided to try and do something active most morning and then wind down from lunchtime into the evening.

Sunday – walked back from Aigre (the nearest town), about 6.5Km
Monday – a circular walk from Chillé, about 12Km
Tuesday – canoeing on a small river not too far away
Wednesday – a walk to Aigre AND back, 13Km
Thursday – can’t remember!
Friday – lunch out, so we didn’t bother

All good fun. M&D had never been canoeing before and went for a 2-man kayak. Myself & H were on small canoes. These were very little, highly manoeuvrable, BUT not the most stable of craft. H really didn’t get on with hers and spent most of the time trying to aim forwards. To say she didn’t really enjoy would be a bit of an understatement. The French country air has never been so blue!




These photos aren’t in any particular order, they’re just thrown in to break of my ramblings.

A major sad part of this visit is that it was to be our final one. After six years, M&D have decided that they would like to be back in England and are selling up. In actual fact they received an agreeable offer on the Thursday that we were there.

Friday lunch is also worth a mention. One of the best restaurants in the area is called Le Cheval Blanc (The White Horse, for the non-French speakers). It is very popular with Brits and the food there is superb. There are a couple of fixed menus which prove most popular. Our choice is the five course one for €18. Exceptionally good value for what you get, and it includes wine.




The shop above is in Aigre and owned by the same people who own Le Cheval Blanc. It sells some wonderful things. Lots of typical French foodstuffs, as well as kitchen ornaments, and decorations.




So, the end of an era. But such a lovely era. The long-term readers of this blog will know how the house started out and what a wonderful job M&D have done to convert it and make it such a lovely place. The new owners are very lucky.
However, M&D have made many friends in the area and there are ample opportunities to go and stay in the area – not least M’s sister, who only lives a few K’s away.

We had a bit of a wobble with the Satnav on the way there, but it earned it’s keep on the way back! I shall explain...

As per most modern cars, the BM has a readout of miles left in the tank. I tend to let it go down to about 50 before refuelling. We set off back with over 200 in the tank. We cracked on and decided to stop, refuel and grab a sandwich (kindly provided by M).
The service station was completely RAMMED. Queues of about 5-6 cars at each pump. As we got nearer the front we realised we were in a line for diesel only. No choice but to pull over and go round again. I found us a place in the car park and we ate. As the service station was a major one, I suggested that we crack on to the next (hopefully) quieter one.
It was a bit further than we expected but, with 12 miles to go (in the tank), we arrived. It was just as busy as the previous one. We made the same mistake and got in the wrong queue!!! This time we HAD to go round again, so I followed the exit and went to go round... except the exit led straight out onto the motorway, with no way back!!! Not good. Not good at all.
I slowed right down to 50mph, turned off the air con and basically tried to conserve fuel! In the end we decided to pull in next to an emergency telephone. Best try and do something rather than totally run out on the motorway.
One last chance. I looked on the Satnav for the nearest petrol station. After much trawling I found one 11 miles away. 11 miles in the tank. Nothing for it.
Both myself and H were very, very tense for the next ten minutes. We followed the directions and pulled off the motorway. Off down some back roads and entered a town. There it was! I pulled up at the pump and glanced down – 1 mile left in the tank.
I filled up. My tank holds 70 litres. It took 69.65 to fill.

The rest of the journey was, thankfully, uneventful. After all of that gorgeous French food, we had takeaway fish & chips when we got back.

There is life beyond Glastonbury

Okay, hopefully I will get up to date over the next week or so.
I do believe that Glastonbury was worth taking the time over, hopefully you agree and didn't get too bored along the way.

I was back at work on Tuesday 29th July. I purposefully kept that morning free, but needn't really have bothered. I felt surprisingly good to be honest. However, as is always the case after a break from work, there was plenty to catch up on. That week passed rather quickly.

The following week had a "Team Building Event" planned. Basically, it was the Agriculture teams from Wissington & Cantley getting together for a few days (totalling about 20 of us). The peak (excuse the pun) of the few days was to be a climb up Snowdon. All in aid of charity, but more of the money side later.

We set off on the Thursday morning, meeting on the outskirts of Shrewsbury mid-morning. After all meeting up and having a coffee, we travelled in convoy to a "surprise destination". This turned out to be a warm up climb taking on The Wrekin. No, I hadn't heard of it either. Here's a link.... CLICK ME.

It was quite a nice day, if anything a little warm so off we went. Not too long to get us to the top and here's the proof...



That out of the way, off we went again to a nearby hotel.
I shan't bore you with the rest of the day, as it involved work stuff. It did finish with a good fun quiz in the evening mind.

Friday saw an early start, 6am, as we had to get to Snowdon from where we were. A couple of coffee to wash down bacon sandwich and away. I can't remember how far it was, but I'm guessing at just under two hours.

Hands up who's climbed Snowdon? Yep, me too. It's a pretty popular mountain to climb. Last time I did it was in 2005. We did the Llanberis path. There are quite a few ways up the mountain and that path is probably the easiest, it's even tarmaced a lot of the way. Me and H did it fairly comfortably in about 4-4.5 hours. It was nice and bright although still misty on the summit. This time was to be somewhat different. Oh yes.

So here is Snowdon in all its glory (not my pic)...



Now, take your hand and cover up the top three quarters of that photo. That's what we arrived to find, and remember that this is the height of summer!
Behold the car park.



Never mind. We were doing it no matter what. Everyone had gathered within half an hour. We were also joined by a couple of the mountain rescue team, just 'cos they fancied it! Roly, their dog, came along too. He was a seasoned rescue hound, now retired.

I had a good choice of clothes, I would have loved to have started in shorts and t-shirt, but it wasn't to be. Everyone donned full waterproofs. I choose against leggings and stuck with 3/4 trousers. Someone had even ignored all advice and worn jeans! You never, ever wear jeans for climbing/walking. Ever! Doh!

Right, off we go.
Here are quite a few pics, the final one being well on the way down.








We went up the Pyg Track and down the Miners Track. It started with some walking and then gradually got steeper... then steeper. Lots of stepping, and plenty of using one's hands. The wind was really blowing a bit of a gale. The rain never stopped.... at all. At times, it seemed to be coming down horizontally.
Within 30 minutes, everyone (including the pros) were totally drenched. Waterproofs were totally beaten.
I have never, ever been so wet without actually being submerged. We couldn't stand still for long, as being soaked combined with the strong wind soon caused you to get damn cold!
But, we all made it. A welcome thirty minutes were had in the café at the summit. I took my coat off and realised it weighed about five times more than normal. I hung it over a table and it didn't stop dripping for the whole thirty minutes.
Got the message about how wet it was?
The trek down was a bit easier and took maybe half an hour less. Pyg Track is a bit of a trek all the way up, the Miners Track is steeper near the top, but for the lower section, it's fairly easy walking.
So here we all are back at the car park...



The "Gears" thing is to do with work.

The afternoon and evening were spent relaxing, eating some good nosh and having a few beers. Needless to say that we all about ready for bed by about 10pm!!!

So that was Snowdon. ANd the money raised? Well totally, over £15,000. Not too shabby, eh?

Catch Up

Right. Need to get some writing done!

That's a line drawn under Glastonbury. Next up is the Snowdon adventure, then the week en France.

Watch this space!

Mon 28th Jun @ 09.30 - ish

Ouch! We certainly did see the last night out with a bang!

I remember Andy saying that he woke up to find glowsticks wrapped around his wrists. Took a while to remember where they had come from, "I don't even like raving", were his words.

All things must come to an end.

We quickly got packed up and wearily loaded all the bags. Pretty much taking everything that we had brought, save for the alcohol.

It was a LONG walk back to the car. We dropped Jo off part way. She was getting a bus to the train station to meet up with her mum and her boys for a week's holiday.
Myself, Andy & Ben kept on plodding.

The car was a welcome sight. Everything was dumped inside and we drove straight out. Not one queue. A real blessing.

The journey home was pretty uneventful. We stopped off for food at one point. It was amusing looking around the cafe and seeing the other tired, dirty looking travellers, all wearing the same distinctive wristband.

Ben was dropped off at Cambridge train station to head off back to Lincoln. The final two cracked on home with Andy a further half an hour or so.

So there way go. What an experience.

Can't finish without saying a huge big thanks to the people that I went with. They made it what is was.

Ben - what a character! A genuinely funny guy. Always good to have a good joke with. Came out with some classic, cutting lines. I still remember asking where his folding chair was? "Well, I went into a toilet with it, and came out without it". Brilliant!

Jo - my food-mate! An absolutely lovely person with a heart of gold. I managed to drag her up the hill and we enjoyed some great sights from there. I beat her on the fish curry and she beat me on the Tacos. Half a bottle of port each on the last night!

Andy - hard to believe that we only met on the Wednesday morning. I don't think either of us knew what to expect. Within a couple of days, it was if we had been best mates for years. Shared some really special times, not all revolving around alcohol.

So, what of the future?














I'll see you there!

Sun 27th Jun @ 07.00

And so onto the final day. My memory is lacking somewhat on this and I’m somewhat reliant on a running order to remember where I was at any particular time.

The usual three of us met up and had a walk down to the other stage. We must have had food on the way, but I can’t quite remember what – possibly another Growler.



While I think about food, there’s one dish that I had that I haven’t mentioned so far. I must have forgotten about it. I believe I had it late on Saturday afternoon.
Behold the Goan fish curry...



There was a bit of a queue for this stall 20+ people, but it came well recommended. Definitely worth waiting for! Some huge bits of fish in it and a lovely spicy sauce. I think it cost £7, which is the most that I paid for a meal, but it was good value and very tasty.

Back to Sunday morning...

We found a spot in the shade of a flag (didn’t last long) and listened to the band that were playing – Frightened Rabbit. Again, this is a band that I’d heard mention of before. They were really good actually. All three of us enjoyed it.
I’m not totally sure what we did next, but I do know that myself and Andy had already decided to go and watch the football in the afternoon.

They had put aside a field especially for it. England versus Germany in the World Cup. We found a reasonable spot in the field and had a sit down. It was damn hot and no shade. The field filled up fast. At one point I had a good look round and estimated there to be well in excess of 40K people there.
I’m not going to talk about the game much. There was a great atmosphere though. Lots of inflatables flying around. At half time, as one, 30K all sat down. That was quite sight to see.



The end of the game came round and despite the result, everyone’s spirits weren’t dented at all.

We walked back to the tent. I say “walked”. That amount of people all heading in the same direction was quite a challenge. Typically Glasto though, not one person was bothered by it. We just got on and did it.

Despite it being relatively early, we weren’t going to return, so took supplies (alcohol) with us and went to meet Jo at the Pyramid. It was going to be Jack Johnson followed by Faithless followed by Stevie Wonder. The only variance from this was Andy fancied Toots & The Maytalls rather than Faithless. V & H were also going to try and join us.

Jo had bagged a good spot down near the intermediate railings. This was good as we could stick our bags at the railings, also were less likely to get barged about too much.

Jack Johnson came on after a short while and went down really well. Just what everyone was in the mood for – a nice bit of mellowness for a Sunday afternoon.

And now... one of the moments that I had been waiting for all weekend...



And they didn't disappoint. An absolutely blinding set. Myself and Jo were dancing from start to finish. The crowd were loving it so much too.





V&H managed to join us straight after Jack Johnson and for the start of Faithless, but moved back to get more space to dance.

Another thing about Glastonbury is the range of taste etc. When Faithless finished, we had this huge change in crowd. Many wanted to stay of course, but by the same token, a lot left for elsewhere whilst other came for the headliner...



What can you say about the legend that is Stevie Wonder?
Again, I'd been looking forward to this. Faithless into Stevie? Awesome.
I'm not even going to try and describe the set. Andy had managed to get back to us, so all three of us enjoyed it together. Simply brilliant. All the people around us were loving it too.





V&H came to join us again straight after Stevie. We all chose to hang about and let the crowds die off a bit.
After a while Jo decided to call it a night. Only one thing for it then.... West Holts!

Due to fears about massive queues getting out of the carparks, we had made tentative plans about getting up at 6am to beat the rush.
This was before we had a drink, or several.
I vaguely remember saying to Andy that we ought to head off to bed. This was sometime after 2am. Shall we say that the two of us had thoroughly made the most of the evening! Lots of random strangers to share a cider with and have a natter.
My last memory before falling asleep was sending Andy a text at about 3am. Something along the lines of - "There's no way that I'm gonna make 6!"