Winter update 2010-2011

Well, we’ve been doing our usual rushing about this winter: back and forth to Buzet by train, plane, bus and car, and bringing hundreds of kilos of batteries, spares for the genny and packets of crisps and all the other things you either can’t buy or can’t afford to buy in Fabulous France!

The old Xantia did sterling work bringing the first load of stuff down (12 x 25kg batteries and the rest) but we realised that as it was costing so much to run we scrapped it and bought a 2003 diesel Clio (£700 per year cheaper to run - 60mpg instead of 33! And only £20 pa tax) we now feel we can visit friends and family and generally tour around in both the UK and France, which is what we like doing. Not many pics I am afraid for this posting, but by popular request (at least one) we offer you a link to ‘The Finding and Refurbishment of Riccall’ – the first part of which has now been posted.

www.riccallrefurbishment.blogspot.com

We thought most people would go to sleep just thinking about the refurbishment bit so in order to keep our seven readers of the ‘rambling’ blog on line, as it were, we posted the new blog under a separate title.

We will of course keep the old blog going and intermittently posted when the season gets started, but just to give a flavour of our winter, after our first foray back to Riccall in December we did a trip down to Louise’s son Robert’s and girlfriend Kerry’s for Xmas (well done them – it was lovely), via Julia and Steve’s, then a night with Alice and Mark before going back to base in Co Durham. Then we spent a night on the narrowboat, had a lovely early birthday lunch with friend Angela, a night with friends Mike and Jean near Rochdale and a visit to friends near Appleby, on the way to a wonderful weekend with Alex’s cousin Mary and her husband Martin in Glen Prosen in Scotland! On the return journey we stopped for lunch with long-time friends Nigel and Janet, and tea with ex-neighbours and friends Stef and Barrie, both near Alnwick. Phew!

In all these wanderings we have managed to completely avoid any semblance of bad weather, which considering the winter there has been so far in both the UK and France is nothing short of a miracle. Scotland was wonderful – covered in snow, but no problem in driving. Visits to cousin Dorothy, and entertaining Maurice and Judy, Paul and Diane, Derran and Jamie have also been managed, in between.

Our trip back to Buzet involved a night with Julia and Steve (again – poor things!) a visit to Louise’s son Richard’s future mother-in-law Sue for morning coffee, and then two nights with Alex’s brother David and wife Bun in Somerset.

From there to Buzet involved an overnight stop in a not-brilliant B & B near Abbeville, followed by a ten-hour drive to Buzet!

So there it is, and if we have inadvertently missed anyone out – it was great to see you too!