My Poor Wounded Soldier!

On this evenings bedtime walk, Fred decided to get up close and personal with the neighbours Ginger Tabby Cat - Now this cat is a great big bruiser of a thing, but that did not stop Fred - Cats are fair game in his book!

and so, as Paul pulled back on Fred's lead to stop him, the cat was obviously quicker - and with a snarl and a swipe Fred was sent home with his tail between his legs.

Upon returning from every walk, Fred always comes over to me, and if I'm seated, launches himself bodily onto my chest to tell me about his fun time out with Daddy.

It was at this point I queried where all of the blood was coming from - and I mean Loads of blood.

It seems Ginger Tom did actually make contact with Fred's ear before sending him on his way, and so the next half hour was made up of Paul holding Fred and whispering to him whilst I dabbed warm water with TCP liquid all over his ear to try and stem the bleeding.

Of course, Fred was oblivious to why he was getting all the fuss, and just curled up on his big pillow and enjoyed the attention, while I was worrying about infections etc.

Anyway, morning came around and he wolfed down an entire tin of food - so no long term effects were felt by him, just Mummy worrying about nothing as usual!

I'm sure it won't stop him from trying to get close for another chat with Ginger Tom, but then that's dogs for you!

My Hubby the Hero

At pilates class last night, I found out that Mel, my instructor and lovely new friend, has got car trouble.

On her arrival back to Newquay Airport, after a week in London, her car had broken down and was stuck up there on the car park.

I, of course, offered Paul's services, as I thought it sounded like something that had happened to my car a few years ago.

This evening, all three of us headed off up to the Airport to have a go at jump starting her car, and hopefully getting it back to Portreath to be checked out and repaired, if necessary, by a garage.

As Paul had checked the amp age on the battery, (another man gadget is used), Mel looked on in horror in case it couldn't be fixed.

Then the jump leads came out and got hooked up to each car.

Paul then asked me to hold the revs on his car at 2000rpm, to ensure a good transfer of power to Mel's poor, very flat, car battery.

Success, within a couple of minutes, her little car was up and running, and we were headed off to the pay point to get our tickets authorised for exit from the car park.

On the way back, Mel found a new colourful friend (who she maintains has never been there on her past visits), and she got a little friendly with it!

... and if it wasn't her doing this it would have been me!

The drive back to Portreath and Redruth was uneventful, and as her little car seemed OK, we went on to the chippy for some supper, before heading home.

Well done Paul, I know you can never let a damsel in distress go un-aided, and you came through once more!

Mind Blown

First day back at work and OMG!

My feet hit the ground running and didn't stop.

Welcome back eh!

Hair Raising...

I awoke this morning with the sole purpose in my mind of getting my hair cut!

I do this! Get a thought or idea in my head and then mither myself until I actually get it done!

Off I went into Minehead, having left Paul with instructions to vacuum the van for me, and headed in the general direction of where I thought there may be a salon....

It did not take me long to find one that could fit me in there and then.

Now as most of you have seen, my hair is very thick and curly and takes some drying, so the poor girl was definitely in no need of a work out on her arms by the time she had finished blow drying me, but I have to say she did a grand job.

The ends are now lovely and blunt again, and I cannot wait to try pin curling once more.

Roll on the weekend!

Dunster Circular

A day out in the rain was just the ticket - we had a wander around the grounds of Dunster Castle, got very wet, and finished with a coffee and (cheesy chips in Paul's case).

Yes it rained, but, believe it or not we had a great day!

Party Time

OK - So today is party day.... The room is booked from 3pm and we have to be there on time, of course.

I have managed, however to make sure that we get to see Kelly and Dylan before hand.

We are booked into the Whitehorse for lunch with them. After a little mis-hap with turning up at different White Horse pubs, we finally managed to get together.

Dylan is a little smasher, and it was lovely to see Kelly and her partner Paul, looking so happy and well.

From here we went straight off to Fazeley again to join the party. JB and Mel had caught a flight up from Newquay last night so that they could also be there. Spookily JB and I kept thinking and saying the same things at the same time - does that maker her 15 going on 40 or me 40 going on 15??!

Paul got the chance to spend a little more time with his sister Karen

and a good time was had by all.

At a quarter to midnight I found a voicemail on my mobile from Phil - he was in Nightingales with Jamie and Simon, and why was I not there as I was in Brum?

Because I'm a decrepit old lady now that's why Phil, and I need my sleep - next time maybe? LOL

Happy 40th Karen x

Today we took the long drive up from the caravan in Somerset to Tamworth in Staffordshire. The reason? Paul's sister, Karen, is 40 today.

We arrived at lunchtime, and headed for the Fort Shopping Park to grab a snack and a quick look to see what had changed if anything in the 2 and a half years we have been away.

Needless to say, we stayed about 15 minutes and then headed off to the Ladybridge in Tamworth to get our food there.

After an enjoyable lunch, we headed off to see one of our friends and her little son before heading off to meet up with Paul's Mom (who had been working up until now).

After supper, we had a little drive back over to Fazeley from Walmley, so that we could see Karen on her birthday.

On arrival, Paul and Karen got all emotional - it's lovely they can be together today...

What a wonderful surprise we got - That morning, Dave had asked her to marry him!

Of course this meant that we had to have a drink to celebrate, and two glasses Baileys later both Marg and I were feeling a little bit squiffy to say the least!

Poor Paul then had to get us back to Walmley, so that we could crash out before the official party tomorrow afternoon.

Awards....

I'm on my hols and picking up my emails whenever I can get near a McDonalds and their Wi-Fi connection and find that, I have received an award. Not once but twice...

Thanks so much guys.

And now in order to accept, I have to tell you all 10 things about myself..... Here goes!

1. I was 40 in October 2008 and am finding it very hard to believe that I am actually older than 22!

2. I am 5'9" with blue eyes

3. I have a fascination with forensics and criminology.

4. I have been married for 17 years, but have not been lucky enough to become a Mom.

5. I drive a racey little blue MX-5 sports car and am a member of the Cornish Fives Owners Club (but unfortunately have not been able to do much with them this year)

6. I am a loyal friend and will always be there when and if I am needed - after all friends are the family that you choose.

7. I don't have much family of my own left, and therefore love them unconditionally. I am also lucky enough to have the support of Paul's family, and the same goes for them.

8. I rarely drink alcohol, but on the occasions that I do never have more that 2 glasses - the hangover is just not worth it!

9. Despite the fact that I rarely drink - you will normally find me to be the first on the dance floor - often alone! and the last to leave it!

10. I love my husband as much now as I did when we married - AAAAAHHH!

So there we go - 10 useless bits of info on me.

I know that I have to pass this award on, and will get back to you upon my return, with my winners

TTFN

Wi-Fi Accessible

Yeah right!

I went around Minehead and found an internet café that give free WiFi broadband, only to find that I was about 3 hours too early. It’s only on at certain times.

After having our lunch there and very nice it was too, we headed back, and stopped off at the reception area, on the off chance that the site is coming into the 21st century.

YES! Finally! Today was the first day though it will cost £5.88 for 90 minutes of non consecutive use over a 24 hour period.

OK I said – that’s cheaper than 2 coffees at the place in Minehead!

I got online and downloaded a map that we need for tomorrow and then started to copy and paste the word documents that I had written up onto blogger.

I got the first one on and pressed the button to download onto my blog.

The internet crashed and I have not been able to access it since.

I am somewhat cross, as I still have an hours worth of use to get from my payment, and we shall not be in Somerset tomorrow, instead we shall be headed up to Birmingham to see some of Paul’s family.

GGRRRR….. WiFi shmyfi!


UPDATE---- The people at McDonalds are wonderful – thanks to them I have free WiFi connection and have been able to update you YAY!

Day Trippin' Yeah....

Today we actually had a plan.

Having poured over the map for a while, we decided on a little day trip, combining a place that Paul really wanted to see and a place that I really wanted to see, with an added bonus at the end.

The reason for this – we were able to do a loop from the caravan in a large clockwise rotation, incorporating all 3 sites and ending back up at the van, where we started.

We headed off to Bridgwater (normally a 40 minute drive from us) and promptly got stuck in a line of traffic, with the rain coming down threatening to spoil the day.

We finally got to Bridgwater after an hour, and had to do a stop at Halfords for a new wiper blade, and a loo stop at the Asda!

Success on the loo stop, disaster on the wiper blade front – they didn’t stock them. We tried 3 other companies and gave up – we were now an hour and a half into the journey a still a little way away from our first target.

As we arrived into Cheddar Gorge our luck changed. We managed to get a parking place in the heart of the village, and a chap gave us his parking ticket that was valid for the whole day – Bonus!


The weather had dried up and it started to get really warm.

We plodded around the beautiful village snapping away with the camera and soaking up the atmosphere. There were loads of lovely restaurants that we would have loved to use, but I am on a diet this week (needs must), and so we had bought along a picnic.


We headed back to the car and ate our lunch, and Fred enjoyed a bowl of lovely cold water, and then headed of to target number two.

Wells is a beautiful medieval cathedral city, and what we didn’t realise until we wandered up the main street was that we recognised it from one of our favourite films, Hot Fuzz! It was amazing just how well everything came across on camera, it all looked exactly as it does in the film.





We wandered around the Bishops Palace, sitting on the edge of the moat watching the ducks and swans. Fred found it very interesting.

As usual everyone fell in love with Fred and he made plenty of new friends, as you can see.

Once we had wandered around for a couple of hours, we headed off to the final destination, this one was only because it was on the way back and we had never stopped off there before.

Glastonbury – well what can I say about this place – we paid for an hours parking, spent 10 minutes there, and left. I apologise to everyone who thinks this is a magical place with wonderful vibes and happy feelings, but all we encountered were, well I don’t wish to be rude…. All I shall say is we wasted 10 minutes of our lives that we want back please!

We arrived home (at the van), and collapsed once more. Another very full, very warm day, that we thoroughly enjoyed (we choose to think that Glastonbury just did not happen!)

I wonder what tomorrow will have in store….

Mooching

We had a little mooch around Minehead this morning.

We want to do the Quantock Bell Dining Experience of the Steam Train. In the 9 and a half years that we have owned a van at Blue Anchor, we have never been able to match a holiday up to the dining events that they do, and we were hoping that this Summer was going to change that.

While we were in Minehead checking out the timetable, Paul took the opportunity to have a check over the steam train that had just pulled in.


While we were having a wander the coal was replaced in the engines bunker.

Anyway, getting back to the reason we were here – You guessed it our holiday does not match up with the nights that the dining evening are being held.

There is one in August, but that falls on the Saturday following the Falmouth Boat trip with the fivers, so is out of the question.

Better luck next year eh?

Talk about avid blogger.

Having written up Saturday’s blog on a word document, I found it imperative to find someone daft enough to have their broadband connection enabled to any user, so that I could download it onto my latest post.

The reason for this – you cannot get a signal by dongle at the caravan. We are in a dead zone.

We drove around Minehead for ages, just to see if I could find a connection – all in the aid of an updated blog!

We decided that this was rather cheeky and despite finding about 3 or 4 wireless connections that were enabled to anyone, I could not bring myself to do it!

I know what you are all thinking – you’re on holiday girl, you should be relaxing, not on the lap top all day, and certainly not trying to get a WiFi connection.

Well in actual fact I’ve only been on the laptop for about half an hour in total, and I miss it!!!!

Will update you again as soon as I can

XOXO

An Interesting Journey Up Country

We finally left home at 10.30 on our journey to BAH (Blue Anchor Hideaway). Unfortunately, despite living in Cornwall for over 2 and a half years now, we forgot the big big rule that all locals should always adhere to…… NEVER LEAVE CORNWALL ON A SATURDAY.

From the moment we left the house we sat in traffic – nose to tail holiday traffic! It took us 45 minutes to cover the 5 miles to Chiverton Cross roundabout, and after 4 hours we had still not reached Temple.

The car was moving a few feet every 15 minutes or so and there was no turning off for miles yet. I wanted to turn back home and try again tomorrow, but then a news flash came on stating that the west bound carriageway was also stationary, just like the East bound.

We were stuck.

I pulled the map and did what all good Cornish people do (yeah I know we aren’t Cornish, but our audition is going well!) – used the little known unmarked roads to weave across to the A39 Atlantic Highway. I knew that a turning was coming up for a small village called Helland, so we took the turn.
The road just allowed 1 car through, it was very tight but there was nothing ahead so we were able to make back some time with a heavy foot on the gas!

My map reading won out once more and we found the A39, it was empty of traffic and a joy to be on!

We then headed on towards Bude, Bideford, Barnstable and Lynton. Once at Bideford (about 5 and a half hours into the journey at this point) we stopped at the Atlantic Village shopping outlet, to allow Fred a walk and to grab some food for us.

Then it was onward toward Lynmouth. Here we stopped once more for a little walk with Fred, and then headed on towards Minehead.

We were pulling through Alcombe at 6pm, and decided to grab Fish and chips for supper, as the van was now only 10 minutes way.

We got in after 8 hours of travelling – the journey normally takes 2.5 hours – ate our supper and collapsed on the couch.

We definitely deserved the early night we gave ourselves after that day.

Funnily enough though, it was quite a nice day – this was the first traffic jam we have encountered in over 2 years, and we found that watching the people cooing over Fred being a tart on the back seat, watching them from his window, quite amusing.

The stop at Atlantic Village made us decide to go back again when we had the time, as we had not been there before, and the stop in Lynmouth was pleasant and unrushed as people were already leaving after having had their day there already.

So all in all, quite a tiring day, but not in the least bit as terrible as it sounded!

Especially for Jordiegirl.....

On My previous post Jordiegirl posted a lovely comment, for which I thank her, and asked me how to get your signature at the bottom of your post.

So here it is chick, your very own "How To..."

Take a little trip onto:

http://www.mylivesignature.com/

It's a really easy website to use and will generate your signature for free, all you have to do is follow the instructions. It will show you different typefaces and colours to choose from and once you are happy, it will ask if you want to generate that signature.

Once you have generated the signature you need to 'copy' the HTML code that is created. (I took a screen dump and saved it to my PC to refer to it later if I needed to).

You then need to open your blog up in another tab, if you want your signature to come up every time you blog you can set it permanently. Click on the Settings Tab. Then Formatting. Then paste the HTML code into post template (right at the bottom of the screen) Select update.

The next time you open "your create a post", your signature should come up at the top of the page. You just need to place your cursor in front of it and drop it down a couple of lines so that you can begin typing above it.

and VOILA! your very own personalised blog post.

Hope you can follow this and manage to set it up OK, as I have done this in a bit of a rush - On Holiday tomorrow avo for a couple of weeks, so I will have to play catch up on my postings when I return.

Meanwhile, don't work too hard everyone.... ! I'm on my jollies now LOL...

xoxo

BBQ Night

Every other month the Cornish Fives (MX-5 Owners Club) meet at the Hawkins Arms in Zelah, for a catch up and an exchange of knowledge and info about our cars, and occasionally have a quiz night.

This month Peter and Rhona offered to have a BBQ at their home, near Truro. All we had to do was bring our own meat!

As I knew pretty much where we were going, we arranged to meet Sally-Ann and Mike in the normal place.

While we waited for them to arrive (we got there far to early) we watched a couple on horse back enjoy the lovely sunny evening.

The others arrived and we headed off up the by-pass with them in close succession.

Upon arrival, we got our burgers on the Barbi, and settled down with our drinkie poos (I wasn't driving!) and watched the men at work....

Poor Peter - I don't think he wanted his piccie taken LOL!

The evening drew on, and we filled our bellies, and had plenty of laughs

and yes.... That is me on the picture below with Gin bottle in hand.... It was only my second one of the night HONEST!

We had a wonderful evening, it made a great change to the pub night (which Paul goes to alone as I normally don't bother to attend!)

It made us realise how little we have been able to do with the club this year, especially if you look back over the past couple of years of blogging that I have done. What with Paul having short hours at work, and all of the DIY projects still being tackled, it will be a little while yet before we can do our next Sunday club drive, but I know that we shall look forward to it, whenever it may end up being.