Four go on an adventure

  After a couple of busy work days, today was much lighter with only some admin tasks to take care of. We took advantage of the lull to move northwards to Groningen. It's a pretty big place with some amazing buildings and clear evidence of a lot of shipbuilding still going on today. We could see the new ships on the quayside waiting for the day that they will be launched sideways into the waiting canal. Sadly, that day is not going to be any time soon. They don't look ready enough for launch. After the work was done and the lunch was eaten we were able to catch a bus right at the gate of the campsite to take us the 15 km into Groningen. Despite a couple of ominous looking black clouds in the sky the weather was fine and mostly sunny. We did not have too long to wait for the bus to arrive and we were able to purchase tickets without having to resort to any fumbling attempts at speaking dutch. No cash on buses so the guy accepted a bit of plastic from Sheila's purse. The bus ...

With 90 nights of this trip now completed we have spent 45 of them in the motorhome and 45 with relatives and friends. The last few have been both eventful and uneventful. Firstly on the day before leaving dear old Blighty we were travelling toward Harwich to catch the ferry. As is my want/need we had plenty of time!! I often suffer much abuse from the family about my need to allow for all possibilities when planning a journey. Anyway neither of us had been feeling 100% well in the morning and by afternoon I suddenly felt a good deal worse. We were actually already on route to, and close to, our intended temporary parking spot so we parked up and I thought I might lie down for a spell. Bam! I suddenly felt nauseous and dizzy. I will spare you the details of the ensuing few minutes and cut to the recovery where I spent a goodly part of the afternoon dozing on and off. Sheila had to cancel my work calls which had been part of our planned stop. Later same date, I was feeling a bit better ...

Hello everyone. It has been a rather uneventful couple of days since I last posted. I have been working hard and we have been doing our 5km walks every day so there has not been much happening. We have moved today to Hepworth to a small campsite with cheap services. The last couple of days have been pretty poor weatherwise and so the battery has run down a bit and without a good deal of sunshine it takes a long time to top back up. We invested in an electrical hookup for tonight and within a couple of hours out battery pack is back up to full strength. I had intended posting a short video of our travels from our newly acquired dashcam today but alas I am so useless I cannot puzzle out how to transfer the videos from the dashcam to the laptop. I am a bit worried that I might even have to consult the instructions. Sorry guys, I may actually have to. Remember you can follow our progress on this map. One more stopover before we board the ferry to Holland. Watch this space.

Well after some time visiting the rellies in Scotland and doing a couple of music gigs we are finally on the road again. We are heading southwards for our rendezvous with the Harwich to Hook-of-Holland ferry.  En route we stopped off in Cumbria to meet up with a work colleague from my new company. Lucy is my big boss and since the company is almost exclusively an online entity we have dozens of colleagues that we feel we know really well but who we have never actually met. We enjoyed a coffee and a natter and avoided too much shop talk. Very pleasant and lovely to be able to put a real face to the onscreen head that I usually see. After that we cut across country to meet with an old pal from my Bahrain days. Martyn Wharrie was an absolute gentleman when we had the pleasure of his company in Bahrain and I am delighted to say that nothing has happened in the interim to diminish his gentlemanliness (if that is a word). If not, well it is now. Martyn lives now in Driffield in the ...

Very quick update to say that we have arrived back "home" in Glenrothes where we will remain for a few weeks before continuing the next leg of the trip.  Watch this space for further exciting episodes.

It's been a few days since I put finger to keyboard to update you all on our progress. We travelled from Gnosall into Wales (by about 200 metres but definitely in Wales) and spent a couple of nights there at a small Fishery. We just have to take their word for it that it was a fishery because we never saw anyone actually catching any fish. There were plenty of people with more kit that the GB Olympic team put together. But I never saw a fish. Plenty of claims to have caught some earlier when the weather was brighter/duller/warmer/cooler take your pick. Fishermen spin the best yarns. Judging by the amount of kit on show these guys are either (a) not married or (b) their wives are glad to buy the stuff to get them out of the house for a while. From there we made our way to Chester where I had a gig at the Raven Folk Club. We arrived early on the Sunday morning and had a chance to wander round Chester for a bit. Wow, Chester is a really nice place. If you have never been, I recommend ...

Probably quite a short post but who knows. We were leaving Stafford behind and were checking where we would stay next when I spotted on the map the town on Gnosall. By the way who knows how to pronounce Gnosall?  We were clueless so decided to ask the wifey in "The bakery" which might not have been a wise move because "The Bakery" was some way short of what one might expect of an establishment with such a name. It did have some bread and some buns but was sadly laking in the baked goods which were promised by the name. Alas I digress. How do you pronunce Gnosall. Well according to the aforementioned wifey in the aforementioned bakery it is No as in the word no and sall and in the start of the same Sally. No-sall.  OK having sorted that out why were we stopped in Gnosall? Well I happened to know a guy who, in combination with others, runs an open mic night in the Royal Oak in Gnosall. As it happens it is on a Thursday night so we decided, having plenty of time to get...