The Glass of Wine, The Campfire and The Awfully Big Adventure

[notwavingjustironing]

We've all blethered on pleasantly on Seashells' lovely previous thread and, with the school holidays approaching, lots of us are about to start our summer adventures( not all of which are in tents....!) This thread is for us all to check back in and generally keep in touch. So we've packed up our Icey-Teks and our Tarps and our Death Socks, gently doused the burning embers of our planning campfire and rinsed out the wine glasses.

We're ready for our Awfully Big Adventure.

Come and talk about yours here (even if you're staying put!)

Chuff, I go away for 11 nights and the world goes bonkers. Sincerely hope all of you near to the lunacy are safe and sound.

I'm thinking icey tek of gin beside Lost's other half's lovingly crafted campfire sounds bloody genius.

It's taken ages to catch up...love the delta chat... 'I don't know about you but I Demand my base member provides a large surface area' ...tee hee.

bramble - I really want chickens but we go away too often, is it the legbars that lay those lovely blue eggs?

Promise to make more comment when I'm not shattered after a mad dash back from Northumberland (to Sheff) night all

Just remembered - any recommendations for waterproof trousers. We were sodden setting up last Saturday, 'twas truly hideous. I'd love a pair that don't rustle...but that may just be the stuff of dreams or large bank accounts.

Hope there were peaceful nights all round.

Legbars lay blue eggs and are the nervous mentalists of the fowl world.

Bit of a rough night with ds' diabetes. Minor upshot was that I was able to stare out over the sea between 3-5am whilst I was waiting for treatment to work. Man alive! What a big sky it is and with no light pollution so very dark against the stars. Managed to miss any Perseids but the constellations seemed huge in the velvet night.

Good news on Quechua beach tent, I have persuaded dh that he must stop at decathlon on m6 on way back for canoe hauling wheels. Hoping they still have the q in stock. Our temporary beach tent, purchased locally went back to the shop yesterday as the zip came off the bag. So I don't feel bad planning to buy the Quechua anyway for further holidaying this summer.

What are the best tent pegs for beach pitching? Is there a very technical beach delta?

about the Decathlon stop brambles but sorry for DS' diabetes. Hope he is better today.

Sand pitching - google says forget pegs and use weights instead. Carrier bags full of sand seem popular - tie the guys to them.

Hope your ds is a bit better today brambles.

Ds1 is at his Grandma's and ds2 has just gone down for a sleep, so I think that I'll avoid the housework and curl up with a book. Well, it's cloudy, windy and I noticed the first trees turning yellow today so it's feeling distinctly autumnal.

On the plus side, we've been offered a free camping spot at a country pile near Tours next summer if we fancy it . Pipe dream with 2 under 6, only one driver (who is terrified of driving in forn parts) and no trailer or maybe do-able ?

Its just not in the RULES to feel "autumnal" on 10th August!!

I could weep at the thought of my trip tomorrow. It's going to rain solidly for the whole trip. DH is going to be a right misery, its going to prove his theory that camping is crap, no matter how much wine and hot water bottles I pack.

The DS's will be bored and I will be so disappointed after planning the whole thing like a military operation. I'm almost tempted to cancel, but there's always the chance there might be a little pocket of sunshine where we're going and that we will benefit from it...

Had the heating on here this morning for an hour to take the edge off - how bloody depressing... And I'm not nesh - I tend to run warm if anything.

Where you going again notwaving? Pleeeease let the weather improve for you!

Bramble I hope your ds is better today.

We were sat out last night watching the moon on the sea and I agree, it was a stunning night last night. The moonlight on the sea was pinky initially, before going a true silver. Stunning :)

Notwaving where are you off to? The weather is amazing here today, but the hedgerows are definately autumnal-good blackberrying at the moment!

wet Mid-Wales (Bala Lake).

I've looked at every weather forecast going and they all say the same.

Just been and bought the DS's some fleecy joggers. I would have bought them some designer trainers and a mobile phone, but there don't appear to be many of those in the city centre for some strange reason.......

notwaving sending you lots and lots of happy sun vibes but I fear your predictions of wet wet and more wet are probably accurate . How frustrating that it will just confirm what your dh believes to be the case with camping when in fact it is FUN! Maybe it is worth putting it off as camping in the rain isn't much fun really even if you love camping and you might have more chance of convincing him in good weather? Can your leave from work be flexible?

bramble sorry about a rough night with ds2 and hope his diabetes is behaving better today.

Well dh and I have had a lovely lunch today (wine AND gin so all good!) and then been to camping shops!!!! He has decided we need a trailer - yippee!! and we have seen the outwell montana 6 which, with a front extension, would give us all the space we would need. Now just need some money! Also stalking ebay for one close to us... I think I have also convinced him that the coleman extreme coolbox is too bulky and wine can't stand upright in it so we MUST get an iceytek

Glad nights were calmer for those affected - pmsl at this from notwaving 'I would have bought them some designer trainers and a mobile phone, but there don't appear to be many of those in the city centre for some strange reason.......'

brambles sorry about your horrid night with DS, still it had a silver starry lining. My favourite thing about camping has to be staring up at the stars.

Hope eveyone's childcare was back to normal and a better night was had by all in the riot zone, I was thinking about you last night. There was a really loud noise at 12.30 which made me sit up in bed and panic that the toerags round here were getting ideas but it turned out to be a particularly noisy cow

Good luck tomorrow SeaShells, I bet you'll really enjoy having a proper lunch break for once. I was at work today (they aren't very good at keeping up the 'sorry there will be no more work for you', it's only four weeks since they let me go!). I'm finding wearing proper shoes a real shock, I had to brush my hair and everyghing, ugh! Anyway, girls evening sea swim tonight so I can get back to being a grubby curly haired urchin until tomorrow.

Back to free swimming again then Losty ?

Not waving, good luck. It is a beautiful area so I hope you will have a lovely time. Fingers crossed for weather.

Diabetes behaving better today. I'm about to put a sensor into ds so that we can track levels better.

Thanks for sand pitching advice. I also adopt the strategy of 'lobb sommat heavy into tent'.

Tours. Yum. Lovely area. Spent a good holiday around there many moons ago. Hope it happens.

Thanks Brambles hope you have a more peaceful night - how long have you got left on your lovely trip ?

I have just spent an obscene amount on books, colouring things, Lego and wine to smooth the nightmare duration of the trip .....

Brambles sorry to hear about your son - hope he is better now?

Was all quiet where we were in London last night but sounded like lots of other places were hit quite badly. Fuckers.

Am so excited - we're going on Monday! Have been admiring all my kit this afternoon...(not that I know how to use most of it!)

Still can't get my head around having to switch heating on in early August! Will keep my fingers crossed for an improvement notwaving.

Lost, you made me laugh with the rioting cow story! Love it! We had a quiet night. The whole "town" (I'm never quite sure what to call a neighbourhood in London, as it's not technically the whole borough, it's not a village, etc etc) closed down by mid afternoon on police advice, so I guess the looters thought not to bother. It was weird not hearing any more sirens after the previous night. Ds's nursery also opened again, which was good not only for work, but also because they had a planned "beach party" on today, and he would have been very disappointed as we've made a big thing of it all week. I'm very jealous of his week, actually - yesterday morning they had the "Petting zoo visit" (a dog and a rabbit, apparently, hahaha), beach party today and trip to the cinema for the leavers tomorrow. Lucky fish.

Seashells, good luck for tomorrow! I found the nicest / weirdest thing being back at work the fact that you could have a coffee slowly. It was midst grabbing stage, so it took me a while to acknowledge that, possibly, my colleagues weren't out to grab or push my cup over...

Glad to hear ds better, Bramble. Must be so difficult and scary at times.

Am very impressed with the free camping offers and the keen camping-spender-dhs! I clearly need to brush up on my skills, as the only offer I had lately was some chocolate eclairs dh just brought me. Not that I'm complaining, of course, I love them. I could live off mushrooms and chocolate eclairs. Not together, mind you.

I will be back at the weekend. Then planning where to go next! Looking at the riot photos it seems that it's raining oop north.

Apparently tomorrow is a special rnli day and there will be a pretend rescue in the harbor with the lifeboat and helicopters. Phwoar!

pmsl lost thinking the thieving little bastards rioters had reached your field in deepest darkest Wales!!!

notwaving you have exactly the same amusing the boys kit that I look camping too! I also got the eye-spy books on camping and nature although in the end we didn't need those so I can save them for another raining day! Lego (and dinosaur top trumps and torches) were definately worth their weight in gold! Good luck...

Brambles glad that your ds is better today. My Mum has type 1 diabetes and although its generally well controlled we have had a few 'fun' nights trying to manage hypos over the years. Thankfully she remains well with no complications so all good.

Kingsroadie hope the weather improves for your trip!

Well most of my camping stuff is all stacked up in our kitchen. Had a couple of hours without rain so managed to dry the tent last night. Just prioritising MN being lazy really! I'm sure I'll get it sorted at some point this week!

Cross posted MissSal and brambles - glad to hear all back to some sort of normal today MissSal. RNLI day sounds fab tomorrow brambles!

And I had meant to wish you good luck tomorrow too Seashells. I agree that work is defiantely a break when you are used to looking after small children. Working part time I used to get colleagues asking me what I was going to do on my days off and I had to force myself not to screech in hysterical harpy stylee 'what do you mean?! THESE are my days off! I get to drink coffee while it is still hot, have a lunch break, and go to the loo without having someone sitting on my lap!!!' and say something less ranty instead

Sal - you can play childfree bingo

Line = coffee, no spillage, whilst reading the paper, a wee without anyone banging on the door

For a full house you also need to wear a white shirt/pair of trousers for a whole hour without getting finger marks on it, have an uninterrupted conversation with an adult, eat some chocolate without sharing, eat your food at leisure and not carry a bag full of random crap which you carry "just in case". I've omitted the obligatory extended comfort break ....

RNLI eh Brambles ? More hunky men in uniform to admire ?

Yellow - I-spy books ! I had forgotten all about those - will need to look for them

We are now taking two cars to accommodate the boy's bikes so minimal packing now not an issue.

Loving childfree bingo notwaving!!!

Thanks Yellow - checked the weather forecast at Chichester - going near there - and Monday - Thursday are supposed to be sunny with a few clouds and 0% chance of precip. Apart from weds when it's a 20% chance. Fingers crossed!

Finally unpacked the tent tonight and stroked it a bit . Need to get guy ropes tied and think we are doing a practice pitch on sat morning. Bit daunted by it!

Feel like I should buy a fleece as I don't have one - will I stand out?

notwaving, brilliant!

Kingsroadie your good weather! Don't worry about standing out (or not) I don't think anyone gives a sh*t what you wear when camping! Hope not anyway after I was walking to the shower block with my leggings on giving me a wedgy! I do have fleeces though as they are lovely and cosy and that ismy priority when camping.

at you stroking your tent. I stood and smiled clutching my hands together in manner of a small excited child looking at all my stuff in the kitchen before we set off!