School's out for crepeys

[lalsy]

Ooops, sorry, I didn't mean to finish the thread.

Just you, MI .

Thing about camping is you don't have to cook at all if you don't want to - you can eat out all the time for the money you save. We've done it both ways - holidays in a campsite where we spent a lot of time (river fun, tennis courts etc), and using a campsite as a base because it is where we want to be. This summer, we couldn't easily rent anywhere as special as where we stay (and we have access to a proper kitchen and stuff too).

Saw lots of veterans at a WW1 event today, nipping off to the pub and having photos taken with pretty young things, admirable .

All I remember about taking to kids swimming and to swimming lessons is filthy, disgusting changing rooms and rescuing them from getting tangled up in twisted underwear on account of never actually getting dry....and getting twisted up in my own bra for the same reason and never having time or space to get properly dry. Uuurgh....

My camping days are well as truly over although I used to really enjoy it. Got a feeling the decline in my interest has to do with not wanting to share any more....especially toilets and showers. And being old.

However, walking today on the site where I used to go camping was very nostalgic....but not enough to make me want to get back under canvas! So scuttling back to my little flat ( with 2 toilets) I'm quite smug.

Nice day today doing above walk, seeing sweet little donkeys on the farm, lunch on the harbour followed by a meet up with a friend and then beach.
DH getting moderately on my nerves though

monty shopping is one of the few pleasures left....

I don't mind the loo sharing, I'm pretty robust about that kind of thing, although I do hate a queue for the shower. My camping is only for a few nights at a time if it's the UK, and dh cooks because it's basically bbqing. We might do a week somewhere in France next year, but it would have to be hot France as I wont do rain in a tent.

It was always one of our dreams to hire a Winnibego and go touring about the US, but now I worry about leaving the cat ... (and the GC!) I think to do it properly it has to be a six month stint. We did spend quite a pleasant hour or so one year when we were in Las Vegas inspecting new and used Winnibegos - but I would definitely have to have a small car on the tow bar to do things like the shopping.

We did once meet a couple in a restaurant in the centre of Santa Fe (great place, there was a communal table in the middle where it was obligatory to talk to your neighbours); they came from Phoenix; he was as estate agent, and every year from May until September they drove round the US in their Winnibego - it was too hot to work, he said, and he didn't sell any houses, so hey ho let's go travelling!

I am watching World War I Remembered on BBC2; very touching, with some lovely music and words. I think we will switch the lights off tonight and light a candle at 10 o'clock. After visiting Normandy and Picardy a few years ago and going to the War graves I find these occasions very moving.

For the first time for ages I am having a day to myself tomorrow: what bliss (or it will be when I have done the little bit of housework/ironing which wants doing). On Wednesday we are driving down to Derbyshire to attend the funeral of my aunt who died a couple of weeks ago.

Well, we're doing camping because it's all we can afford. I'm not very keen on camping and we haven't been for 5 or 6 years because of this and I've never actually camped for an extended period EVER. So I'm not hugely happy to note that the forecast for the Loire Valley for the next fortnight is now rather grim with thunderstorms etc for the first few days and effectively rain every day that we are there. This makes me feel genuinely , as we've never done this before and now it's just going to leave dd feeling really cheated that she didn't go to "hot France" with the rich friends. Boo. Also, this whole thing seems to have taken so much time and effort to organise (not to mention the ridiculous amount of money for the dog-boarding arrangements) and I do end up thinking "what is the actual point" if we are just going to end up being wet and sad in a field. Boo again.

At least it will be warm rain, Stropps! The Loire is lovely and I am sure you will all enjoy it whatever the weather. And my DC used to like doing all the normal things which weren't the same in France, so even something as simple as going to get the bread from the baker's. They always made friends on the campsites and quite often there are "organised" games which my DC wouldn't have been seen dead playing in the UK, but loved in France. Oh, and not sure if it is still The Law, but men had to wear swimming trunks, ie Speedo type things, not shorts (and yes, it was The Law then, much to DS's horror).

Yes, thanks NU, dh had already found this out and I had to go on a mission to Sports Direct clutching a pair of his underpants for sizing purposes as he refused to go himself. Frankly, there should be a law against persons of dh's proportions wearing Speedo-type trunks. The dcs will probably not want to be seen anywhere in his vicinity when he is wearing them. I am just currently feeling rather weary and not up to taking charge of putting up a tent in a thunderstorm - which is what currently looks like will be happening around the time we arrive. Particularly as the tent is a vast 8-man tent that I last put up 5 or 6 years ago and dh was no help then. I think I will be relying on dd for help.
I was feeling very perky about this whole enterprise, but am feeling tired and downcast just now. Have also had a very up-and-down time with dd and dh this last week with some tiresome but understandable behaviour from dh which was clearly a reaction to dd's awfulness the week before. I think I've sorted it all out, but I feel I need a bloody big medal for my amateurish but very dedicated therapy efforts. Am somewhat stuck between the 2 of them and trying to balance everyone's needs.

Don't mind me, I'm just having a bit of a whinge and getting it off my chest...

Stropps, I feel your pain. I often get major wibbles before camping, although I do love it, and this year we appear to have a perfect storm of different stresses that may come together for our annual holiday . Or it may all be fine.

Have a bloody big medal, and a bloody big bottle of whatever strong liquor takes your fancy for midnight sipping in your tent. Hope things with dd calm down.

Lalsy, thank you. And I'm sure it will all turn out to be an adventure, whatever happens. And I'll still have the Crémant... Hope it will all be fine for you too. Today, I have made a large quiche and some of my special flapjacks aka breakfast bars and a chocolate cake. I have also discovered that the dog likes to play frisbee. How can he have been living with us 7 years and I didn't know that yet? Dd has done her packing without being nagged/asked. Just listing some positives for myself, really. So that I can stop dwelling on the weather forecast.

Another camping refusenik here. I went to Eurocamp a few years ago (in a static caravan chalet bungalow, which was just about acceptable) and the camping section of the camp was like Soweto. Miserable people crouched in the mud, cooking beans over little stoves, tents festooned with wet laundry...I imagine getting back home would have been more of a holiday.

But, yes, you are right, Beachy - a house in Cornwall for a week costs considerably more than £400. Although sharing a big house with another family brings the costs down a little.

We got back this afternoon, and have spent the evening de-sanding and unpacking. All in all, a lovely break. I'm back at work tomorrow (boo) leaving DH in charge at home, but he won't be bored; I've prepared him a nice To Do List.

Lights were out in this house between 10pm and 11pm, in memory of my lovely grandpa, who survived the trenches, and lived to the grand age of 92. He had an impressive lump in his thigh (a bullet, which they left in), and we have an embroidered cushion cover which he sewed while convalescing from being shot. Can you imagine an 18yo man today whiling away his time in hospital with a spot of embroidery?

Mmmm, Stropps, Cremant and flapjacks.....packing without being nagged/asked is excellent news I think.

CV, your holiday sounds lovely.

Stropps, it will be a great adventure, especially with lashings of cremmant et flapjack!

We had quite an adventure today, walking a couple of miles back from a natural springs pool in the woods in a huge thunderstorm with lightning and biblical amounts of rain. Quite a contrast to the walk there in searing 33 degrees!

Stropps, hope you'll have a lovely time. Surely DH will pitch in and help with the tent, what else will he have to do? Unless he wants to sleep in the car?

Our w/e in Paris was so good that I didn't think about work at all. I forgot I had an appraisal on Monday, got quite a surprise when I looked in the diary, despite having worked late all last week to prepare . Sunday was especially lovely, with several hours in the Louvre & then some lolling in a shady spot in the Tuileries, with a good book & excellent ice-cream.

Our German visitors arrive tomorrow & we need to book a hire car & lots of touristy things to do.

Stropps hope it all works out! Last tent I put up ( a couple of weeks ago) was a teeny tiny two person festival number which had it been even the slightest bit windy would have blown away......

I am back to work after a horizontal day yesterday in which the bathroom did not arrive. First excuse 'couldn't find the house' - we are on the main road for christ's sake. Second excuse 'we arrived but no one was in'. So we'll put that down as 'you could not be arsed' shall we ?
CV sounds like a fab break and MrsS, if FB is anything to go by, looks to be enjoying herself....

CV, your holiday sounds really good fun - commiserations on coming back.

I hope the appraisal went ok, Auriga? How busy was Paris or is it still the case that Parisians depart en masse in August?

I still have strong memories of erecting a large tent on the clifftops overlooking Whitby; during the night a gale started and the tent poles bent ... This was before we were married, over a Friday night - we had just spent our last money on site fees for a week. No banks or cash machines, of course, so no access to money until the Monday. We threw ourselves on the mercy of friends living in Whitby. They in the meanwhile had opened their large Georgian house as a b and b and had no room. They did however have access to a farmhouse on the Moors which had electricity, water but no mains drainage. The flushing loo discharged into the ground outside the building. Happy days. These days I just can't imagine being unable to get hold of money which you have in your bank, or being unable to contact people.

BD, that's dreadful service - I hope that you can get it sorted out.

Your recent experience with the storm sounds frightening, BTM, but the holiday sounds wonderful.

Talking of dreadful service, still no update on DD2's effing blinding passport.

We used to do Canvas Holidays in France as teenagers, but the tents were more like cottages with canvas walls. They even had little kitchens in, but I don't think my mum had a whale of a time bent double trying to make something edible. The campsites were huge, so I think we mostly ate frites from the many vendors.

Commemoration do went really well last night. I don't think I've heard our choir sing so well. As I opened my music, I realised four pages was missing. However, I knew it so well it turned out I didn't need it!

As well as us there was a sweet little 10-year-old girl who played the violin, on her own. Her scraping 'I Vow to Thee My Country' on the stage, surrounded by projections of men 'going over the top' was very moving. We all then went outside, lit candles, and a bugler played the Last Post. Though the pathos of that moment was somewhat marred by a woman in front of us having trouble with her candle, and saying "Oooh, I nearly set fire to my prosthetic tit!"

Everyone's holidays look/looked marvellous, and I'm sure yours will be too, Stropps. Get DP helping with the tent, FGS. He has arms.

Herbs, your concert sounds lovely - adrenaline must have carried you through. We watched the programme from Belgium and then later we, too, put the lights out and lit candles to our grandfathers and casualties of that and other wars.

oh give me strength...DP just got through (hallelujah) to someone at passport office who says 'nothing can be done as it is with the priority team, but ring back if you haven't got it by 1pm'. So what happened with the effing blinding phone call palaver I ranted on about above? Is it going to arrive? I obviously can't do anything daring like leave the house [angry0.

Calm down, dear, MI. (Sorry, couldn't resist). I know that you can't get out, but I think it sounds encouraging - fingers crossed for you.

MI hope it turns up!

Didn't get the job - so why the hell did they pester me to apply?

Sorry to hear that, BD, perhaps they wanted some more people to make up the numbers, it's the kind of thing that happens, quite forgetting about the feelings of those people you ask to respond. I am not sure if you did actually want it, but sometimes it peeves you even when you don't want the job. (Complicated sentence - hope you know what I mean).

NU I would hope it wasn't to make up numbers. I am pretty sure my place doesn't work like that.