Ah! Thought you’d got away with it didn’t you? I’m afraid not – the silly old blogger is back with another load of meaningless drivel guaranteed to cure even the most chronic of insomniacs.
There’s lots to tell – well a bit – about what’s been going on since my last missive. Mostly - well some of which - is actually related to caravanning as well as the usual pickling of the grey matter…
We are currently on site at Bo Peep in Adderbury, near Banbury having met up with fellow caravanners for Twittercamp – more of that later – but are heading southwest tomorrow to a site roughly halfway between Bath & Bristol for the last stop in our summer getaway. We’d toyed with the idea of heading up to Yorkshire in general and Whitby in particular, but the thought of going to Britain's gothiest town without my trusty leather trench coat to ponce about in was simply too much to bear. Seriously though we decided to put it off until the Easter holidays when we’ll have three weeks or so to explore more fully and give Yorkshire a fair crack of the whip – something I’m always keen to do. Ahem..
Thursday and Carl arrived to give Patsy a service (!). She was well overdue but am glad to say she got an almost completely clean bill of health, the only issue being signs of minor wear on the wheel bearings which we’ll have done next time. Carl, you may recall appeared whilst we were on site at Moreton-in-Marsh in February with a complementary hitch cover.
Friday, and the day we would finally get to meet, in person, some of the friends we’d made on Twitter. Amanda and Allison were first – in fact so early that I wasn’t prepared with the camera and was busy carrying an armload of empties to the recycling when they appeared in their new Bailey Orion. We chatted then watched as they put up their new inflatable awning – something we have our eye on when we’ve sold our current full size one.
Next up was David and his Elddis Golden Crown called Elvis. It’s actually the caravan that tweets – yeah I know – and very entertaining but it was great to finally meet the man behind the ‘van as it were too.
Amanda provided some welcome sustenance with a delicious home made lemon drizzle cake then for lunch we tucked into toasted sarnies thanks to chef Trev.
Our last arrival, Andrew finally appeared around 5pm having spent a miserable few hours on the M25. The shiny Airstream was easy to spot through the trees as he trundled up the driveway so we were all ready for him.
Well, we had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days – even though most of the time was spent eating and drinking and chatting – and not entirely about caravans either. . So much so that I’ve had to nick, er borrow their photos as I didn’t take any. Caravans and travelling were a hobby to most of us but to Andrew it’s a living – and before you ask that doesn't mean he sells pegs, lays paper thin tarmac and nicks cutlery either. Andrew writes about and photographs all things related to caravanning and camping for magazines, clubs and manufacturers. Check out his website here and his blog about life in an Airstream and other caravan related ramblings here
On the Saturday night we had a demo of a ‘wood gas’ stove brought by the girls. Similar in size to a baked bean tin it burns twigs – and anything else that will fit – but because of a little battery powered fan that circulates the gas produces enough heat to boil a put or even cook on the grill attachment. Heat from the unit charges up the battery and there is a USB socket for charging phones and so on – all from burning twigs. A great little device and if ever there was something to represent the 21st century this is it. You can be at one with nature and still blog or tweet about it!
No sooner had they arrived though then it was time to leave. We really enjoyed meeting the others and it was sad to seem them go but we really hope there will be another ‘Twittercamp’ next year. If you are on Twitter and fancy a get together do let me know. And when on Twitter make sure you check these out by clicking their highlighted names above – you might learn a thing or two – and not just about caravanning either….
It’s seemed very quiet since the weekend – though I’m sure our neighbours on site love it. I took a few photos the other night and we popped in to Banbury yesterday morning before grabbing a burger and a pint in Adderbury. A lovely village with plenty of the Cotswold stone we saw so much of when we stayed at Moreton-in-Marsh back in February.
So that’s it. You’re up to date. Still no word on the flat yet. The way things are going we’ll be living in Patsy back in Brighton for a while but that’s no hardship. Look out for the next blog in a few days with Bristol and Bath highly likely to feature. So, until then….