New Years Update!

So, getting up rather early on the 29th of December, we opted to pack up the Golf rather than Colin the Camper (for fairly obvious reasons), dived around the (slug-like) M25 and onto the usually reliable M3/A30/A303 (urk!) -

- this was shot from the window when just approaching the roundabout before Stonehenge (at almost a standstill) -

- lacking a TomTom-style companion for this voyage, I took the novel step of looking at a map, and quickly found a swift route around the loggerjam via the local bus route through the army barracks, got us back on track fairly quickly -

- journey in total took about 5 hours (bleugh) but got our static caravan right away (minus microwave, fridge and door key), unpacked, borrowed next doors fridge for the cold goods and then down to the club house for some grub -

- (check out the amazing decorations!) scored the key-

- and had scampi (otherwise known as langoustine) for tea, which was jolly nice -

- picked up our tickets for the New Years party, buffet and sit down meal, had a few drinks and then retired to bed, next day was spent doing very little apart from walking around a *very* wet bude, didn't even dare get the camera out of my bag it was that bad(!), sorting out party costumes in the charity/costume/pound shops, then had home-made cottage pie for tea (very nice this time, much more filling, as you can see) -

- New Years Eve we went back to Padstow, which was full of elderly coach tour folk, and half the car park and most of the harbour wall was full of lobster pots (which goes to show precisely how many they normally have out in the Camel estuary -

- we wandered around the shops buying up flood damage bargains, dodging the storms, oh and I scored a medium-gauge "Microplane" for the kitchen (bloody sharp, almost grated my finger off last night) awesome tool (but more on that later perhaps)...

- had an average rib-eye steak in the Old Ship Inn (queue at Rick's was too long to want to sit it out in the rain) -

- and when the weather really did turn (literally rivers running down the streets) we made a mad dash back to the car before the whole of Padstow vanished into the sea -

- (nothing to do with me pictured above btw, just a silly family who forgot their umbrellas looking rather bedraggled). Anyway, back on site we had a lazy afternoon, donned our costumes (Prince Charming, Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother and an Ugly Sister respectively), glugged down a quick glass of Asti (yik, too sweet for me!) and then to the party -

- where we danced the night away, ate from the extensive buffet -

- sang and cheered and drank and laughed, until the lateness of the hour (or should that be earliness?) led us back to the static and collapse...zzzz...

New Years Day, somehow hangover free (how?) we got up late, showered, and took a walk around the site, Alan - the owner - has installed his own sink hole and thus is now free from paying for running water, and as a bonus, the run off has created a nice fresh water stream tricking down through the site -

- I would consider doing something similar but the filter would take up my entire back garden I recon... ;)

- worked up an appetite walking past all the vans in storage (something over 700!) in various states of decay and then up for lunch (130 covers!) -

- (that's me in the pink top on the right, only joking!) ;) -

- the meal consisted of (very slow cooked) roast turkey, beef *and* pork -

- with a good selection of roast/boiled/cheese sauced veg, served with a complimentary glass of wine, the only muck up from the kitchen being them running out of the Pate starter half way around the room *after* taking everyone's orders (whoops!) -

- after lunch we somehow managed to conjour the energy to nip down to the beach to catch the sunset (which was 100% worth the effort) -


- spent the evening eating crackers and stilton, drinking port and watching tripple bill Eastenders followed by "Waterloo" on the Shinco (through the TV), then yesterday after another brief stop over at the beach (to be sand-blasted by the wind) we zoomed back home (in record time) past Stonehenge -

- no doubt we'll actually manage to stop there one day... ;)

Back to work today, but I'm going to do it from home (as it were) it being a Wednesday...