Mounts Farm Touring Park, Devon - Camp site review

In a nutshell it's a beautifully (and lovingly) maintained, refreshingly simple camp site...it's quiet and full of polite, welcoming regulars...here simply to relax... ;)

Located in "The Mounts" (which is on the A381), it enjoys easy access to Dartmoor (and all the spectacular natural/otherwise wonders therein), nearby towns and attractions, but I'll leave those details to later posts (we had a rather visit-packed few days)...suffice it to say, it's on a comparitively good road, for the area... ;)

The site itself has a washing up/washing room, an amazingly well stocked shop (including camping essentials (from simple pegs to full tent electrical supply solutions), battery cells, folding chairs, food and drink) which (and we checked) has usually lower or comparable prices to the high street...an excellent toilet block (freshly painted, sweet smelling, well lit - bonus points for super hot power showers, flower arrangement and (not quite discouraged) trailed ivy growth inside along the ceiling - oh and a gold star for being easy to reach from most places on the site in an emergency ;)

There is no club house, and no booze is sold on site, adding much to it's charm, no groups of lads or lasses being rowdy...(although we did try our best ;) - those asking for such facilities may be directed to take a walk (cross country) to "The Old Inn" nearby, but more of that later... ;)

The greens are neatly, regularly clipped, the roadway sufficient (no mud, even with the serious amounts of rain we saw) and footpaths and buildings are strewn with bloom sufficient to make Alan Titchmarsh flicker a look of envy in their direction...pitches are well ordered and not made at will, you will be expected to pitch your tent dead centre on a clealy positioned post (in order to comply with the various safety legislation out there), but that's all for the good, and not as regimental as at some sites I could mention..."You just go and choose where you want m'dear, either of those two fields"... ;)

Best of all though, it's family run, and by a lovely group of ladies with a real eye for the detail, and as I mentioned before, a genuine care that everything is working, everyone is happy and that the place looks wonderful...(unfortunately, they can't fix the weather, but nobody's perfect... ;)

Lovely place - if you are looking for simple peace and quiet you really can't go wrong...how did they put it? "Unwind the quick way", I think... ;) Lads, you need to head to Newquay... ;)

On holiday...

...phone being silly, trying to moblog but problems, may be no posts till monday if this doesn't work...

Well, that's what I would have posted on Friday last week if the phone hadn't gone up the spout...Back home now, pics and stories to follow as soon as poss... ;)

Live Storm Data - Track lightning strikes in the UK!

This is simply amazing (found via Flash, appropriately!), some kind souls on the Isle of White keep a live (well, 5 minutes out of date) map showing where lightning strikes are occuring in the UK! You can even ask it to show you the last 60 minutes-worth of strikes, and thus watch where a storm is headed! Talk about awesome for planning a day out!

Check it out here!

Long Weekend ahead...(in the good sense)

Yes! Almost there, helped Flyingpops load the heavy bits into the car last night, we are off (very early) tomorrow to go camping just outside Totnes, with the aim of exploring a bit of Dartmoor (among other things)...Becky Falls and Spitchwick are on the list so far, any other suggestions welcome... ;) Got to find something indoor for Saturday by the looks of things, oo-er...!

Bug Jam 20 - 2006 - Pics and video

Okay, so headed off at about half six (AM), went and picked up our back seat runners, then dived around the M25 and up the M1, took our little short cut cross country and pulled onto the site just after 0900hrs (was funny not to have a base camp) turns out they had had just a touch of rain on the Saturday -

- although it was largely quite dry, lots of new tarmac -

- some dubious cars for sale (imagine the "before and after" shots though!) -

- and some interesting custom modifications (didn't see him run the strip, but I'm sure it was quick ;) -

- saw some classy burn outs -

- and some really mad and smelly (+probably extremely dangerous to the lung) ones -

- witness as the young ladies become impressed at the engine size -

- decide this might not smell too great on the bikini -

- and then start to choke (it was after this I had to leg it, the stink was like burning cod liver oil) YUK! Now just a few of the sights from the shops/show and shine/pits -








- then on to the Jet Funny Cars -

- snuck into a forbidden area to take some snaps -


- then ran to grab some video from the top of the hill - this one is the Fireforce team -

- and this one is the Jet Beetle, then after some nice free beer -

- we walked back to the car through the devastation left behind by the throng -

- plenty more pics on the flickr stream, if you like this sort of thing, of course... ;)

Responsible Parenting

On the bus between Redhill and home yesterday evening - Mother handing a 'Playboy' black ringbinder complete with bunny girl logos and shiny silver Playboy spine to her tiny daughter, in school uniform - "'ere ya go", "oh but mum, I wanted the one with piglet ones, not wabbit ones"...

Angry... >:(

London Motor Show 2006

So (getting really behind again with my blogging), back to Saturday, and Flyingpops and I headed off to the Docklands to see the 2006 London Motor Show (free tickets - woo hoo!)...took the train into London Bridge, then hopped on the Jubilee Line until Canning Town, then onto the DLR to Custom House -

- (only my second ever journey on that line! ;) Very quick and efficient service...(from what I saw, anyway)...Never been to ExCel before, very impressive entrance, no queue to speak of even though there were *lots* of people arriving -

- then quickly in through the imposing entrance -

- now, there are two halls of this size (enormous) -

- one on the right and one on the left separated by a wide, tall corridor littered with numerous overpriced ways to sell food and drink to the visitors (take sarnies), saw lots of regular road cars (and sat in a number of them), and loads of amazing concept vehicles -

- a number of F1 cars -

- and even a small waterfall that Range Rover had thoughtfully provided -

- then outside to watch the 4x4's doing their thing -

Suffice it to say, the *proper* Range Rovers did a *lot* better than the Chelsea tractors - it was quite scary to see how poor some of them really were when faced with a small ramp...then around the corner to watch some guys messing about on the river (in spectacular fashion) -

- then it started to rain, so we checked out the last few cars (the Merc I tried on for size fitted like a glove, but I discovered that I had left my £97,995 pocket change at home, so I had to leave it) and then headed back home... ;)

Conclusion?

• If you were here seriously in the market for a car there would simply be far too much on offer, it would be a dizzying and terrifying prospect unless you had a clear idea of exactly what you wanted to try out for size before leaving home...but then you might as well do your research and go to the relevant dealerships...
• If you are along just for the experience (like me), there actually wasn't a huge amount on offer, there are only so many cars you want to try sitting in "for a laugh"...however, we got in for free, so I can't moan too much... ;)
• If you are a rabid petrol-head (i.e. as long as there are 4 wheels on it you want to hold it and kiss it?) - Dream day out...

Oh, and I took loads more pics than this lot, if you like this kind (latter category I guess) of thing the Flickr stream is here...

Bug Jam pics later... ;)

Friday update - Brighton Uni - Graduation 2006 pics

So, set the wayback machine for Friday! We went for lunch before Kipperfrog's graduation and were amused to see this sign at the entrance to the pub...(Badgers Retreat, just east of Brighton)...being both rather presumptuous and also spelled wronlgy, which ever way you read it... ;)

...anyway, as we had driven down to Brighton so the temperature reported on the car thermometer had climbed...by the time we got down there it was roasting, the view from the pub beer garden overlooking the channel illustrates this nicely, it's almost impossible to separate sea from sky in the humid haze...

...had some nice beer...

...followed by some great food (minted lamb burger for me!) with bountious condiments -

- then zoomed into town (snapping someone coming the other way) -

- and parked up in the main station carpark (about ten minutes after Kipperfrog had intended to be actually at the dome thanks to how busy it was everywhere) -

- so with a little haste, through the station, into a cab and thus -

- swiftly into the queue (not in so much need to hurry then!), which was very fast moving indeed, taking us into reception -

- fitting (gown and hat), and then into the dome proper for processing ;) -

- by the likes of Sir David Attenborough (et al) -

- then back to mine for home made pasta... ;)

Full stream here...

Woo hoo!

Woo hoo!
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

Free beer courtesy of the Bavaria brewery, Holland... :*

Broom! ;)

Broom! ;)
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

Just had a burn out nearly make me sick, got a serious lungfull! ;)