New Forest Mini-break - Day #2 - Burley and Cider

So back to day two of the mini break (Thursday last week), amazingly the thermal shields kept out the *blazing* sun completely, allowing us to sleep in until 10am (which would *never* happen in a tent)...only real mishap being some of the cushions falling off the end of the bed during the night...need to find some ingenious solution to that, as it's a bit annoying the bed getting shorter and shorter during the night...anyway, it was warm, and quiet and dark right until we wanted it to be otherwise, so a great success...

The weather was staggeringly gorgeous again (what luck!), breakfast was rustled up (bacon sarnie and tea for me, coffee and a toasted cheese scone for Flyingpops) then we zipped up the awning, opened all the curtains, fired up the engine and headed into the New Forest in search of some nice scenery and local wildlife, which we found in abundance -

- we parked Colin up by the side of the (almost deserted) main road -

- and then hiked off towards what appeared (in the distance) to be a promising body of water -

- which even turned out to have a name "Whitten Pond" (accompanied by stark discouragement, should one be contemplating a cooling dip) -

- and there, beyond the wall of gorse flowers, we found some wildlife -

- a small field of New Forest ponies, stopped to drink (and scratch their itchy behinds on the gorse) -

- we stayed and watched them for a while, but they didn't seem inclined to do very much apart from munch continually at the thin grass by the side of the pond, so we walked back to the bus and continued our journey to down the road towards the lovely little village of Burley, this time being slightly outside the tourist season, it didn't seem quite as bad as our last visit, still quite busy though -

- the queue for ice creams was still as long as ever (and this lot wasn't even the hand-made variety) -

- we wandered around the town (which most oddly seems to consist of mostly witchcraft related gift shops, for no other reason than that a white witch lived there for a bit in the 1950s - the locals objected to her presence and she felt compelled to move out - but they seem to be making quite a good living in her wake, ironically ;) -

- then up the road towards the busy little scrumpy cider farm (woo hoo!), found out they do borough market once a week too(!) -

- where I scored a small bottle of "medium" (very nice indeed) -

- then we headed back to the camp site, Flyingpops feeling a bit poorly with a cold, so she had a little sleep in the back of the camper while I played on my PSP, made a start on the *excellent* "Vulcan 607" (about the bombing runs on the Falklands during the little spat we had with Argentina), then back to the gastropub for my lovely steak (as already mentioned) -

- came back full and happy, made a hot water bottle -

- and then drifted off to sleep watching Pirates of the Caribbean on the Shinco -

- a lovely day... ;)

First BBQ of 2007

Well, as predicted, first BBQ for 2007 took place quite significantly earlier than either last year (or the year before)...scary! So, officially then, the new record is the 8th of April...shaving well over two weeks from the previous best!

I had lamb chops with mint, Flyingpops had some veggie sausages in a bun...delicious... ;)

The Three Tuns Inn - New Forest - review

- so, a welcome to the "Three Tuns Inn", unbeknownst to us upon arrival at the aforementioned campsite, to be an "Egon Ronay" recommended "Gastropub", Flyingpops spotted the sign, and thence we were, oh ho(!), looking forward to a real treat -

- the venue was wonderful, very rustic and in keeping with the rural surrounds, unpretentious, dog friendly, and (thankfully) genuinely human friendly too -

- I struggled with the menu (for good reasons), I really wanted the fillet steak, but it was a little on the expensive side, so I went for the fillet burger at a very reasonable £8.95 -

- and (my goodness) did it fullfill my every expectation - not just a burger bun, or even ciabatta - it came served upon a freshly baked crusty herb bread roll (still steaming!), the succulent pink meat topped with drizzled cheddar cheese and a sweet red onion and cranberry relish, a fresh and equally sweet tomato salsa and a slice of crispy bacon tucked down below...each mouthful was a tearful revelation as to what a burger should be...Bravo...it was inevitable, therefore, that on night two, it would be a repeat performance...upon arrival, politely advised that a large table may be arriving soon, we took to our seats 20 minutes or so earlier than the evening before, and this time I opted for the sirloin - the presentation was as immaculate as the evening before, the meat, sweet and succulent again, and quite perfectly cooked, the plate streaked with a balsamic reduction as sweet and sticky as molasses - as we went to pay, I called a waitress over and told her that each time we had come here, the staff had quite literally knocked the ball right out of the park -

- but I beg you, please, don't crowd out my new favourite restaurant, leave me a table somewhere... ;)

Harrow Wood Farm and Caravan Park, New Forest - review

So, the destination of choice for our break for (a rather early) Easter holiday was Harrow Wood Farm in the New Forest, we had read a couple of good reviews and the price was right (almost as importantly), so we thought we would give it a go! Flyingpops got through to them on her second call (after muttering in my direction that "they're most likely all booked up") the lady that answered (the telephone that *exact* second) was extremely friendly, and didn't insist upon a pre-payment of any kind ("Oh you sound like nice folk, I'll trust you")...excellent... ;)

We packed up, as already documented, and zoomed off (following the handy directions of Flyingpops' new TomTom) -

- which speedily got us (under two hours) to the New Forest -

- where we whisked quickly (through the total lack of traffic) to the site-

- which was - no joke - absolutely amazing -

- we checked in and paid at the totally modern reception, were shown on a map exactly which way to go to find our pitch, headed through the (easily 10 foot hedge shielding the site proper from the rest of the farm) -

- and this is what we saw, all completely level, perfect grass, quiet drives, hard standing pitches and zero noise (apart from the singing of the black birds, the bleating of the local billy goats -

- and the flapping of the local pheasants as they hunted down missed goat grub) -

- we parked up Colin, put up the awning (breaking a pole in the act, but bodging it with gaffer tape) -

- enjoyed the perfect peace and quiet for a few hours until sunset -

- put in Colin's thermal window shields (attached with stickers to the glass), it's quilted and silver coated, plus it keeps out 99% of the sunlight in the morning, keeps out most of the ambient noise and stops anyone peeping in...this is the first time we will have ever slept in the camper, so all measures for comfort were essential(!) -

- oh and we discovered that the toilet block on site contains showers with THREE shower heads! One at the top, one to the right and left, awesome! We nicknamed them the "Triple Tornado", although I suspect the pleasure is normally withheld from the able-bodied judging by the size of the stall...(it's the one on the end, if you make it onto site, make sure you give it a go...! ;)

Then we hurried down the extremely short walk to the "Egon Ronay" recommended Gastro pub about 200 yards from the site...but more on that later... ;)

All in all? Absolutely superb...we will definitely be going back...more to follow...just a bit tired now... ;)

Home now...

...pics etc. once we have packed everything away again... ;)

Packed up again...

No more room at the inn, well, none with electric hook up anyway, so today it's off to Christchurch to do some exploring, have a nice pub lunch somewhere, then head home, once the roads have calmed down a bit from the inevitable run to the sun (for the fantastic weather we have been relishing, in peace and quiet with empty roads...Heh... ;) Proper pics later on...

Survived the night!

Thermal shield worked a treat and seemed like plenty of room for sleeping, dinner last night was beyond amazing, real gastro pub, proper pics later! Weather today is totally clear, dry and very warm...really landed on our feet here! ;) Off to try and find some ponies in the forest later...cooked breakfast, hot tea and cold orange juice first though... ;)

Thermal shielding up!

Getting ready for our first night in Colin! Local pub first though for dinner... ;)

Here and pitched... ;)

Just a shame one of the poles on the awning is about one millimeter from breaking off, done my best with the gaffer tape, hope it holds! The site itself is amazing, slap bang in the middle of whe new forest, amazing view and the biggest pitches I have ever seen! The power cable only just stretched! Anyway, off now to stack beer in the fridge... ;)

Off on Holiday!

Well, the weather is being intermittently excellent, we have booked a pitch for 2 nights (with electric, how exciting!) at the Harrow Wood Farm Caravan Park (in a village called Bransgore, near Christchurch in Dorset, so not miles from the New Forest) -

- Colin is all packed up (and still plenty of room, which is nice to know, if we wanted, we could take a whole lot more stuff, definitely space for the bikes on top (for example))...Flyingpops is just eating some hot cross buns for breakfast and then we are off!

More later perhaps... ;)

VW T25 - bargain wheel makeover - How to...

Okay, so as you can see, the nice new chrome hub caps we bought at the Volksworld show (don't pay over about £25 for the whole set of four) did make a HUGE difference but still look a little bit pants with the superficial rust on the wheel behind them, so it's time for another bargain makeover!

First off, remove as much of the grease as is humanly possible, I found Tesco bleach spray, really hot water and a standard household washing up sponge (the ones with the green abrasive surface for removing kitchen grease) worked perfectly well on this kind of grease (with a little of the elbow variety thrown in for good measure) -

- once done, scour it down with either a scouring pad (from the kitchen), or if you have some, just some wire wool or a wire brush, then rinse and leave everything to dry completely. Now, wipe all the dust and residue from the (hopefully now almost spotless rim) and the first part is complete. Feel free to pop the hubcaps back on if you like, and it will still look great, but follow me onwards for a hard wearing, longer term solution... ;)

Now unfortunately, some expense, homebase's own 1.5" brush will cost you about £1.49 (get the one that says it doesn't drop hairs, as that ruins the gloss finish if you miss one while painting), and (your choice of black or white, both look great on the T25 wheel if you have chrome caps, but black won't show the inevitable dirt) homebase's own high gloss weathercoat cost me £6.99 for a 750ml tin (you won't need any more than 250ml to do all four wheels, so you can get the small one and get even more of a bargain makeover...but I had a couple of other little jobs to do that required it) e.g. -

Anyway, assuming there are no spots of rust left (if so, you might want to buy the smallest pot possible of metal primer to just dab onto them before you gloss), working from the top to the bottom (so you can smear out any drips), cover all the bits of the wheel that will remain visible after you put the hub caps back on (obviously you don't want to paint over any of the wheel nuts and bolts, but I didn't need to tell you that, did I? ;)

Oh, and it's funny, but while I was doing this (I had put a rusty BBQ at the end of the parking space just to stop anyone driving straight in and killing me) one of the neighbours, obviously a little confused as to what the BBQ was doing there came to investigate, saw me painting and said "'ello", I looked up and waved and said "Just keeping the old girl (sorry Colin) going, God bless Weatherseal, eh?", to which he replied "Oh yes, a little R&R"...my confused look perhaps prompted him to correct himself to "Oh, I mean R&M", to which I said "Well, as long as it's not S&M"...(chortling at my own wit...oh how the winter nights just fly by... ;)

Ahem...*cough*, anyway, back to the bus..painting finished (cheeky banter non essential, and in fact probably best advised against in this instance, on reflection - *cough* *football* *rugby*) -

- it should look something like this when done, check back one wheel at a time as you go around painting the others just to check for streaks, and wipe them down with the paint brush (to leave an even, shiny finish), then wait for about 6 hours for the weathercoat to completely dry (overnight is best) -

- then pop the hub caps back on (might take a bit more of a wallop than before thanks to the extra layer), and the jobs a goodun'! Bit of "Back to Black" on Colin's boots and (his wheels at least are) show ready for under £9 (or if you need the new chrome caps, £35)! You can't say fairer than that! :)

Just need the rest of it up to scratch now!

Bargain headlining next (which will probably be a disaster) but we shall see, I have a plan...! ;)

Weekend update - Busy. busy, busy!

(Haven't had to do one of those in a while!)
Anyway, as of yesterday I am now officially off on vacation until after Easter, managed to do a bit of work on Colin the Camper hopefully with a view to getting down to the New Forest for a couple of days (but more on that later)...

First off, announcement time, Tommo has agreed to be my best man for the wedding (hurrah!), went to see him on Saturday, ate beers, played curry and drank in plenty of gaming (or something like that, my memory is a bit cloudy ;), this time I took my 360 over and plugged it into his HDTV...and WOW! Totally different experience...going to have to seriously think about getting hold of one...more money I don't have...bah... :(

Sunday saw us jumping into Colin (after meeting up with Flyingpops in Dorking) and nipping over to pick up a new wardrobe and chest of drawers (which are jolly nice and already manoeuvred into position in the bedroom)...I spent the rest of the day feeling a bit hung over, and was in bed by eleven...

Monday was a busy day, nipped into Redhill to pay in some cheques (after playing around with some big expensive cameras in Jessops, and some cheap pay as you go contracts in the Orange store to perhaps finance the never-never on the aforementioned devices), then had a wander around the Belfry -

- (interesting new vending machine appeared on the upper floor since my last visit) -

- then to the bathroom centre to look at new bathroom suites, this one being our favourite (so far) and also being just about in budget, nice deep bath too -

- we popped to homebase, picked up some bits and bobs for the work on Colin (including two huge bits of hardboard which forced me to put my seat right forward and sit all cramped up), and then stopped for lunch at the Skimmington Castle just outside Reigate (on the heath) -

- I had Welsh Rarebit (which came with a slice of bacon on the top, lucky Flyingpops didn't order it!) which was pretty good, menu was a bit on the expensive side for my taste though, then we dropped all the stuff from homebase off at home and went and did the Tesco shopping, where we spotted the Garden Marquee just opening for the first time this year -

- then back home, I did a bit of work on Colin then I cooked dinner, watched a few of the new episodes of South Park and sleep...

Sorry...

...for no posting last couple of days, been either out being hedonistic, or out being distinctly domestic...updates soon... ;)