where art collides philosoperontap

Peel swelters

Today is a fantastic summer’s day. Took my usual stroll down to the prom and Fenella Beach and thought it might be a good idea to buy  couple of croissants to have for breakfast on the prom. Unfortunately I was too early for the Coop whose croissants have proved to be very tasty this week.

Plenty of overnight Olympic action to catch up on. Usain Bolt won gold in the 100m.

Lunch at the caff at Niarbyl. Gorgeous in the sunshine. Cup of tea now and then out for another stroll. I think I’ve given up on the idea of uploading my vids whilst here. They’re too big. Might as well do them when I get back.

Found out this morning that my passport, the one sent last Thursday on a guaranteed before 1pm delivery, hadn’t arrived at Richard’s. It’s arrived now but am a bit cross. It’s my passport. Rich is taking it to the Chinese embassy tomorrow to get the visa sorted. Only 11 days before we go now.

Swung by the post office to get a refund only to find I have to fill out an extensive form and send it off to Douglas. This is rubbish. I will do it out of principle but it will also serve as a trefor.net blog post. It’s rubbish service.

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Lovely walk around Peel in the sunshine this afternoon. Had a honey comb and malteser double scoop ice cream from Davisons on the prom. Then walkded around to the breakwater as some fishing boats were coming in. Peel 400 genesis landing 60 sacs of scallops and PL1 landing crabs and lobster. Plenty of videos.

Had an interesting chat with the wife of the Genesis skipper. They are only allowed to land 125 sacks of scallops a week which is basically 2 days a week work. They get something like £34 a sack which is basically around 4 grand a week. The boat cost £280k this spring.  He was a crew member and bought it off the previous owner (obvs). It isn’t a massively lucrative game. He has 2 crew to pay plus the running costs of the boat. Still it’s a magnetic lifestyle.

She works as a barmaid in the Peveril which apparently is where the fishermen drink. I’ll pop in on Friday evening to see her.

Also happening today was a lifeboat callout. I missed both the launch and the return. It was called to a cruiser whose engine had packed in 12 miles out. Never mind.

Got back to the Grove and had a few drinks with dad in the back garden. He had mown the lawn and was already tucking in to a gin and tonic. Our back garden is a real sun trap at this time of day.

Dad has now nodded off in front of the TV. Cycling is on. Manxman Mark Cavendish in the Omnium.

The rest of the clan, apart from Hannah, arrive tomorrow. Exciting. Short vid below of lobster being landed – also full day’s coverage.

Up early to upload

It’s 8.30 and I’m sat on the prom to the left of the cafe/kiosk Came down because they have free wifi with at least 25Mbps upload. Thought I’d upload the first 4 vids of the trip to YouTube.

Have already been sat here 15 minutes. Should have worked this one out in advance. OK there is 25Meg upload but the videos are mostly around 5GB. This one is taking over 25 minutes which had I thought about it was pretty obvious. I have another 3 to upload so I’m just going to finish this one and then head back for breakfast. Still 10 mins to go.

Still there is something nice about writing a diary entry on the prom. It’s getting busier the longer I wait. Busy is a relative statement. Not that many folk around. Saw the swing bridge close this morning fwiw. A yacht named Wildwood heading out of harbour. Spoke to them – they weren’t sure where they were headed. Just wanted to make it out of the marina whilst the tide was in. They were from Ireland. If I were them I’d head for the Western Isles. Beautiful at this time of year.

Overnight Mo Farrar has won the 10k and Jessica Ennis Hill got silver in the heptathlon. Not bad after stopping her sporting career to have a baby after the last Olympics. We are all proud of her:)

Today I have to nip out and buy some sage and parsley for the stuffing. We are having roast chicken for dinner. Otherwise it’s a day of relaxation around Peel. Couldn’t find said ingredients on Michael Street so I’m off to Tynwald Mills to see what they have. I can get it in Shoprite up the hill if necessary. We did consider buying it all when purchasing the chicken but dad wasn’t sure what he had in the cupboard so we deferred the decision. No problemo. What’s the hurry:)

I’m quite looking forward to cooking the chicken although I always seem to struggle with timings on dad’s oven which is fan assisted. We have gas at home. I seem to over do the meat slightly so will have to see how I get on with this one.

Also on other mundane issues I’ve stuck a load of washing on and tomorrow we will be going to Lights of Man to buy dad some light bulbs. He could do with a stock.

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Tynwald Mills shut – not open until 1pm on a Sunday. Was drizzling whilst on the way there – we are supposed to be getting a heatwave! In the end found all the fresh herbs I needed at Shoprite. Now the chicken is stuffed and some extra stuffing boxed up and put into dad’s freezer. Carrots and leeks also chopped and some veg simmering to make some stock. I’m a dab hand at gravy:)

Washing out drying on the line round the back of the garage.

MER trip to Laxey

Fresh as a daisy this morning. Not been out for a walk. It is a Saturday after all. I think. Just enjoyed a doze and a lie in bed listening to the wireless and catching up on last night’s Olympic action. Bradley Wiggins got his umpteenth cycling gold in the team pursuit.

The plan today is a bit of brunch and then head into Douglas for a trip on the electric railway. I also need to buy a micro SD card for the phone. I only have 5GB left on this new one and need the extra external 200GB. Amazing really isn’t it? 200GB SD card. In years to come people will read this and laugh at it but 200GB of data on something the size of your fingernail is today quite amazing.

The videos are what takes the space and I’ve been taking more of them. Problem is our data bundle here is only 50GB a month which is more than enough for Dad but totally inadequate for me and then the rest of the gang are coming over on tuesday.

Just heard the cathedral bells strike quarter to the hour. We live right next door to Peel cathedral. The organist lives in the house next door to us. Don’t think dad sees much of him. Normally the prevalent sound here is seagull. None today which is why I noticed the bells. Maybe the wind is in a different direction or something.

The seagulls are buggers anyway. Last summer one dived down and stole an ice cream out of Hannah’s mouth as she was taking a lick. Wot? Not had a Davisons ice cream yet. They are the best. Will rectify that in short order from the ice cream parlour on the prom. Hannah is currently in Firenze on her grand tour with Sarah Ward.

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Bought a 32GB 80GB/s micro SD card from Tesco for £11. It was the only one they had in stock. It’ll do the job. I’ll get a 200GB one when I get home. Also went to Laxey with dad on the electric tram. A good time was had by all.

Now back in Peel and watching a bit of cricket before heading out for a stroll. Pakistan are doing well. Swung by Shoprite to get stuff for tonight’s tea and a chicken for tomorrow.

lunch at the Boatyard

Woke up to a nice fresh morning here in Peel. Quick shower and out for a walk for an hour or so. Usual route. Down to prom, across the harbour footbridge to Fenella Beach, around to the breakwater and back via the quayside. I never tire of it.

Lots of improvement going on in the town. The breakwater caff now has a posh patio area. It’s the same spot, just posher.

Today we are watching Olympic sport on TV, cricket (last test v Pakistan at the Oval) and indulging in a long lunch, hopefully at the Boatyard. I left a message requesting a table for 2 at 1pm.

I have been putting together a video each day I’ve been here. These are typically 4 minutes long and are almost 5GB in size. I’m posting to Facebook but will wait until I have the luxury of unlimited data back at home before posting to YouTube and embedding here.

Ramsey

Thursday was initially characterised with a somewhat sleepless night due to toothache. Called dad’s dentist first thing and went to see him at 12.15. Conclusion is the tooth is toast and the choice is extraction or root canal treatment. He quoted me £200 for initial root canal prep work and wanted me to do a week’s worth of deep antibiotics first. I opted for the antibiotics then make an appointment with John Hill to whip it out when I get home. It won’t show and is the twin of the other I had out before the coast to coast.

On the way back from the dentist bought a gammon joint from Safeway which will serve us well for sandwiches for the next week or two. Also took dad to Safeway earlier for a bit of a shop. He doesn’t get there otherwise as it is too far to walk and he needs a car to cart the stuff back.

This aft we went for a drive – Ramsey, Mooragh Park where we had a cup of tea, Laxey, which had too many roadworks due to bridge repairs, and then back to Peel where we had a couple of beers in the Creek and then I had one on my own in the Whitehouse. Didn’t quite drive around the TT course – missed the mountain as it was looking cloudy and we wanted to do Laxey.

Now I’m back home and getting ready to cook queenies and bacon.

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Stick a wodge of butter and a slurp of olive oil in a frying pan with garlic and chopped dry cured streaky bacon. After the bacon and garlic has cooked a bit add a whole pack of queenies and fry for a little while. Season with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt. Add a few slurps of white wine (a couple of glasses of sauvignon blanc maybe) and reduce for a few minutes. When it feels ready pour into two equal portions and consume with fresh brown bread which will allow you to mop up the winey garlic buttery juice.

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Watching a bit of Olympic action then will stroll down to the prom to take in the evening air and catch a few snaps.

There’s a Manx cat in this video btw

Hooray

I needed to take the bike to the tip. The cost of repairing the gears was more than the cost of a new bike so it no longer served any useful purpose and took up valuable space in the garage. I did go to the tip yesterday but there was no room for the bike.

So I left the bike in the drive in the hope that it would be stolen. It was. Objective achieved. We do live on a main road and get a fair bit of footfall outside the front gate. Job done.

My initial jubilation at a plan well executed is tempered with a certain tinge of regret that there are dishonest people out there who seek to steal from me. At least it endorses the maintaining of the cctv and burglar alarm. I won’t bother looking to see who it was on the cctv recording on this occasion although there is a slight element of curiosity there.

Moving on, today I am off to the Isle of Man. Anne is taking me to the station at 9.45 for a 10.16 train. Exciting eh? I’ll have a week on my own with dad before the noisy ones turn up. I am mostly packed. Have to throw in the waterproof coat and a few other bits and bobs. Although the forecast is mostly hot hot hot this is the Isle of Man we are talking about here. Be prepared eh? We have many photos of us all sheltering under the canopy of Laxey tram station in the rain – taken over a number of years.

Hope you like the featured image. It’s Lincoln central station platform 3a. Looks as if two pics have been stitched together doesn’t it?

The other thing to observe here is that trains always come in on platform 3a which is a short walk along from where the turnstiles are. Most folk however just stand near the entrance and have to walk along when the train arrives. Hence the fact that there is a gap between me and everyone else on the platform in this photo. I move along to platform 3a and am usually the first on to the train with the pick of the seating (for what its worth).

Worth a mention is the “chink” in conversation I picked up when walking past two taxi drivers outside the station – “she can’t even get the dusting right”. Ooo.

More updates as they happen…

Arrived at London City Airport at 1pm. My flight is at 4.20. I’m afar too early. Can’t even check the bag in! What was I thinking 🙂 Probably built in a huge amount of contingency. As it is its far too early to even have a pint. Don’t want to arrive in the Isle of Man three sheets to the wind.

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The wait at the Airport

There is a skill to waiting at airports. Normally it involves sitting in the BA club lounge eating and drinking but on this occasion not only am I flying Economy class with humble Bronze Exec Club status but I don’t want to arrive in the Isle of Man sem- inebriated.

That said I do have a pint of London Pale Ale on the table in front of me together with a tiny dish of mixed nuts that cost £3.95. They are probably the most expensive tiny dish of mixed nuts I’ve ever had. I don’t know what it works out as on a per nut basis but it will be a lot.

What’s more this table is wobbly and when I sat down I spilt some of my beer. Doh. It’s not a particularly comfortable seat either. Hmm.

The pint was £5.95 as well. Still, cheaper than paying for a business class ticket to sit in the lounge for 90 mins.

I do normally fly business class if it merits it. Not if the fare is massively more or if the length of the flight isn’t worth it, both of which being the case on this occasion.At least where I am sat I can see the Olymics coverage on the box. Fwiw. I have grown to like the olympics. I probably didn’t watch them for 30 years until the London 2012 games which I really enjoyed. Partly I guess because for much of that time we didn’t have a TV. We had been married or at least living together for almost 20 years before a TV came along. Not sure it was really worth the wait.

a trip to the tip

Another classic summer’s day here. Not too warm but still shorts and t shirt weather. Lovely breeze with the occasional bit of clouding over.

Been doing lots of tidying up of things this morning in anticipation of heading to the Isle of man tomorrow which I am really looking forward to.

Finished off some Anne’s Vans user guide stuff for van hirers – how to erect the awning etc. Then did some emails with worky bits. My out of office reads as follows:

I guess I’m a lot more on holiday now than not on holiday. As such I will be focussing on relaxing, strolling to the beach, eating ice cream, drinking beer, sleeping and generally having a good time.
This isn’t to say I won’t be checking my emails but at least I’ve prepared you for my speed of reaction. I may get back to you before 25th August but there again I may not 🙂
Have a great summer.
Tref

Then I got my North Face Base Camp Duffel Bag out to get packing for the trip. This took me a lot less time that I thought. In fact only about 30 seconds as I threw in a load of tshirts, underwear, shorts, a pair of jeans and, well that’s about it.  Jumper and coat can get thrown in sometime. I’m taking the bag to China with me at the end of the month. It hasn’t got wheels but does have rucksack straps and is a v convenient piece of kit.

Off on the 10.16 train tomorrow morning to catch the 14.30 out of LCY to IoM.

This pm I’m taking the van down to Coops and will be working on some marketing stuff. I noticed last night that we are now on the first page of google searches for VW camper van hire in Lincolnshire. Needs to be up nearer the top but I can work on that and it’s an improvement as the last time I looked we were on page 2. In fact it’s something I can easily do whilst with Dad in Peel.

Had a bit of an idea whilst lying in bed. It’s about events on facebook. I set up a facebook event and invite people to participate. Participants post their own creative stuff as status updates on the event page and spread the word to their own networks. When the event starts people will be around to discuss their work via comments on their own posts.

Already a few pals interested so will look at when would be a good time to schedule it – towards the end of August I’d say.

Car is now loaded up with stuff to take to the tip. I have a system. Metal stuff in first so that is is last out. Then rubbish and then rigid plastic as that will be the order it needs disposing at the tip.

who’d a thunk?

Busy day. Did a bit of LONAP work, bit of Netaxis, lots of Student Finance form filling again. Same bloody form 3 times now. The most recent is because I had forgotten to date the form when I signed it. Give me strength. They are a waste of everyone’s time. This time I scanned the docs in before sending them recorded delivery.

Registered the camper van for vehicle license duty online. Had forgotten that the duty was nil. It’s a vintage car. Yay. Sorted out the porta potty (cleaned out and refilled with chemicals and water. Then popped out and bought a dining set, cutlery, plastic glasses etc ready for hiring. We are dropping the pricing to try and stimulate sales/rentals. See how we get on.

John’s first day on work experience at Colt Telecom. Feedback so far is “it’s good”. The mark of a good writer is being able to be economical with his words!

It’s quite nice just having the two of us around the house. Actually it’s more like just me – Anne is always very busy with coffees with friends, popping into town, lunches etc. Who can blame her:). Tonight we are having vegetarian chili, or chili sin carne I suppose.

It’s been another beautiful day. Featured image is from the garden. Anyone know what the flower is?  The vid is one I did last night of the camper vans at the Brayford.

Oh and got a text from BA saying they had cancelled my flight back from Krakow and booked us on one the next evening. That’s the third flight cancelled by BA in almost as many weeks. I called than and brought us forward to the Tuesday instead of Thursday.

relaxing day back at home

Must be said that today is a glorious summer’s day here in the shire. I’ve dropped John off at the station for him to head South to London. He is staying with Tom for 10 days until they come to the Isle of Man.

Found out that he doesn’t after all have a young person’s railcard which is the basis of the fare I bought him so arrived early at Lincoln Central to sort the ticket out. Arrived at 10.25 am. Station doesn’t officially open until 10.30. Actually opened nearer to 10.35. Then we stood outside the locked ticket office for 5 minutes but that didn’t open so I knocked. The girl popped her head around and gestured that we should go to a window to the side. She had seen us waiting there but not bothered saying anything. Finally found out that they were unable to change the ticket and that we would have to buy a new one. Pathetic.

I thought sod that for a game of soldiers and gave John some cash to pay the guard on the train. Turns out that when I had previously changed the date of travel for John’s ticket from the following weekend after he had sorted out some work experience at Colt I had automatically upgraded it from a railcard fare. All a bit of a long winded mouthful and a kerfuffle.

This afternoon Joe is off to Charlotte’s so it will be just Anne and I. Like being in Whitby again 🙂 Then on Wednesday I am off to the Isle of Man for a week as the advanced party. The others are coming over the following Tuesday.

After dropping John off at the station I swung by the Brayford to see the VW campervans. I hadn’t realised there was something going on until last night. Was too late for us to be part of it. Didn’t have time this morning to get the van cleaned and turned around. Never mind. Got some useful pricing info – I think ours is too much to hire which would explain the lack of orders. There’s been a fair amount of interest but no bookings. Will revisit the pricing before I go to the Isle of Man. Ours is based on others but one or two were in Devon which has a bigger market I suspect.

Had an iMovie lesson off Joe before he set off. The rest of the day is a chillout. Anne called to say that Halfords thought her bike wasn’t worth repairing so that’ll be a new one then. Going to have a nice bbq just the two of us.

Nice time at Steve and Helen Dowse’s 25th wedding anniversary last night btw. Cricket going well. Pakistan are 5 tickets down on the last day with perhaps 3 hours left. We shall see…

Have started collecting images of vw T1 and T2 campervans btw – check them out and feel free to add your own if you have a different one.

Just watched the women’s 140km cycling road race – am exhausted just sat here!

includes exclusive NYMR crew changeover vid

Bright breezy morning here at the Whitby Holiday Park. Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect British summer holiday weather. The kettle is on. Tea will be on it’s way shortly. All is well.

I woke up very early again this morning thinking I’d left a light on but no in fact it was the sun. Should think about getting an eyeshade. On the other hand why waste the day. I did have to go out to check out a noise. Think we had a seagull on the roof. The little bugger had also been at our rubbish bag so had to retrieve some of it and return to its rightful place.

After that fell asleep again and had another hour and a half or so. That extra bit of kip is always the best innit.

Walking around the site last night came across another T2, also called Betty. She had a full width bed inside that looked very comfortable. Have decided I’m going to take a picture of every T1 and T2 I see. Might be interesting. This one was a left hand drive and in immaculate nick.

Today we are going home. We were going to have to leave relatively early in order to get John sorted for his week of work experience at Colt in London (arranged by Colt’s newest employee his sister Hannah). Now we hear he is off to Edgebaston with Joe. They will have a great time. Probably still means we will be leaving early as Anne will end up doing all the packing herself. We shall see. I wouldn’t mind swinging by to see the trains at Grosmont before we turn the van South.

The weather forecast is looking good for the next week or two which bodes well for our trip to the Isle of Man.

I must say that the fridge, about which I was somewhat sceptical, has done really well for us. We have had it plugged in to the electrical hookup. I’ve also had the 12v supply that feeds it switched off. It sits directly above the fridge and gets quite warm so not optimal when it comes to refrigeration. Might discuss that with Coops.Anyway the food is cold and I might even need to turn it down a setting or two.

One thing that has stuck in my mind this trip is that there are a lot of caravan parks around Whitby. I guess it’s brought prosperity to the town but they are a bit of a blight on the landscape.

Tonight we are off out to Steve and Helen Dowse’s 25th wedding anniversary. A good time should be had by all. Steve has been one of my camping buddies over the years. Works for Openreach. We had been expecting Joe to drop us off there, at Dunholme Village Hall, but will have to instigate plan B now that he is going to Edgebaston. Ah well. Plan B is probably a taxi.

Warming up nicely here on pitch 39. I think the sun must have risen above the caravan next door. It’s a motorhome actually but I put them almost in the same bracket – caravan with an engine.

Will be finishing off the bacon and sausage this morning. I’ve also kept some mushrooms and half a tomato and last night on our way home we bought a loaf of “Champion Yorkshire Bread” from the park shop. Tha nose.

One of the problems of getting up early and writing a diary entry, having only just written yesterday’s is that you quickly run out of things of a diary nature to say. This is the opposite problem to some days where I have had to hastily jot down a few facts and leave it at that.

Of course a diary shouldn’t just be a list of things you have done in the day. It should reflect the innermost you:) I’m probably not ready to let you have the innermost stuff yet. It may come. To some extent it could be unfair on some people living and I might bump into them. After all Samuel Pepys wrote his diaries in code for exactly this reason. He didn’t have to worry about being read by millions on tinterweb though. Neither do I actually but you never know…

I might have an unpublished version for release posthumously. This would have all the juicy stuff in it. Not sure I have the time, or the juice to do it.

Right, breakfast time…

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In the end we went on a train trip – Grosmont to Whitby (of all places). There was a 90 minute layover in Whitby. Video is a long one but shows a crew changeover on the NYMR – I was just expecting to capture the train arriving in the station but this was a bonus, if you like that sort of thing:)

Hot and sticky drive home. Aircon full on. Ie window open and arm hanging out, guvnor. 24 degrees at 5.30 in Lincoln.

Walk to Robin Hood’s Bay

Sat outside the van having breakfasted very well on bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomato and fried bread. We are walking to Robin Hood’s Bay today for a spot of lunch. 10 mile round trip along the coast.

Quite a wet night but the site has dried out nicely and today looks like being a goodun. The rain “unfortunately” meant we “had” to get a taxi back from Whitby. Wouldn’t have been a particularly pleasant walk up past the Abbey and around the coastal path especially as it was getting dark.

V nice curry at Indian Moments last night. Had only been open 2 weeks and they brought us a complimentary brandy and baileys as a digestif. No idea how they thought Anne would want the Baileys and me the brandy:) She downed hers in one almost. Found a couple of good pubs in Whitby – The Endeavour and The Black Horse. Both up there on Trip Advisor and both proper pubs as opposed to the food toting tourist establishments. That’s not to say there were no tourists there. Us for example.

Reusing some of my Coast to Coast walk kit today. Didn’t bring the kecks. Wearing shorts instead. Also my Osprey laptop bag instead of the Deuter which I thought would be overkill.

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Made it to RHB at a leisurely 2mph. 2 ½ hours. Loads of people waking the other way but nobody else seemed to be heading South. Unless we started at a different time I suppose. Lunch at the Victoria Hotel at the top of the hill. Cheese sandwich somewhat overloaded with mayonnaise but good sized portions. After a stroll down to the beach and a cup of tea and ginger cake we caught a cab back to the campsite. Opted for spending more time in Whitby rather than walking all the way back.

Now chillin before having a shower and heading out again.

It’s been generally lovely weather today except for a couple of unforecast showers. Perfect camping weather really The good visitors of the Whitby Holiday Park are all sat outside their caravans enjoying their holiday. Particularly one bloke across the way who has a cast on his foot so probably not mobile enough to walk into town to see the sights.

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Walked into Whitby. Had a bit of a pub crawl including a cocktail bar where there was no room  to shake a cat. Most of the other pubs were pretty much dives. We tried booking into a few restaurants but all were fully booked. Ended up at Burgsy’s which happened to be number 1 on trip advisor. Just basic home made burgers. Bottle of shiraz cost £15 and the whole bill only came to £37. Barg.

It’s now only 19.30 and we are back at the campsite. People are just starting to go out but we are back on the countdown to bed. We’ll have to stick it out for another couple of hours really.

I have a couple of decent reds in the cupboard so they may make it easier. Most of the caravanners are congregating outside their vans. Dunno if they’ve eaten. Lots of them have dogs. Seems to be a bit of a common denominator for a caravanner. A couple just walked past and suggested it might be time to stop tapping in on the laptop and think about beertime. Honestly. As if everything revolves around beer! 🙂

It’s funny how people change when they are on holiday. Someone who has turned up in a caravan leaves his home life behind and has an equal status to everyone else who has also turned up in a caravan. It’s all about the caravans and the common interest. There isn’t very much common interest between a caravanner and someone with a VW T2 bay.

Watch the video

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