family – The Vanninis' Manoeuvres

First couple of days

After getting back to Alex and Ian’s home in Bexleyheath, it wasn’t too long before Callum came home from school after being collected by Nana Chris & Grandad Barry. It was lovely to sit out in the sun and enjoy a good english cup of tea. I don’t know why but the tea always tastes better on this side of the world…..Yorkshire Tea of course, it can’t be anything else.

Sitting in the sun, so pleased to get the compression socks off and back to bare feet

The bag of goodies was opened and gifts given, news caught up on and more tea drunk. We both managed to stay awake until 7:30pm local time before we crashed into bed for a good long sleep. And sleep we did only waking for a couple of hours in the wee small hours before falling back into a deep sleep.

Blowing a kiss goodbye as Callum scooters off to school.

We spend our first full day catching up on life admin, you know, washing, unpacking, sorting out bits and pieces.

The following day, Friday 17th May, we were busy in the morning cooking up a big pot of chilli ready for a family gathering the next day, lots of washing and pottering about in the garden. We are on grandparent duty this afternoon at school as there is a school fundraiser which involved lots of bouncy, inflatable, apparatus.

Lots of excited kids with parents plus generators equals lots of noise!

Some people were well organised with picnics, rugs and chairs. Callum met up with his best friend Noah and they had great fun together.

Callum and Noah with their spoils at the end of the afternoon.

By the time we got home at 6pm, we were both exhausted, after all it’s only 48hrs since we landed and with body clocks not quite adjusted as yet, it is understandable.

And we are off!

It’s the last two days before we leave and the mind is racing, have we got everything? have we forgotten anything? what do we need to get done before we leave?

First things first, repack the bags and weigh them to make sure we are within the 30kgs bag allowance that we are allowed each. Roy and I have 25kgs of luggage between us, that’s pretty damn good for a five and half month trip, however there is a third bag which weighs nearly 15kgs which is full of requested goodies.

A couple of kilos worth of honey, probably a similar amount of chocolate, and then there is the 8 tins of reduced cream to go with the onion soup mix to make the quintessential KiwiDip!

Although we only have around 12.5kg of luggage each, it still does feel like we have far too much but at least we are way under our allowable limit.

Monday 13th May and it’s the day before we fly, the washing is done and up to date, everything else is tidied and checked. We have to go to the van as I’d forgotten a couple of things, the van is in at AD Motors in Takanini getting a tuneup, new spark plugs, air filters and goodness knows what else. Great news, we can pick the van up in the morning and get it across Auckland to Peter & Wendy’s before we fly out tomorrow night. That is such a huge relief that we can get it parked up safely for the duration. Talk about cutting things fine.

The rest of the day is spent doing “life admin” and trying to relax, I don’t know why I get myself all in a tizzy but I do, the mind is racing trying to mentally tick off lists and make sure we have everything we need. We don’t take cabin baggage apart from Roy’s backpack which mainly has his computers, meds and a change of clothes, and I just have my trusty handbag of the backpack variety containing the essentials including ipad, headphones et al which stows comfortably under the seat. I get really annoyed with people who have multiple bags that they want to stow in the overhead lockers…why?

We both have medical notes that not only state the medications we are travelling with but also that Roy has a stent and I have hip and knee replacements that will undoubtably set off the airport security alarms.

Tuesday 14th May is departure day, but first it’s a trip across Auckland to deliver the van to Pete. So long as we are back early afternoon we have plenty of time to get to the airport. We pick up the van from AD Motors in Takanini where they go through everything they have done. We try not to faint at the bill, but they have done a brilliant job, the motor purrs quietly and efficiently and now sips away at fuel rather than guzzle!

Have we said before how eternally grateful we are to have such wonderful friends as Wendy & Peter whom allow us to park our RV up at their place where we know it will be safe and sound. We cannot thank them enough for their friendship and kindness shown to us, we are forever grateful.

With the van delivered and parked up safely we head back across the city to Antony’s where we grab a bite to eat for lunch before having a shower and getting changed. The bags are packed with their final ephemera, locked, cable tied, and ready to go. Ants returns from work, we pack the car and head to the airport where we arrive early but whats this? New layout at the airport to try and confuse us, but it is all well signposted, Antony drops us off, we bade farewell and join the long queue formed at checkin. Many thanks to Antony for putting us up or should that be putting up with us for the last week, it made the run up to us leaving very easy.

Our bags are weighed, and yes we are well under our 60kg limit, the bags are labelled with wheelchair tags and sent on their way along the travelator. Roy gets his wheelchair assistance where we are taken straight away to departures, jump all the queues at security and go through xray where yes, I am taken aside and scanned again, knees, hips and bra I tell them!

All done, we are then taken past all the Duty Free Shops, no thanks, we don’t want alcohol, perfume or tech gear nor designer clothes or handbags. We are then transferred to a motorised golf trolley to take us to our gate, just as well too as it was miles away!

We settled in the seats at the gate lounge, charged up our devices, then I cadged a ride on one of the golf trolleys back to where I could buy a bite to eat and a drink, then a ride back to Roy who was waiting patiently.

It wasn’t too long to wait when they called all those who had wheelchair assistance, we were first on the plane, and quickly settled into our seats.

Looking out the window to an Air NZ plane, farewell Auckland, see you in October.

We have reasonable seats at the back row of the first section, we have no one behind us, just the bulkhead. We end up having the row of three seats to ourselves. And being of the vertically challenged variety, I could comfortably lie down curled up across two seats with my feet against the wall and get a bit of quality sleep. Roy can quite happily nod off sitting up, and yes I did get him to try and lie down but he found it too uncomfortable!

There no if and buts about it, it’s a damn long flight and after nearly 18 hrs we landed in Dubai.

We are met and taken straight through immigration and customs and then directly to our connecting flight. We only have just under two hours from landing to take off so it’s actually quite tight. Off on the last leg to Gatwick and at just over 7 1/2 hrs it’s not long now until we are back in old blighty.

Welcome to Dubai the sign in the sand says according to Google translate.

A quick trip through immigration, again jumping all the queues because Roy is in a wheelchair, collect our bags but what is this? You need a pound coin to get a luggage trolley, fortunately I do have some English coins in my purse but come on Gatwick, how many people arriving from the other side of the world have UK coins on them? Very shortsighted I would have thought.

It’s an emotional welcome from Alex who is waiting for us in arrivals, then a 40min ride home for a welcome cup of tea.

Now let the adventures begin.

A busy last week

After all the excitement of the past week, Sunday I gave myself a well earned lie in before getting on with chores and shopping. But before that I must first say a huge thank you to Peter & Wendy who cooked us dinners and lunches over the past few days and generally made our lives so much easier whilst Roy was being sorted. We can’t thank you both enough for your hospitality, generosity and kindness, it is extremely humbling.

Monday, Roy had a visit to the ear clinic then Tuesday morning he was supposed to get grommets put in both ears. This will hopefully sort out the hassles he had on our last trip in 2022 which wasn’t resolved until we had returned. You can recap that adventure here. But in what seems to be the norm for us at the moment there was a change of plan. The specialist was unavailable so it was postponed until Wednesday, which meant we had a quick rethink and replan. Instead we decided to pack up and move over to Ardmore on the south side of Auckland for a night. We would be closer to the specialist, also around the corner from Antony and we could drop off our luggage, after packing it of course, and then deliver the van to the workshop on Wednesday afternoon.

We quickly packed up, said hooray to Peter & Wendy although we shall see them again when we deliver the van back in a few days, and headed off across Auckland.

Once at Ardmore we started packing our bags, there is so much to think about what to pack for five and a half months away. But we soon had most of it done and we delivered the bags to Antony’s.

Wednesday morning we were off again across the city to the ENT specialist. He was fitting Roy in between surgery and other appointments so we had a little wait. Roy was soon in the chair and discussing the options. Two different types of grommets (who knew) were finally decided upon, one type in one ear, the other in the other ear.

Then the other….you can see right through now 😜

We returned to Ardmore and packed up the last of the essentials plus we attended to the emptying out of the cupboards as well as the fridge and freezer. We delivered all of that to Antony’s then it was back to Ardmore to take the van to the mechanics workshop but not before emptying the waste tanks along the way.

With the van safely delivered we are now guests at Antony’s for the next few days, I’m sure he’s delighted! At least he gets his dinner cooked, his washing done and his house tidied. We are repacking the bags, taking out unnecessary items and trying to minimise what we take. Although one bag is full of goodies that have been requested for delivery so we shall have one empty bag soon after we arrive!!

The final countdown is on, as of now, just two more sleeps until we step on the plane. See you soon London and London family.

Birthday Celebrations

It’s not very often we get to have some of the family together, and so this opportunity to celebrate Antony’s 40th was too good to miss. Sarah had kindly offered to host a get together and dinner and with other family members invited we were all set to go for Saturday May the 4th. Very appropriate date seeing as though Antony is a Star Wars fan. However, as you would have read in the last blog entry, the week beforehand went a little awry with Roy’s angioplasty and stent procedure throwing a bit of a curve ball.

On Friday I went with Sarah to do the shopping and organise the menu, keep it simple yet delicious was our plan. Two legs of lamb to be slow roasted, a green olive salsa, a green salad, a chickpea miso & peanut salad, smashed roasted potatoes with garlic butter, and bread rolls. I said I would go round on Saturday afternoon to help with prep. However, those plans were to change.

Antony had no idea about any of our plans, he was under the impression that it was going to be dinner with Sarah, Shaun and family along with Roy & I. Little did he know!!!

Saturday morning we got a call from Antony, he was in utter agony with severe pain. As we were a good 45minutes away, we said for him to call an ambulance which apparently duly arrived within 15minutes. He knew what is was straight away. This is not the first time he has had kidney stones, he had them back in 2016 which you can read about here and here.

As Roy was still grounded from his recent angioplasty and wasn’t allowed to drive for 48hrs, I dropped him off at Sarah’s, made a few phone calls as I had to reorganise who was going to pick up Jason from the airport. Simon came to my rescue there thank goodness, and I then headed down to Middlemore Hospital. You would think being a Saturday the traffic would not be like it’s usual weekday mayhem, but indeed it was just as bad.

I arrived at Middlemore, found parking eventually, then found out where he was, I could hear him snoring long before I found his room!

He was pumped full of fluid and pain killers so wasn’t making much sense, I made myself comfortable in the chair beside his bed and proceeded to wait. After an hour or so he woke enough to tell me that the pain had now subsided, he’d had scans, blood tests, and was just waiting to see the Doctor. To cut a long story short, he was finally discharged at around 4:30pm, we then had to get his scripts, and find the car in one of the distant parking areas.

I took him to his home where he had a shower and a change of clothes before he decided he would be ok to drive his car over to Sarah & Shaun’s for what he thought was just dinner with us. He said he could always stay at Sarahs for the evening, I wasn’t giving away the plans that we had already formulated that Jason would be staying with him for the night!

We got to Sarahs just before 7pm, where Antony was very much surprised to see not only us but his brothers, cousins, niece, and second cousins. After the initial surprise we set about putting out dinner. OMG, the lamb was just amazing, falling off the bone and deliciously caramelised with lots of yummy, sticky with reduced baking juices and carrots, shallots, garlic that had roasted underneath the lamb in the baking dish with stock.

I forgot to take any photos, how unusual, but suffice to say the meal went down extremely well.

Laurie and Antony….yes, that was a hastily found candle for his cake!!!

It was a great evening enjoyed by all, which I must admit that we were the first to leave later on in the evening, I was utterly exhausted and needed to collapse into bed. Apparently there were some sore heads the next morning, not looking at Shaun and Laurie in particular. Jason drove Antony home and stayed the night with him before catching up with a Simon again on Sunday morning. And no I don’t have a photo of the 3 of them together, I shall try and rectify that next time!

All in all the end of a very busy week where the two Vannini men kept me very busy but at least they are both now very well and healthy.

Birthdays & visitors

Antony came to stay with us for a night, as it was his 40th birthday on the 13th! Goodness, where has that time gone, and how did I get to be old enough to have a 40 year old!!!

We had a nice dinner together before he headed out for the evening, I did a slow roasted leg of lamb with all the trimmings. I had a cake for him for morning tea on his birthday.

He was off to play poker on Saturday afternoon, where the guys surprised him and gave him a new Phoenix (NZ football team) shirt and they also had a cake for him. Lucky fella.

A few days later and Roy was having a birthday, he is nearly twice Antony’s age!!! We headed up the road to Eatery Rothesay Bay for brunch, delicious it was too and one of the best coffees I’ve had in a very long time.

The following day we had friends come to visit, all are volunteers at Shakespear whom we have got to know quite well over the years. Skip & Mindy along with Alison & Selwyn have been stalwarts of the volunteer community at Shakespear, the backbone of what keeps the park running smoothly whilst taking a lot of pressure off the hard working Rangers. I had made a large pot of soup for lunch which was fitting for a dull day. And yes, I forgot to take any photos.

The following day, another wet miserable day, Peter & Wendy came over for lunch. We spent a very pleasant afternoon wiling away the day. And I even remembered to snap a photo.

I forgot to take a photo which included us ladies., oh well, next time!

Housesitting

We are housesitting in Rothesay Bay (next to Browns Bay in the North shore of Auckland) for my niece Sarah and her husband Shaun as they are off on holiday with their three teenage sons to Thailand and Malaysia. We have two cats to looks after, Charlie and Rosie, and a gorgeous house to relax in.

Map of general area with Browns Bay highlighted. NB the blue dot indicates where the van is parked at Peter &Wendy’s, just a 14 minute drive away.

We quickly settled in and made ourselves familiar with our surroundings, hmmm, I’m thinking that the pool may get used a little if the weather stays warm.

The house has been recently renovated so is pristine and sparkly, which also means we have very little to do apart from feed ourselves and the cats.

However, it does mean we can catch up on lots of little things that have been put into the “later” basket. I did take advantage of having a washing machine at hand and washed, Bluo’ed, dried and ironed, yes, ironed, all my sheet sets!! Do you remember Bluo?

It’s not available in NZ and hasn’t been for some years but I found some when we were in Melbourne a few years ago and bought a few bottles home with me. Funnily enough I also have a packet of blue bags in the cupboard, probably should be in a museum now. It does work though and now all our linen is beautifully bright white again, ironed and neatly folded into sets. The sets of sheets and pillowcases, get folded up and placed inside one of the pillowcases turned inside out, which when folded over you can use the pocket on the pillow slip to neatly fold over encasing the set neatly into a package. I took the opportunity of clearing out my linen cupboard and relining all the shelves. Yes, I know, I’m weird!!

We’ve kept ourselves busy going back and forth to the van, to measure things, pick up something we’ve forgotten or doing a few chores. Tax returns have been completed as well. In the midst of doing all this I had a wee panic as I couldn’t remember where I had safely stashed our passports, I found them, put them back where they belong then got back to the house to realise that I hadn’t checked the expiry dates. Oh I must have a photo of the passports somewhere….after a quick search of photos, emails and messages I eventually found the photos, and we both have relatively new passports. Phew! Note to self, put all travel document photos into an album for easy retrieval.

The pool man came to clean the pool one day, it almost looked good enough to dive into!!

We are enjoying our time here and getting to explore this area, the beach is at the end of the street and there is a great cafe at the top of the road. I’m sure the time will go all too quickly.

13 years on the road

Waaaay back in March 2011 we bought this van/RV/motorhome (I never know what to call it, apart from home) and set off on what we envisaged being a one or two year trip discovering the high ways and by ways of New Zealand whilst checking out where we may want to one day settle. Fast forward 13 years and we are still travelling, still haven’t found exactly where we may like to settle one day, but why stop when you just love living this carefree life.

What would I do differently or tell someone who is contemplating hitting the road? First and foremost, make sure that you and your partner are on the same page and that you actually like each other! We’ve seen a few people hit the road with all good intentions but then discover that they either can’t get on in a confined space or don’t have a good enough relationship to be able to do their own thing when they want to. You each have to be comfortable in your own skin.

Secondly, slow down and take your time. We started with a hiss and a roar, moving every other day and rushing around to fit lots in. Why? Take your time, enjoy where you are, explore, talk to people, do new things, see what’s around you. It takes a while to slow down and smell the roses and enjoy your surroundings, in the end it’s worth it.

Next, make sure your accommodation suits both of your needs. Is it big enough? Do you want to make up a bed every day or do you want a permanently set up bed? Does it have enough storage space? Does it have enough load capacity i.e. what weight you can legally carry in your vehicle. Can you both drive it/tow it? You never know when there may be an emergency. Do you want a separate vehicle ie. a tow behind or a vehicle you tow your caravan/5th wheel? Do you want a car or a 4WD? Do you want to go off-roading or just use it for shopping or small trips? Or are you happy using your motorhome/van or maybe biking for those every day chores. That’s the next thing, do you want a bike and is your vehicle able to store or have the ability to have a safely and securely mounted bike rack? Do you want ebikes and can you recharge them easily?

We love living in our tiny home on wheels, we’ve done the big houses and property thing and quite frankly we don’t want to do any of that any more.

We’ve covered the country from Cape Reinga to Bluff, more than once, and yes we do revisit favourite places but we also like to explore new-to-us places and yes there are still plenty of places to explore and discover.

Someone once said that you retire so that you can have the time to keep all the medical appointments that suddenly seem to creep up on you, and sure, we have had our fair share of appointments, surgeries and checkup but we still want to carry on as long as we can.

Another wise person told us that as you get older your circle of friends tend to shrink, and you can become quite insular particularly if you don’t take up opportunities as they arise. One of the best things about living this lifestyle is that we are constantly meeting lots and lots of new people, some you instantly click with and you become great friends, others you may share an interest, others you meet up with occasionally as your paths cross. But there is a definite community of fellow full timers (and part timers) whom are welcoming and helpful, probably more so than when living in ‘sticksnbricks’, people are willing to stop, chat, say gidday, or conversely leave you alone when you want to be left alone to enjoy a bit of solitude. We definitely would not have met some of the folk whom we now consider very good friends had we not been on the road.

We would encourage you to shop local, especially in the smaller centres, you will find all sorts of wee gems out there of people doing amazing things wether it be food, art, mechanical repairs and many other things. That also goes for visiting local museums, galleries, or even libraries, it’s amazing what you will find.

We have been very fortunate to not only be able to travel around NZ but we’ve also managed to fit in quite a number of trips overseas. Each of our trips have been very different but all have been for 4-6 months at a time; from travelling around Europe in a motorhome, lots of train travel especially around Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and England. Narrowboating in England (thanks Marilyn & David), barging in France (thanks Ruth & Roger) and a Baltic Cruise plus of course plane travel, bus and car hire.

Before you ask what are your long term plans? The short answer is that we don’t have too many. The last 4 years in particular have demonstrated how quickly life, the world and our environment can change. We don’t know what is ahead of us but we are making the most of what we have, the time, the places and people we care about. Ask anyone who has faced their own mortality for whatever reason – money, property, cars and other trappings of modern life’s “status symbols” are not what is important, it’s about living life, exploring, creating memories and relationships and making the world a better place.

Reflecting on the last 13 years of travelling is there anything I would change? Apart from doing it earlier? then no, not a lot.

Summer

Yes, we are having summer this year, the skies are blue, the gentle sea breeze lulls us into a false sense of it not being too hot, the sound of children out playing games or riding their bikes until dusk fill the air as happy adults chatter away the evenings. Kayaks, buckets, spades and boogie boards make their way to the beach and it’s great to see people out enjoying life away from the trappings of modern life. Many of the older regular campers have commented on how lovely it is to see kids running about and having fun in the outdoors and fresh air, making new friends and enjoying nature at its best.

We’ve played cards with friends who are camping, they told us they weren’t really into playing cards but after teaching them how to play 5 crowns, they were hooked.

We abandoned camp for a couple of days as Antony was due back from his London sojourn. As he was arriving in the early morning we headed down to stay at his place the night before as it would then just be a 30minute drive to the airport.

We didn’t have to wait very long as he was thru in around 30minutes. He had a great time in London with Alex, Ian and Callum and it was lovely to hear all the news. We had presents to open and share, thank you to our UK family for our Christmas gifts. Now we can’t wait until we head off to visit in May.

Back to camp we went to settle in for more warm summery days. We keep busy what with sorting out campers and any issues, doing maintenance and chores – yes we still have chores to do.

Antony rang the following day to say he’d brought another present home with him….Covid-19!

Hopeful we haven’t caught it, we did look up what the incubation period is but it’s hugely variable with the range from two to fourteen days so we shall just have to wait and see and not get too close to people.

Garry came to visit for a couple of days, it was lovely to have him here with us, I cooked dinner the first night for us all. I made Bao buns, slow roasted a pork belly with a sticky glaze and made a quick pickle type of salad with julienned carrots, cucumber, radish and red onion finished with chopped peanuts and coriander. It was delicious….and yes I forgot to take any photos.

The following day Garry cooked a leg of lamb with his new rotisserie attachment for his BBQ, it was cooked long and slow over the afternoon and evening and my goodness it was delicious.

My nephew Stuart came for a visit, along with Emma and their three children. Stuart lives in Dunedin so it’s been a couple of years since we last caught up and it was a lovely afternoon spent talking, laughing and oh, a little swimming too.

Meanwhile, we try to stay cool and can firmly attest to the fact that shade under a tree is far superior to any other shade device be it gazebo, awning or umbrella. And as it is so warm we are eating later and later in the evenings when it’s cooler and when it’s more comfortable to cook altho I must say that the bbq is being very well utilised. But we are not complaining at all, summer is here at last.

PS. 10 days on and no sign of Covid.

Christmas 2023

It was a bit of a grumpy start to Christmas Day, yes those damn errant campers had us (and the Ranger) up until the early hours during the night of Christmas Eve, some people just should not be allowed to drink and then annoy other campers!! Then we were woken early in the morning by more of those same campers. Grrrr. Bernice with just a couple of hours sleep is not a happy chappy.

But the antithesis of this was the rest of our day. We left camp in the morning and headed off to have an “orphan parents” Christmas with Peter & Wendy as they too have a daughter in London. What an amazing day of chat, relaxation and laughter…oh and great food as well, just what we needed to reset.

Platters of nibbles were consumed throughout the morning, then Pete cooked up a huge pile of scallops, followed by prawns to start off the festivities.

This was just a one person portion of prawns! the same size portion was had of scallops!

Then it was onto the main course, a wonderfully glazed Ham had been cooked on the smoker/BBQ,

accompanied by lots of delicious salads, we ventured inside for the main event.

“A glass of bubbly Roy?” Pete is asking, whilst Wendy takes her seat

Dessert was had much later in the day which was a lovely way to end the festivities. Thank you so, so much to Peter & Wendy for having us for the day and for making us feel so much at home, we had a fab day.

The day ended in the early evening when we ventured back to camp ready for our video call to watch Callum open his presents from us. He was one very excited young man, as you can imagine, Christmas as a 4 and a half year old is magical.

And the London family….do you think Callum is excited?

Hope you all had a great day with friends and/or family and enjoyed a stress free time together. All the best for 2024.

It’s not always beer & skittles

Looking at life through a pair of rose tinted glasses is something that I have been accused of on several occasions of how I view the world. I admit it, I don’t like to think about the nastier side of life especially the people involved. But sometimes, just occasionally, real life comes up and figuratively gives you a slap in the face.

One such incident happened the other night when a family came into camp to stay, fuelled by alcohol and drugs, the domestic situation became vocal and volatile, so much so that after trying our best to cajole and soothe over many hours that in the end we gave up and rang the Police to have the family evicted. The so called adults yelled and screamed at each other for hours using the most disgusting foul language I have ever heard, but as soon as they were approached we were told “sorry, sorry, yes, we will keep it down” only for 2 minutes later to be back to where we started. The fact that 5 young children were witness/involved with this was most concerning and it was for their welfare that I rang the Police. For those of you familiar with the book/film Once were Warriors, this is exactly the type of scenario that we’re playing out in front of us. Scary stuff indeed.

Unfortunately the Police were busy with other serious matters but by 1:30am things had quietened down, so I rang the emergency number again, quoting the incident number and told them that everything had quietened down however we would like the Police to attend in the morning to evict them. I was told that the morning was probably the first opportunity someone would be able to attend as all their patrols were busy at serious life threatening incidents.

It all kicked off again just after 6am, other campers had gone over and called out for them to quieten down (from a safe distance), and just about the same time I had a call from the Police to say they were on the Park and just wanted a bit more information from me before they drove in. Later I found out that apparently the couple were still yelling at 3:30am but I must have slept for an hour or so by then.

The Police handled everything quickly, quietly and efficiently and it wasn’t long before they all left with the errant family having been served a trespass notice.

Not what one wants to see under the Xmas tree!

This made me think about what our Police and other emergency workers have to face repeatedly on a daily basis, it must be so wearisome. I guess they become accustomed to the torrent of abuse hurled at them, never mind the physical dangers that they must have to face everyday. I spent the rest of the day utterly exhausted from being on an adrenaline high most of the previous night plus lack of sleep didn’t help!

Oh and if you were wondering, we were well looked after by Ranger staff as well, but there was nothing they could do apart from support us and leave the Police to do their job.

So a huge thank you to all those who face this sort of stuff on a daily basis, I admire and respect your dedication to keep the rest of us safe.

I am now putting on my rose tinted glasses again to live in my own little bubble of a world where everyone is kind to each other and respects each other, the camp is full of happy people and the cheerful sound of children playing, the birdsong is beautiful and the weather is warm and sunny. Merry Christmas, good health and happiness to you all.

And this cheeky chappy brought a happy smile to our faces from London, happy Christmas Callum, enjoy having Uncle Antony with you this year.