Back to Blighty
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Sun 11 Nov 2007 18:05
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October 10th to 24th
Noah's Progress
" Back to Blighty "
Hi folks,
Sorry its been such a long time since the last blog
but its been a madhouse , as soon as we hit the beach it was off to the travel
agent book the tickets back to UK ,back to the boat, wash her down stow all the
gear and make her secure,informed the marina office we were off for two weeks to
UK , pack bags and catch the overnight Tompsons cattle truck to
Gatwick.
Have the prices gone up since we went away I
don't remember a cup of coffee costing £2.50p I had expected to be mugged but
not by Costa coffee , Ah it say it in the name ! anyway the next shock was the bus fare , no wonder your all in your cars
, £20 one way each ! thought the taxi would be the same wrong £85 pound ,
then I thought Gordons incharge now no wonder , it took a limo driver who
had made his drop off at Gatwick to make our morning, he offered us a lift for
the cost of the bus fare , door to door,or should I say station to station
, we were on Mary and David's doorstep by six thirty , Sorry Joe and Mary we
were 2hrs early as we didn't expect to have got there till about eight
thirty.
We rested all day Friday , out to lunch with
Mary and David, then into Ealing to sort out my phone, yes my neural net
is reconnected according to Lyn, a very nice man too, new phone and my old
number back it made up for the shock at Costas , then it was back to Mary's and
sought out our itinerary for the next two weeks,a nice quite evening and a few
beers .
Over the next few days lots of phoning and
e-mailing soughing out spares and items to be collected when we went south
Tuesday it was off in the green Polo (
thanks Mary)to the midlands to see Mum and Dad , Bro ,Jan and the boyz ,
bit of a shocker when we arrived at Mum and Dads , announced that they wanted to
go into a home and would we take them to a place they had selected the
next day, back to Alister and Jans and out for a excellent Chinese meal ,
loads of spirit in their it was the old Pentecostal church , the last time
I was there was as a kid they were all wailing in the isles never thought
it would make a decent Chinese though !
Off to the old folks home in Nuneaton , sixty
five miles away , as soon as we entered the place I think they went off the
idea, locked gates , dribbling and wailing , bit like the Pentecostal church ,
father had a Damascus road experience and though things weren't that bad after
all , back to Mumand Dads house drop them off ,back to say our good byes to Ali
and Jan then back to London to drop the car off .
Arrived back in London late , next
day hang blinds in Joes room , then off to Helen and Clintons for a
Moroccan, and jolly tasty he was too .
Tried public transport again , the trains this time
down to the south coast , £24 pound each one way ! more shock , we had travelled
twice the distance in Spain for 7 Euro each and that was a peak time plus the
loos were much better on the Spanish train although both sets of
trains were made in the same factory somewhere in Euro land
.
Arrived at Alison and Dave's , car was ready in the
drive, leapt in and off to numerous industrial estates collecting spares
, you don't know how lucky you are for boat bits down here it would
have taken us a few days to do what we did in five hrs and then half the bits
would be missing , anyway then we were off to Universal Yard to catch
up with Carl and Debbs , off to the Foxand Hounds ,great pub food and great
company, Carl I miss your sense of humour .
Then back to Alison and Dave's , they had
waited up for the stopouts (us) more chat and finally to bed at 2 o/c
am .
Up late, slap up breakfast ( thanks Alison )
then off to visit Andy at Warsash , then off to Roger and Margrets , what a job
you guys have done , Rogers paint job is A one , collected Lyns Coelan varnish ,
off to get more bits and pieces then back to Alison and Dave's for a great
evening with our oldlandlords.
Out on the road again Sunday more spares ,
then down to Bucklers Hard to visit doting parents and meet there new son O
Maley , had a great evening with Steve and Lexa , what a great morning view
down the river from the bathroom , a million bucks worth .
Back on the road again Monday morning , off
to see Geoff at Moodys yard reported all was well with his baby( engine ),
then chart agents to pick up charts , meet Diana (the excited one) and Graham ,
our crew members along with Roger for the trip across the Atlantic , then off to
Bristol to see an old Diesel Weasel mate and the Ofstead inspector , (
Julie ) who will be checking this blog out, had a great night out , more
excellent pub food, it was great to see you two again after such a long
time .
Back on the road down south again , last
minuet bits and pieces , then back to Alison and Dave's , pack all the gear into
our overextended bags, collapsed after a great meal and bubbles and more
catching up on local goss , thanks you two for everything .
The next day the Dark Lord arrived in his
bio-fuelled limo along with Elsie to whisk us to the airport, but that's a whole
page in its self , I think it will be entitled " Lost with the Dark Lord in
Lanzorotie.
The Travel Lagged Noahs.
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