Week 178

Friday 30th July 2021 to Thursday 5th August 2021

With torrential rain it was a very wet start to the week. The forecast was grim too. August in the UK!

Only managed one trip out…

to Guildford for lunch

The Weyside

If only it were Nice!

but you get to see the narrow boats go down the Wey

The food was nice but we were plagued by wasps. What is the point of a wasp?

the autumn fruit is on its way

Something happened to my shoulder in February and I can’t really reach for anything without being in a lot of pain. I tried resting it and then I tried building it up with weights but neither made any difference. I saw my osteopath sister-in-law and the exercises she gave me didn’t work.  So I’ve had to throw myself on the mercy of the NHS for a physio assessment. Today after 14 weeks of waiting finally I had that assessment and was given a set of exercises. I really would have liked an ultrasound scan because after 5 months of pain it’s obvious to me that something is seriously wrong in there.

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Week 177

Friday 23rd July 2021 to Thursday 29th July 2021

The heatwave is over 😀

Had lunch on top of Reigate Hill

Then it started raining 🙁

We did manage one rain free day and had a trip to London on Zippy. Always good fun negotiating the traffic. The biggest danger is usually the fast food delivery riders with L plates on but this time our closest call was a bike rider wearing headphones who pulled out at speed from between two cars without looking at all 😮

The mound, what on earth were Westminster Council thinking?

After 7 days of going down the new COVID cases figures are beginning to creep up. Deaths are up 29% on a rolling 7 day average too but the really bad COVID news this week is having caught COVID at the Wembley Piers Morgan survived 🙁

 

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Week 176

Friday 16th July 2021 to Thursday 22nd July 2021

A very hot sunny weekend. To Torquay…

The English Rivera!

Torquay is a nice little seaside town with few amusement arcades or shops selling tourist trash but like all seaside towns when the sun comes out so do the tatts.

Really?

I can understand someone in their youth or in the middle of a mid-life crisis being confused enough to think getting a tattoo might be a great idea but blokes in their late 40s and 50s getting their arms and legs plastered in tribal markings and all-sorts? Getting neck tattoos? Women too.

I understand some people struggle to be individuals but 272 tattoos don’t make you an individual, they just make you a bit of an eejit.

Seal with its breakfast in Brixham Harbour

We went Berry Head and I felt absolutely no urge to visit the navaids!

The view from Berry Head

On our final day in Devon we visited Coleton Fishacres, the country retreat and gardens of Rupert D’Oyly Carte who owned The Savoy.

Nice place

Then it was back to Reigate and the heatwave without Nelly’s aircon 🙁

I’ve been putting off cleaning the van for far too long

On Thursday lunchtime I got Pinged 🙁

For a test I took on the 8th January! At first I thought it was just a super delayed text but they emailed me too…

Speaking of COVID what a week for Boris Johnson, the Inspector Clouseau of British politics!

On his much heralded FREEDOM DAY he was locked up as were his Health Secretary and Chancellor. Most Prime Ministers would feel a little humiliated but not Boris; just another day in the ongoing chaos of his premiership.

Then his old mucker Dominic Cummings released a screen grab of Boris texting that he wasn’t going to have a second lockdown because it was only people over 80 dying of COVID! Most politicians would have been forced to resign but not Boris; it barely even registered on his personal Chaos Scale. Like Clouseau he just bumbles on.

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Week 175

Friday 9th July 2021 to Thursday 15th July 2021

A bright start to the week in Reigate…

Fox & Cubs

As I expected England lost the Euro final and in a lamentable fashion. They completely fucked up the penalty shootout. Saka is a very talented young player but he has never even taken a penalty for Arsenal yet he was chosen to take England’s 5th when we absolutely needed to score. Un-fuckin’-believable.

And it’s not just a penalty coach England need, in the last 30 minutes they must have given the Italians possession 20+ times just from throw-ins. Liverpool have a throw-in coach, why don’t England?

Lastly England need a time wasting game management coach to take all momentum away from a dangerous opposition once we have the lead.

On Monday we decamped to Hillhead very near Brixham for a week or so.

Brixham; looks great from afar, less so close up

On Wednesday we took the short ferry ride from Kingswear to Dartmouth.

Dartmouth is a great little town. Sure like every Devon town it has it’s pasty shops but they are classy pasty shops!

Dartmouth

Thursday it was all aboard the Dart Valley Railway for a trip from Kingswear to Paignton.

The Omaha

Julie says that Paignton is the Blackpool of Torbay and she’s not far wrong. A walk through the arcade on the pier was an violent assault on the senses!

how can any parent allow their children in one of these places?

If anything Thursday was too hot which doesn’t bode well for the weekend.

Cfor loves the hedges here at Hillhead

This week Boris out Borised himself; as previously twice announced, he announced he was going ahead with Freedom Day on the 19th July and he’s scrapping a shedload of COVID regulations! But he expects people to still follow them. Meanwhile all the data; new cases, deaths and hospital admissions move ever upwards; a high risk strategy from the Chancer-in-Chief.

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Week 174

Friday 2nd July 2021 to Thursday 8th July 2021

Started the week with a litter pick; now I can walk my usual North Downs route without getting pissed off at other people’s thoughtlessness.

Down amongst the dog shit bags, drinks cans, sweet wrappers and takeaway coffee cups… a wild strawberry

The weather has turned wet, July in England 🙁

On Monday Boris announced that next Monday he is going to announce Freedom Day is going ahead on the 19th July;  only it won’t exactly be freedom day as we’ll still have to wear masks in some situations and self isolate if the NHS app pings us. My dentist tells me he doesn’t expect things to get back to normal till next year.

Freedom day, a figment of Boris’ imagination

Meanwhile the new Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, has warned that new Covid cases could rise to a record 100,000 a day after restrictions are lifted and warned that the country is about to enter “uncharted territory”. Personally I think we’ve been in uncharted territory ever since Boris the Bozo became PM.

On Tuesday it was Lucy Boxall’s funeral; a very sad day indeed.

No doubt to disappointment of many Scots on Wednesday England beat Denmark…

with the help of a soft penalty

I think Italy will be a different matter. They have a proper defence and are unlikely to run out of puff.

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Week 173

Friday 25th June 2021 to Thursday 1st July 2021

Last couple of days in Cornwall…

and last couple of walks along the coastal path

Sunday I headed home to Reigate, another 8+ hour journey with 3½ hours worth of delays on the A30 and A303 🙁

Back in Reigate I continued my tour of the footpaths and lanes of the Surrey countryside.

Amazingly England beat Germany!

onward to Rome…

So Matt Hancock finally resigned. Boris couldn’t sack him because he is a serial philanderer himself. Reportedly Hancock has left his wife and 3 young children for his new love. Unbelievable that these two bozos have been in charge throughout this pandemic; what a ship of fools.

 

 

 

 

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Week 172

Friday 18th June 2021 to Thursday 24th June 2021

A very windy but very sunny start to the week. To St. Ives…

The harbour at St Ives

St Ives is supposed to be a little upmarket but for me the tourist area of the town, around the harbour, is ruined by the traffic which is made even worse by all the delivery vans parking willy-nilly. Far too many pasty shops too!

Porthmeor Beach, St Ives

I was really looking forward to the England Scotland game but it turned out to be a right  borefest. If we can’t beat Scotland we stand no chance of progressing past the last 16.

Cfor has a new friend. Well maybe they aren’t exactly besom buddies…

The farm’s Ginger Tom Cat

It was the longest day of the year…

Sunset from Gwynver

We continued our Poldark tour…

Porthgwarra Beach

Penberth Cove

The weather got even better…

Penzance harbour

The church at St Buryan

The Merry Maidens standing stones

On Wednesday we were booked in to visit the Minack Theatre at Porthcurno

Porthcurno beach from the Minack

The Minack

the stage

From the theatre we carried on the backroad to Mousehole. I love riding Zippy through the narrow Cornish lanes. You never know what is coming round the corner; a Range Rover, a double decker bus or a tractor. Great fun although Julie’s not really a big fan of double deckers or tractors 😀

Mousehole, pronounced Mouzil

Apart from one grey day the weather has been fabulous 😀

Sennen Cove from Gwynver beach

On Thursday we woke up to the very sad news that Lucy, Darren’s partner, had passed after an unequal battle with cancer. Julie returned to Reigate straight away and I’ll follow in a few days. Lucy was a good person, cancer is a twat of a disease.

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Week 171

Friday 11th June 2021 to Thursday 17th June 2021

The week started out a bit misty on the Roseland coast but from Saturday we were booked into Trevedra Farm a couple of miles from Land’s End…

Gwynver beach

First day on the new site some complete nutjob tried his very best to start a fight with me at the washing-up station over a few traces of olive oil left in a sink. I declined to get over excited about being called a twat; at 62¾ I think my days of brawling with strangers are long over 😀

It takes just over an hour to walk the coastal path from the campsite to Land’s End via Sennen’s Cove…

The remains of RMS Mulhein

Dr Syntax’s Head at Land’s End

The Longships Lighthouse on Carn Bras off Land’s End

Next on the list of places to visit were the old copper and tin mines of Botallock…

Mine ruins at Botallock

Crowns Engine Houses at Botallack

Then on to the NT site at Levant…

the Levant Mine

All in all it’s been a great week here at Land’s End.

Elsewhere, the pantomime does continue; having delayed putting India on the red travel list by three weeks because he was due to visit the country himself Boris has now had to delay the next step of the unlocking because the Indian variant is spreading like wildfire.

If we have learned anything from this pandemic it is that without a proper lockdown the virus just spreads and spreads so it’s odds-on the numbers are going to look even worse come July 19th; what will the idiot do then?

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Week 170

Friday 4th June 2021 to Thursday 10th June 2021

The weather has been good ?

The lighthouse at St Antony

We went to the Eden Project…

A proper day out!

It’s big…

and it’s very green…

with the odd plash of colour…

and some plants your mum probably used to have…

It was interesting but I think there’s more going on in the fantastic hedgerows of Cornwall…

there’s a riot going on… Wild Cabbage and Red Campion

an Orange Tip

I have to say my preferred destination of choice for June is Brittany but Cornwall is a fantastic substitute  😀

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Week 169

Friday 28th May 2021 to Thursday 3rd June 2021

To Cornwall…

the Roseland Coast to be precise, this is more like it 😀

Had a torturous 9 hour drive to get here though. The jams started on the M25 and I’m very happy to be parked up for the next 2 weeks because this is Cornwall where people with big SUVs have holiday homes and going anywhere in a car is a little bit barmy.

Carmageddon at Porth; these people have arrived to find the car parks full. Quelle surprise!

We’re staying at Merrose Farm which is a cracking site less than a mile from the sea. The weather has been beautiful so I’ve had plenty of walks along the coastal path.

Portscatho from the harbour

Portscatho harbour

Towan Beach

It might not be the Lake District but as soon as you start walking you realise there are a lot hills in Cornwall

Pendower Beach

towards Portscatho from Pendower Beach

the church at St. Just

St Mawes

St. Mawes is a great little town, not too commercialised but I think a lot of the houses are rentals so it’s probably pretty deserted out of season.

The church at Gerrans

Speaking of churches Boris got married for the 3rd time this week and in Catholic Westminster Cathedral too! Yet another example of him being cut far too much slack.

The fact Boris was able to do this in total secrecy is proof positive of how useless the all political journalists in the country are; hundreds of them at the BBC, ITV, CH4, CH5, SkyNews, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Daily Mail, The Sun, The Mirror, The Independent, The Express etc etc etc and not a single one of them had a fucking scooby. No wonder Boris gets away with being so utterly incompetent.

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