CyberBob in Catch 22

My laptop driver finally bit the dust and now won't even read the cleaning CD! It's like this - it won't read anything because the lens is probably dirty, so it can't read the cleaning CD which will only clean the lens if the driver reads it... (sigh)

I really don't wanna cart it to PC World and let those incumbent idiots take my beloved CyberBob apart... The other alternative is Andy who just spends a lot of time opening and closing windows... Its actually a long-running joke to the point where Anna said, "Here's an impression of Andy" and rolled the car window down and then up again. I laughed so much I nearly choked!

Anyway, now I have to deal with lots of jokes about 'laptop servicing'...

Isis19...?

Interesting...

Isis Indeed, you are 66% erudite, 70% sensual, 41% martial, and 37% saturnine.

This Egyptian supreme Goddess is certainly the most influential deity on subsequent cultures. She was the ideal figure of womanhood, usually compared with the Greek Goddess Demeter or her Roman version, Ceres. Isis was one element of a Holy Trinity, the remaining two figures being her brother and husband Osiris and their heroic son Horus. She was the Goddess of Magic for her brilliance, as well as the Goddess of Love because of her tenacious devotion. She is often shown with wings, curving to caress coffins and sarcophagi of many a king. In certain papyri she is shown with her falcon wing headdress, covering her ears. One of her sacred symbols is the sistrum, a musical instrument that was believed to ward off evil spirits. Isis' sistrum was carved bearing the image of a cat and was representative of the Moon. Isis was the High Priestess and an omnipotent magician as well as the only being ever to discover the secret name of Ra. She invariably carries the ankh, the symbol for eternal life. Her name is, by the rules of numerology, adding up to the number “2” and she just so happens to be depicted on the tarot card “Key 2 – The High Priestess”. The Fifteen Goddesses These are the 15 categories of this test. If you score above average in … …all or none of the four variables: Neit. … Erudite: Minerva. … Sensual: Aphrodite. … Martial: Artemis. … Saturnine: Persephone. … Erudite & Sensual: Isis. … Erudite & Martial: Sekhmet. … Erudite & Saturnine: Nemesis. … Sensual & Martial: Hera. … Sensual & Saturnine: Bast. … Martial & Saturnine: Ilamatecuhtli. … Erudite, Sensual & Martial: Maeve. … Erudite, Sensual & Saturnine: Freya. … Erudite, Martial & Saturnine: Sedna. … Sensual, Martial & Saturnine: Macha.

Wired for blogs!

I have a phone line... WAHEY!! It's nice to have Internet... :)

Just a random passing thought I had today: Why are the US so worried about Iran having nuclear weapons when they have such a large arsenal of their own...??

V Festival - Day 2

Andy arrives about an hour after us, after Rooster had just finished. He loved the birthday pressie I got him – White Elephants and Red Herrings. Apparently the only other gift he got was socks from his parents!

Bands seen: Rooster, Joss Stone, Tony Christie, Embrace, Athlete, Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters
Bands saw and should have missed: 0
Bands missed and wanted to see: The Hives
Best sing-a-long: Take Me Out followed v closely by Filthy Gorgeous and (Is This The Way To) Amarillo
Best line: You can all go see The Hives now! (Alex Kapranos after playing Take Me Out)
Items bought: 10th anniversary V Festival programme
Items lost: 0
Celebrities seen: Jade Goody, Natalie Cassidy
Time spent leaving: 3 mins finding the car, 5 mins leaving the site
Level of tiredness: 8/10

V Festival - Day 1

So I finally to the V Festival – hoo yeah! I bought tickets for Anna and myself back in February and have been so looking forward to it! I offered Andy to come with me, who then unceremoniously dumped me in favour of Mark instead. (Andy dislikes use of the phrase ‘dumped’ and thought I only wanted to go for one day. Yeah. Sure. Fine. Whatever.) Anyway, 8.30am this morning he called me to say that Mark couldn’t make it as he was in Nottingham with his girlfriend and he had a spare ticket a-begging. So Reuben piped up that he’d love to go and we all went. As it turns out, Andrew and Anna clicked rather well… Er, yeah, weird!

Bands seen: The La’s, The Magic Numbers, The Proclaimers, KT Tunstall (briefly), Good Charlotte, Maroon 5, Kaiser Chiefs, The Streets, Oasis
Bands saw and should have missed: The La’s, The Streets
Bands missed and wanted to see: Jet, The Zutons
Best sing-a-long: (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory followed closely by This Love
Best line: Glad to see Pete Doherty could make it – the giant c**k (Liam Gallagher upon seeing an inflatable penis being waved in the crowd)
Items bought: 10th anniversary V Festival T-shirt (sub-woofer design)
Items lost: Right hearing aid (bugger!)
Celebrities seen: 0
Time spent leaving: 20mins searching for the car, 70mins trying to leave the site
Level of tiredness: 10/10 – I slept in the car!

Mr Mouse (deceased)

There was a dead mouse outside our office today, fleas all over the body... It was sooo damn gross! The office is right next door to Pest Control so I march over there, only to find the door locked and no one to be seen all day! It was nasty and I hated having to walk in and out of the office and seeing it there. It became the spectacle of the day. People came in and said, "Did you see that dead mouse outside?" Yeah... (sigh) So much for health and safety at work!

My manager is on long term sick leave so we have another one standing in for him. I went over to him and complained, and he said someone would deal with it by tomorrow morning... Here's hoping!

(sigh)

Stuart the locksmith turned up at our flat about 8.30pm this evening and fixed the lock for us. At last we can change our addresses! Now all we need to do is find the electricity meter so we're not paying for the last tenants' electricity bill, and get hooked up to the Internet. Its all systems go go go…

Free dinner

My aunt and uncle invited Reuben and I over for dinner tonight. This is the first of many visits that we'll be making to all our closest relatives and I have to admit that I'm glad we're starting off with mine! My aunt and uncle are pretty easy going and predictably asked lots of questions and showed off their knowledge of food and wine that have resulted from their travels to America and Europe. They also tried to show me off along the lines of me being obsessive about candles and a decent artist… but I think I was more embarrassed than proud! The highlight of the evening was my cousin sending a string of texts to my aunt, asking all about Reuben and being gutted she didn't get to meet him too!

Keys please!

The previous tenants of our flat handed in one set of keys to the agency instead of two, and one of the keys was a window key instead of the post-box key. The worst thing was that we were jamming the window key into the post-box for two weeks, not understanding why it didn't work, and then we flung the keys onto the window sill in frustration one day and it just happened to land right next to the identical window key sitting there…!

So in effect, there are two keys for our post-box and one for our flat still knocking about. So we're changing the locks. We call the agency and today they sent Stuart the locksmith to change them. The flat lock was changed no problem but he didn't have a small enough lock for the post-box, so we're sticking the flap up with blue tape for now. He should be coming back Tuesday but we hope that no post arrives until the lock has been fitted!!

Darth Vader breathes again

So Reuben was driving to work today and could hear this weird heavy breathing in his car. It only lasts a couple of seconds, he dismisses it… and then he hears it again! He can't understand what the hell it is and thinks he's hearing things when suddenly the Star Wars theme tune starts playing. He then realises that he's left his new Star Wars mug that Raj gave him under the seat of his car… it plays the theme tune, and Vader's breathing when the bottom of the mug is exposed to light. The mug is now safely in the flat but I'm so gonna kill Raj when I see him next. That mug is getting on my last nerves!

Amazing Travels

So there haven't been many updates. That'll be because I've been on holiday... and then I kinda got caught up in this whole 'renting a flat' business... Hopefully I will finish typing up my holiday journal soon and then you can laugh and cry along with the other UKC girls. Or you can just log on to our Amazing Travels blog, which should be updated sooner or later...

Homebound to London

We were up early enough and said a sad farewell to the chalet before handing the keys into Reception and heading back to London. We detoured into Tesco's to pick up the latest Harry Potter book (Jenny bought two copies) and fill up the car one last time. The drive back was relatively quiet, Jenny and Melissa engrossed in their books and me getting quietly happier every time I saw a sign that said we were getting nearer and nearer home.

At Heathrow, I parked accidentally at the wrong terminal so we all took the free tube service between terminals to get Mel to the right one! When we arrived, we discovered that despite the bombings in London, check-in time was still max. three hours before flight take-off and we had planned for four. So we hugged goodbye and Jenny and I rushed back to the previous terminal where Liz had been patiently waiting about ten minutes, and was beginning to think she was in the wrong place…!

I said goodbye to them too and drove home, delighted to actually get a parking spot outside my house. As I struggle to get my stuff from car to house, I realise that the house is empty. But they all know I'm coming home today… (It later transpired that they had all gone to Norfolk for the day as it was my Nan's birthday.) A little upset at not getting a welcome home, I get refreshed and changed, bung some washing in the machine, and have a quick lunch. I then mooch around, waiting for the machine load to finish, when I have the marvellous idea of giving Reuben back his car, and then I won't have to worry about returning it tomorrow…

Back in the car, I search for a jet wash as the car is pretty filthy and I know mine is going to be returned in pristine condition… I pass three and they are all coned off due to the water ban. I reluctantly return the dirty car and Reuben's mother politely offered a drink. I accept and then find myself staying for dinner as relatives are coming over and it'll be nice to meet them etc etc… "I'm tired!" I wanted to yell. "I'm dishevelled and not in the mood to be polite to strangers!" But I didn't and just smiled sweetly and prepared for the worst…

Everything actually turned out okay and I met some very nice people who, in turn, (apparently) think the sun shines where it shouldn't…!! (I heard later that Reuben got a lecture from his uncle along the lines of appreciating me…(!)) I somehow managed to get home and was sooo knackered I didn't wake up until noon the next day!

Bournemouth Part 2

Nice long sleep-in today! Woke up about 9am, had breakfast and we made our way to Bournemouth to search for an Internet café. After a few wrong turns (entirely my fault) we found a reasonably priced café. Jenny and Mel checked their email, Jenny having to write home to prove she was still alive after the bombings, as her mother had apparently stirred up a frenzy of worry! I am hot and very thirsty so I go for a walk while they type away. Afterwards we hit Bournemouth town centre and had lunch in a small café after managing to park in the car park no-one can get to (long story). Jenny then called Liz to double check her flight info and we pottered around the shops a little. One was a fabric shop as Jenny has orders from her mother to bring home 'English fabric'. After a bit of dithering, Jenny finally plumped for reddish-orange butterflies on one, and a Union Jack pattern on the other!

Back at the chalet we took a siesta, much needed for myself at least, having driven almost non-stop for the past two weeks! Jenny finished reading her Jasper Fforde novel and I did puzzles and slept mostly! In the evening we had dinner in the club. The food was freshly cooked but took almost an hour… Desert was very nice – peach cheesecake and brandy snaps! The remainder of the evening was spent packing a few items and watching Jack Dee Live at the Apollo, a re-run from the earlier series. Jo Brand was guest starring and was just as funny the second time around! Eventually we retired for one last night in our fabulous chalet!!

Poole & Corfe Castle

It's been a week since the London bombings and a two-minute silence was held across the country and the rest of the EU at 12pm BST.

We went to Poole Quay this morning to have a peek at the boats in the harbour and at both the Purbeck (limestone) and Poole (clay) pottery. Unfortunately the demonstrations were closed while we were there, so we headed off towards Swanage to go to Corfe Castle.

Corfe Castle was once a grand structure built on a high hill as the original entrance to Purbeck and it was used extensively by King John. Unfortunately it is now no more than ruins, but they are beautiful ruins and have an excellent view of the surrounding landscape. We all went separate ways to explore and Melissa and I find ourselves in a small 'room' that was so high that the air channelling through the 'room' was ice cold and very welcome on a hot day like today! We stood there, gazing through the window at Corfe Castle village, and chatted away until I suddenly stopped and said, "I wonder what happened to Jenny?" We reluctantly leave the cool 'room' and start calling out for Jenny. It transpires that she missed us and went trekking around the entire ruins looking for us! All together again, we climb the ruins, take lots of photos, and simulate sword fights with long grasses, much to the amusement of people passing by!

The sun is incredibly fierce now and with no clouds in the sky is also potentially dangerous. I've already reached my sun quota for today methinks! We head back to the car and arrive at the chalet all hot and tired. We shower feet and laze around until dinner before glamming up and heading towards the club with the intention of getting Jenny either drunk or very happy, and possibly finding her a nice guy to snog. Unfortunately, tonight's entertainment consisted of the four site staff singing a medley of songs from 60's to 90's – compelling (!). However it was possibly better than the unfunny professional comedian we saw earlier in the week…

We had a round of drinks each and, well, Mel and I said we were 'happy' and Jenny claimed she hadn't had enough… but was pretty pink and perky so…! I'm not in the mood for a drink-fest. I'm tired and the club atmosphere isn't all that – there's hardly anyone there and those that are, are young families and elderly couples. Mel and I vow to take Jenny to a pub tomorrow and give her flirting lessons. (She failed to notice the barman flirting with her earlier this evening and Melissa found herself responding instead!) We did have a quick-fire round consisting of me picking up Jenny and her attempting to respond, but she kept just giggling. Melissa then demonstrated what she was supposed to do… More giggles. I think 'tipsy' is the word I'm looking for…!

Chawton & Winchester

Jenny's birthday! I bought Jenny a copy of 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss. She's an English teacher and would appreciate the zero-tolerance obsession over grammar that some of us share… Melissa warms croissants for breakfast and we are soon headed for Chawton, just outside of Alton, to see Jane Austen's house. It was fairly easy to find and was a gorgeous cottage surrounded by a beautiful garden in an olde worlde village. Inside the building were replicas of the furniture and crockery used, and illustrations all over the walls of characters from Austen's books, including the ones drawn by Jane's sister, Cassandra. After telling all the staff it was her birthday, we dragged Jenny away and went back down the road to Winchester.

Up in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle is the Round Table high on a wall, inspired by the legend of King Arthur and crafted c.13thC. In the middle of the hall was an exhibition on the World Wars as it’s the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2 (1945 in England). We grabbed a drink and lunch in O'Neill's pub where Melissa takes the opportunity of buying a meal and getting Jenny's for free, it being her birthday and all (!).

After lunch and a trip to the creepy loos (no lights, no locks, or no paper – take your pick) we visited the cathedral, which is the longest medieval gothic cathedral in Europe. It also holds in its library the famous Winchester Bible, a 12thC illustrated manuscript in six volumes. The library and cathedral was overrun with Italian students and we hung about in the gallery until most of them had left.

Back at the chalet we had pizza and Red Square followed by toffee & chocolate curls cake. We didn't have any candles so we lit a match, stuck it in the cake, and sang 'Happy Birthday' at twice the normal speed before Jenny blew out the match! We then turned on the music channels and flipped through the radio, singing along and dancing giddily around the coffee table. Fun fun fun…!

Osborne House, IOW

Today we decided to attempt to go to the Isle of Wight and see the sites. We drove to Lymington and hopped onto the passenger & car ferry to Yarmouth. Once there, we took a bus to Newport and then another to Osborne House. It was nice not having to drive! On the bus ride between Newport and Osborne House, I sat next to a chatty lady who lived there but originated from London. She had a proper cockney accent, which had crossed into a thick 'coun-tree' brogue so Mel and Jenny didn't really understand her… She was bemoaning that she couldn't see Ventnor or Sandown because they didn't have a harbour for her to dock her yacht and, upon finding out I was from London, started a tirade against the bombers of 7/7 and hoped nobody I knew was a victim.

Once at Osborne House it was already 1pm so we headed into the restaurant. The menu is two pages and eight items on page one are the food items. All the others are drinks. The food items consisted of soup and bread, egg and watercress sandwiches, poached salmon sandwiches… Yep, just soup and sandwiches, none of which sounded particularly appealing or filling. In the end, Jenny and I plumped for tomato soup and Melissa had the seafood mix soup. The soup tasted like the juice out of tinned plum tomatoes – bitty, watery, and pretty gross. I'm so hungry I eat it all anyway. Apparently the seafood mix soup wasn't all that wonderful either… The peach and passionfruit cordial drink was nice though… but didn't compensate. This is very bad food karma!! I'm still hungry and have digested tinned tomato juice. Not happy bunnies, we rate the food quality and choice as 'poor' on the comments card, adding that they should get 'real food'.

We left hungry and annoyed, and slowly walked around Osborne House, taking in the glorious décor, the intricately designed ceilings, and the brilliant views of the gardens from all directions. One room contained the Royal Family tree, and it demonstrated how Victoria and Albert attempted to marry off their children throughout Europe to ensure peace between the countries… You could also clearly see how Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are first cousins as well as husband and wife…! No wonder the children of Elizabeth II and Philip are a little weird – they're a bunch of in-breds!

After wandering around the gardens and quickly making out way through the Walled Gardens, we headed back to the bus stop, grabbed our two buses, and hopped back on to the IOW ferry to the mainland. Back at the chalet, we are incredibly hungry and open the Thai Chilli crisps and shortcake biscuits, and cook potato croquettes to snack on before dinner! I cooked sweet 'n' sour rice with southern fried chicken fingers which was eagerly devoured, and we spent the evening doing crosswords and playing the Friends game. Well, not exactly playing but reading out the questions and laughing at them and our own answers!! It was fun.

Salisbury

We are up in good time and get in the car to head towards Salisbury. We stop at the Park 'n' Ride and take the bus into the city centre. The cathedral in Salisbury is absolutely gorgeous and is the only British gothic cathedral still intact in its entirety. The spire is the tallest in Britain and the cloisters are the largest in England. The cathedral is actually undergoing restoration, which started in 1986 and is expected to continue until at least 2015. We get a free tour around the cathedral with an elderly gentleman who was very well spoken and knew loads about everything we wanted to know! Interesting parts of the 90min tour were the oldest mechanical clock, the baby who died eleven days before it was born (a result of the change from Julian to Georgian dates) and the guy who was found dead with a perfectly preserved skeleton of a rat in his skull – nice! Of course, there's also the infamous Magna Carta on display, guarded by numerous staff and surrounded by carvings on the walls, depicting major events in the Old Testament of the Bible (Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's ark, etc)

After the tour, we trekked back into the city centre for lunch in a Tudor-style pub and had jacket potatoes and Ploughman's. The people moving around upstairs made the ceiling creak and I swear I saw one of the beams move… We then did a bit of shopping, mooched around Boots (the Yanks can't get enough of the Fresh! range) and then trudged all the way back towards the cathedral so we could go into the Salisbury museum. It contained the infamous preserved rat skeleton, a history and analysis of Stonehenge, costumes from the Victorian era, and a whole range of Wedgwood pottery. Completely tired out and way too hot (it is 28ºC today!) we relaxed on a shaded bench in front of the cathedral before finding ice cream and making our way back to the Park 'n' Ride.

Due to our aforementioned tiredness, we decide to drop by Stonehenge but when we get there, there are hardly any spaces to park in and we are hot and grumpy. I stop in a lay-by opposite the henge and we took some photos before driving slowly by the structure to grab a last shot. "It's smaller than I thought it'd be," Jenny commented. Hmm… Americans always say that about stuff in England…

So we drove back, stopping off at Tesco's to buy more provisions (read 'alcohol') and get petrol. Mel and Jen insist on arguing about everything when we go food shopping. Not only are they adults arguing in the middle of the shop, but also they are loud and have American accents – enough factors to get everyone looking at us! I try walking ahead to avoid the arguments but in doing so, I'm probably making it worse…

We have an orange dinner of chicken Kiev balls and potato croquettes followed by a yellow desert of lemon Madeira cake and pineapple chunks. Loyd Grossman would be appalled… Soz guys… Anyways, by 10.30pm the girls are shattered but I had just had coffee and was buzzing. I watched some music videos and a good episode of SATC before hitting the sack around 00.25am!

Bournemouth

This morning I woke up unfeasibly early considering I had a great night's sleep. I made Jenny and Melissa eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast and then we just lounged around in and outside the chalet until Reuben called me to say he'd arrived in Bournemouth. I drove to Bournemouth, found Reuben, and we all walked along the promenade, stopping in an arcade along the way. We had lunch in Hot Rocks, a surf-themed restaurant overlooking the square and with beach views. It was incredibly hot and all we could manage was two starters between the four of us. There was quite a bit of food though – chicken pieces, potato skins, southern-fried potato wedges, tortilla chips and spare ribs, served with salsa, sour cream and mustard dips. We took a short walk through Bournemouth gardens in the blazing heat, taking photos and trying to work off some of the food!

Back in the car and to the chalet, I noticed my upper right arm had turned slightly pink – sunburn! I should get more sunblock… Mel and Jen began to argue out their joint efforts on a new story for a while before Melissa finally left to call Andy. Jenny disappeared outside to enjoy the late afternoon sun on the patio, and Reuben and I decided to clock in some quality time… Well, a week is a long time when you're apart from the one you love!

Reuben left about 7.30pm and we had mince and pasta for dinner before heading out to the club for the evening cabaret. Comedian Paul Eastwood is not much of a comedian. His jokes were funny but they were recycled off the Internet so I'd heard most of them before. The ones I hadn't heard were in bad taste, a typical example being "The other day I met a blind prostitute… well, you've got to hand it to her." (sigh) Yeah…

Glastonbury

Thus begins our second week of holiday. We are up surprisingly early – 6.30am! We have breakfast, do some last-minute packing, and return all the hired items and chalet key into Reception. As we head out of the park at 8.40am(!) Melissa says, "See you in hell, John Fowler!" We laughed and prayed that the accommodation for the second week would be marginally better. Actually the week wasn't all that bad. We did do a lot of mileage, see a lot of places, and the park itself was good value for money. At £232 for the week, we had a reasonably sized chalet with water, electricity and heating on tap. Okay, there wasn't enough water pressure to have a decent shower, the chalet became extra tiny when the bed or table were fully extended, and we felt we were living in each other's pockets. It was literally a place to crash. We weren't exactly gonna live there!

Anyhow, we headed into Barnstaple for the last time to fuel up, and then headed towards Glastonbury via the M5. Glastonbury was beautiful. We walked around the ruins of the Abbey and watched some of a church ceremony being conducted outside, with a choir and large altar set up by where King Arthur and Guinevere's tombs were. On the way back to the car, a large procession had gathered in the street, blocking the route I was meaning to take out of Glastonbury. We stopped into a newsagent to pick up ice-lollies and water bottles, and asked the shopkeeper what was going on. Apparently, in early July, Christians of all denominations come to Glastonbury in pilgrimage, as legend says that Joseph of Arimathea came to England with Jesus and they built the old wattle and daub church, which unfortunately burnt when the entire Abbey was destroyed by fire in 1184. So we witnessed the C of E procession before we packed back into the car and took the alternative route suggested by the shopkeeper, heading towards Salisbury.

Deciding that Stonehenge would be a decent day out, we stayed on the main road to Salisbury instead of heading out to Stonehenge, and take the Ringwood road to Bournemouth. We find the train station easily and said our goodbyes to Debbie, who profusely apologised for not being better company. Like she could help it, she is sick!! We followed Anna's directions to Highcliffe and find the chalet easily. It's actually an owned chalet on Hoburne Naish Holiday Park and Oh…. My… God… This place is wonderful! We have SPACE, a proper kitchen, table and chairs, enough sofa seats to go around, gorgeous beds and bedrooms, and a powerful shower! I am SO happy! We all are!! We feel like crying. If we had come here the first week and then gone to John Fowler's, we would have been sooo gutted!!

Anyway, despite every luxury spared, true to Anna's word there is no bed linen. I agree to purchase bed linen and then keep them afterwards. So we go to Reception and look through the Yellow Pages for an Argos, as I know they do nice bed linen at decent prices. We find it closed so we head on towards Bournemouth again and detour as we spy a Roseby's from the road. As we arrive, the manager come to the door and announces that the shop is closed. I ask him if there is anywhere I can buy bed linen at 6pm. "Find a hotel," he answers unhelpfully. "We are in a hotel," we say in unison. I explain that we need bed linen desperately and he directs us to the nearest Tesco's, turning the key in the lock as he says his last words. We duly go back to the car, grumbling about how everything shuts at 6pm outside of London. We find the Tesco's without grief and I buy £50 of sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers.

Back at the chalet, we have our longed-for and well-deserved showers, eat lemon-iced cake, and drink Arbor Mist, a pink/rosé coloured fruity wine that was de-lish! Man, I love this chalet!!

Arlington Court & Benton

I got to sleep in this morning! Well, not much but enough to feel better. I think I'm burning my candle at both ends – early mornings, late nights, and a dry cough that won't leave me alone! We have a slow breakfast and head to Arlington Court, a National Trust house with a cool collection of horse-drawn carriages and some magnificent grounds, including a gated garden and large pond. The house was full of artefacts and had some really fine and exquisite pieces of art and furniture. Outside the house was a sign to a bat cave. "To the Bat Cave!" we yelled in the style of Batman, but it was merely a room with a small TV screen in the corner. A control panel enabled the camera in the loft to move and focus on the (sleeping) bats. It was rather disappointing… We did get to have a fun but short ride in a horse-drawn carriage and we lunched among coloured and white peacocks.

After Arlington Court I wanted to go to Benton, a nearby village I'd seen on the map. We drove down narrow roads, some only the width of the car, and past wheat that towered high above us… but no Benton. It was possibly the house in the middle of a field that we passed but we can't be certain.

We headed on into Ilfracombe, stopping for souvenirs and Devonshire ice cream. The evening involved takeaway and getting ready for tomorrow's journey to Bournemouth, Dorset. Anna called my mobile to give directions and to warn us that there would be no bed linen. "Crud!" Jenny exclaims while taking notes. After failing to get through to the guy who hired me the chalet, we have a short discussion and decide that if there's no linen hire once we get there, I'll buy some.