An unusual gift

Today Ian bought me a present. It's not my birthday but Ian must have felt particularly romantic today when we walked into the HGV training centre just outside of Bergerac. So.. next Tuesday I have a 2 hour lesson with a French HGV instructor who is hopefully going to show me how to drive a van and trailer.  I have a UK licence that enables me to drive a vehicle up to 7.5 tons but I have never been particularly comfortable in anything more than a Ford Fiesta so when we drive back to the UK towing a trailer Ian is on his own all the way which as well as being a lot of driving, means that if he ever felt unwell, we would just have to wait until he got better before we could continue.

The one problem I can see is that I don't know left from right in English, let alone in French, and it is a long time since I drove a left hand drive vehicle!

Small world

l am currently in a hotel room in Limerick on my final duties as an external examiner. For the first time I managed to arrive with a laptop that I can connect to the hotel's wireless network and so it is almost like being at home. Ryan Scare have withdrawn the late evening flight that I used to get and so I arrived a day later than usual without much time to do the required work. Consequently I have been sitting here reading scripts and trying to recover from the enormous meal I had earlier at The Cornstore. Should you ever find yourself in Limerick I can recommend it but working in the evening on a full stomach is not that easy!

On the flight over I found myself sitting next to a woman who turned out to be a good friend of my doctor! It's a small world!

Coming home

Home now and back to work tomorrow! We had an interesting drive back, breaking the journey on the way up by staying at a bed and breakfast near Limoges. We have stayed there before and I can recommend it; especially the three course meal in the evening, which is exceptional value and very good. As we got to the Limousin the weather got worse and the snow started falling. However, we made it there quite safely and fortunately there wasn't much more snow overnight. Even if there had been there wouldn't have been a problem as the local farmer attached the snowplough to his tractor and cleared all the roads in the commune, making it easy to get up to the main road. The temperature did not go above -2 degrees centigrade all the way home but the journey was fine.

As we left the land we drove past the former mayor and his hunting mates butchering a deer that they had shot that morning. He called us over exitedly and told Ian that they had shot the animal on our land and amongst other things, that we could have a quarter of it! Ian nodded and we drove off. "We will have a quarter of that deer for our freezer when we are next here" he said matter of factly! "But we don't have a freezer or an oven?" I said. I felt a bit strange about it all as we love seeing the deer running across the land and although this one may have been older and in need of culling I don't feel that great about it. However, the creature is dead now and we should eat it.. Ian is planning to stop the hunters coming on the land when we are living there. It won't be a popular move but their presence with all their dogs is not good for the llamas or horses.

Snow is expected here for the next week. It is the coldest spell for 20 years. I remember the one in 1981. I was living in London and the cold spell  lasted 2-3 weeks  with the roads remaining  icy and snowy for most of the time. It was turned into a disaster by the media then and the same is happening now. It is just snow! We will survive.

Ian sent me this picture and said it was very sweet. I said it was unless you were a French hunter when you just see two meals with one shot!

No delays for us

We arrived at the Eurotunnel terminal bright and early, a little in advance for our crossing, only to see a sign that there were delays due to an earlier cancellation. We were resigning ourselves to a long wait when the woman in the check-in asked us if we had any animals or children with us. "No", We said." Well, in that case we are asking anyone with a van if they mind being transferred to the freight service today as we have some delays". We didn’t mind one bit! We got an earlier crossing, breezed through customs and security (they were not up yet!) and ended up in the little carriage that all the lorry drivers sit in, complete with a hot drink machine and working toilets!


The drive to Tours was trouble free and we had a brief stop near Rouen to eat our turkey sandwiches. We had booked a hotel that sounded quite nice, with a particularly impressive sounding restaurant. However, the restaurant was closed as there are only three other people staying here so we ended up walking to the local shopping mall where we had a steak and chips! On the way we passed MacDonalds, which was packed. Don’t believe it when they tell you that all French people are gourmets!

Crossing The Chanel

This is a post that I started on the first night of our trip while we were staying in the IBIS hotel in place called Alencon. (The 'c' should have a cedilla under it but I can't work out how to do it on blogger!) Supreme tiredness meant I couldn't finish it at the time, so I am trying again tonight now were are home, and will incorporate tales of our return journey as well. I always find traveling interesting even when it is at its worst, as you see such a mixture of people all together in one place, and as we had decided to travel at half term certainly met lots of people! (I must remember next time why we try to avoid half term like the plague!)

So as not to be caught out this time we arrived at the port with what we thought was time to spare only to see traffic jams and queues as we approached Dover! We were 10 minutes late checking in this time through no fault of our own. We had prepared our answer to the question 'what do you have in the van?' carefully and said 'just some insulation and a few tools'. "Insulation" said the lady behind the window, "Well, that's freight isn't it?" I could sense that we had not got our answer quite right and in my impatience I snapped at her. "Freight! No its not freight! We are building a house and it's for our personal use!" My annoyance (and the queues behind us) must have done the trick and she waved us through. We drove to our lane and waited to embark, at which point Ian said, "I really need a pee". Grumpier than ever, I replied, "can't you wait until we are on the ferry? We'll be going on soon"
"No, I really must go!" and with that he got out of the van and sprinted to the terminal buildings. After a few minutes the inevitable happened and I was beckoned forth to drive onto the ferry. I called the man over, "I'm so sorry, my boyfriend has just gone off to the loo"
"Drive the van over there then and wait for him", came the reply. And that was how it happened that the first time I drove the van (a medium wheelbase transit with a fully loaded 16 foot trailer with 2 tons of plasterboard on it) was to manoeuvre it out of our narrow parking lane and turn it round along side a row of park cars! I was not amused but quite impressed that I stayed calm and didn't hit anything!

The boat was packed and the queues for the cafeteria were long. We eventually managed to get in and treated ourselves to a proper breakfast. One thing that we both noticed was that those who were sitting eating bacon, egg, sausage, beans and fried bread were, on the whole of average size, whereas those not eating breakfast but sitting in the lounge having crisps and fizzy drinks were the larger passengers!

Coming back our embarkation was less eventful except Ian went off to the loo again just as the port security came round and asked me to open the van. The man smiled when he saw the leopard print wellies and the dirty washing strewn across the back and decided to investigate no further! As it was supper time we decided to eat in the Langhams Brasserie on the boat; an expensive treat but the respite from fellow passengers justified it in out eyes! The restaurant was busy but we were in a quiet spot with two other couples either side. They were respectable looking but we were a bit shocked to see that they both downed a bottle of wine with dinner. Now as it was a car ferry and they didn't look like foot passengers I was a bit more wary of other drivers as we got off the boat! Interestingly the table of four surfers who looked like they were going to be loud and irritating drank soft drinks!

Joys of travelling

After a mad week in France working on the house we are now back and caught up in work before we get a chance to take a breath. It really does feel like I live in parallel existences at times; not sure whether I am in London, the South Coast or France when I wake up!

As usual, our journeys were eventful. We had an early start on Saturday and realised that we were a little tight for time as we approached Dover with minutes to spare before the final check-in time for our crossing. Still, the traffic Gods were on our side and we arrived at the check in with 3 minutes in hand.

"What do you have in the van?" asked the check in girl.

"Tools, plasterboard, plywood.." volunteered Ian

"Do you have any oil based paint? Any aerosols or pressurised containers?"

Ian thought a moment. "I do have a couple of sealed cans of expanding foam filler"

"Well, you can't take them on the boat..let me have a look at them (Ian gets them out of the van)..oh yes, look, they're marked as hazardous and you can't take them on.. I can't take them from you either as they are hazardous..you'll have to go over to.... " (with that my eyes glazed over and I knew we had missed the ferry!)

In the customer services department the man looked perplexed. "Well. I can't really take them off you either"

"What, you mean my sealed, fire-rated tubes of foam filler are so dangerous you can't take them?" said Ian.

"What about a can of hairspray? Can I take that?" I asked "not that I have any anyway".

"Hmmm, hairspray is a bit of a grey area.."

After some smiles and a few more negotiations the four cans of filler were disappeared and we got on the later ferry. I suspect the involvement of health and safety man for this and suspect that we were a little too honest for our own good!

The rest of the journey down was uneventful although very long and we finally arrived at 2.30a.m and went straight to bed!

Coming back we split the journey in two, planning to stop overnight when we dropped off Ian's friend Mike at his house in the Somme. We planned to leave at a civilised time but unfortunately Mike came down with an upset stomach over night and Ian followed on a few hours later, so the trip back was a rather agonizing dash between toilet stops. Sitting between the two of meant that inevitably I came down with the same thing the following morning and thus the journey up to Eurotunnel was more of the same, this time with me being the one suffering!

We did notice two good things. On the way over on P&O ferries (The Pride of Kent) the staff had definitely undergone a make over in terms of enthusiasm and friendliness (and also looked a lot smarter and cleaner than I remember)! Our crossing with Eurotunnel was also pretty effortless with no one asking about our 3 cubic metres of contents.

The joys of travel

I am just back after a long journey! We left the Dordogne at 6.00 a.m. UK time, drove in the van to Calais, took the tunnel to Dover, arrived back at Ian's at 7.30p.m (with fish and chips for supper) and then I drove back here! There will be more posts over the next few days regarding the visit but in the meantime I must catch up with my sleep!

The new van was great. It is a brand new medium wheelbase Ford Transit with many features such as air conditioning , IPOD player, cruise control, luxury seats etc that make a long journey bearable. Even I managed to drive it in France much to the horror of the HGV drivers (of various nationalities) on the road! I couldn't quite bring myself to adopt their habit of p*ssing by the side of the road when there is a perfectly decent toilet a few metres away so I guess I could never be a proper lorry driver!

We were worried that we would be held up by Eurotunnel as when we phoned to check the new requirement to have no more than 3 cubic metres in the van we were told emphatically that all vans are checked before being allowed on and the officers were expert at judging the size of the load. We arrived promptly for our crossing, hoping that we had not exceeded our dimensions. The port was quiet and we managed to swap to an earlier shuttle. No one even looked up as we drove the van through and the French customs officer did not even look at our passports. We had a similar experience coming back. On the shuttle our van was next to an even bigger one that was stacked from top to bottom with old furniture (I suspect bought from a French Vide Grenier (car boot sale) to be sold off at a profit in a trendy antique store). We asked the driver and several others who were pretty obviously taking commercial goods across if they had ever been stopped and had their van checked and they all stated that they had never been stopped.

I must say the service on Eurotunnel was back to normal; frequent crossings, no queues, very quiet and all together stress free.

Sunday

Ian left at 11.00 to go over to France for a brief visit, to meet with the builder and most importantly, as far as the builder is concerned, to give him a cheque! He set off for the airport and got his flight. Later that afternoon he sent me a message to say that he was in Limoges (and not Bergerac, where he should have been) as it had been too foggy to land the plane. Much irritation followed, including a long and cold coach ride for 2 hours and a missing car hire man, who had gone out with his mates, switched off his phone and forgotten that he needed to meet Ian with the car keys! However, eventually he turned up, Ian got the car and arrived at our neighbours (where he is sleeping on the sofa).

Bergerac apparently doesn't have a radar and so the pilots have to land the old fashioned way; by looking where they are going. His pilot had attempted to land, saw the fog and chickened out the at the last minute, when they were about 100 foot from the ground, reverting into a sharp climb. According to a more regular passenger, the Ryan Air pilots are all trainees at the moment! This theory gets more weight when you consider that the Flybe plane managed to land at Bergerac 10 minutes after the Ryan Air flight aborted!

Meantime I drove over to my mothers for a New Year visit, complete with a dinner to cook for her in her flat. We sat and chatted and she told me more about her cycling trip through France just after the war. I will write more on this later. We listened to Andrea Bocelli and when one of the tracks came on she said
"Oh, I remember my mother singing this every morning as she made the breakfast. She used to sing it really loudly and all the neighbours heard! She had a powerful operatic voice and would make my father accompany her on the piano"
I had forgotten this about her; that she had actually longed to have her voice properly trained and pursue a career in opera. She used to speak with some bitterness that she had never had the opportunities that she saw later generations get.

Customer relations

True to their word Eurotunnel replied to Ian's complaint that he made whilst we were waiting for our delayed departure. Here is an abbreviated version of the reply.

Thank you for contacting us following your recent journey with Eurotunnel.
We regret that you were unable to board your reserved shuttle as planned on 21 December and we would like to provide you with some explanation : (In summary we are still repairing the tunnel after the fire and sometimes things run over a bit or the cars take up more room on the shuttle that we thought they would and so we run out of space).

As a gesture of goodwill, we would like to offer you a £30 supplement for travel at "high peak" time on a next Frequent Traveller ticket. This offer is valid for six months with effect from the date of this message.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding.

It would have much cheaper for them to have given us free coffee and we would have been happy with that!

In need of coffee

Ian logged on in the Eurostar terminal and found a customer relations address so decided to complain and ask for a free cup of tea (we are easily satisfied!). This is his email and the reply.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Sir,

I am currently sitting in your departure lounge because an earlier crossing has been cancelled. While I understand you have operational issues at the moment, this has happened the last two times I have travelled with you.

It would have been helpful to have reflected the delay on your website in the latest travel information section. I was also surprised that your staff in the terminal building did not have vouchers available for a complementary hot drink.

Yours faithfully,

Ian


Dear Customer, Thank you for contacting the Customer Relations team at Eurotunnel. We are always keen to receive the views of our customers, and the feedback we receive is important to help us improve our service to you. All emails are responded to individually by a member of our team and you will receive a full response within twenty-one working days. For your reference, emails sent to this address are managed between 09.00 and 17.30, Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays). Kind regards Eurotunnel Customer Relations .

Not much help to us then in getting a cup of tea!

(PS. Titan's sister is called Alexandra)

(PPS. I don't know what is worse, James Blunt or Christmas Carols)

Eurotunnel and conspiracy theories

Well, here we are back in the waiting area at Eurotunnel waiting as yet again we are delayed although this time apparently not by enough to warrant free coffee and tea. Time then to write some more about conspiracy theories and the Eurotunnel fire on September 11th! Several things don't add up...
1. The fire was bigger than the previous one several years ago and did more damage and yet it was relatively under reported. All we have seen of the repairs is a very edited programme on the BBC.

2. The burnt -out trucks are still property of the French police and under strict guard.

3. Normally after such a fire there would be interviews with truck drivers and passengers that were involved but there has been nothing so far; not least we have heard nothing from the lucky driver of the vehicle that started the fire who apparently escaped unhurt.

4. After I published my last conspiracy theory blog my site was 'visited' by Eurotunnel.

5. A free cup of coffee will stop me from writing more!

(To add insult to injury we have just been joined by a noisy family who's eldest child is called Titan! The sounds of 'Titan come here!" are echoing around the terminal.)

Wandering in Brussels

I had an interesting day in Brussels, if a little bit on the long side as Ian was working until 6.00. After an hour and a half of looking around the much hyped Christmas market (about 20 wooden stalls with novelties) and the shops I decided that there was nothing much that I wanted to buy (why spend £10 on a chocolate Santa..OK I know it is nice chocolate but would anyone I know really be able to tell the difference). I had my first hot drink in a health food restaurant as I was desperate to use the toilet and Brussels seemed to have a lack of public ones. After that I wandered some more around sparkly arcades with and took some pictures of the unusual Christmas tree decorations.

As you can see this one was made of mirrors! Lunch was beckoning and I had a yearning to try one of those nice looking tarts and so settled on a little coffee shop. It was full of older women sitting at tables by themselves having coffee and cake. My French has come on enough to understand the conversation between an older lady and a couple at another table. She struck up the conversation and after a talk about the weather she told them that her husband was now dead and she lives on her own but tries to make the effort to come out every day to talk to people. After lunch I wandered some more and took a photo of this cyclist! Just nearby a meals on wheels van was delivering its' fare .

After lunch I did more wandering...and began to get a bit tired. I longed for somewhere to just sit! As it was Monday all the museums were closed so I wandered up to the Cathedral. It was warm and inviting, with nativity scenes around the chapel representing all the ethnic communities in Brussels. I sat down and found myself drifting off to sleep for a while until the priest interrupted with a short prayer for all those who had lost their homes! I was surprised to see how many people ran out of the Cathedral at this as it is after all what the building is about and it was pretty inoffensive. Perhaps the priest thought I was one of the homeless as I was beginning to feel that way with 3 more hours to wait and nowhere else to go! My next walk took me past the main railway station where I looked at a few shops and then 'rested' again in the waiting area! I really did begin to feel like a down and out as the street dwellers came in to finish their cans of beer in peace and the man who looked like he was suffering from the side effects of his anti-psychotic medication came to beg food!

A final stop in another cake shop passed a bit more time and then I headed towards Le Grand Place where I was meeting Ian later. It was dark and the 'Electrabel nights' show had started with coloured lights projected over the grand buildings in time to electronic music from steel speakers in the square.

At this point Ian said he was on his way and it started to pour with rain so I popped into a nearby restaurant, ordered a beer and sat and waited for him!

So my experience of Brussels was interesting! I understand why they invented all those beers, I got a feel for what it must be like to have nowhere to go all day and I realised that the world is full of lonely people.

Brussels

Am writing this from our hotel in Brussels. Ian has gone off to work so I have the day to play and shop, although the grey drizzle makes it a little less than inviting. We arrived yesterday. Eurostar arrives at Brussels Midi, which is just outside the centre and the home of a very large ethnic market on Sunday morning that was reminiscent of Whitechappel market in London. Orientating ourselves out of the station is always the most difficult job and it took us 20 minutes to work out what direction we needed to go to get to the town centre. We decided to walk as it is usually the best way to orientate yourself to a city. As we approached the city the buildings got a little bit smarter and by this time we were both really hungry so we went into the first available restuaruant that looked half decent! It seemed quite reasonable and the food was OK and when we looked closer we saw that the customers were either tourists or gay men out for breakfast!

After lunch we walked briefly around the town centre and then we decided to walk out to the hotel ('not much further than we have already walked' according to Ian). The route out of town took us through the Arab quarter of town with little shops selling all sorts of exotic vegetables and lots of 'cafes' that were men only places involving mint tea and backgammon (and a space away from the family). We witnessed Brussels driving first hand when we saw a Passat collide into the back of another car and then hit a parked van (he had seemingly failed to notice the wet roads and the slow traffic in front of him). The road was definately quite long and mostly up hill! My feet were aching and we were in need of a drink and with some relief we reached the hotel; basic but clean and with internet access in all the rooms but other than that not much going for it!

We reflected that all big cities, no matter how glossy on the surface, have their run down ends where a lot of the imigrant populations tend to live and in many ways we could have been anywhere, in London, Paris, Zurich etc.

A typical Irish break

I have been staying for 2 nights in a hotel with the Irish rugby team. This has caused a great deal of envy from my colleagues. I have had plenty of offers of a lift to the university campus (even though it is just 5 minute walk away.) My escorts arrive early and sit watching the team go to and from the breakfast table. Sadly they don't mean that much to me as I can't recognise any of them. I did go swimming this morning and found myself in a lane next to someone who looked like he could have been a rugby player! He was definitely faster than me! My room was next to the room where they kept all their kit and for the last two days they have had a row of T-shirts out waiting to be signed by all the team members. I was so tempted just to pick up that pen and write my name on each shirt as I'm sure no one would have noticed the name "lovely" scrawled amongst all the others!

I flew to Limerick with Ryan air. The cabin crew consisted of Agata, Betina and Olgar and the pilot was called Sergi. The hotel receptionist was called Karlof and the waiters were Boris, Stephan and Hans. The cleaners and pool attendants were Kristina, Lena and Gretle. Limerick is a multi-cultural city! My taxi driver from the airport was called Mickey MacHoy. Unfortunately I found Mickey's accent quite hard to follow so we were limited to a conversation about the expansion of Tesco's and Homebase all over Ireland. I glanced carefully at Mickey's picture displayed on his dashboard. Mickey had definitely not aged well since that picture was taken!