Sunday November 23rd

BRRRR it's cold here today LOL. It's been raining and hailing hard out al day (I thought it was snowing at one point and got a little excited hehe) which has seen us hauled up inside for the day.

Saturday, November 22nd

We left our campsite early, and headed to a place in Wales called Brecon (right next to the Brecon Beacons). We arrive here at about 12:30 and found a campsite easily. It's a nice little site (with flat pitches hehe) and free internet...wohoo, score! LOL.

Anyway, we mucked round here for a little while before heading into town for a look. It's a lovely little town - really cute! It has a really nice cathederal, but I didn't take any photos - hopefully we will go into town again before we leave so that I can take some pics! We went and got a few things from the supermarket and looked in a few shops before coming back to our site and settling in for the night!

Friday, November 21st

Today we caught the ferry back from Dublin - Holyhead. I wasn't feeling great about the whole thing as it left at 3pm, meaning that we'd get into holyhead at about 6 (gets dark at like 4:30) and there were no camping grounds for quite awhile on the other side (they were all closed for winter). Anyway we nade it to the ferry (had to drve through town which isn't cool!) and everything was going according to plan timewise. It was really windy, making the trip a bumpy one and all 3 off us felt pretty dodgy! Poor little cam was pretty sick, but handled it like a trooper and went to sleep after a little while.

We arrived in the port at about 6:30, and so headed to the gate to get down to the campervan...and waited...and waited LOL. A little bit later it came over the speaker that we couldn't dock becuse of the high inds and could everyone go back to their seats. So we did (lots of people stayed standing up) but had lost our sweet couch position in front of the tv LOL. A little bit later it came back over the speaker that we would try to dock again in about an hour so we pretty much just mucked round (drinking free hot chocolate LOL) for that time. We were anchored out of port a little bit, but because it was still windy we were still moving around wuite alot! Anyway we finally got in and into our motorhome at about 8:30. Our mood was fairy chirpy as we headed off down skinny windy roads trying to find a camping ground we had found was open. I think we arrived at about 10:30 - it was a pretty dung camping ground where all the pithces were really crooked, and we ended up getting stuck in some mud! Luckily thre was a nice man across from us who helped to push us out and we stayed there the night. It was pouring down with rain and I had the crappies sleep thinking that we were going to get stuck here at this crappy campsite 'cos it was going to turn to a muddy mess! (actually I'm being unfair, the camsite would have been beautiful had e arrived during the day and could see what we were doing. it was in amongst the trees and stuff and was pretty nice I guess. But as e arrived so late and immediately got stuck, I just wanted to get out of there ASAP LOL)

Wednesday 19th November

Today we caught the bus into Dublin - it took about an hour, even though our camping ground is in one of the suburbs!

We went and got our usual bits and bobs (a shotglass and postcard for me and a sticker for col and cam LOL. Oh and this time cam got a little rugby ball), then wandered around the streets. Dublin is a busy place - not really huge, but not small either! It has a nice river running through it (but as usual, I'm unsure of the name!). We saw HEAPS of beggers, which we havn't come across before. Down one street in particular they were at lat every 50m, quietly asking for some change. Not in your fce or anything, just heaps of them!

We pretty much spent the day wandering around town, taking in the new surroundings! it was a nice relaxing day really, which was great as I'm feeling a smidge on the sick side for alot of the day - then feel pretty crappy at night! I'm glad I don't feel as bad all day as I do in the evenings or I'd be a write off LOL.

We went into a mall and cam was happy to see "father christmas's house" LOL. I told him he could wait till closer to xmas to go and see him though hehe.

The bus ride home took a VERY long time, think it was too close to 5 'cos we left at like 4:10, and I think we got home after 6! Although it didn't help that the bus driver didn't stop at our stop (we had puched the button) and the next stop up seemed miles away!

So anyway, that was our day!

18/11/08

Well today was fairly uneventful really! We woke up and got organised to et the bus into town - we were going to catcvh it at 10:30, we went and asked at the office here if you needed change for the bus of if you can use a note, they told us you neede change...but he didn't have any so that sucked! We ended up walking into the village nearby and just wandering around for awhile before getting some groceries and catching the bus back to the campsite.

Funny moment of the day was me getting stuck in the gate to get back into the camping ground! It's one of those turning around ones and I had 3 bags of groceries and my camera backpack on my back...anyway I went in (it was like a midget little gap in each little bit) but I couldn't get right through! My bag was getting caught, as well as my bottles of lemonade and water getting stuck LOL. Col had gone ahead (not far ahead) and cam was right in front of me - very concerned!! I started freaking out 'cos I didn't realise I could go backwards to back out (I thought I was totally stuck!). ANyway I finally got out to see col cracking up laughing at me LOL. Luckily I thought it was pretty funny too!! SO we were all giggled he rest of the way back to the campervan!

We spent the rest of the day (was about 1pm I guess) at the playground, on the computer, reading books, playing the xbox!!

Monday November 17th

today we got up and organised really late LOL. I think we left our campsite at about lunch time an headed for Dublin. So we havn't done much today! We are booked in here for 4 nights - and it has free internet!! wohoo!! HEHE, I am obviously not one of these people who enjoy getting away from it all...including the net...when I come away!!

It's pretty wet here at the moment and col has gone for a walk to try and find the supermarket, cam and I are just chillin out (me on the net hahaha) waiting for his retern eagerly so that we can eat LOL.

thats about it from today!! I don't think we'll getup to much until tommorrow!

Sunday, November 16th

Well today is Ireland day! We got up and left where we were bright and early and headed for Strainer where we were catching the ferry from. Our ferry left at 9:50 - I'd never been on one before and was surprised by how big and flash ooking it was!! It was all inside, had an area for cam to play, as well as heaps of cafes and stuff! the trip over was ok - although I was really sick! I think more sea sick that morning sickness though 'cos I was feeling ok before hand! It was mainly on the fast bit that I didn't feel well (the boat has to slow down about half an hour before it gets tot he port 'cos when it used to go in fast it would send huge waves up and onto the shore lol).



We got in and drove to a camping ground that we had found online..only to find it was shut! So we heaing for anouther one about 40kms away, down windy skinny roads...only to not be able to find it...so we drove to another one (another 40ks or so) and finally found one that was open - was in the middle of nowhere lol, and the crappiest one we've probably stayed in (didn't have hot water) but the views were nice and cam enjoyed playing on the playground! We decided that we'g head to Dublin tomorrow (where we had found another campsite that was open) and stay there a few nights while we decide what to do. At this stage we might only stay in Ireland for 5 nights or so, just cos it's too hard when nothing is open!!!

Friday, November 14th

hmm...I thought about not updating this 'cos I can't remember off hand the name of the castle we went to today... but I will anway....

Today we left inverness and drove literally right on the Loch Ness to a castle...that started with U... Urquhart Castle! it was a really beautiful drive, and the castle was beautiful - it was in ruins because when the people left it (centuries ago) they blew it up! I guess to stop their enemies fro using it! But was still an amazing sight - and right on the Lochnesss, which is wonderful scenery in itself.

We continued our drive down to Fort Williams (which was a windy and long, but lovely drive!) and across, almost back to Glasgow. The drive got a but hairy though 'cos it was very windy and it felt like we were getting blown around a bit! we passed lots of nice waterfalls and went over lots of lovely bridges!

It was dark when we arrived so lucky we found the campsite easily!! (was only 4:30 but thats when it gets dark) We got all set up and then I found out that the mconald across te road had free wireless internet...so guess what cam had for dinner hehe!!

Anyway, on that note, he has been good but is sick of it (there's no playground!) so I'd better go

xox

12.11.08

Today we headed off (late!! It took us awhile to get organized today!!) to the Castle – it is an impressive ruined castle on the East Coast of Scotland. We arrived there to a beautiful view – something out of a picture! The castle sits high up on a cliff top, surrounded by the ocean. We walked down a pile of stairs where we found a cool tunnel thing, which just went straight through to the other side of the cliff and had another awesome view!! From there are the stairs leading up to the castle…and we found that it was closed!! (on the way out we saw a sign saying it was only open fri – mon LOL). We still spent ages just wandering around and admiring the view from different angles hehe.

Afterwards (I think it was about 2pm or so by now) we drove around the coastal tourist route and back into Aberdeen where we went to a big shopping centre for a look around before coming back here to park up for the night. Soon we’re going to call a taxi and head over to Col’s friend Jacky’s for dinner.

For all those concerned about how cold we are – our campervan is soooo nice and toasty, (although the heater seems to be hot or not – nothing in between hehe) that as long as we’re in it we’re not cold!! Obviously it’s cold outside but as long as we’re rugged up it hasn’t been bothering us too much!!

11.11.08

Today to the untrained eye would have seemed uneventful…however we did go to the supermarket which is exciting LOL. SO our cupboards are once again full!! We then drove to Aberdeen which took us until about 3ish – it’s now 4 and nearly dark….so you see what I mean by uneventful!! But for us a much needed trip to the supermarket (oh and I found a new pair of ten pound pants hehe) made our day worthwhile!! The trip us was nice – about 200kms and the scenery was beautiful. We think there are lots of castles around here so maybe tomorrow I’ll have yet more castle tales to tell LOL. Col has a friend here from school so we plan on catching up with her at some stage too!

Today’s entry will remain short I think because we are planning on staying put now that it is dark and gloomy!! Xox

10.11.08

Well I’ve decided to write about yesterday again, because from what I can remember it was a pretty poor effort!!! I was really tired when writing it is really my only excuse – we had a great day LOL, so I decided I’d better give it the entry it deserves!!

We started the day with a drive from Edinburgh to Fawkirk to see the Fawkirk wheel. We met Eleanor there and she got us tickets to get on a boat ride. This was a unique experience!!! The Fawkirk wheel was made in 2000 (I think, don’ quote me on that…I know it was part of the millennium project so that sounds like 2000 to me!) to connect the Scottish lochs to the English sea (hmmm….well I think that’s right anyway) It’s basically a huge big wheel thing (it’s not round so not really a wheel) that the boats go into and either go up or down to each different water bit…hmmm my exclamation wasn’t very good was it?

After our boat ride we met up with Eleanor again and she told us how to get to her place etc and then we headed off the Stirling Castle for a couple of hours – it was freezing!! But was a beautiful castle and we really enjoyed our afternoon. We love castles in case you can’t tell hehe! It was great to be able to go up and walk around all the different defensive walls (although Col and Cam walked up more than me haha) and the views of Stirling from up there were awesome!
We left at about 4:30 I guess, as it was starting to get dark. We found Jimmy and Eleanor’s place pretty easily and had a nice evening with them. They had 3 of the grandsons over for the evening so Cam had fun playing with them – especially with the six year old Fin (who was about the same size as Cam I think). Fin started off quiet and wary of us, but was soon showing his true colours hehe, which of course Cam loved!! The boys loved our campervan!!

Jimmy and Eleanor both went out for while in the evening which gave us a bit of time to chill out on the net and get a few flights and things we needed to look up sorted which was great. Then Eleanor came home and showed us maps and told us about things to do and see in Scotland!

Monday, November 10th

Today we got up and left edinburgh heading for stirling. We drove to the Forkirk Wheel where we were meeting Elanor (SP). We met up with her and she got us tickets to go on a boat ride, which was a unique experience!!

Afterwards we drove to the stirling castle - it was another great castle!! We enjoyed looking around, although it was extreamly cold!! (LOL, can you tell I'm tired, can't think of what to write!)

We are now at Jimmy and Elanors place - cam has had fun playing with her 3 grandkids and now Elanor has gone to drop them back home and Jimmy has a meeting so we are just chilling out here before getting ready for bed etc!!

xox

Some random pics

Sunday, November 8th

Well today began with doing our washing!! LOL something that is done on a daily basis at home is done very rarely because of the cost of it hehe!! It costs 3 pounds a wash, and another 3 to dry – so we’re pretty stingy on the washing – although I don’t think it’s been a week since the last lot…it may have been…I’ve lost track of days!!! I then went to the computer in the camp shop and typed out as much of this as I could before the laptop died…booo…. Hopefully I will find a computer soon that I can just plug in my external hard drive to and so can just copy and paste all the rest of the entries!!! Actually, looking at it I don’t think I did too badly…a few entries off being up to date though!!! It’s a bummer I haven’t been able to post many pics ‘cos we have some doozies hehe.

Anyway, back to our day – we ended up having lunch in the campervan before heading into Tams and going to the castle – it was neat!! It was totally different to Dover Castle – Dover wasn’t built up at all and you could kind of feel the history – Edinburgh is almost more like a museum - still very cool but in a different way. The different buildings and areas were filled with various displays – I loved the crown jewels! I would have loved to have taken a pic of them but you weren’t allowed…and this is one time is would have been very obvious if I had!
After the castle we said out goodbyes to Tam (who did very well as no doubt was tired and hungover after a late night last night) and headed to Tescos then back to our little home. We leave Edinburgh tomorrow – we have really loved the time we’ve been here and has been great spending some time with Mrs Tams.

Saturday, November 7th

We had planned to go to the castle this morning – after Col left for his run at about 8:30 or so Tam text to say we’d aim to leave her place at about 10:30. Cam and I were waiting for col to get back so we could go and have a shower (didn’t want to lock him out!)…we waited….and waited…and waited!!! By about 9:30 I was getting slightly worried but was just thinking he must be having a long run today….by 10 I started to wonder what I should do if he took too much longer, didn’t know which way he went and started thinking the worst LOL. At about quarter past a very puffed Colin arrived back – he had gotten lost!!!! So we decided to leave the castle till tomorrow ‘cos it’s meant to take a few hours to get through and Tam (or Mrs Tams as Cam calls her hehe) had a pre match party this afternoon.

We caught the bus into Tams place again and wandered around the market with her and a couple of her friends before heading into town to have some lunch (or maybe breakfast for them?? I’m not sure hehe) we wandered around but all the pubs and cafes were packed to the max – in the end we went our separate ways and just took cam to McDonalds for lunch and then came back to our campervan for about an hour before the rugby.

Cam was so cute at the rugby – he was majorly into it for the first half – cheering, clapping and yelling (so much that I thought he might lose his voice!) away… he didn’t care which team he was cheering for, just for anyone!!! He had faded a bit by the time the second half rolled around, but still did really well – he loved the Mexican wave and would watch eagerly as it went around the crowd and enthusiastically throw his arms in the air when the time came!! He would notice them before I had!! The walk back to town was amazing – that sounds weird I know, but it was just soooo many people – there was no point getting the bus back to town as the crowd had stopped traffic – as far as we could see ahead of us and as far as we could see behind us was just a sea of people!! It wasn’t a bummer (like it may sound) as the atmosphere was jovial and we were just swept up in the crowd! I guess it took us about an hour or so to get into town, where we stopped for subway before heading home.

Friday, November 6th

Today we drove to Edinburgh – it was one of our longer drives so far (about 230kms). I had booked our campsite here earlier, just in case things were full because of the rugby), we found I pretty easily and got set up.

We caught the bus into town and wandered around for awhile – it is a beautiful place, with the castle in the backdrop as well as heaps of other awesome buildings dotted around the city. We met up with Tam at about 5:30 and walked down to her place for dinner. Cam was excited to see her flat mate had a play station LOL. So he played his first play station since we left which kept him nice and quiet hehe.

I guess we were at tams till about 8:30 before caching the bus home – not quite as simple as we had hoped as the bus didn’t turn down our street as we expected!! Col asked the driver and found that we had to get off the bus and wait for another one, so we did that…it seemed to take forever in the cold LOL, but we got home in the end!!

Wednesday, November 5th

Today we woke up late – a first for us this trip, we’ve usually been up before 6! Cam woke in a bit of a grump, but soon seemed to snap out of it which was cool. We went for another walk through the Chatsworth Estate – this time to look at the big old house – before heading off again to York. Our camping ground here is nice and close to town, it was nice to be able to easily walk into town for a look!!

Gee, this entry is very boring! We really didn’t do much again I guess…seems funny writing that because it doesn’t feel like we’re not doing much – but I guess just wandering around doesn’t sound like much when it’s actually written! York has some amazing old buildings and churches which we of course thought were awesome and we just generally pottered around! We went for another walk when it was dark as we heard on the radio that there is a big fireworks display somewhere tonight – we couldn’t find it, and people we asked didn’t know either!! We seem to keep asking people things who are new to the area, or tourists themselves LOL.

Tuesday November 4th

Today was another fairly quiet day - we got up and got up and got organised then gheaded for nottingham...or so we thought...Col had put slightly the wrong thing into the GPS which meant we didn't quite end up there LOL. We must have been in the general area because we came across the top of sherwood forrest, which is just at the North of Nottinham (we thing) We went for a look - it was pretty cool, although raining!! We were unsure whether or not Robin hood is a real story or not? After deciding it def must be based on the truth we came across a plaque thing that said that it is unkown whether or not it is, but that stories of him date back as far as 1200 or something like that anyway!

We consulted our trusty caravan club camping ground book and found a site in a little place called Baslow, which was about 50kms from where we were so we headed for that. We found it easy enough (it’s always a relief to see the caravan club sign, especially if it seems like we’re heading to the middle of nowhere!) After settling in we went for a walk through a big estate (which backs onto the camping ground) and into the village. Such a cute little place!!!

Monday, November 3rd

today we got up, got organised and drove to cambridge. It's funny getting ready to leave - it's almost like when you're in an aeroplane and they prepare the cabin for take off!! Everytying had to be secured and away or it goes flying while we drive hehe. So far no major mishaps (although it's only day 3!)

We had a pretty quiet day today - which was nice! We mucked around the campsite this moring doing our washing (phew!) and stuff, then caught the bus into town. I'm still amazed by all the old buildings etc - every single building just has so much history - it's like the oldest of the old buildings at home is what every building is like here!

Time went fast and before we knew it it was gettig dark again so we jumped back on the bu and headed back to our campervan. So far people have been really friendly and helpful which has been great!! They must overhear our confusion and step in to help hehe.

Sunday, November 2nd

Today was aweome! We left our camping ground at about 10 (cam had about 3 bowls of cereal for break...we decided maybe he was stocking up incase he ended up lunchless again!) and we drove the 15 mins or so to the Dover Castle. We thougth dover was a beautiful little place.

I'm not too sure what to say about the cstle except that we were blown away! We enjoyed every minute that we spent exploring the tunnels, the vast grounds and the amazing castle itself.

You can easlily see the history of the castle - which dated from arounf the year 1000 right up to 1982. In 1982 the tunnells were decommissioned, allowing people to look through them. Before this they were one of a number of places which were kept top secret so that the government could go underground and still run the country in a national emergancy!

After that castle (and yes, cam had lunch today) we went to the supermarket (yay!!) before heading to....hmm...I can't remember where we are but it's about 100kims out og dover headin towards cambridge!

Saturday, November 1

Campervan day! We ghad figured out exactly what bus/trains we needed to catch to get to the station that the campervan people were picking us up from - we thought it was going to be horrible with all our bags etc but we got through it pretty painlessly - yay!

We were given a tour of our campervan and unpacked all out gear, then we were ready to roll!! We hadn't had lunch (it was abuot 2:30 I guess) and cam was telling us he was hungry (not surprisingly) so our plan was to stop at the first food place we came across...unfortunitely our GPS had different ideas and took us straight to the motorway...no food places in sight... Because ti was so fast and scarey we didn't veer off track...and so we win the prize for the worlds worst parents today as dfidn't have lunch at all!!

It got dark very early (about 4:30) and was pouring with rain - we approached our destinitaion, very aware that we still had no food, and didn't know where to find any!! We found our camping ground which was a good start (by now cam had fallen asleep) and got all set up. We were cold, hungry and foodles lol. Col went for a look around and came back to report there was a dairy across the road - we could have jumped for joy hehe. So I went over with the £15 cash we had and brought a few essentials - stuff for dinner, breakfast, tea, sugar and milk. Oh and some biscuits ad chips! Cam woke up and was very pleaed to see our haul and ate loads of junk food (yep, right b4 dinner!)

We all crashed out pretty much straight away after that - it was a long day with one thing or another and we were ready for a goods night sleep!

Friday 31st Ocotober

Tody we got up bright and early to got o Madam Tudauds - suprisingly we were ready and on the bus on time and arrived with about 20 mins to spare. We were stoked to see that there wa no line and we got let in and 9 without too much waiting t all!

The museum was enat! It was cool to see all the different wax people - and to be experiencing it for ourselves after seeing many pictures! We took so many photos hahaha. All in all it was alot of fun and we were glad that we went.

After that we went to oxford street to do a spot of shopping hehe. We went to primemark or whatever it's called, it is one massive shop, and packed full of people!!! We got a cople of things for cam and I got some gloves. I could have prob looked around for hours, but not with husband and son in tow!! We then went to huge toy shop - 5 floors worth of huge!

We went back to Kirstens for a little while before ehading out for dinner - we went to mexican type chicken place - Nandos. it was a nice dinner - although cam didn't get to enjoy it with us because he fll asleep at the tble before dinner hd even arrived!