7th August 2009

Paul: We got up early and had breakfast. Today we’e going fishing, I don't think Tina has ever been before and I haven't been since the early 90's when I lived by the river in Oxford. I've bought a very basic fishing set from Argos and it has all the necessities. Let's see how we get on.

We got to the lake after buying a day permit from the reception and I set up all the stuff.  This bored Tina at first but as soon as I started to catch some fish, mostly rudd and roach, she got quite excited.  I even gave her the rod and let her have a go.

Tina Fishing

6th August 2009

We left Wales and headed partially back the way we had come making for Whitchurch and Shrewsbury.   We didn't get a chance to say goodbye to the Geordie couple as they were still asleep at 9am when we left. We got some shopping at Tesco and arrived quite early, 11:30, at the campsite.  This is the adult only site and we're really looking forward to it.  Hope the weather holds.
We sat out in the sun for a bit and I edited my book.  I really want to get it finished so I can have it printed in paperback form.  We went for a walk up to the fishing lakes, which looked good so tomorrow we're going fishing for the day.  This is a lovely site, it has a restaurant and is very well maintained, the loos and showers are excellent, there's trees and lawns and lots of ducks everywhere.

Beaconsfield Farm Park Campsite Shrewsbury

5th August 2009

It was a lovely day today.  We spent most of it sitting in the sun outside.  We had coffee with the Geordies across the way and invited them to join us for lunch and we had a nice afternoon drinking and chatting.  We both actually caught the sun.  We spent the evening on our own watching TV.

4th August 2009

Woke up to another drizzly rainy day, so we'll be spending the day in the van again!  I did some more editing on my book and Paul read and played guitar.
In the evening the sun came out and it was quite warm.  We got talking to a couple in a caravan on the opposite pitch, who are from Newcastle and were really friendly.  Okay, so all caravanners are NOT the same.  They had a couple of kids but they were grown up so no problems there.  It's nice to have some good weather for a change.

3rd August 2009

We left the campsite and headed into Wales aiming for The Lady Margaret Caravan Club Site near Chirk.  We tried to stop at a Post Office as Paul needed to get his fishing licence but we couldn't park.  Later on we spotted another Post Office that had a large car park opposite so we were able to stop there and get the licence.  Now he can fish anywhere that's suitable.  The next campsite actually has a fishing lake so he's really looking forward to that.

We arrived at the new campsite after a roundabout journey through some narrow country lanes, which at times was a bit hairy.  The warden said that they had loads of hardstands but when we drove around, caravans had occupied all of them!  We've come to the conclusion that caravanners generally are pretty selfish, some of them were really small and didn't need a hard standing at all.  They also let their dogs wander everywhere even though campsite rules usually say dogs not allowed off their leashes, their children are the same, the number of times we've seen kids running over other peoples pitches and making loads of noise, and now they take all the hard standing pitches.

Lady Margaret Campsite Chirk

So, we parked on grass pitch and I went off to do some washing as we had loads of it.  I managed to tumble dry it all so that's a big job out of the way. I made a roast again for dinner and it turned out a hell of a lot better than last time, thank goodness.

2nd August 2009

Didn't do much today, I went on the computer and Paul read his book and fiddled about with the van. In the evening we sat outside with the i-Pod playing through the docking station and Paul was playing his guitar.  A couple opposite were actually singing along to some of the songs although it wasn't very loud. Suddenly a man walked over to us from a pitch about 50 meters away and asked us to turn the music off.  This was about 7pm and we were waiting for our dinner to cook. No one else had complained, what a miserable sod!  You’d have thought that people would enjoy a little music, it was mostly country stuff like The Eagles, Cat Stevens.  I wandered down to where they were pitched and I couldn't hear a thing except a car next to them that had a radio playing so I don't know what their problem was!

We watched TV and I played AC.

1st August 2009

We really needed some provisions, food mainly, so we drove to Macclesfield via Buxton.  We stopped in a Sainsbury to get our shopping and when we came out and were putting the shopping away inside the van, a man of about Paul's age parked next to us and proceeded to get out and bang his car door on the side of our van.  Paul went out and said to him, ‘That's right, just slam your door into the side of my van, it only cost me £45,000!’  The man started to walk away and said as an aside, ‘well you shouldn't take up so much space then’.   He then turned and put his face right up against Paul's so they were face to face, well as he was a bit taller than Paul, face to nose, and they were both arguing.  Then Paul said, ‘Stop winding me up or I'm gonna break your nose for you.’ Well that made me laugh.  I went outside and got in between them to stop it escalating, and told the bloke to shut up and that we were entitled to do our shopping as much as he was, and if there was no room why didn't he just find another spot rather than damage our vehicle.  He called a parking attendant over and said we were taking up too much room and shouldn't be allowed to park in this car park. To his surprise, the parking attendant said, ‘They're okay there.’  Well the other man wouldn't leave it and kept on at Paul until the attendant told him to pack it in and go and do his shopping.

Ha ha I thought that it was all really funny, although Paul was getting quite worked up about it.  We left the car park before the man came back.  It just shows you that some people are really inconsiderate and no matter how careful you are parking, they think you’re a nuisance and will think nothing of damaging your property because they are jealous I suppose.

We drove on to a Tesco as I needed the loo and we stopped and ate our lunch in their car park being careful not to upset anyone else ha ha. We then went to a fishing tackle shop and Paul bought some bait for fishing although I wouldn't let him buy maggots.  He’d have wanted to put them in the fridge and I'm not having that ugh!

We got back to the van and I did some more editing and Paul went on the computer.