So Much to do, so Little Time!

It’s been a super busy time here.

More fixing of the broken tooth! Catching up with friends and family, sneaking in a few days of work in the South of France.

Meanwhile, a friend of our sister in law, Andrew Rees, has just become the 1st deaf man to swim the channel. Raising money that will go towards helping deaf athletes to compete in the Deaflympics in 2017. Steve had heard of this event but Debs had to admit she was embarrassed to say had never heard of this until now. This guy really is inspirational and puts most of us to shame. Words cannot describe just how amazing this guy must be!

Deb spent the bank holiday doing her bit for the Bursledon regatta, making a costume out of a sheet and some feathers, volunteering and selling raffle tickets for the gallon of wine and whisky draw to ensure that the 150 year old regatta can continue. This is part of her family history, having a dad who was an apprentice in the boat yard over 60 years ago make her a true local to the area. She has spent many an hour covered in mud as a kid looking for hidden treasure from a bygone age of old sailing ships.

This week saw Steve and Debs rushing around, Regatta one day, Isle of Wight the next day for Steve’s family gathering, then driving up for a stay over night at Gatwick to catch an early flight out to Marseille the next day. (We stayed in the bloc hotel, gets a thumbs up from us 👍)

Fly back 4 days later for Steve’s Mum and Dads 50th wedding anniversary and the Milley famous garden marble run, with a drop of lovely English rain,Vodka and Gin jelly shots, garage bars and stuffing ourselves with cheese and pineapple sticks and sausage rolls made by our nieces and nephew.

Sunday was lunch with our friends Frankie and Jon the next day and of course not forgeting Clover the dog too..🐕

Then only 2hrs to pack for France and back on the road to Dover and on to the M25 car park!
Off to bed in a great little B&B minutes from the port with the loveliest of hosts and the best breakfast. (Ever need a quintessentially English B&B to stay whilst in Dover check these guys out. 299 London Rd Dover. Great price and so close to coming or going from the port! 🛏🛋🛀)

So here we are sitting on the ferry, prescription sunglasses for Deb, no… Debs Ralph Lauren glasses are still sat in the door pocket of the hire car in Marseille!!! And yes, there are words for this but not ones we shall type here!

So off to call the car hire firm, hope someone realises that the designer glasses they pocketed from the valet of the hire car are prescription and that they can’t see through them, returns them, is Deb that lucky??? We shall see, no pun intended!
So off we go to get an email of Debs prescription from opticians and try to get a pair sent to the vineyard in France? Here’s hoping!

1st off the ferry and on route to our next stop in Champagne. 🍾🍾🍾🍾

Live Happy

Debs and Steve

Foraging in the Forest of Dean.

And the time finally arrives for Steve to get his 2015 birthday present. Yes it’s a bit late!

Off we go for another week of exploring bits of the UK.

Starting the week with an afternoon cream tea in Amberley Castle in Sussex as promised to Steve along time ago, better late than never! We arrived in the beautiful little typical old English village surprisingly called Amberley.

We find the castle signs and drive into a long sweeping drive that takes you up to the entrance while Deb ponders on how and who would have arrived back in the time it was built and occupied.

Tea was lovely but we have had better although having the setting on a fine summers day sat in the grounds of a castle more than makes up for it.

Next stop is the Forest of Dean just by the border of Wales. We have never been to this part of the UK although we have been close as we got married in a castle in Gloucestershire called Thornbury Castle in 2004, it’s one of the only English Tudor castle hotels you can stay in and yes we have had cream tea there before too… 🍰🍩🏰🍰 but nothing beats cream tea at the Montagu Arms in The New Forest.

We find ourselves going off the beaten track to stay in a Traditional Gypsy Caravan with an off grid experience, no WiFi, phone signal, electricity and cold water. A queenie stove to heat our water and kettle and a fire pit to cook on. Our luxury was a flushing toilet in a separate block.

Our host Mary greeted us with a basket of provisions including freshly baked brownies, local Severn Cider and Blakeney Red Perry and provided all we needed to be very well fed for breakfast. Just look at our full english breakfast cooked by the fire with all the local produce provided by our host. We had a great time being little gypsies and made ourselves a fluffy friend “Ol’Butt” the pet collie dog 🐕, whos name was local dilect for “old friend” and very persistent stick catcher.

Next was off to the National Diving and Activities Center just on the edge of the forest. A huge quarry that has been filled with all sorts of things from helicopters to double decker buse, a gnome garden/castle and more! Plenty to keep many a diver happy.

Although Deb had dived before its not really her thing, bobbing around like a well fed seal! We stayed in a wooden hut overlooking the quarry and the biggest zip wire in the UK.. You just never know what you will see at a place like this, we saw a bride in her full wedding dress and then a couple of bridesmaids zip over??? They just happening to be filming an episode of don’t tell the bride!!

The cafe also had a great view and was really reasonably priced, from here you could watch the guys on the water jet packs, not sure how we would fair if we had a go, especially when neither of us like messing around in the water but great to watch.

Then there was the swing over the quarry, people seemed to like being shot over the edge of the cliff. This place is a great base for exploring the area or having an activities based holiday with a group, everything was clean, view was great and the prices good.

Plans are now coming along for December, flight out and back booked. Phillipines for Christmas, excited!!!

Off to finish planning our journey to the South of France to help harvest grapes in a vineyard 😊🍷😊

Live Happy
Debs and Steve

Hobbit Festival Family Fun, Rain didn’t stop play!!

Land, wash, pack and off again.

Time to have the family reunion! Stuff the car full of duvets and linen, a host of food and drinks. Small snacks for the journey and off we go.

It’s been a long time since we’ve all been together and we have all lived different lives around various places. Looking forward to a good get together and time to chat and huddle around a good old campfire with everyone hoping Deb doesn’t try and break out into a song. She must be the only one who’s claim to fame is that she once got beaten by a dog and a drunk man at a singalong game!

Well
● Mum has got plumper. 🤔
● Steve has less hair. 👀
● Sam is still far browner than the rest of us and still has no money. 💳
● Matt still has the biggest bushy beard. 🙄
● Nikki is adjusting to a new life as she says goodbye to teaching in the UK to fly to Myanmar in Asia to teach for the next 2 years. 🛫
● Ollie is missing as new job on the go! 😓

Where did we go?

Glamping in Davidstow, near the coast of North Cornwall and one of the places where the Great British cheddar cheese is made.

On route we came across the sign, Guinness World record attempt for the most sheep sheared in 9 hrs. So plans changed and off we go in search of the farm. In true English fashion the rain starts and we find ourselves at the farm. Vote for the most inappropriate dressed people in a farm in the rain goes to the Millies, flip flops and summer dress!!!

The farmers were really friendly and the place was packed, luckily we were rescued by a man with a ladder so we could see, only to later realise that it was being live streamed in the other barn.. So we take our seats in the Barn Bar, with cornish pride real ale and cider on the go and watch the world record get broken. Matt Smith, 32, sheared 731 ewes in nine hours beating the previous record of 721.

The event even made headlines around the world and was live streamed to audiences in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Iceland and Ireland.

Finally we arrive at Belle Tents Camping and settle in. We have everything we need to have our own private English Hobbit Festival.
● RAIN
● Tents
● Camp Fire
● Undercover BBQ
● Bar tent
● Music
● Hot showers and flushing toilets

And a box of fancy dress items!

We have a great time in the rain, intermittent sun and more rain. Building fires and toasting marshmallows and having a boogie to Sam’s music selection, didn’t know we liked Bossa Nova? Chat to our hosts Laura and Dave and their current workaway volunteers from Spain and hear tales of their travels and lives.

Steve, Matt and Deb have a go at log chopping and fire making (no elf and safety here) while Sam and Nikki have a catch up on Sams travels to Bali, Australia, New Zealand and Nikki chats about her new job in Myanmar.

During the days we drive to little villages on the coast stopping off to wander around eating chips and hide in cafes out of the rain and fighting off seagulls. Plus side of this was Nikki being a coeliac managed to fill up on gluten free Cornwall scones and cornish pasties.

During the nights we have a Christmas day, Easter and birthdays to make up for all those we have missed as we are never together at the right time of the year. If you ever need a gluten free birthday cake in the UK, we can thoroughly recommend the one in Sainsburys, lovely and bouncy and not all crumbly. Yes, Deb really has been saving, chocolate bunnies and penguins and bought christmas socks, crackers, tinsel and mulled wine!

A great time was had by us all, everyone is wanting to make this an annual event so time to put the thinking cap on to make it bigger and better next time!

Back home and Steve’s finally decided it’s time to shave off the festival beard as its afternoon cream tea at a castle tomorrow, let’s hope the dentist can repair Debs broken tooth in the morning too! Then off to the Forest of Dean for more glamping…. Really must start some travel planning for December.

Live Happy
The Millies