I have sold my caravan due to health issues and the feeling that I would rather feel lonely at home, than on the road.
So rather than this blog being about my travels, in the main, it will be about other peoples travels. I often come across other peoples travel blogs, so I'm going to link to them from here.
One travel blog I've been linking to for a while on Dollyknot, is this one, Long ride home so I'm removing it from there and from now on, it is going to be linked to from here.
Another reason for the change is, I came across a travel blog the other week and could not make up my mind, whether to put it on my dollyknot page, so left it. Now I've changed the use of my Google travel blog, it most assuredly belongs here Europe by van.
I've come across a new one this morning, that is just setting out Taking on the world where a family of 4 is going to see as much of the world as they can.
One from a few years ago https://web.archive.org/web/20130905212911/http://www.warnersworld.net/?page_id=173
The John Muir Trail.
Tuesday 12 August 2014
Wednesday 14 August 2013
I promised over a week ago to report more about my trip to London, there is a reason that it did not happen, because I thought my trip might have turned into a nightmare, I received news today that my trip was not a nightmare. Basically I thought I had collected a £40 parking fine, today, I received a letter from Southwark Parking Services, basically saying they are going to let me off this time, but don't do it again.
So I left home at 9:30 and here is my first photo joining the M1.
I would like a £1 for every time I've been up and down the M1, all those years up and down it as a trucker.
As I was a bit on the early side, I decided to stop at Scratchwood services for a cup of tea, Scratchwood services, I can hear your brain gears churning, where is Scratchwood services? well it used to be a motorway services very close to a country park in Mill Hill called Scratchwood. Seems like it is not there anymore, well it is sort of there, but under an alias, it is now called 'London Gateway Services' now I get the London bit, after all London is just up the road but Gateway, gateways are all over the place, perhaps there is a special gateway nearby but I doubt it. It is more likely, some idiot in a suit, gets an enormous ego buzz going around renaming everything. I can also imagine the enormous confusion this behaviour causes. Like two people arrange to meet, one says "we could meet at Scratchwood services at the beginning of the M1, you can't miss it". So the poor bugger gets on the M1 and hits Toddington, whilst still looking for Scratchwood services. Well I don't care what some suit says, for me it will always be Scratchwood services, there ought to be a law against it!
Anyway a couple of pictures of SCRATCHWOOD services.
Driving through the teeming roads of London bought back tons of memories.
In the distance can be seen St Paul's
Arrived punctually at 13:30 then my problems started, I could not find Quintiles Drug Research Unit, 6 Newcomen Street, I found Newcomen Street fine, but there appeared to be no house numbers anywhere. Why give house numbers to an address if they are not on the buildings?
They did a fantastic job of hiding the research center.
The arrow points to the sheer length of Quintiles Drug Research, from a layman's point of view this looks like a load of separate buildings no, believe it or not, it is only one building!
The miniscule sign for such a vast building, the arrow on the picture above this picture points to it. Note the lack of a number
After spending well over half an hour trudging up and down Newcomen street looking unsuccessfully for some house numbers. I asked an attendant in St Guys hospital, next door, did he know where number 6 was, "no mate" he said. By this time I was more than a bit fed up, one of the things about COPD is, you don't just get out of breath like a normal person, you start to fight for breath which is much worse. So then I asked him did he know where Quintiles was, "yes" he said pointing at the building on the far right of of the picture, so back up Newcomen I went, when I looked at the building he pointed at, it looked abandoned, and the front door looked like it had not been opened in a hundred years. So I carried on up the street heart in my boots. Finally I get to the other end of the street and saw the sign on the wall. I was there at last.
When they built the drug research center, to get planning permission, they were probably told they must keep front of the building looking exactly the same, I ask you, it does not look much an architectural masterpiece to me.
Finally they did the tests, and I was informed by the doctor, that there was not actually a study! But I was in the database in case they actually do a study, so all this rigmarole for nothing.
Tests done, I left Quintiles for the drive home, when I reached my car I discovered to my annoyance I had been given a parking ticket.
I was parked in front of the red car, the dopey thing is, my blue badge allows me to park on a single yellow line or a double yellow line for three hours. so if I had parked on the other side of the road where the single yellow line was, I would have been ok. Finally arrived home around 7 at night totally exhausted and fed up because of the parking ticket.
When the letter from Southwark arrived this morning my heart sank thinking my fine had arrived, my expedition to London was a failure, my pleasure at discovering they had accepted my appeal against the parking fine and cancelled it, is the reason you are reading this.
So I left home at 9:30 and here is my first photo joining the M1.
I would like a £1 for every time I've been up and down the M1, all those years up and down it as a trucker.
As I was a bit on the early side, I decided to stop at Scratchwood services for a cup of tea, Scratchwood services, I can hear your brain gears churning, where is Scratchwood services? well it used to be a motorway services very close to a country park in Mill Hill called Scratchwood. Seems like it is not there anymore, well it is sort of there, but under an alias, it is now called 'London Gateway Services' now I get the London bit, after all London is just up the road but Gateway, gateways are all over the place, perhaps there is a special gateway nearby but I doubt it. It is more likely, some idiot in a suit, gets an enormous ego buzz going around renaming everything. I can also imagine the enormous confusion this behaviour causes. Like two people arrange to meet, one says "we could meet at Scratchwood services at the beginning of the M1, you can't miss it". So the poor bugger gets on the M1 and hits Toddington, whilst still looking for Scratchwood services. Well I don't care what some suit says, for me it will always be Scratchwood services, there ought to be a law against it!
Anyway a couple of pictures of SCRATCHWOOD services.
Driving through the teeming roads of London bought back tons of memories.
In the distance can be seen St Paul's
Arrived punctually at 13:30 then my problems started, I could not find Quintiles Drug Research Unit, 6 Newcomen Street, I found Newcomen Street fine, but there appeared to be no house numbers anywhere. Why give house numbers to an address if they are not on the buildings?
They did a fantastic job of hiding the research center.
The arrow points to the sheer length of Quintiles Drug Research, from a layman's point of view this looks like a load of separate buildings no, believe it or not, it is only one building!
The miniscule sign for such a vast building, the arrow on the picture above this picture points to it. Note the lack of a number
After spending well over half an hour trudging up and down Newcomen street looking unsuccessfully for some house numbers. I asked an attendant in St Guys hospital, next door, did he know where number 6 was, "no mate" he said. By this time I was more than a bit fed up, one of the things about COPD is, you don't just get out of breath like a normal person, you start to fight for breath which is much worse. So then I asked him did he know where Quintiles was, "yes" he said pointing at the building on the far right of of the picture, so back up Newcomen I went, when I looked at the building he pointed at, it looked abandoned, and the front door looked like it had not been opened in a hundred years. So I carried on up the street heart in my boots. Finally I get to the other end of the street and saw the sign on the wall. I was there at last.
When they built the drug research center, to get planning permission, they were probably told they must keep front of the building looking exactly the same, I ask you, it does not look much an architectural masterpiece to me.
Finally they did the tests, and I was informed by the doctor, that there was not actually a study! But I was in the database in case they actually do a study, so all this rigmarole for nothing.
Tests done, I left Quintiles for the drive home, when I reached my car I discovered to my annoyance I had been given a parking ticket.
I was parked in front of the red car, the dopey thing is, my blue badge allows me to park on a single yellow line or a double yellow line for three hours. so if I had parked on the other side of the road where the single yellow line was, I would have been ok. Finally arrived home around 7 at night totally exhausted and fed up because of the parking ticket.
When the letter from Southwark arrived this morning my heart sank thinking my fine had arrived, my expedition to London was a failure, my pleasure at discovering they had accepted my appeal against the parking fine and cancelled it, is the reason you are reading this.
Monday 5 August 2013
Sunday 4 August 2013
Well it has been ages and ages since I have posted here, well over a year in fact. Basically being lonely miles from home is not my idea of fun. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed my trips to Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Sweden in terms of a sense of achievement and getting some nice photographs, but having no one to share the experience with, made it a sort of non event, going to Poland with Lisa and Angie, taught me that, also having someone to help in coupling and uncoupling the caravan and getting the scooter in and out of the car, made it much less of an ordeal.
As I'm registered disabled, this qualifies me to be a member of the government motability scheme, which means either extra money for help getting around, or a scheme where that money is paid to lease a car. Part of the deal is you get a new car every three years. I'm now on to my third Citroen C4. The second Citroen, I paid a lot of money to have a tow bar fitted, so I could tow my caravan.
As the last time I had a trip out with my caravan, was the previous entry in this blog, over a year ago, when I collected my new Citroen back at the beginning of May, I did not bother to have a new tow bar fitted, because of the expense, and the lonely caravanning ordeal.
Last week I saw something on a science website I visit most days, asking for volunteers for a COPD study in London, I applied and they accepted my application, to see if I qualify for the study.
So tomorrow morning I'm setting off on my travels again, to London this time, only for a day though.
Here is a picture of my new Citroen, with the scooter inside.
The place in London I'm visiting, is very close to London bridge, so I expect to get some shots of Thames.
As I'm registered disabled, this qualifies me to be a member of the government motability scheme, which means either extra money for help getting around, or a scheme where that money is paid to lease a car. Part of the deal is you get a new car every three years. I'm now on to my third Citroen C4. The second Citroen, I paid a lot of money to have a tow bar fitted, so I could tow my caravan.
As the last time I had a trip out with my caravan, was the previous entry in this blog, over a year ago, when I collected my new Citroen back at the beginning of May, I did not bother to have a new tow bar fitted, because of the expense, and the lonely caravanning ordeal.
Last week I saw something on a science website I visit most days, asking for volunteers for a COPD study in London, I applied and they accepted my application, to see if I qualify for the study.
So tomorrow morning I'm setting off on my travels again, to London this time, only for a day though.
Here is a picture of my new Citroen, with the scooter inside.
Thursday 5 April 2012
Travel post coming up
Well its been a while and I'm planning to do some adventures, for the rest of the year. I am heading for Newark on the 7th to do a 'shake down' my caravan has sat all Winter, and I'm planning to go to Amsterdam in a short while, same as last year. The idea being to ensure the whole 'kit and caboodle' still works. One thing I have never mentioned on this blog before is, I am legally disabled.
Both my body and my brain no longer function 100%, I damaged my lungs because I was addicted to nicotine and paid a lot of money to give myself COPD, and around 11 years ago, I had a stroke that disabled my right side somewhat, I lost fine control functions on my right hand side, I can make big movements with my right side functions, no problem, I have problems doing the millimeter movements.
So anyway on Saturday I'm making an expedition to Newark, trying to plan it all out.
I start tomorrow, by loading my scooter into my car, I have photoed this kind of thing before but I will do it again, the point being is, when the scooter is in the car the first page of the story gets written. Newark is a historical city Newark battle.
Well the scooter is in the car on this Good Friday. All ready for the off tomorrow.
Both my body and my brain no longer function 100%, I damaged my lungs because I was addicted to nicotine and paid a lot of money to give myself COPD, and around 11 years ago, I had a stroke that disabled my right side somewhat, I lost fine control functions on my right hand side, I can make big movements with my right side functions, no problem, I have problems doing the millimeter movements.
So anyway on Saturday I'm making an expedition to Newark, trying to plan it all out.
I start tomorrow, by loading my scooter into my car, I have photoed this kind of thing before but I will do it again, the point being is, when the scooter is in the car the first page of the story gets written. Newark is a historical city Newark battle.
Well the scooter is in the car on this Good Friday. All ready for the off tomorrow.
Tuesday 9 August 2011
Caravan to Poland Epilogue
Home again, happy but feeling really knackered.'
One last job, stow the caravan at Barrow
Only one thing I forgot was, to remove the extended mirrors.
One last job, stow the caravan at Barrow
Only one thing I forgot was, to remove the extended mirrors.
Monday 8 August 2011
Caravan to England Monday
Stowed scooter and hitched caravan, in torrential rain, the sight of Lisa holding an umbrella, sheltering herself and Angie, whilst Angie wound the caravan legs up, with the pair of them giggling stays with me, wished I had of had the presence of mind to get a photo.
Set off for Hoek van Holland to sail on the Stena line ferry to Harwich. I am now typing this live whilst sailing on the north sea. The ship has satellite technology which enables blogging afloat!
The beautiful ship that bought us back to England
Set off for Hoek van Holland to sail on the Stena line ferry to Harwich. I am now typing this live whilst sailing on the north sea. The ship has satellite technology which enables blogging afloat!
The beautiful ship that bought us back to England
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