Entertained at Last!!!!!

Now you must forgive me for noticing this, but nearly every band we have gone to watch here at the Night Owl in Home farm, have consisted of bands that were missing their lead members as they’re no longer with us. 

Like Freddy and the dreamers, Garry Puckett and Union gap and last night it was Adge Cuttler and the Wurzels. 

So they all now go under their new names of The Dreamers, Union Gap and The Wurzels. So I won’t be seeing the Rolling Stones appear here to soon as they’re all still alive (mind you that’s debatable).

Last night we were entertained by The Wurzels and what a treat, no backing tracks it was all live and didn’t it show. 

The band was as tight as a drum (saying that the drummer was the oldest I’ve ever seen still playing at 74 years of age) but their musicianship showed through.

Most of the band have been replaced at some time or another over the years as they first appeared back in the sixties and then made a number one hit in the seventies with 'I've got a Brand new Combined Harvester' and Adge Cuttler died in a road accident in 1974.

We both came away with big smiles on our faces after watching these old F*rts doing their stuff, old they may be but they could certainly show the young guns how to play and entertain. 

Their rendition of the Kaiser Chief’s ‘Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby,’ was brilliant and we both ended up humming the tune all night.

If you’ve never seen or heard of them here’s the link to the You Tube video

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PLE3IjTRb8  

of them playing this song, I guarantee you will be Ohh Arring along with them.

For our American friends they go under the label of (Scrumpy and Western, which was there first single back in 1966) Scrumpy is the Somerset name for Cider.

So there’s nothing much to report at the moment as we will be winding down to depart back to Briarfields on Sunday.

More Anon

Sod’s Law Strikes Again

Sod's law is a name for the axiom "Anything that can go wrong, will". 

In our case it has struck again.

I gather that in a previous life I must have been one evil sun of a gun for all the ill fortune dogging me at the moment. Now yes I do like to paint in watercolours, I was a corporal in the army, I found speaking German quite natural. I’ve not had the urge to invade other countries, well not yet anyway but according to Kay ‘once I get on my soap box the possibility is just around the corner’, and if you see me strutting down the road doing some kind of funny walk like Basil Faulty below, run for the hills.

On Monday we travelled to Newport to consult a chap whom we've been informed from the RV Forums, is the Guru of Gas conversions especially for RV’s. 

You've no doubt been reading our problems with the gas change over switch and true to form on the way to Newport it did it again (switched to petrol and wouldn't switch back).

We've seen several so called knowledgeable people about this problem but not one has found the cause or corrected it.

Now for anyone attempting to visit this chap, Steve of Anglo American Autos of Newport, especially if you’re driving an American RV, phone ahead first as getting to his premises can be quite a challenge.

Steve met us off junction 25 of the M4 motorway and lead us the safest way into Newport, though it’s not the easiest of tasks to complete, especially if you’re a novice like me as you will literally hit the centre of Newport (Busy traffic and narrow bus lanes) and then you’ll have to navigate under a 12’6” bridge, (the RV is 11'6" not including the CB Antenna) followed by driving down narrow side streets with cars parked either side while dodging low hanging trees.

We arrived at his garage with me feeling pretty chuffed with myself that I’d managed to do it without righting off some poor blokes car or denting the RV. 

We then dropped the Jacks, hooked up the electric (as we would be staying the night) and topped up the water for tea.

The following morning came the news that there had been a huge lorry fire in the Brynglas tunnels on the M4 which soon had the M4 closed and Newport gridlocked with traffic. Kay and I spent the best part of the morning walking around Newport Town centre (hey I even managed to use my old farts bus pass, a first yippee, something for nothing at last).

Newport Castle

Town Centre

Old Market Hall

Statue

Unfortunately Steve had some bad news for us on our return, now this is something that all those with American motor-homes with LPG conversions should check up on.

It transpires that the firm who fitted the Zavoli conversion (Kelcrow) had used 6mm piping for the gas feed and that the setup was more for a car with a one or a two litre engine, not a huge 8.1 litre monster like ours. This meant that the engine was running very lean or overheating and that eventually the cylinder heads in the engine would be burnt out within five years, requiring a huge and costly repair. The engine warning light had been connected to another wiring section so that it would automatically turn off when the engine started no doubt to hide the fact that it was running too lean.

There was a fault in the wiring loom, the gas valves on the tanks were of a substandard design (that’s why they vented so much, as we'd been over filling the tanks, they should have automatically shut off a 85%). The two rear tanks had been sited the wrong way round and hung too low on the chassis.

Now I’m not an automotive expert but I would have thought that the original owner (a haulier) would have picked up on this, or can these so called mechanical experts be so easily foxed by a botched job?

Anyway the outcome was that if we intended to stay on gas it would mean a costly refit using a more modern and better system while rectifying all the problems, but the cost would be in the 2 grand region (ouch and double ouch).

We had to wait until nearly five o’clock in the evening before Newport was clear enough of traffic for us to travel back to Burnham.

Steve had replaced a faulty temperature sensor and our trip was fine going back as the RV stayed on gas, though it did feel a bit rough and lacking in power on the hills. We’ve booked the RV in with him to get the new conversion done that will take him four days to complete in August. This will give us the opportunity to pop home and visit the family for a spell.

Well we’re both back in the RV safe and sound enjoying the fantastic weather but feeling a mite dented in the pocket.  So as I sit here and write my latest page for the blog. I’m thinking it may need a subtle title change, how about..... (Mine Kampfing?)

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A Quiet Week

It was quiet in the sense that Kay disappeared to London for three days. She had gone sightseeing with her mother, our eldest daughter Samantha and grandson Rhys (the Munchkin). London is the one place I do my best to steer clear of as I find it noisy, dirty, full of ignorant Brits and pushy foreigner’s and it’s so damned expensive.

So I spent three glorious days with my feet up enjoying the peace and quiet in the RV while reading my book. I did miss Kay in the evening as my feet where really cold at night, she’s a great hot water bottle, plus I had to do all my own cooking, thank god for the chicken Ding (the Microwave).

On the Wednesday while Kay was away, I had booked the Toad (the Toyota IQ) in at the Toyota Dealership in Western Super Mare for a full service. Which paid off, as there was a recall I didn’t know about on the Toyota IQ’s to fix the master break cylinder. The dealership supplied me with a courtesy car for the day, so I popped down to Bridgwater to visit my old army mate Dinger and spent the morning with him. I returned to Burnham at midday to have lunch at Forte’s on the sea front with all the other oldies (well it saved me cooking) and then drove back to the RV before heading back over to Western at three o’clock as the Toad was now ready to be collected.

The only thing that annoyed me was that I had requested they change the Air & Pollen Filters, I‘m sure mechanics these days work like programmed automatons. Unless it’s marked down to be done on the scheduled mileage service sheet, it’s ignored even though me the owner had requested it and you guessed it, neither had been changed, luckily these are two things I can do myself.

Kay arrived back on Thursday afternoon at Highbridge station and I went to pick her up, she climbed from the train looking as though she really needed a rest, the Munchkin really must have worn her out poor thing, aren’t I glad I stayed with the RV.

I was informed that the Munchkin was not impressed with London after all, he found it noisy and the people ignorant, ‘they push you and barge into you and never say sorry he complained’ Ahh the boy’s learning not bad for an eight year old.

Today we took a trip down to Taunton for a day out, the M5 was jam-packed full of holiday traffic and twice we encountered the dreaded butterfly effect. You’re driving along fine one minute and then suddenly the traffic backs up to a standstill and then without any reason you’re moving again, no signs of any accident’s or breakdown’s.

We used the Park & Ride facility at Taunton’s Gateway and spent most of the morning walking around the town, we decided to have lunch at the Mambo Shack and had a meal of Tapas for two (well were trying to get into the Spanish mood).

The River Ton

Taunton

Buskers

Buskers

Taunton’s a nice town the biggest in Somerset with over 1000 years of religious and military history. There were plenty of small shops and shopping mall’s but it seemed to lack any historically old buildings apart from the remnants of its castle, it appears most of the old Tudor and medieval buildings were destroyed in past wars. On the way back Kay wanted to visit Nether Stowey where once upon a time one of her great grandparents had lived and we avoided the motorway as by now there were serious holdups due to accidents.

15 Castle Street Nether Stowey

Castle Street

At Bridgwater we stopped to have one of the tyres replaced as it was the only thing that came up on the service schedule as needing to be done. So once the filters are replaced the Toad is all OK for our trip to Spain.

More Anon

Another old face from the past

It’s been a great day, apart from the lousy weather this morning. We awoke to the sound of rain beating down on the RV’s roof which at times can be quite pleasant, but as we were expecting visitors today it was not a welcome sound.

Last night we ventured out again to the Night Owl to see the act which was a group by the name of Soundsations. At first impression we thought we were in for a musical treat, as the stage was full of instruments, a sax, keyboards, guitars, electric and acoustic drums and a nice PA system.

The band appeared dressed in nice pop military styled jackets with white trousers. When they struck up the sound was quite full, but hang on there were only four musicians, a saxophonist, a Drummer, a guitarist and a Vocalist. It soon became apparent that the rest of the sound was emanating from an elaborate sequence of backing tracks. When I hear a bass line, I’m looking for the bassist and when I hear Keyboards, I expect to see him playing the keyboards. But as the keyboard player was playing the Saxophone it was obvious he couldn’t be doing two instruments at the same time.

Karaoke Musicians, I suppose it could be a new term to describe how bands today struggle to keep their costs down by dropping working musicians only to replace them with pre-recorded tracks. It’s a sad state of affairs that the music scene today have to do this, as young wanabe’s (which are mostly young girl singers) are prepared to appear for the minimum wage to get their ego’s massaged as potential X factor talent and that club entertainment secretaries will exploit this situation to get working musicians to drop their prices.

Needless to say we left early again.

This morning we drove down to Bridgwater to pick up an old army mate (Dinger Bell) and on the way back we visited a local garden centre for lunch. Once more it was nice to reminisce of old times but we had to be back at the RV as another old army mate was driving up that morning from Cornwall. 

Terry Maguire was a chap who I used to play with in a rock group called Abacus (a band consisting of six musicians, there were no backing tracks in those days, it was all live).

He arrived with his wife Carol just as the sun came out from behind the clouds and the rain disappeared. We spent even more time sitting in the RV reminiscing about our old army days, the one thing that did stand out was how old we’ve all become (where have those years gone).  

We, well some of us (mainly me and Terry) have expanded our waist lines quite a bit from those heady days of playing the messes in Germany and Dingers dry humour is still as enjoyable as it used to be but sadly his hair has turned white poor chap.

Stu, Terry & Dinger
Old boys meet again after thirty three years

The time flew by and Terry had to depart to visit relatives and I drove Dinger back to his home, I hope to get the chance to meet them again before we head over to Spain as I don’t think any of us will be around if we have to wait another thirty three years to meet up.

More Anon

Laugh I nearly cried!

Well it’s been an interesting few days, first thing yesterday morning we nipped into Burnham to make sure that we posted the Munchkin’s (Rhys) birthday card off in time for his birthday and afterwards decided to drive to Cheltenham, as we needed to get some bits and pieces for the RV from RV Spares.

I wonder what Nan & Bamp's
have got for my birthday

I bet it's not what I wanted

The little Toad (The Toyota IQ) is an amazing little machine, it drives on fumes and it shifts as well. It’s nothing to look at, I’ve often japed that if I supper glued a shoe on the roof of two of them I’d have a pair of motorised roller skates.

Toyota IQ

As we drove up the M5 it was interesting to see other driver’s attitude to these little machines. As I passed one sporty looking car the driver took a double take as though to say ‘how dare he overtake me in that’ and then put his foot down. I just smiled back we've had this done to us quite a few times in the past few months. There he was burning gallons of fuel in his sporty machine and the little IQ at sixty miles hour is still doing sixty miles to the gallon, after all they only have a three cylinder engine.

We arrived at RV Spares store by midday and having collected most of the items we needed we decided it was time to get some lunch. So we called into a local 500 year old tavern called the House in the Tree. The meal was reasonably good fare and we found that the Tavern hid a fantastic story of witches and folk lore about the Legend of Maud’s Elm.

Now this story is well worth reading so I’ve put this link for you to read all about it, believe me it’s quite fascinating. http://www.twistedtree.org.uk/legend_of_maude.htm

House in the Tree

When we got back to Home farm we decided to see what entertainment was on that night in the Night Owl.

Now as I’ve mentioned before both Kay and I have been professional musicians in our past and I have even been an entertainer. The downside of this past is that we tend to be very critical when we’re being entertained. The entertainer last night brought tears to our eyes but sadly not of mirth.

If you could imagine an extremely overweight Ted Bovis (from the TV series Hi De Hi) who was well past his sell by date, using tatty flea bitten props that were on the verge of destruction you might get a visual image. His act was pretty poor, his jokes old and boring, his stage presence at time bordered on disturbing; on the upside the guy had a great voice. I felt that if he’d based his act more on his singing than his comedy he could have put over a fairly reasonable show. Needless to say we didn’t stay for the second act.

Today it’s been fixing this fixing that, one of the lower drawer fittings had snapped so that was fixed. One of the overhead locker drawers needed fixing so I got into Mr fix it mode. By the evening our little section has filled up with motorhomes. As I look out of the window there are now four American RV’s (including ours) and five Euro vans. The sun of this morning has disappeared and the rain has returned. I wonder what’s on at the club tonight?

More Anon

Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let!

Hmm sounds like the opening of a country and western song! 

Earlier I had written about the problem of getting the toad’s (the towed vehicle) trailer platform level and having to fit a lower four holed drop plate on the tow hitch. Well after all the trouble I had fitting the drop plate to get it level I’ve now discovered I had created yet another problem, that of bottoming out.

The gap between the drop plate and the ground was now so low that when we are to navigate the loading ramps on the drive on drive off ferries we will be in serious danger of the plate hitting the ground or bottoming out and this would cause costly damage to the RV and trailer.

The solution was to alter the height of the trailers hitch, so this morning we took the trailer down the road to Bridgwater Trailers, to have the hitch end of the trailer raised. This also meant I had to rotate the drop plate 90 degrees creating a raised plate rather than a dropped plate. This has the added benefit of allowing the cycle rack to fit higher on the back of the RV giving me more clearance from the trailers jockey wheel when it’s raised. With the hitch now raised we should have loads of ground clearance yet still be able to keep the toad’s vehicle platform level.

Trailer hitch alteration

Reversed tow hitch plate

Long Vehicle warning board

So we were up at six having prepared ourselves the previous night for this morning’s jaunt, by seven thirty we were on the road. It was quite an easy little run down the M5 to the next junction then off onto a duel carriageway towards Bridgewater and a simple run off to park opposite the trailer centre in a lay-by just after eight o'clock.

At eight thirty the centre opened and the lads got to work, they hauled the trailer into the centre and measured up the distance needed to alter the hitch. By ten thirty it was all completed and we were on the road back. The only downside to this morning’s work was the cost, it had more than doubled the original estimate as the work took far longer than they had anticipated and took more materials.

Still as long as were safe and legal this was all that mattered, by lunch time we were back on site and set up for the next few days. The last thing to be completed this month is the trip to Anglo American in Newport to have the gas problem sorted. But guess what! The trip down and back this morning went without a hitch it stayed on gas all the way there and back how weird is that!

All we can put this down to is that maybe the solenoids are gumming up from residue in the LPG tanks let’s hope that’s all it is.

More Anon

What a Wet Week that was

After a fantastic bit of good weather at the weekend it all had to change! Wet, wet, wet, no not the pop group just the usual British downpours. 

This week has been one of staying indoors and keeping dry apart from nipping out for a bit of shopping to get the food in. We did manage to get in a bit of swimming in the week at the sites indoor pool to keep our exercise regime up to scratch, not that I seem to be losing any weight. 

The Kindle Kay gave me for Christmas has been a godsend to both of us as we have been downloading loads of books. I'm really getting into The Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, now onto Book two Clash of Kings. I wish we had Atlantic on the satellite but I baulk at paying Sky’s membership prices so will wait for the DVD of the Game of Thrones to come out. Kay has discovered loads of Kindle books for just a few pence, she thinks I'm being too tight if I moan about it, well she reads at least three books to my one; I buy the thick one’s you see.

We did go out last night to the site’s Night Owl club as they had a Rod Stewart tribute act the singer was Garry Pease, he goes under the name of the Rod Stewart Experience and to be honest he was quite good he sounded like him, looked like him and even had his mannerisms off to a tee.

Garry Pease as Rod Stewart

We didn't stay all night, as being ex musicians we like to see live music and backing tracks generally leave us bored so after a couple of drinks we departed but sadly the smell of food grabbed our noses on the way out past the take away and we ended up dining late at night on chicken and chips, ohh dear diet out the window again will we never learn.

This week there have been several American RV’s parked next to us and it’s been interesting talking to the owners, I was surprised how many are not members of the RV Forums, sites where there is a font of knowledge and it’s surprising how many were unaware of the weight of their RV’s and the limitations this has on their licence entitlement. I tell them of the difficulties we had in getting the weight issue's right. After all their Insurance would be invalid if they are overweight and I’d hate to see someone loose a claim against these insurance parasites as they bleed us enough as it is.

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Quest number three completed

On Saturday afternoon the Munchkin returned home with his mother, which meant that we had time to get everything ready for the move to Home Farm the following day, where Kay and I will stay for the next four weeks.

The drive out from the Haven site on Sunday morning was quite an interesting manoeuvre, trying to get a 30 foot RV with car and trailer around some of the sites tight corners while trying to avoid the low hanging trees had us on our toes.

We arrived back a bit too early at Home farm, well it was literally just around the corner, but we were feeling drained after the week at Haven and we looked forward to a relaxing time swimming, walking and visiting new places.

So on Monday morning with the sun beating down on us, we headed out for Glastonbury Tor to complete one of the challenges we had previously set ourselves.

We arrived quite early and spent an hour looking around Glastonbury town before we jumped on the Tor bus at the main car park and in a few minutes were dropped off at the base of the Tor.

We climbed the steepest side of the Tor, but Kay soon found that the steep drop gave her vertigo and the last few steps I’m sure she did with her eyes shut. The views were tremendous we could see right across the Somerset levels to the Brent Knoll, the coast and over to the Cheddar Gorge.

Glastonbury Tor

The easy bit

Kay's pleased of the seat half way up

At the top at last

The Tor is 158 meters high with the ruins of St Michael’s church at its summit. Its history and its relevance to religious folklore is tremendous, from Stone Age mother earth worship and the Arthurian legends to the rich Christian history and much, much more. Go to this link for all the information you will ever need. http://www.glastonburytor.org.uk/

Brent Knoll in the distance

The sheep made it notice the heart in the field

On the way down

At the bottom a masons mark or something more magical?

After a short walk about the crest of the Tor we headed down the gentler side to the Chalice Well at its base in the Chalice Gardens.

Now I’m no tree hugger (well my idea of communicating with nature is a stroll in the park and the only fairies I’ve ever seen hovered around the gents WC) but this place is a haven for the weird and whacky. Advertised as a place of peace and tranquillity we found it really was just that. It was beautiful with the flowers and their scents that over power your senses as you stroll through the gardens. But at every turn we were met by either a bunch of wicker witches meditating or a tree hugger squatted in the lotus position mumbling some mantra or other. I was sorely tempted to start my own, hoping they would copy it.

Ohwah….Tajer….. Kyham,      Ohwah….Tajer….. Kyham,       Ohwah….Tajer….. Kyham,   Ohwah….Tajer….. Kyham.  Gradually getting faster and faster until they got the message………… Oh what a Jerk I am.

The Chalice Well

A tree Hugger Ahummmm

Lions head fountain

The gardens

After the peaceful tranquillity of the Challis Gardens and tasting the spring water from the lions head fountain I would definitely recommend this place as a somewhere to visit, even though I’m no new age tree hugger. To discover more about the Chalice Gardens go to this link http://www.chalicewell.org.uk/

We took the Tor bus back to the town centre and went for lunch at one of the best Fish & Chip shops in the UK “Knight’s of Glastonbury” (so after all the walking and climbing exercise, plus we managed to get a swim in on our return to Home Farm, I still think the Cod & Chips I had are winning on the calorie countdown)

Knight's fish & Chips

Grow your own Weeed!
Has Glastonbury gone to pot?

The George & Dragon

Burn's the Bread
I hope not!

The High Street

Colourful

In Glastonbury you will meet more Hippies in one day than you will encounter all year, though I think it all adds to the colour of the town where busking musicians are abound as are the shops selling everything from hippy clothes, whacky backky, incense, magic crystals to Tarot cards and palmistry, it’s a new age travellers dream shopping centre.

More Anon

The Munchkin Week

Well it’s been a busy week with the Munchkin (that’s my name for Rhys our grandson) a seven year old who needs constant attention. 

Bamps can we do this, Bamps can we do that, it soon gets very tiring even Kay who’s normally a pillar of patience was getting fraught by today, he goes home tomorrow, Yea peace.

We’ve built sandcastles, gone fishing, looked for buried treasure with a metal detector, ridden along the sea front on our bikes, spent loads of pennies in the arcade machines you name it he’s wanted to do it. We took him for a day out to the Helicopter museum near Weston thinking it would be a great day out, how wrong can you be, there were loads of helicopters for him to see but he was more interested in the Dhaleks display and the tea room.

Whooo Monsters Oh and a Dahlek

Not a penny Bamps

Rhys & Nanna Kay

Sandcastles

Still we’ve enjoyed his company as seven year olds can sometimes be quite amusing and he’s had the time of his life with his bike riding all over the site and making new friends.

Last night we had the mysterious ‘beeps’ it was driving us mad as we hunted through the RV for the source of the sound, I even had to roam around the outside of the RV in my PJ’s in the middle of the night looking for this mysterious noise, eventually I did locate it.

Rhys had given me his metal detector to store away underneath the RV in one of the lockers and it had been left turned on and of course the damn thing was picking up the metal in the chassis. After sorting that out we were woken in the early hours of the morning by even more annoying beeps. This time we found that his mobile needed charging, so after digging it out from where he’d left it and hooking it up to the charger we finally got back to sleep. But nothing disturbed his nibs, the little cherub just grunted and turned over, I’m glad he’s sleeping soundly!!!

Kay

We’ve discovered that we need to keep an eye out for what offers are available especially  when the owner of the caravan who’s just parked next to us, informed us that they’re having four weeks for only three hundred pound, (they had a special offer) where as we’ve  paid two hundred and eight for just one week with a discount. I suppose we haven’t been ruthless enough when asking the price of the pitches and enquiring what offers are available.

Still the weather has been really nice the BBQ has been getting plenty of exercise, so while Kay watches the Tennis I’d better get the Cadac heated up and the steaks on the go.

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