I guess we’re on holiday 🙂
We left Jane & Rob’s this morning, pretty much dead on our intended time of 10am. Ady had done a quick google on his phone for directions and we’d been thinking it was about 100miles so it was a bit of a shock to put it in the satnav and have 197 miles pop up!
The first 100 miles were really straightforward though and we stopped for lunch at Tewkesbury services having made good time. After lunch however Willlow got very slippy of clutch and in the end we had to pull over and put more auto transmission fluid in which solves the problem but as we’re getting through a bottle every 150 miles something rather more pressing needs attending to. We have a plan though and in the meantime Ady is going to lie awake worrying about it and I am going to airily pretend it’s nothing to worry about and one of us will be right at least ;).
Scarlett is fine and happy again today, wants to carry on and last night was clearly just a blip. The answer to most of her woes is ‘more sleep’ but sometimes that is a hard medicine to administer.
We stopped at Harry Tuffins, a very small chain of independant supermarkets, just five miles away from where we’re staying. Super cheap, voucher for money off the petrol we needed anyway and we got everything we need for this week.
Then we found the cottage, it’s a lovely little two bedroomed cottage with loads of quaint features and lots of history. We’re here because we used to work with Lesley, the owner, when we were in Manchester and have sporadically stayed in touch with her over the years. I once gave her a very good reference for a job which was utterly deserved but I suspect has always left her feeling like she owes me a favour. When she heard about our plans for the year she offered this cottage if we were ever in the area and needed some down time from the van and it is the perfect springboard location to get to Jan and Jonathan’s for the weekend. Lesley happened to be between bookings and away on holiday herself so we are acting as her really, spending some time here to ensure the previous guests have left it tidy, doing a tiny bit of weeding and tidying in the little front garden (which is about as big as Willow!) and making sure it is left nice for the next guests.
It is a little snug and only really meant for 2-3 people but as we live in a van and are used to very little room this is feeling positively spacious! Davies has a bed, Scarlett has an air bed and Ady and I get a four poster – rather downmarket-ly we’re sleeping in our sleeping bags though so we don’t have to get the bedding washed, dried and ironed before we leave on Friday ready for the next guests 🙂
It was so nice to arrive somewhere and not have to introduce ourselves, worry about being fed lentils and have NOTHING we have to do for the next four days. It feels totally different to being at Jill’s as we have all the same luxuries but none of the obligation to do anything; either work or socially :).
So we’ve eaten pizza, watched films, had showers, eveyrone else is in bed and I don’t have to be, tomorrow everyone else can get up and I don’t have to 🙂 Bliss.
Our plans for the week include exploring the town we’re in, going to the market on Thursday, doing the little bit of gardening and some wood splitting for Lesley and very little else :).