Let's get this show on the road!

My counselling session with my last client of the day ended at 7.30pm and at eight o'clock, we were on the road, first to extricate the RV from its resting place, then to begin our journey to Bristol to visit Dad. By half past midnight, we had reached last service station on the M5 before the turn off onto the M4 and pulled up in the lorry/caravan park for the night. A peaceful night's sleep and we were ready for the last few miles. The ring road taking us past Asda, we decided we might as well fuel up for tomorrow's journey to Dover there and then and so we did.
An interesting experience, fuelling the RV. For one thing, it has to be a fuel station that is wide enough between rows of pumps and ideally, one which is drive-through. This one was except that the drive through bit was rather on the narrow side, although there was an open gate just at the back of us which would take us straight back onto the road. So I explained to the nice lady on the till that this is how we would leave and that I would come and pay her when we had filled up, rather than attempt to squeeze past her kiosk and she readily understood the logic of that.
It's amusing to watch people's reactions to this beast of the road. Some squint at it sideways, pretending that they are not really looking at all, while others apparently ignore it completely, which does make one wonder about the results of their last field vision test, and some just gaze open-mouthed. You can almost lip read their thoughts.
"What do 'e think he'm doing bringin' that thing down they narrow roads, then?" (Imagine the broad Bristolian accent if you will.)
Then there was the young lady who pulled up right behind us just as Keith was about to reverse. I signalled to her that we needed to back out and she looked at me in disbelief, before reluctantly backing her car about two feet. Eventually, the penny dropped and she reversed some more and drove over to the next row of pumps, possibly helped in her decision by Keith revving the engine as if he intended to gently edge her out of the way if she didn't move quick sharp.
All good fun!
Tomorrow, we're off back to France and Giles is looking after the house and - I hope - keeping my potatoes and tomatoes watered, if the rain doesn't do it for him.


Camel into the eye of a needle

We took charge of our RV on Friday and decided to road test it over the weekend, so off we went into Snowdonia and ended up on Anglesey - Beaumaris, to be precise. (It was at this point that I discovered that I had forgotten my camera so had to use my mobile phone for photos.) The RV is left hand drive and quite wide and it's a bit like sitting up in the front of a coach. You feel as if it is way over the white line down the middle of the road and that your half is going to get sliced off by oncoming traffic at any moment. You are relieved that you have recently made your will.
However, I eventually discovered that the bottom wing mirror was very useful for checking where the right hand wheels were with regard to the white line and my blood pressure reduced considerably. So did Keith's as I was no longer screeching at him to 'Move over!!!' and he was no longer having to assure me that he was nearly in the gutter.

Beaumaris was lovely - peaceful, surprisingly not too busy, sunny and hot. The RV performed beautifully and it provided a chance to check on things we might need for our forthcoming trip back to France.
Coming back and parking it at Keith's other house was the perfect end to a perfect weekend. Well, it was eventually, but there was a point at which I was convinced that the vehicle was going to end its days stuck crossways in the road. I would have taken photos of that too, but was too busy hopping around, checking available space on either side of the gateway (very little) and relaying instructions from Giles, at the rear, to Keith, in the driver's seat. He did it though. Next time, we just need to remove the gate and gatepost on one side and the tree on the other. Simple!


Plaster board and dust

So, we're still no further forward on the British Gas smart meter front and I've given up making non-existent appointments with them...