Birthday girl.

It's Janice's birthday today, what excitement.  She woke to open some presents and cards and a cup of tea in bed.

.she was very excited to get a special present from me......stop being smutty, it was Rod Stewart's autobiography, what more could a girl want!

Also, I had lots of treats planned for the morning......a trip to buy a new bottle of calor gas, shopping at Aldi and refuelling at Morrisons Petrol Station.

The day should improve. 

We went into St Albans in the afternoon and had a nice look around the Cathedral and the park area.  Did you know that in Roman times the city was called Verulamium, it was the third biggest city in Roman Britain.  The river is called the Ver.

Tonight we are going out to a fish restaurant with the Murray family.  Nice celebration.

Nice little surprise at Laura's flat.

Tomorrow we go across the channel to Francais.  Just think of all the cheese, bread, pastries etc I can eat!

Time for a rant!

Sneezing update -  on Sunday I went into an early 2-0 lead but ended the day being beaten 5-2, I was gutted.  Yesterday I made a recovery with a 3-0 win including a sneeze in Fortnum & Mason.  Janice should be careful about sneezing in future...see the attached link.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-34449375. Aren't some people strange!

Quote of the day - 'You won't find a solution by saying there is no problem', William Rotsler (whoever he is)?  Quite right I think.

We woke listening to Chris Evans on Radio 2 as normal.  I generally like him but I sometimes get a bit tired of his constant brightness and him plugging certain singers or events.  I also like to have a rant about news items.  Within 10 minutes I managed three rants in quick succession, I thought I would share them with you whether you want to hear them or not!

First - Children's TV programmes.  Why is Peppa Pig so popular and what happened to the Teletubbies?  These programmes become popular and then disappear but why.  Children of 2 or 3 surely aren't so discerning in their viewing tastes and what appeals to children of 10 or 20 years ago should still appeal to children of today.  I think it is more about the parents choices and the marketing products that are sold in the shops.  In short we are allowing our children at a very young age to be subjected to direct manipulation by advertisers!!  If you disagree with anything in this rant you can satisfy  yourself that I know nothing about Peppa Pig (which is actually very true, coz I don't think I have ever watched a whole episode but I do know how to spell Pepper properly which most young kids probably don't now)!

Second - BBC plugging singers, events and television programmes.  Chris Evans is constantly plugging certain artists and songs.  Currently it seems all about Sam Smith and the new Bond Theme. First, he exclusively announces that Sam Smith is writing and singing it, then a week later has an exclusive interview with Sam Smith, next week we get an exclusive orchestral clip of the start of the song.  The following week we get the whole song exclusively and this week we have Chris Evans talking us through the video of the song before it gets released.  This example isn't the only one.  Surprise, surprise, Sam Smith's song becomes the first Bond theme  to go straight to number one in the charts!  My point is that the song and the Bond 'brand' is a commercial business.  I wonder what has been paid to the BBC to get such coverage of the Bond song and are 'we' the public happy with being unwittingly manipulated in this way.  It is blatant advertising by an organisation that we don't think has adverts...how wrong can we be!

Lastly - football managers.  The radio broadcast two interviews morning.  The new Liverpool manager whose name is something like Kloomp? spoke at length.  He used lots of words but the content of his speech was that he liked entertaining football.....wow, what a great new idea, no wonder he will get paid millions for ground breaking ideas!!  However, Mourinho, the Chelsea manager also was talking to the press and managed another piece of eloquent nonsense, "I'm not the best manager, but no-one is better!" What shocks me is that people seem to listen to this claptrap and think that these people are clever.  It's a complete case of 'Emperors New Clothes', no-one seems to be willing to expose them for what they are.....over paid toss pots!!

My next rant will probably be about David Beckham!!

Sorry for all that but a travel blog shouldn't ignore the society we live in, after all it is part of learning 'what's what' and I will return to the happy travels of Janice and Richard.

We have had a lazy day, hanging around the van this morning and then to Laura's flat in St Albans to make a teatime meal, tuna pasta bake.  We managed a little food shopping in the afternoon. We didn't take any photos....sorry.

Naughty but nice.

Monday saw the first real rain since we set off.  We managed to cycle down to St Albans railway station without getting wet and caught the train into Blackfriars Station in London.  The weather turned drizzly to rainy as the day progressed.

We didn't have any real plan about what we would do but had a rough idea about seeing the War Cabinet Rooms near Whitehall and looking in one of the museums/galleries.  What we actually did was rather different.....

First stop was the Tate Modern which Janice has previously seen but I hadn't.  I knew it was going to be filled with a load of questionable artistic tosh and pretentious claptrap and I wasn't disappointed.  I suppose Andy Warhols, Marilyn Munroe picture is at least recognisable and shows the existentialism and futility of celebrity culture and the fragility of human beauty in its capitalist social construct (I'm trying to learn the modern art lingo).

I can't quite remember the name of the German (alleged) artist who has sponged these yellow marks on a large canvas that loosely look a bit like upside down chickens that could have been painted by children in  Castle Park Nursery! They were nearly as good as the Mirror installation, which was just a mirror and a canvas that was painted totally black!

However, it wasn't all rubbish.  Here is a statue that looked remarkably like Janice!

We walked around to Westminster and on to Churchill's War Cabinet Rooms but saw the entry price as £18 each and decided that a free entry museum/gallery would be better and set off towards Trafalgar Square.  Two young men stopped us and asked the way to Buckingham Palace, I pointed toward Pall Mall and when they responded realised they were Australian, so quickly I said that if they were Australian it was in the opposite direction.  It was my way of getting my own back for the Aussies beating England in the Rugby World Cup. 

Lunch involved eating a sneaky homemade sandwich in a Wetherspoons pub whilst we had a coffee and then we went to the National Gallery.  After the Tate Modern experience we thought that something involving real artists, with real talent, would be the tonic we needed.  Lots of good stuff in here, Rubens, Turner, Canaletto, Monet, Pissaro, Rembrant and Van Gogh were all well represented.  For the first time I saw Constables 'Hay Wain' in the flesh, so to speak!  It was so good I thought he would have been promoted by now to at least Superintendant!  Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' were radiant, far better that his 'potato eater' period, when he painted dull looking peasants in drab brown colours.

After saving all the money from not going into the War Cabinet Rooms I had a rather rash idea for a rainy afternoon......afternoon tea!  We thought that Fortnum & Masons would be a good bet.  Janice had been before and said it was good because they brought out extra food and tea.

So, we had a civilised and very fattening afternoon in pleasant comfortable surroundings. 

Of course I made sure we had second helpings of sandwiches, scones, cakes and an extra piece of chocolate ganache cake (mostly ganache and very little cake) with several pots of tea (but not as good as Yorkshire tea).  We had a bit of a sugar high and tried a bit of food art using the dirty chocolate cake plate.  I know it's not good taste to quote Rolf Harris but "can you tell what it is yet"?  I see it as the shape of Australia!!  The Tate Modern will be in touch very soon, I'm sure.

After Fortnum & Mason we bimbled around in the light rain past Picadilly Circus, through Soho and back to catch a train at St Pancras Station, walking past the old station building that was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott who we previously mentioned had lived near Buckingham.  Back on the train to St Albans and we cycled back the camper van to dry off.

Rugby disappointment.

We moved the short distance to a CL at St Albans.  The site had a narrow entrance to a sloping field that already had 5 vans in situ.  We managed to find a space and got level.  I suspect that some of these vans are here for a longer period and used for people to work during the week.  That's not what CLs should be used for!  I've become a grumpy old man already!

Janice's daughter, Laura came to pick us up and took us to their new flat near St Albans railway station.  We had a coffee with Oli and Laura and then walked into the city centre.

We had a sausage roll picnic in the grounds of St Albans Cathedral.

In the centre we met up with Janice's son and girlfriend, James and Nicola.  We decided not to go into the Beer Festival.  It was a good decision now that. It is officially accepted that I am now classified as a drinking lightweight!  I was rather ill after a night out with some ex-cops in Lancaster a couple of weeks ago, so all I need now to be squiffy is a whiff of the barmaids apron!  I love these old phrases.

It was great to catch up with Janice's kids and their respective partners.

We were building ourselves up to watch the World Cup Rugby match between England and Australia later in the evening and we had a meal out at an Indian restaurant before the game.  I tried to blow my head off by eating whole green chillis in my biryani.  After the meal we were undecided about where to watch the rugby match and in the end we watched the start in a large sports bar and went back to Laura's flat for the second half.  The match was a real disappointment as England were beaten 13 - 33 by the Aussies and sadly the scoreline accurately reflected the game.  

James gave us a lift back to the van.

On Sunday we cycled into St Albans and met up with Laura, Oli, James and Nicola.  We walked around the Food Festival and had Surinam Wraps for lunch.  Very tasty. 

This is the stall we bought the wrap from. Mmmm!

We did a little shop browsing and then back to Laura's flat for a Sunday roast. It wasn't a five bird roast (this is a private joke that involves a video clip of Brian Blessed as a modern day Henry 8.0 in which he childishly demands a 5 Bird roast.  Look it up on YouTube).  The meal was gorgeous and most of the credit should go to Oli for the chicken, the crispy roast potatoes and the garlicy gravy.

The weather has still been superb but the forecast is for rain tomorrow.  We plan to go into London on the train.  Not sure what we will do yet.  We may be dodging the rain for most of the day. 

Subject to Contract.

We woke this morning and remembered something that should really have been included in yesterday's blog.  Whilst we were at Bletchley Park there was a small exhibition that made us chuckle. It was about the role of homing pigeons during the war.  It's amazing what you learn.....there was actually a branch of the Secret Service dedicated to Pigeons, it was MI 14.  The display explained the seriousness that the Home Office and the Germans gave to the subject.  Both sides trained Falcons to attack the pigeons and sent out patrols specially to shoot them.  A video showed pigeons being parachuted into woodlands in small casters for the beret wearing French Resistance to find.  It all seemed very comical, like a cross between 'Allo Allo' and Dads Army characters with overtones of 'Stop the Pigeon' cartoon with Dick Dastardly and Mutley!  It made us laugh anyway.

I thought I would give you a look at my new trainers.  I have got them to replace my camper van slippers because there's no way I can keep them clean if I wear them outside!  They are from Decathlon for £5 (although you have to buy insoles separately).  I got  some others that were light blue for outdoor use.

Another gorgeous day, wall to wall sunshine.  You won't be surprised that we have been cycling again. We went through Codicote and then up to Hitchen which was a pleasant little town.

Hitchin Priory, we like a good church!

Whilst in a cafe in Hitchin I got a phone call from my estate agents telling me that someone has agreed to buy my house!  We were half expecting it but it's nice to get it finalised.  I'm not getting too excited until after the survey is done etc. but it's very promising.  It will, of course affect our plans for the trip but we intend to continue with our plans to visit people in France and then come back in November to sort out a move hopefully in December.

We had a little celebration drink at the Lytton Arms at Old Knebworth.

We wanted to go and have a look at Knebworth House.  We knew where it was and could see the boundary fence.  We eventually found out the public entrance was via the A1M which we didn't fancy on our bikes.  We eventually found a route in via a private entrance and found out it was actually closed  for the public anyway!  Most of the hall was screened by trees and buildings but we managed a bit of a photo, seen below.

Quite a momentus day.  Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.

The Imitation Game.

LThursday 1st October 2015 - Just putting the date as a reminder for ourselves, it's not for your benefit!

We have booked the next two nights at a village called Whitewell, near Stevenage in Hertfordshire but we wanted to visit Bletchley Park enroute.

For those who don't know, Bletchley Park is the place where  Alan Turing and team broke the Germans Enigma Code, aiding our victory in the 2nd World War.  It is a really well presented and informative attraction.  I'd like to explain what they did to crack the code but quite frankly it was too complicated for my little brain.  Needless to say, we intercepted the German encrypted transmissions and had to build a very complex electronic series of dials that worked to crack the daily codes used.  It enabled us to understand German plans and counteract them.

This is the only working machine that can crack the codes.

Janice is standing outside the Bletchley Mansion looking for Dominic Cumbersome!!  That's her nickname for Benedict Cumberbatch who played Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, the film of his role in cracking the code. 

As you can tell the weather has been great again.  We had a picnic lunch in the grounds and spent most of the day at Bletchley Park.

We arrived at our new site.  I had spoken to the adult son of the owner on the telephone yesterday when I booked.  He had explained that his parents were away and he was looking after the place.  He told me that it was £13 per night plus £2 for electric hook up.  I was rather shocked because it said £12 per night in the handbook and I threatened to cancel the booking if he didn't negotiate and got it for £13 a night.  Anyway, on arrival at 5pm he came out to see us wearing what appeared to be his pyjama bottoms!  I was tempted to ask him if he had been on nightshift and apologise for disturbing him but something prevented me, thinking that it may be one of those casual fashions amongst young people that I have no real comprehension of?  However, he was quite pleasant and told us 'what's what'.

On that note, I feel we need to have a more detailed discussion about 'what's what' and what it means.  I guess it can mean different things, for example it could be explanatory information or it could be the meaning of life.  I like to think of it as a guide to life and living.  If you know 'what's what' and apply your knowledge daily you won't go too far wrong but in reality we are all learning 'what's what' every day of our lives because it often changes.  I hope that this blog will give the reader of how 'what's what' is working for us.  I'm still plucking up courage to tell my 'what's what' joke.

I'm just completing the blog in the village pub.  It's a dump.  The beer is vinegar.  On the plus side he wifi works but won't be staying for a second pint.

Long arm of the law.

Yesterday I found out that an old picture of me had been posted on Facebook, I thought I might share it with you too.

It was taken at a CND protest at Barrow in 1985.  I knew the photo had been taken by a newspaper reporter and was in the local paper but I hadn't been able to get my hands on a copy till another retired officer posted in on Facebook.  What a young boy I looked (no, I'm not the one with the moustache)!

Wow, what weather we are having for September.  It has been really very pleasant and their was no doubt about what we were going to do today....cycling of course.

We awoke refreshed from a night in our new 10.5 tog duvet.  It was everything we dreamed about, cosy wosy and snuggly bugly.  A leisurely breakfast and then off we set along flattish country lanes to Bicester.  The villages around here are all very pleasant and affluent....

Just the right place to be when you need the toilet!

In Ofsted terminology Bicester was 'good' but had no outstanding features.  The church was the only place that enticed us in.  It was St Edbergs.

And I must admit to feeling a bit of a 'plonker' in this photo...

We carried on cycling to Buckingham which had a lovely tourist info centre in the Old Town Gaol.  It was, of course, the county town of Buckinghamshire but now supplanted by Aylesbury.  It has a long history with mention of Edward the Elder and Hereward the Wake having local connections and Both Charles I and Oliver Cromwell staying in the town at different points of the Civil War.  I was also interested to find out that Sir George Gilbert Scott, the man who designed St Pancras Station in London was born in the nearby village of Gawcott.

Having completed 53km of cycling we returned to the site for our teatime meal.  

I leave you with the words of Victor Hugo, "There is nothing like a dream to create the future".  Yes, I have become philosophical....and no, I don't know the quote off by heart I got it from my iphone app for inspirational quotes!  More to come, I think!!  We may hear more of Victor Hugo when we get to France, he seems to have a street in every town!