On the Road Again... Again

Today was the first leg of the journey to Chatsworth House for the Christmas Market. Rather than do it in one day to Derbyshire, we decided to break the journey roughly in halves. So tonight we will stay at Ashridge Farm Caravan Club site. It's in Hertfordshire near Royston.  Everything was going well until the M25 ground to a halt at Waltham Abbey junction. We crawled to the A10 junction and headed north. The first few miles weren't that good as many others had the same idea.  Then TomTom took us from the A10 across country from Buntingford. We eventually popped out onto the A505 add off again. In hindsight we would have probably been better off going to Stevenage and onto the A1M!! At least we arrived here around 2pm. The rain that had dogged us most of the way had finally stopped. There's no 4G signal on O2 here and so we are able to use the free club WiFi. Every hour you have to re-login. However,  we couldn't get the Firestick to connect. Tomorrow we he...

We saw this small power bank on a vlog being tested and it looks a much easier for use than the bigger Bluetti AC70. It's also a lot cheaper for the power available. It's much lighter as well. It was Claire's purchase and it arrived today.  When I got back from dogs today, she had it unpacked and charging. It took around an hour to charge at about 350w on mains. It seems a little low. Since then I have been charging things up to see how it performs. In the photo it was charging Claire's Kindle. It comes only with a mains power lead. It can be charged from a 12v system with the same plug as a solar panel, but they don't supply one! There is also a wireless charger on the top. Both our Samsung phones have the capability, but I couldn't get either of them to charge. The instruction booklet doesn't mention any way to turn the functionality on or off. I'll do a follow up review when we have been using it a while.

Before we go away for the the trip to Chatsworth House for the Christmas Market, we needed to get the van tidied. One of the jobs was to remove all the stuff we wouldn't need from the garage and then remove the "mezzanine" floor. Removing the mezz means I can access the Truma hatch. I had to check. The frost protection valve is supposed to open automatically at 3°C to empty the water out. When the blue button (at the top) has popped out and the blue "tap" is like the above, the valve is open. Except, despite several days where the thermometer in the Nissan showing 1° or 2°, it was still closed. I opened and shut it a few times and then closed the hatch...

It's eleven and a half years since I bought one of these Samsung digital cameras. It's been retired for a few years. In the interim since I wrote the original blog, linked below, Samsung discontinued the app that links the camera to the phone. Why they simply didn't leave it on the Google Play Store instead of screwing over their camera owners. B*starts. https://invictamoto.blogspot.com/2014/03/samsung-wb30f.html I got it out today and charged the batteries.  It works really well and the different modes were pretty advanced when it came out. The local WiFi zone was very different.  My Road Angel Halo Ignite does that nowadays, in 2025. 

I gave up using this small laptop years so. We only really used it when away on the bike as it fitted easily into a top box. By today's standards it's underpowered, the hard drive is too small, the processor is too slow.  It's also Windows 7. I found it stashed away under the settee in the living room. I logged in and let it charge for a while. Looking at the C-drive shows the last things in "downloads" are photos from 2015. The earliest are documents and photos from 2006. It's put away again. At least it's there in case of emergencies....

I bought one of these for the Nikon D50 earlier in the year. I use the Nikon more often than the Canon. But, the Canon is more of a summer camera as I don't like taking it out in damp or wet. However, when I use it one handed I ended up wrapping the original strap around my hand.  So, the wrist strap will make all the difference.  The qr code takes you to their website.

If you see this post, please spare a few minutes to nominate us at Kent Greyhound Rescue for the £1000 donation. 

I decided on these as they aren't too thick and will fit inside my Alpinestars bike boots and my walking boots. Hopefully, the thermal knit will do the job. I live in walking boots as soon as the weather turns, when outside anyway!  I can't stand cold and/or wet feet.....

Why did I need a new Kindle? I was reading it on Sunday afternoon and there was no hint that there was a problem.  Over the last few weeks there has been a slight problem turning it on. Holding the power button too long when trying, caused it to reboot. Then Monday. I was reading and it said the battery was low. I connected the power lead and it was showing 5%, then 4%.... I turned it off to let it charged. I hadn't noticed that the charging light wasn't on. When I went back to it, it was dead as a dodo. Trying different charges was to no avail. It was dead. By chance, the post arrived with a letter from National Savings to say one of my premium bonds had won a £100 prize. The first ever! What luck. I paid the cheque into my bank and then looked at Anazon. New Kindle.... £94.99!!! Sold. It arrived just after 3pm on Tuesday.   It was easy to setup. Wasn't too long before it was up and running. It had 55% battery and it didn't take long to charge up to 100%. I...

I bought this after getting more annoyed with changes to Amazon Music. Changes to the Android app that seem to be aimed at selling you music to download but then doing as much as possible to make it impossible on your Android phone. I already have an iTunes library that I have uploaded all my CD's to, and latterly uploaded all the downloaded MP3 versions of music I HAVE PAID FOR! Amazon Customer Care are totally useless when contacted. You enter a chat and they are unable to do anything, then refer you to a colleague and the chat goes blank! It's the digital version of putting the phone down. So the Aiandcc player. It's around 10cm x 4cm x .75cm.  The screen is colour.  It actually has 64gb of internal memory but all my music is on the iTunes library plus some spurious CD rips on the current laptop!  All of them are easy to copy across to a micro SD card and that goes in the slot in the player. Sound quality is good.  I listen through a variety of Bluetooth headphone...

I didn't set the target. It must be the default...

Looking forward to wrapping up in the FT and Cube outfit that served me so well on the Ring of Red. I probably won't go on the run again this year.  I prefer to meet some other Meldrews for breakfast and drop off some toys or cash and then watch them all leave.  I'll maybe charge up the Sanyo movie camera and get to the front and video the parade as they leave.

Well. I did. However, unlike the driver above I drove and parked safely. The eye test came up with no problems on my distance. Considering I had my cataracts done in 2022 and I have plastic lenses they bloody well ought to be.... They noticed my reading needed lens. They reckoned +2.75 lenses.  However,  I have been using +1.5 budget readers for ages. The problem with them is that although I can get four pairs for £7, they don't last forever. I usually have a pair in every room at home, including the loo, plus in the car and the van. I ordered some more today! Of course +1.5!

Whilst I was whiling away a bit of time before the football, Oldham Athletic at home to Crewe Alexandra, was going to kick off on Sky Sports+, I was looking through the Caravan Club's European Campsites booklet for this year.  When we arrive in Santander on the long ferry from Plymouth, it will be around 1pm. If it takes as long to get out of the ferry port as it did when we arrived in Bilbao, we are looking at an hour after docking, at the earliest, before we hit the road. Bilbao is further to the east on the north coast of Spain, and we arrived early in the morning. So we had a little longer to work our way to the first site we had booked. After two nights on the ferry from Portsmouth, we were ready for a place to decompress for a few days.   Last time we stayed at Caravan Oyambre .  In the Caravan & Motorhome Club's book there are three sites around the same area. I chose this one last time as it was closer to a beach for walks th...

I was clearing out some drawers and came across this amongst the ancient and dust settled digital cameras and an old Minolta film camera! It comes in two parts and one is a macro lens and the other a wide angle. It seems I must have bought this for my old Canon 300D some time around 2012?   It's a 58mm thread and fits the 1100D but not the Nikon D50. Simply screwing into the filter ring on the end of the lens.  The macro part is threaded on both external sides of the ring and so it needs to be used in conjunction with the wide and lens.  The wide angle has internal threads and so won't fit. I gave it a try today in the garden.  Using the same exposure and the same focal length there is a marked difference between the standard Canon lens and with the Neewer added. It's plain to see the difference in the two photos. Will I use it? I doubt it. But it can go in my bag when we are away and I take the Canon instead on the Nikon. Canon 1100D Standard Lens Canon 1100D S...

This year's pantomime at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury is Snow White and the Seven  Dwarves. As has become our tradition we are going on my birthday. I try and book for the matinee performance where I can. This means we can use the park and ride for parking and get the bus to and from the park to the city centre.

Over the years we have had two dates that we keep clear so that we can go away; our wedding anniversary in October, and Claire's Birthday in February. In the past we would go to (usually) Spain and use the timeshare week on either of these occasions. The first time to Spain looks to be way back in 2008 for her birthday. I went back through my Flickr photos to see when the first Spain pix appear. More recently we have just dome trips more locally and since we became "vanlifers" we use the van and have stayed at the Brighton Caravan Club site. This year I was looking at something different. France or maybe across to Belgium and Germany. Then I googled all the ferry and Le Shuttle and gave that idea up. For a week away the cost, including Reggie, would vary between £225 and £435. We have around £160 in Tesco vouchers we could use against the fares. It will be interesting to see what happens when DFDS are allegedly adding a pet lounge to the Newhaven to Dieppe route in Januar...

Earlier in the summer when the bookings for Brittany Ferries for summer 2026 were released. I had booked us on the ferry from Plymouth to Santander. According to Google Maps it's about 4.5 to 5 hours to Plymouth and with the ferry due to depart at 3.45pm, I thought it would be better to go the day before and not rush. Of course, with Reggie onboard it will take considerably longer! We will need to stop on the way. This would mean an overnight stay in Devon. I had a look on various websites to see what sites were available in the area that would mean a leisurely scenic drive to the port at Plymouth. And also that weren't very expensive. In the end I found  Cofton Holidays  in Dawlish Warren on  pitchup.com . The Pitchup booking system is a little strange in that it gives a pitch price, then you have to add "extras" like electricity and dogs. I decided to check their own website, The price was the same but it was far easier to book everything in one place. A 7m hardstan...

I started a new blog site specifically for trips away in the Malibu 600DB that we bought a year ago today.   How you get views I have yet to work out, but it's not been the success I had hoped.  So I am going to archive it and carry on here where I have been blogging for about twenty years!!

I set My Ride before I left home today. When I got to Clacket Lane I checked and it seemed to be showing no miles! So for the Ring of Red I set it again. And it looks as though it worked. Once I got home I checked it, saved it. Then it said there was a ride not saved. It was the first section! Follow me on my trip ‘RoR’ at https://www.polarsteps.com/PaulDevall/22699005-ror?s=e95b15ab-e96d-408e-ae5c-a7afc8286214

Today we watched the Remembrance Sunday event from Whitehall in London. It started around 1015. By 1115 it was pretty much over apart from the veterans passing the Cenotaph and leaving their wreaths. Since Covid I have been on the Ride, but haven't bothered to blog about it. I am amazed that under the new "management" how numbers have dropped. There's no regalia like wristbands being produced nor much pre-event publicity. Maybe this will be the last one? I have been attending, apart from Covid, since 2013. I had planned to leave around 1145 to get to  Clacket Lane Services on the M25 around 1245. I needed fuel and planned to stop at Tesco at Willesborough in Ashford and then rejoin the M20.  I'd decided to start my part of the Ring at Clacket Lane rather than Thurrock, where i usually start, purely to avoid the Dartford Crossing. Fuel ended up being from BP on Hythe Road as the road to Tesco was closed.... in the end it was the same price per litre.  Then back on ...

Tomorrow. Will have to dig out the cold weather bike gear. It's quite warm in the sun but in the shade it's FREEZING Have dug out the Frank Thomas Aqua Anti-Freeze jacket for another winter of riding, and refitted the original zip-out lining.  It goes way back to 2008 when I bought the jacket - http://invictamoto.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-jacket.html  and here it is 17 years later and still being worn. I will  pair it with the Cube by M&P waterproof over trousers. These were bought back in 2014!!!

Balcony seats have been released this week for us old people that can't (or won't) stand for the (entire) concert. It will be a bopping night welcoming The Dualers full band back to the Leas Cliff Hall. Maybe time for a polo shirt and DM's?

Before To give us as much time as possible at Chatsworth I looked into an overnight stay on the way up. It's Saturday and so we don't have too many things to get in the way. I had a look for a pub stop around Hertfordshire and was pretty much stumped for anything that leapt off the screen and said "try me!" So I fell back onto the Caravan Club website and found Ashridge Farm ( https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-sites/england/south-east-england/hertfordshire/ashridge-farm-club-campsite/ ) in Hertfordshire. It will cost £31 for the night, hardstanding with EHU included. Not too bad. From the reviews it seems like a very decent site. I booked it not long ago and have the confirmation printed and in the "Devall Travels" folder. Yep. We have a folder/clipboard for all the booking printouts! After Since we had the motorhome and now the campervan we have been going to Suffolk a lot. With other commitments on all but one of the weekends in December, we thought we co...

Tickets went on sale on November 1st and we decided to go again. We went in 2024 in old Molly. It's gone up around £20 and is  now  £160 for four days of the show with an electric connection.  It includes all entertainment except for the Saturday night in the main hall. We did that at Malvern this year and it was okay. We only stayed for the Luke Combs tribute.

After the disappointment of the September rally being cancelled due to the terrible weather and flooding, there is another chance to meet up. It's the pre-Christmas meet at the Lifeboat Visitor Centre in Hastings.  All proceeds go to the RNLI. Tickets went on sale on October 1st and we were in France. As there is limited space on The Stade There would be a restricted number of tickets.  I got online when we were at the aire in Formerie and was lucky to get one of the last tickets. Hastings is actually only about 30 miles away and it actually on the same road, the A259, that goes behind my house. Fingers crossed for better weather. We need to look out some Christmas lights for the van!

Sometimes when we are stopped overnight for just one night we don't put the Taylormade screen on the front. Especially when it's raining. We use the Remis blinds for privacy  It's to save removing a wet screen cover and having to pack it away wet. When we do this, the windscreen and front side windows get covered in condensation.  And that's where this little gadget will come in handy 

I booked three nights at the Chatsworth Caravan Club site way back in February. Originally I have only managed to get one night there and one at the Lickpenny site not too far away.   Then when I checked the actual dates with Chatsworth House I saw the event was on for longer than the last time we went in 2023.  SO I booked the new dates and once sorted, cancelled the old dates. We are there for three nights. It's not the cheapest break, but around £42.50 a night. It's where it is that counts.  As we won't have the awning out, just the electric to disconnect there's no reason why one day we can't take a drive out to Bakewell or Ashbourne or even Buxton.