On the Road Again... Again

Here's hoping for a peaceful 2026.

The ticket arrived in the first class post this morning. I'll wait until Friday before I book my train. The weather is supposed to turn even colder. So I will wai a bit. I went for one of my rare visits to Arsenal yesterday for the evening kickoff against Aston Villa.  It was 3°C when I got to the station. It was barely much warmer inside the Emirates Stadium.  Driving home again from the station it went from 1° to 0° according to the car's thermometer. Hopefully the weather won't get any colder over the weekend. Otherwise I will have to see if I still have any biker longjohns to wear! UPDATE - Saturday.  Match postponed until later date due to frozen pitch.

I started using the Tripit app some years ago as a way of keeping track on the bookings and reservations we have made for holiday trips. The app has an iCal link with the Google calendar and automatically updates for you. It does take a while though, maybe 24 hours to sync. These stats include all the trips we have done including to the panto etc. Will 2026 be as good?

It's 7 years since I bought this piece of crap. I used it for a year and then it was put away in a drawer  You'd expect a company with a turnover in the multi billions would have been able to find some Chinese company to make something better than the Fire. You'd also hope that by the time they got to version 7 that they would have got an operating system that worked and a browser that similarly wasn't shite. They didn't!! When I dug it out. Dusted off the er... Dust. It needed charging. Of course no battery lasts the better part of six years.... Still crap. Last day of 2025.....

Since Latics were promoted back into the English Football League 2 in the summer, there are fewer opportunities to see them play live. In the National League there were far more teams clustered around London that meant it was easier to get to their stadiums. Either by car, or more often by motorcycle. So when the fixtures came out, I tagged Bromley as a possible. It's postal area is Kent, although it's a London Borough. January 4th is far too early in the year to take the bike, and there is little or no parking.  The last time we played there I went on the bike. Bluffed my way into their tiny car park. "The lady in the office said you could squeeze me in" has worked quite successfully. But this time I am looking at the train. Return from Ashford is £21.50. I'll need to drive up there and park, but oddly it's a Sunday 3pm kick off.  According to their website, it's around 20 minutes to walk from Bromley South station. I have already ordered my ticket. Inste...

We should have got something out of the home game a few weeks back. Instead one loose pass was intercepted and Walsall scored the only goal of the game. Tonight the tables were turned at we won 2-1. The winning goal in added time, the 90+7th minute!!! Back to back wins to round off 2025.

The period between Christmas and New Year. For me it was pretty much back to normal today. My usual visit to the Kent Greyhound Rescue foster home where I feed the Greyhounds and exercise them. The foster currently has seven greyhounds and three lurchers. This one is Leo. A lurcher. He was saved from being euthanised and brought to the foster. He has behaviour problems, but none that mean being killed. Some owners are despicable. Leo the Lurcher Tomorrow, it's football ⚽ at Arsenal. Another big match against Aston Villa. We have already lost to them a few weeks ago in the away fixture at Villa Park.  At the moment every game is a big game. To fit in with TV the kick-off is 8.15pm. As usual there's no consideration for away fans having to get home again afterwards.  What next? New Year's Eve. I'd like to get the van out and have a day out. The batteries need to be kept charged. With to electric in the garage we can't put it on hook-up. But where to go?

When I dug the Nexus 7 out of the drawer and charged it up it had this app already (still?) installed. I stopped using it on my Android phones as it was impossible to add photographs to the blogs. Let's see if it's been corrected...... That looks better.... The photograph in the Blogger app, taken on the same phone, comes on its side! This is an improvement. But. It seems that the interface between my phone and the app has a fault. I can create it update one blog, after that, the app just has the "waiting" circle of doom in the screen.

Let's see how this turns out.  An odd way to add photos... Select and press "crop" to select it ... It does work though. And the photos are the right way around unlike Blogger when importing from my phone's Gallery. One thing seems to be that you can't add tags with this app  

Don't ever complain that your latest 2025 phone or tablet is slow. I was going through the "man drawer" and came across the Nexus 7 and an Amazon Fire 7. Both of these have been in the drawer for ages. I charged them both, turned the Nexus on and was almost instantly reminded what it was like to be taken back to the 2010's decade and how we didn't realise then, how bloody slow everything was!!! Everything is very slow. Once connected to the WiFi it still takes a while. There are loads of apps, the play store showed 37 upgrades only. Sadly, some of the apps that I haven't got have packed up. For instance, Fuelly. The app on the Nexus was superb. The latest is rubbish. But now the old installed app doesn't work at all. This blog was written on the Nexus 7 and finished on the Blogga Pro app from the Android Play Store.

The term "white elephant" means an extravagant, but impractical, gift that is hard to get rid of. Supposedly, the King of Siam, (Thailand), would give albino elephants to those in his court who displeased him. It's not only gifts but things you buy yourself.  We bought this eklipt Portable Car Refrigerator in the summer when we were about to go away on our three week trip to Spain and France. Primarily to take Reggie's frozen food with us and to buy locally sourced raw dog food frozen or fresh. It would also supplement the small fridge in the van.  In the end it was way too big for the current van.  However, with Christmas and New Year food buying it has come into its own. Sited on the dining table in the conservatory it's been used as a fridge. It can also be set below 0°C to be used as a freezer. The original idea was that it would be situated under the table in the van with the 12v cable running to the socket on the dash. When on hook-up, connected to the other...

Still 5 days to go in 2025 and so far I am well up on books read. For quite a few years I was unable to link Amazon to Goodreads. But now I can. Only 5 other people read the Spider McGee book!  Sometimes being in a minority isn't too bad!! What Goodreads doesn't know is how much of my disposable income has vanished into Bezos' bank account with all these Kindle books, not to mention the new Kindle I bought with my premium bond win!!! Update 31/12/25 - 85 books read.

For the summer holiday we gave already booked the outward ferry with Brittany Ferries from Plymouth to Santander.  In addition, I have booked a couple of nights in campsite along the coast from the port.  Only for a couple of days to get over the long ferry across the Bay of Biscay. There's still a lot of planning ahead on where to go. Stay in Northern Spain and hoover up the sights there. Maybe cross into Portugal. I know I should embrace the real "van lifer" experience and decide where to go from one day to the next. "Leaving only footprints" etc. But I am one of life's planners. We always have to look ahead to sort out Reggie's worming pill. We have used two vets' practices regularly before. This year though Reggie will need his rabies jab updated. It's due in June and so we need it done before returning to the UK.   I will probably look at the vet in Denderleeuw again. We had him booked in this year, but the terrible weather, several "na...

Yes folks. Today i became a Vanker.

When we got back from the panto yesterday, at abut 6pm,  I turned on the laptop.  Logged into the Marlowe Theatre Peter Pan booking page for the 23rd December 2026. We like the 2.30pm performance so we can use the park and ride - see earlier blog. WHAT!!! I like the circle. There is less chance of being singled out for "audience participation". This year a guy called Matthew was picked and ended up on stage in one stage routine!  Not for me. Sadly, there were no seats together that wouldn't leave one unused seat! So I couldn't book in the circle. We are now in the upper circle where there were also few double seats left! But we are in the front row. So no one standing up in front of us!

Yesterday, December 23rd, was my 70th birthday!  The day my new driving licence kicks in and I can no longer drive vehicles over 3.5t.  I doubt I was going to anyway! We decided that as we were going to the panto in Canterbury that we use Molly instead of the car. It would mean we could dump the accumulated grey waste and get the park and ride bus into the city centre.  We would have used the park and ride in the car. Parking in Canterbury is a nightmare in any case.  Plus, they have had no thought at all into providing car owners and visiting drivers with roads that keep traffic flowing.  In the end there are three park and rides.  Luckily, Canterbury City Council are quite forward thinking in another area as one of the park and rides is home to a dedicated "motorhome aire".  This is at New Dover Road. There is a grid for both grey and black waste, cassette cleaning and grid washing down water and further back, a fresh water tap where y...

A reminder of how old I am courtesy of my Sister in Law Sally. I am quite limited!

My usual Monday morning, except Bank Holiday, is to drive up to the foster home near Folkestone, and feed and exercise a group of greyhounds. The foster home actually acts as a halfway house for retired greyhounds that are looking for a permanent "forever" home and two permanent residents that belong to Julie, the foster home owner. This week though, my job was to take two greyhounds to the vets' surgery at Vets for Pets at the Pets at Home store in Whitfield near Dover. One, Noodle, had cut his foot in a fog park on Saturday, and the other, Charlie, has damaged his tail.  I got them into the car. Both were muzzled as it the norm when taking them anywhere. It's for everyone's safety.  They tend to be very calm, but may get triggered by other dogs. As I was driving a face appeared next to me. Brindle, Charlie.  No muzzle. He had one in the barn!  I didn't notice as I bundled and secured him into the back seat of the car. Could I find it? No. He must have got it...

A Christmas message from German Motorail. I haven't used the service since 1999! But every year they send me the timetables etc. It was a great service from Cologne to Salzburg and Villach. "The Christmas season invites us to pause for a moment and express our appreciation. Therefore, we would like to thank you – all our guests who have accompanied us through 2025. Your enthusiasm and trust are our driving force and motivation. Being able to experience special journeys together with you fills us with joy every year. And in 2026, we will continue to do everything we can to bring you to your favorite destinations safely, comfortably, and with respect for the environment . On December 26, 2025, we kick off the 2025/2026 winter season : The first UEX night train departs from Hamburg-Altona to Landeck – including the option of taking your vehicle between Hamburg and Munich. A fantastic start to a long and exciting ski season! And we're adding even more: For the first time in ...

I went to greyhounds as usual this morning to feed and exercise the dogs that are in foster. After nearly four years I have graduated to more than feeding them. Another volunteer dropped out at the last minute to go to Wrotham near Maidstone to collect two new dogs and bring them back to the foster near Folkestone. I volunteered to do it. I fitted a second headrest lead in the car and with Claire riding shotgun, we arrived at the meeting point in torrential rain. We unloaded two females. A large brindle and a small more timid blue.  After a careful drive back we dropped them off. Luckily both have gone to other foster homes.

We follow The Camper Club on Facebook and Instagram and I decided I needed another sweatshirt for when we are out in the van. So very soon I will be a Vanker. .... In the past I have been a Tosser. What they call each other in the UKGSer Club.  Back them I had a BMW R1150GS. Once a Tosser now a Vanker!

At 16386 miles I put another bottle of this stuff into the AdBlue tank. I had filled it up already using the remainder of a container from Aldi that has been sitting in the garage for a few months.  Rather than risk the crystallisation of the AdBlue it was worth popping this in the tank. It's insurance rather than anything else! 

Wow.  It's renewal time. The renewal from MoreThan arrived today.  Again WOW!!! Last year we paid £516.84 over the year. When he ate the rat poison the total bill came to £828. Meaning that from our joint bank account and my credit card we had spaffed  away £1344 for his treatment and cover. After the months and months of waiting to see if they would pay the claim, MoreThan finally coughed up £640 of the £828, due to policy excess and a percentage they keep from the vet's bills!   At the end of the day like most insurance. It's a fcuking rip off. If you are lucky and the bill is really high it probably pays. But it's insurance isn't it.  Youy pay in the hope that if something goes wrong then you are protected, to some extent.  In the end having insurance actually cost me/us £704 for the year 2025. I had already decided once they settled that I would start to look elsewhere. Waiting 5 months for any contact about the claim, that was sent to them by the ...

Handing over the cheque to the RNLI.... We went along to Hastings. We had a ticket to park on the Stade.  And we were packed in pretty well.   https://www.campersandcoffee.co.uk Ticket sales raised £1200 and there was a collection taking place on the day as well. We had several walks around the Stade and took photos on both the little Sony and the Canon 1100D. Malibu Molly! This van was rebuilt and then made to look like this!!! My favourite Christmas display! We had a walk to the RNLI to have a look at the lifeboats.  It seems amazing that the lifeboat and the tractor system to get it to the sea cost in the environs of £4.5m!! From there along the seafront into the Old Town. We had lunch at the Albion pub. They have a pasties shop out front. The Morris Dancers outside the Albion Not what the dirty minds think!!! Drummers.... Once the pasties were history, and the Morris Dancers has adjourned into the pub, we went back to the van to rest our feet and give Reggie his ...