InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

Over the years I have had so many different chargers to carry with me in case my phone runs out of battery. They have all packed up and the amount of charge has got lower and lower. So when I saw this I decided to buy one. I doubt the solar bit will that be all that marvellous but the unit also can be charged by usb cable. The input it also and up to date c-type usb. Lets see  how it goes and I will update in a few months.

I bought myself a new "toy" with money from my birthday and from my own bank! It's a Slide and Negative Scanner. I set it up today and although I need to practice a bit more, these are the first scans from the unit.  They are pretty decent considering the slides are around 20 years old and not all that well stored.  I have many (many!) older ones I will have a go with. I had to edit these to crop the edges and also to reduce the size as it seems when put in Paint on the laptop they are about 5600 by 3800 pixels in size. I have scaled these down to about 2/7ths the size! They are mostly from the Dordogne with a couple with the palm trees from  Argeles sur Mer. Both of those were taken from the bedroom window to show the view we had. This would have been August 2003 and the slides are dated 01.09.2003. The camera was my Olympus OM10.  I still have this camera and used it during covid lockdowns as a project.

A few photos from today's walk through the trees along the side of the Royal Military Canal in West Hythe. Amazing how over the years the trees have grown and spread their branches.

Christmas Lunch. The traditional turkey and veg. No we don't have Yorkshire puddings as they aren't traditional down here.

This year's pantomime at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury was Aladdin. Apart from COVID years we have been every year since 2014. There are only a few pantomimes that can be performed, and so we probably seen a version of Aladdin before. Each year the format has to fit the story but within that there are many things they can do with the script. Of course Ben Roddy was back to play the Dame. If you want to know about panto, Google it. As usual the music was managed by Chris Wong, the musical director for 29 years. Again there were the usual gags, plus many new ones, some for kids and many only the adults would understand. Next year it will be Beauty and the Beast! So we get good seats I have booked for my birthday again! I was amazed how many seats were left for the matinee performance - 8. The theatre seats 1200!! Luckily there were two in the circle with an aisle seat!

Until I read some adverts for used cameras online, I didn't have a clue how to check the number of times the shutter had been activated. Then I saw on this website how to find out. If you knew it was held in the EXIF data, then take a bow! I stuck a picture taken yesterday, the last one on this camera.... and.... So despite being over 17 years old it's hardly been used. As well as this I bought a backup battery. Unfortunately finding a new genuine Nikon battery is impossible and even searching on Google doesn't produce many options.  In the end I had to go for a "used" one off eBay.  It arrived today and was charged. It took around two hours.   To back that up for £8 I have bought another from Amazon Prime, this time a pattern make and we'll see if that is any good.  I plan you use the D50 a little more.  It's a decent camera and as a "bin find" it works very well. I had to buy a few things for it and it is still missing the rubber cover for th...

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG), the UK’s leading voice for riders’ rights, reflects on the past year and looks forward to another year of positive outcomes for motorcyclists. As 2023 draws to a close, MAG can report significant progress throughout the year, and will shortly be gearing up for another year of action and engagement. Summing up the past year, MAG’s Chair, Neil Liversidge, said: “As it does every year, MAG has campaigned up and down the country on behalf of its members and the wider motorcycling community.  Wherever it sees discrimination against riders, it is challenged.  Where bikers are ignored – for example by omission from Transport Plans – MAG engages with the decision-makers to ensure that there is inclusion. Last year we launched ‘Operation Earthquake’, and I am happy to report that this initiative has been steadily gathering momentum with significant political engagement. MAG continues to promote motorcycling as part of the solution when it ...

It seems that the job of transplanting the DAB aerial from the old broken long arm mirror was partially successful.   I say partially successful as it's difficult to tell whether the job was successful, or if the DAB coverage in large parts of the UK is still rubbish.  How the Government can even contemplate turning off AM/FM transmissions is nonsense. Even in the car fitted with a DAB radio we encounter many "dead" zones all over Kent and the rest of the UK. At least it works some of the time. The next job is to look for some guards to protest their newness!  The Milenco guards fitted proved superb at stopping the OEM mirrors from getting scratched when passing too close to bushes, but when we hit the hard object that broke the mirror, the guard flew off and did nothing... So it looks as though we might have to look for a different make! 

I recently bought this book to give us some ideas of places to go when we hit the beachhead in Bilbao in May. Andy is a frequent poster on several Facebook Motorhome and Campervan pages and I read his post quite avidly.  Blimey. That sounds like  am a fan....  😊 I have been reading through and many of the places also have the GPD co-ords to programme into the satnav. Let's hope he was accurate!  So far it's a good read. If you are in Europe and fancy a read then the book is available from  Amazon

It's Merry Christmas.  Anyone wishes me Happy Holidays and it's delete and garbage bin time.

We have already booked two nights at the Caravan Club site in Cromer and I was looking to extend the trip. We have seen a few vloggers that have stayed at Pinewoods site at Wells next the Sea. I had a look and it's open when we are there in Norfolk. So I booked a night to see what it's like!  A chance to enjoy fish and chips from the chippy in the village. If we like it maybe we stay there again. Thanks to The Frenchies YouTube channel we see quite a few Suffolk and Norfolk sites and CL's. https://youtube.com/@TheFrenchiesMotorhomechannel So we have to hope the March weather is going to be good!!

Day 2 started off in the teeth of a gale. The forecast was for 40 to 50mph winds in the Waterpump CL area. We were the only van to overnight this weekend. Behind where the vans are parked is a bank that at least protects the parked up vans. The wind came around midnight and kept rocking the van for hours.  Once up we would only have around 12 miles to go to Claire's sister's new house. We sorted the housekeeping jobs like the rubbish and black waste. Then were off. The new house is on an almost finished section of a new build site and we found it easily enough and parked up outside. Getting there meant plenty of muddy roads and Molly is filthy. I think maybe it's time for a trip to the jet wash this week. After a few hours and lunch we needed to be away. I wanted to be back to the A12 dual carriageway before it got dark.  We failed in that but not by much. The roadworks on the A12 weren't as bad southbound as they were in Sunday. We stopped again at Thurrock...

On the road only 15 minutes later than planned at 1015.. The satnav said a little under 3 hours to do the journey. We knew with a stop that this would be a little longer. Going was good except for two sets of roadworks on the A12 and the winding roads once we went off the A140. We did have a stop at Thurrock Services for Reggie's comfort break and to get some lunch for us, sandwiches from Greggs, and a coffee. It rained most of the way up. There was an accident on the A14. From the damage to the car and the ripped up vegetation on the central reservation it looked as through there had been a 💥! The roads between the A140 and the CL  went through villages with lots of standing water and huge floods.  Nothing too serious though. We arrived on site about 2.35pm and setup the ramps and EHU. Time for tea and a mince pie whilst I set up the TV.  Dinner tonight will be a couple of ready meals in the microwave. Tomorrow we go a few miles to visit Claire's sister. ...

It's not until July. Tickets went on sale this week and so we decided that we'd give one of these events a go. https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/shows/show/the-norfolk-motorhome-campervan-show/book-now/camping As we are not very experienced off grid campers I opted to pay a little extra and I have booked an EHU pitch. We have a new leisure battery and that should be good enough but......  ;) The ticket price includes access to the show as well as camping (us and Reggie) and leccy, and all the entertainment apart from the mainstage on Saturday.   We are going to camp from Friday until Monday.  Fingers crossed for good weather and no rain on what is bound to be a grass pitch!!! We have seen vlogs from these events and they look fun. So a couple of oaps's should find something to do!

One of the problems with Molly, and her predessesor Suki, is inflating the tyres and even checking pressures. The tyre valve rubbers really need to be longer. Even with the cutouts in the wheel trims it's still difficult to get the pump on to it. So the answer. An extension. There were loads on eBay and Amazon for permanent fixture onto the tyre valve but these were not what I wanted. I Googled and saw this. For less than £5 it was a bargain. I screw it onto the tyre valve and have plenty of room to work, getting the pump connected with the minimum of air loss. Thoroughly recommended. Mine came from: https://tyre-equipment.co.uk/products/nickel-plated-brass-tyre-valve-extension-155mm

After the little contretemps with something hard that broke the left (passenger) side mirror last month, we have finally got it fixed. Instead of simply buying the very expensive Peugeot OEM original, I was recommended a pair of pattern parts from Amazon. These are also called short-arm mirrors as the arm that connects the mirror head to the door frame is about 3 to 4 inches shorter. They actually work well and on the drive home from JC in Rye I had no problems at all. They are a matched pair. The only question mark was relocating the DAB antenna 📡 from the damaged left mirror to the new one. The radio worked okay on the drive home so that seems successful too. It wasn't a cheap job. Avoiding a head on collision 💥 with a truck cutting a bend has cost me money. And a lot of it! Time will tell if being 6 to 8 inches narrower will be an improvement when it comes to narrow roads combined with unruly and uncut hedges and of course, truck 🚛 driving assholes cutting corners and bends. ...

The trouble with planning the first few steps of a trip that's about 150 days away is that it's easy to over think it. Over plan it even. It's also easy to think of somewhere to go and then change your mind. My original thinking was a kind of loop. West from Bilbao and then down through the Picos d'Europa into Portugal and then back across north of Madrid to the Pyrenees and across on one of the passes or tunnels and back through France to the Channel. Two dates are fixed. The ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao, and the return Eurotunnel home.  What happens in the middle is all negotiable. My initial searches haven't been very successful in finding camping sites or overnight stops that appeal to me along the northern coast.  May might also be a little too hot for Reggie to venture to the southern coast, the Mediterranean, but Portugal still excites.. As we count down things might become clearer. And we have to get a vet to do Reggie's worming and stamp in his pet p...

Recently Caravan Club members were told that there would be a voucher allowing them a free night at a club site. The voucher needed to be used for a booking between New Year and March 27th. I had a look through for places within around 200 miles for a two night stop. It was harder said than done. Many sites are closed in winter.  In the end I found that the Seacroft site at Cromer on the North Norfolk coast opened in mid-March and so I booked a couple of nights. I had wanted to book something around Claire's birthday in late February. At the moment this will be our first trip of the year. https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-sites/england/east-anglia/norfolk/seacroft-club-campsite/

A couple of weeks ago we had to go to Rye to JC Leisure to get them to look at the habitation door handle I broke. They have since sourced the part and it's booked in for this coming Tuesday. A little bit of pressure is off as the MRI scan appointment on the 8th means our Suffolking About trip is delayed. Q: So what's in the box? A: New mirrors. We have also got to replace the broken left mirror, don't ask, and our friend Matt kept on at us to get the Peugeot short arm mirrors instead of the long arm type traditionally fitted to motorhomes. He has them fitted on Suki. Yes. He bought our old motorhome! They work well. The short arm mirrors should make the overall width less. The downside is that the replacement mirrors come with the electric adjustment but the left one doesn't have the radio aerial. We found this on Suki when I broke that mirror!!!  I have checked a few forums and it seems transplanting the aerial from the broken mirror into the new one is do...

Things change fast. I was out today when the mail arrived. In it was a letter with an appointment for an MRI Scan that clashes with this trip. So from the luxury of the train to London I emailed both the CL's to change the date to a few days later.  Instead of arriving on Thursday to instead arrive on Sunday.  Later on I had the replies. One good, one not. Sadly the Sibton White Horse pub is closed on Sunday and Monday evenings. We were looking forward to eating in the restaurant.  So I am cancelling completely that leg.  Instead I re-emailed Waterpump and booked an extra night there. It does mean we will have to eat in two nights instead of enjoying a festive meal in a pub.  Bummer or what? Waterpump CL

Today was my first game for a few weeks. Since I started sharing my season ticket with my mate Phil it seems  long time between games. When I left home for the 1201 high speed 🚄 train into London the car was showing -3°C on the dash. This went up or is that down to -4°C once up the hill from the coast to the station at Folkestone West. The free on road parking was full and so I paid £3.90 to park in the security camera covered car park. It was still freezing. I was pretty well wrapped up with layers up top. What was missing were long John's. Jeans are not very "keep warming"! The train was packed with those of us going to Arsenal and even a couple going to West London to watch Brentford play. The rest were lots of families going to London for a pre-Christmas visit. There were also a group of Prosecco swilling and very under dressed women wandering about.  Once at St Pancras i met Helen and went for a meal-deal, she went to Boots and I went to Marks and Spencer! It was st...

We decided that as it was getting on for two weeks since Molly was left on the drive, she needed a run out. In that time it has rained a bit and lately has been very cold. A few days of 0°C on top of that. Very little sun to charge the new leisure battery and we don't have electric hook-up at home. So today we took all the locks off and went for a short drive to Capel le Ferne and Sainsbury's on the way back to fill with diesel. Before the off I checked the meter on the TV socket to see what voltage the leisure battery was showing. I was surprised at 14.3.  At the fuel station I filled up to the first click as usual, and it took 42.03 litres. Putting it into Fuelly came out at 35mpg. One of the best consumption figures we had had. Then back home. Locks back on.