The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: deepinthewoods on May 24, 2011, 09:58:11 pm
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god help me, im not sure i can stand another season. last year we decamped to wales to escape and camped in the middle of no where for three weeks, this year with more animals and daughter moving up to secondary school i cant take the time out. im about as isolated as i can get but still the back roads get clogged with drivers doing 20mph everywhere cos theyre satnav has confused them or they dont know how wide their hire car/ caravan is. the main roads forget it.
the prices of food all rocket, bread and milk run out and i cant get on a beach even if i wanted to.
cornwall whilst lovely is not 'all that'. im starting to regret my decision to stay when i was offered a smallholding in midwales to rent for 5 yrs, but my daughters mothers family is here and shes got into an amazing secondary school so i turned it down. so i spose i should just shut uip and put up. hey ho.
any other tourist sufferers on here?
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When I'm home (currently working in the US) I live 12 miles from Bournemouth seafront and on the route to the west country. It gets horrendous. You can't move for caravans.
On the other hand when I finally get my smallholding we are hoping to have some holiday lets so then I will be pleased to see the tourists.
I want my cake and eat it too
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I look after the local hostel and enjoy meeting folk, I get asked by them to be shown around my smallholding as they find it interesting, especially the children with the milking goat. One thing I have done with the kids is they get a different egg when they visit to try. One day a turkey egg, then a duck, a bantam and one little girl went home with a goose egg! I sell veg, eggs and preserves to them so I cant complain. One poor man came for some veg, he was a vegan and had just cycled across Shetland, he looked so weak and I felt awful selling him broccolli and courgettes , he looked liked he needed a bacon butty! No mass tourists here but I do think caravans could be a little less white.
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any other tourist sufferers on here?
Ohhhh yesssss.
We're on Hadrian's Wall. Tourists love to see the funny Cumbrian farmers on their quad bikes with their sheepdogs... love to take our pictures, standing in the road up which we are driving the sheep (or trying to, but it's difficult when all these camera-happy tourists stand in the middle of the road) to get a better shot... Tourists are very knowledgeable about gates, knowing which ones can safely be left with the extra string off ("Sheep can't open kissing wickets, y'know". Hoh yes they can. That's why we bothered to put the extra closer on, not just for fun.)
Of course we should develop a 'diversification' to capitalise on this passing trade - but we leave that to our neighbours with the organic cheese & cafe.
We grit our teeth, do more of the work very early and in the evening, and really really really appreciate the peace and quiet over the winter months...
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We are in the Peak District in Derbyshire ....the most visited National Park. Busy with walkers all year, but come Easter, it gets worse, and carries on until October. We are close to Kinder Scout, and hoardes of people descend......park all over the place (to save parking fees) walk 6 abreast along the lanes, so you cannot get past. We tend to not go out riding, or walking the dogs until very late evening - when its peaceful!!
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Shhh - they haven't found us yet :D :D :D
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Roxy, my sister and I were driving through the peaks once and came across a tribe of walkers, they were oblivious to us until my sis papped her horn. They shouted at us like we were not meant to be on the road and for making them jump ;) My sis works there we were not touring.
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Send some of them to Carnoustie - it's lovely here, beautiful beaches, castles, glens and it's like a ghost town. Our town centre is dying on its feet. We'd welcome the income so don't knock it if you've got it.
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There's an idea for your smallholder show, Rosemary, 'Best Pen of Towrists'.
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Yep!
We're in Cornwall and preparing to bunker down for the carnage that "run to the sun" brings every year! ::)
Luckily my shopping will be arriving this evening, the animals feed barn is full to the brim, the wine rack is looking healthy and I have no reason to leave home whatsoever!
Tourists don't tend to find us up here ... we're pretty lucky! ;)
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None of you ever done the tourist bit yourselves? ;)
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None of you ever done the tourist bit yourselves? ;)
Absolutely. And BH is the worst kind! ;D
(I was asked whether I suffered with tourists, not whether I was or was not a hypocrite... ;) ;D)
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When we went on holiday it was to a croft in the middle of no where, in Scotland that allowed dogs. Gairloch was our favourite place but went a few times to the outskirts ( not any more) of Aviemore. Then we bought our own and have not been on holiday since. Trouble is cause I have never been abroad or driven I have no official ID.My birth certificate is void since I am fifty as they are only viable up to 32yrs or so my bank said so I am invisisble. :o
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We don't get too many tourists at the moment, but they are wanting to add us to the Yorkshire Dale national park. When we (farming folk) asked what the advantages were, we were told that tourists would be able to enjoy the area better ::) Guess what we voted :D But the middle-class incomers were for it cos they think it will add value to their homes and make the old farmers tidy up a bit (I'd like to see anyone make Ken and Ray do anything :D)
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hermit. does that mean you dont have to pay taxes then?
loosey, you have the right idea.
when you think the eden project alone gets 1.5million (i checked twice...) visitors yearly its not suprising the roads get clogged. cornwall gets over a 1/3 of its income from tourism but how much stays in the county i dont know. i do know that we have one of the uks lowest average wages and some of the highest property prices and water bills.
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When we went on holiday it was to a croft in the middle of no where, in Scotland that allowed dogs. Gairloch was our favourite place but went a few times to the outskirts ( not any more) of Aviemore. Then we bought our own and have not been on holiday since. Trouble is cause I have never been abroad or driven I have no official ID.My birth certificate is void since I am fifty as they are only viable up to 32yrs or so my bank said so I am invisisble. :o
i know banks are weird but thats bull. why would your birth cert not be valid. Thou its not treat as id as anyone can get it.
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We don't get too many tourists at the moment, but they are wanting to add us to the Yorkshire Dale national park. When we (farming folk) asked what the advantages were, we were told that tourists would be able to enjoy the area better ::) Guess what we voted :D But the middle-class incomers were for it cos they think it will add value to their homes and make the old farmers tidy up a bit (I'd like to see anyone make Ken and Ray do anything :D)
Don't get me started on farmers tidying up in a thread about tourists... Grrrrr! I'm sure they'd be better behaved if they understood just how curious cattle are and how many different things can kill them when they eat them... I was just a little bit too slow one time to get a picture of a Charolais bullock trying his damnedest to swallow a 330ml lucozade bottle.
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I lived in Poole, worked at the hospital. It was a 45 minute walk along the beach to our house, it took up to 20 minutes to get out of the car park!
I am so out of the way here a tourist is a pleasure.
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I hadn't thought about townie litter ::) - I will tell our vociferous parish chairman that Ken's tin shed and heaps of ancient vehicles are far preferable ;) And I could point point out the habitat enhancement that his old trucks create - all sorts of things nest in them :D (since our landless professional nejghbours are of the 'squirrel nutkin' view of the countryside :P)
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Have not a clue Paul and dont really care but just told that after 32yrs of age birth Certificates dont count as ID.
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Sorry to say but I will be one of those annoying tourists travelling to north Devon this summer :farmer:, were staying on a farm just outside Bidiford with the Mrs family and dog. really looking forward being in the countryside for a week. I know I wont want to go home.
reading this thead I think I might have picked up a few tips on how not to pee off the locals. haha
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a good tip would be not to head out on day trips during the school run/rush hour!!! just hold on a bit till we've all got to work etc! tis one of my pet hates.
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loosey, you have the right idea.
i do know that we have one of the uks lowest average wages and some of the highest property prices and water bills.
Unless you have a bore hole ;) ;D
I love seeing all the families enjoying the beaches and spending a fortune in the gift shops in the summer holidays but Run To The Sun is a joke! I guess it will be time for Boardmasters too no doubt!
The only thing I would like tourists to change is the be a little more considerate on the eden trails. All the locals are brilliant and there's normally a great mix of dog walkers, horse riders etc but it makes me mad when I see people set up having a picnic and leaving all of their rubbish behind >:(
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stop moaning Deep. We're in Cornwall too, just outside Constantine, and feel so priveliged to live in such a beautiful part of the world. Why shouldn't others share it too. And we have a holiday let barn, and our tourists are lovely and very coniderate, many of them walkers.
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We must be very close to you too.
It is hard doing the school run but with hubby working as a sailing instructor on the Helford for a children's charity it is good to have visitors during the summer to pay for his skills.
Don't get me started on the water bills tho....
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We are right on the start of the coast path - the single track is the first mile and a quarter upto our farm.
We love tourists to a certain extent, got to try and tap into their cash while they are here - but god it does get a little hectic sometimes what with walkers thinking you shouldnt be driving on the track and wont get into the hedge for a few second, meeting people who cant reverse, rubbish in the hedges, gates being left open or closed when you want them open, dogs, kids, people getting lost and driving across fields looking for a picnic spot, complaints about sheep s**t on pathways, people complaining when you have to block the path intermittently to cross it with livestock. Most people dont realise that we actually own the path for miles and that all they have is a 'right of way' not a right to dictate or sit and have a picnic in the front garden.
Particualry get miffed by people who park in the strangest places not just in gateways but sometime literally next to the hedge on a single track road leaving only walking space past them - I mean wtf - I know it looks pretty desolate and unused by traffic with grass growing down the middle - but it is a road!!
rant over
Baz
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Wow, I didn't realise how many of us were in Cornwall!
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''Unless you have a bore hole ''
me too!! ;D ;D
''stop moaning deep'' can if i wanna lol ;D
i think i need to work out a way to cash in on these emmetts, perhaps guided tours of the mine shafts ''if you look hard enough you can see the knockers'' :o
i did think of selling concrete pasties but ginsters beat me too it!
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;D ;D ;D
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yep, you can Deep, if I can :)! My moan is also about the water bills. Any idea of cost of a borehole down here, something we're seriously thinking abut. Tried to open our old well, but not enough water flow for that.
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these are the people that maintain ours, they may be able to help you
http://www.pfs-uk.co.uk/ (http://www.pfs-uk.co.uk/)
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We get used to them down here, there is no season they just seam to be here all year round. I can't get used to people tying to put their toddlers on the cute forest pony! Last year we had 3 people hurt in a carpark when they fed the pony then wondered why it's mates all pitched in with teeth and hooves flying.
The foals are born and the stallions were let out last Saturday so going to be some upset walkers when they get in the way, lots of squealing and that's just the tourists!!
If you want to go anywhere you just get up early, whilst their snoring in their grockle-pods (caravans)
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There's an idea for your smallholder show, Rosemary, 'Best Pen of Towrists'.
What a good idea! Pa, ma and a wean ;D
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We're also in Cornwall - west, between Hayle and Helston. We don't really notice the invasion that much because we aren't on a major route. However in the summer months we do opt for our other mode of transport (motorbikes) if we have to venture to the more touristy areas :D - though a bike is not necessarily faster in the cornish lanes :o
The thing that does irritate me about the summer is the fact that we get thrown off various beaches for the duration because they ban dogs :( It really pisses me off that its a minority of rubbish dog owners who don't clean up after their pooches who tarnish it for the rest of us.
And as for the trash left behind by some people after they've had a lovely day on the beach, then get up and leave the residue behind, grrrr.....
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Might not be the poo issue about dogs Sudopan, we took a Spaniel to the beach once, not a sausage or apple pie left in a picnic by the time we caught him :censored: :paw: :paw: :paw:
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I suppose we are privileged to live where we do. It must be very hard to only be allowed 2 weeks of pleasure per year in the country and the rest of the time spent in concrete jungles.
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Might not be the poo issue about dogs Sudopan, we took a Spaniel to the beach once, not a sausage or apple pie left in a picnic by the time we caught him
:D we took a spaniel on the hills on Boxing Day once. Stopped for a bite, noticed a broken spectre rainbow, called some nearby folk over to admire it and by the time they'd returned to their turkey and cranberry sandwiches, they'd all gone :D they weren't impressed by the offer of jam butties to replace them 8)
I suppose we are privileged to live where we do. It must be very hard to only be allowed 2 weeks of pleasure per year in the country and the rest of the time spent in concrete jungles.
that's very true, I need to try to remember that! Also, just how detached most people are (even the landless, living in the country) from farming. Need to educate them I suppose somehow.
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I am still laughing at the picnic capers. Yes education and teaching people to appreciate the countryside would make for a far better situation for landowners, country dwellers and tourists.
We need tourists, because if people dont appreciate the country side which they only see as they zoom past on the motor way one day when we need to fight the developers, we will be a very small body, with a lot of ambivalent town dwellers not helping to fight the developers.
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fair point, tho my experience has been that many just use the countryside and dont consider it a privilege, the hedgerow rubbish is starting already, one car drove past my house yesterday and just lobbed a bag of dirty nappies over the hedge and in my garden.lovely.
if id have been quicker i would have chucked a brick back....
i want everyone to have free and proper access to the land but treat it with respect.
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I cannot believe someone would throw dirty nappies into someones garden thats really disgusting!!!
I live in Caversham just on the edge of the chilterns, the amount of rubbish you see in hedgerows around here is distressing to say the least, I have never understood people who mindlessly throw rubbish on there own doorstep.. I wonder what there houses are like?????
On my way back from work I walk along the thames from reading station to my house in Caversham, during the recent school half term the play area and playing fields on the norther side of the reiver was packed with groups of mums/dads and their kids playing and having a nice time. the next morning doing the same journey to work the whole area was strewn with litter, although the bins that were provided were full and some people had made the effort to pack their rubbish up, many did not and left it all over the park. The amount of it made my stomach turn. why do people do this?????.... most of them only live within a 5 - 10 minute walk of their homes, where they have a lovely big green bin to use.
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Not necessarily tourists but have you noticed the number of people who will drive to a local beauty spot to dump rubbish, rather than take it to the tip?
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we do get quite a few 20mph drivers, especially if on the way to and from St Andrews, they "drive"me mad ::) I can understand that they have to admire the scenery, it is ever so lovely but being stuck behind them all summer....
We had some funny people stopping outside the house. When I asked if I could help them a few said that one of their relatives or so had been born here, weird! Americans, Australians.Most are too shy to have a cuppa and a chat... :&>
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trouble is my 'garden' doesnt really look like one ::)
well 'run to the sun' has began and we're off to trecastle in the brecon beacons, to get some real peace and quiet and climb pen y fan wahay!! ill take my rubbish with me tho, shut every gate, not harrass the stock, buy all my food from local shops and drive like i stole it.... ;D
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ill take my rubbish with me tho, shut every gate, not harrass the stock, buy all my food from local shops and drive like i stole it.... ;D
Of course you cannot win. Drive slowly and someone will cuss you for slowing down normal country life. Drive too fast and some farmer trying to move some ewes and lambs, or a cow or bullock or two, will cuss you for endangering yourself, her stock, her dog, herself... ::)
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I just saw the best one ever today, some woman picked up her dog's poo in a bag then left the bag on the ground!! absolutely priceless, does she think it will decompose quicker in a bag?
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Oh it's very common, leaving the bag of poo. There's lots of these stories on the 'dog pooing on my land' thread, including a few people who throw them up into trees and hedges!
As I said on the other thread, dog poo in bags is worse for the cattle farmer than just leaving the dog poo - inquisitive young cattle will try to eat pretty much anything and eventually all the rubbish they can't digest can kill them.
I think somehow we have created a society in which everyone thinks that 'someone' should make the whole world be a safe and well-organised place, and it is someone's fault if it isn't. So they think, "If no-one supplies a dog poo bin (and empties it now and again) then how can I be expected to dispose of my dog poo?"
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I had someone yesterday taking a photo of his wife buying fresh eggs from my gate! Just makes you realise what are novelty things are to some people , we take for granted.
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I think somehow we have created a society in which everyone thinks that 'someone' should make the whole world be a safe and well-organised place, and it is someone's fault if it isn't.
I'm sure you're right about this, in all sorts of spheres! Makes people helpless (and hopeless!) as a result. I love living here because people are self-reliant and help each other out. We're so far from any thinly spread 'authorities' we expect to sort things out ourselves ;)
I had someone yesterday taking a photo of his wife buying fresh eggs from my gate! Just makes you realise what are novelty things are to some people , we take for granted
Yes, easy to forget what 'funny' lives city dwellers live :D
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I had someone yesterday taking a photo of his wife buying fresh eggs from my gate! Just makes you realise what are novelty things are to some people , we take for granted.
I think that's really nice.
I don't think it's helpful to create some sort of "them and us".
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A friend who lives in terror central (Luton) told us that she buys eggs from a neighbour but was horrified to be given some that were still warm last week. How does she think eggs happen? It makes us boggle that she boggled: she's seen our chickens and had our eggs too!
The supermarkets have won, at least for a lot of people
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I had someone yesterday taking a photo of his wife buying fresh eggs from my gate! Just makes you realise what are novelty things are to some people , we take for granted.
We get a lot of tourists here on Hadrian's Wall. Quite a few of them seem as, or more, enthralled at us moving some sheep up the road as they are at the Wall. Certainly it is very common that the cameras turn from the Wall to the sheep as we approach!
I don't think it's helpful to create some sort of "them and us".
I expect you are right Rosemary - I for one am just letting off some steam, hopefully amongst friends. I don't want access to the countryside to be shut down but I really do wish people had a little more common sense when it came to how to behave once they are here.
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when I was in my late teens I went to Ireland, hiking with a friend. Having been a city girl" I was absolutely stunned and taken by the beauty of the countryside and country living that it may well have been us standing by the roadside staring at sheep openmouthed. Now , of course, it's other people doing just that and the wonderful sights around where we are are admired by other people because we see them every day. I still try to keep the "Wow"factor alive somewhere inside me as it is the most beutiful part of the world we live in! Don't ask me to feel that fondly for tourists when I have the next one doing 40 all the way to St.Andrews in front of me when I'm in a rush ;D ;D
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We have a B&B down the road from us, every summer is the same people with children think its ok to let the kids climb the fence to talk to my ponies. Colts being what they are its just asking for trouble. We now have electric fencing everywhere. Our other problem is rubbish being dumped. I came home one day to find a woman up our farm road which is 250 yards long, when I asked her what she was doing she said she had come to speak to the horse. In her hand was a pile of custard creams. We do get people that are lost all the time, even had two French girls late one night in tears who could not fine the camp site they had booked into. We had never heard of it so let them put up their tent on our lawn. Gone in the morning without even a thankyou. I love where we live, its a beautiful place which I know I am lucky to look out onto every day so i do try to see it from the tourist point of view. Just wonder how many of them would put up with me and my dogs trailing about in their back yard. ;D
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You can tell the English schools have broken up.
There must have been a dozen cars in the carpark by Oldshoremore beach yesterday, with maybe three dozen people on the beach - that's massively busy for round here :)
Lots of scouser voices shrieking at their little darlings not to get too close to the sea/sand/rocks/seaweed etc.
Having a lot of single-track roads round here it's always amusing to see how normally urban drivers cope when faced with an on-coming vehicle.
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especially if THEY have a 4-wheel drive and not move an inch to the side in case they damage their vehicle ::) :&>
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dont get me started on dog poo. why bag it and bung it up in a tree i dont know. what i do know is having spent the last 5 days in lovely wales, ive realised just how ridiculously busy cornwall is. hardly any traffic all week in wales and as soon as i get near home boom here we go again.
i know the income they provide is important but the change ive seen here in just the last 15 yrs is gobsmacking.
sod it, animals all fed and watered and looked after, im out of here till the end of half term. hay festivals on and thats still not as busy as trying to get to truro.
pen y fan was a bit busy tho. at least 50 people :o ;D
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Yesterday...went to get hair cut with daughter and son. Son went to barber and finished first. Son got car keys and sat in car listening to 'music' and had air con on... went to car with daughter turned the ignition...ziltch...battery run down. Phoned OH no answer as he was in the field/garden/shed generally out! bought another set of starter leads. Son asked local folk for use of their battery no joy. Then couple fro OZ said yep and helped to get the old girl going. Result - went to dentist on time (paid lots of dosh for him saying all ok)... But thank you so much for the kind people who were willing to spare 10 mins to help us out. Sometimes tourists are better
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I don't know if it's 'cos it's flat around here, but we seem to get a lot of old people on the broads - Not that I have anything against old people but must they drive SO SLOW??? ;D
It's funny how quickly you get used to this way of life though - it's less than 1.5 years since I first got sheep - I remember driving home on the A47 with them in the back of the van, and thinking "what am I doing??"
Now it seems perfectly normal to be followed into the kitchen by sheep and chickens. :D
m
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I live (literally) on the Normandy/Pays de la Loire border in France. From late April onwards the roads are busier with campervans which are so very popular over here. Then from May onwards, we get the retired Brits with holiday homes over here, and from June its everyone else. What I cant stand though, is the bolshy attitudes of some of my former fellow countrymen. It makes me feel ashamed to hear them. They talk with very loud voices to show that they are british, and are sometimes very rude to the french. They forget that there may be other people around who understand what they are saying.