Week in the paddock

We were supposed to leave Friday but Pip & Jim said we could stay till after the Bank Hol weekend as there was lots going on up at the racecourse. Manned the entrance to Jim's yard for the Racehorse Trainers' Open Day on Sunday and had a lovely day with Laura & Nat (Joy's niece and her partner) on the Monday at the Family Day on the racecourse. You have to see how cute the Shetland Pony Derby is, with little kids going hell for leather down the Derby straight on Thelwell-like round little ponies! If you live in the area and can go next year, try and make it... Thank you, Pip and Jim, for a wonderful week we will always remember.

Left the paddock yesterday and towed safely home so just getting Stan ready now for the big adventure which starts in 8 days... can't believe how quickly it has crept up on us. Have received the special reflectors we have to have for the back of Stan for driving in Spain and also the Liber-T tag for us to be able to drive through the peage in France without stopping; the amount just gets charged back to your bank account. Should save us a lot of negotiating the toll booths with Stan and also finding change all the time. Good tip if you are doing much driving in France...

Next jobs are cleaning Stan ready for the trip, packing and getting Euros. This blog will soon start to get exciting - promise!

BBQ fun!

Well, the sun didn't last and - by the time we got to start the BBQ - it was quite chilly but nobody seemed to mind much. Lots of nice chat and stuff with Pip and Jim and their teams. Fantastic setting in their paddock; could just see the flags of the racecourse in the distance.

Promised to mention Lou today for her brilliant one last night - I said we had started caravanning because we were sick of posh hotels charging us an arm and a leg to bring our dogs with us and then giving us crappy rooms; with the caravan, we could still have all our creature comforts. Lou quipped "...and your creatures!"

Lovely waking up this morning and still in the paddock! Peps and Bud are really loving this caravanning; if only it would stop raining, everything would be bliss....

Let's have some sunshine, please!

Arrived up at Pip and Jim's yesterday in normal caravanning weather - ie lots of rain - and "had fun" finding somewhere in their paddock level enough for us to park "Stan", our caravan. Eventually got sorted (great practice for us!) and had a lovely evening, catching up with Pip and Jim's news over a few glasses of vino collapso. Great to see Jim's lads waving to us as they took a string out on Epsom Downs this morning... 

Were hoping the weather would be better today but woke up to more rain but, by lunchtime, we  had some lovely sunshine so we are doing a BBQ for everyone tonight. Should be good fun! Just what we hoped caravanning would be all about.

Practising for "The Big Adventure"

Life is sweet - and we (Joy & Steve) love to have new experiences, make new friends and see new places. With our two adorable beagles (Pepper and Buddy) in tow, we are soon to be setting off on our new adventures in our gorgeous new caravan (Bailey Unicorn Barcelona for caravan nuts). After picking up our caravan in Cheshire, we drove over to Ilkeston, Derbyshire where the wonderful people of Regal Furnishing looked after us like we were family and re-covered our seats with lovely cream leather to make them beagle-proof (anyone with beagles will know what we mean). Staying 2 nights on an industrial estate has never been so much fun! Then we did a week on a proper site on the edge of the Derbyshire peaks where we practised setting up and taking down our huge awning - quite a challenge for Steve when the instructions, such as they were, were written by a Dutch company and it was really windy and rainy. But hey, ho - things can only get easier and next week we are visiting our chums, Pip & Jim, for more practising as they have a big paddock where we can set up. Looking forward to a bit of BBQing and catching up with them....