The dongle says 'non'

Dear lovely friends,

It’s been a long time since we could get onto the internet.  Don’t want to bore you with the hours we’ve spent in mobile phone shops where seemingly nice French people nod and say ‘toute a fait’ but are actually lying par leurs dents, but it has been incredibly frustrating.  Our cle –dongle – has attitude too.  Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t, but mostly it won’t.  It’s been great to find a Wi-Fi hotspot today, at L’Aiguillon sur Mer.  We've been parked up here for hours, revelling in the sheer connectivity of it all. 

We’ve been in France a week now, charting a more or less straight course from Calais to Les Sables d’Olonne.  We’ve stayed on beaches, at a goat farm (nice cheese but very goaty), 

at a vineyard (verrrry nishe wine), and in a car park (not nice at all), and we’ve only spent £15 on campsites since we left.  Tomorrow we’re off to a place called St Trojan on the Ile d’Oleron – there’s a surf school there, so we’re hopeful.  Our wetsuits are all dry in the top-box, and I don’t think I’ll feel proper-holiday-like till we’ve been in the sea.

It feels like ages since we were in England, but even so, a campsite in Worthing sticks in the memory as somewhere NOT to stay. It must regrettably remain nameless - we have nothing good to say about it whatsoever and don't want to get sued - but it begins with a D.

When we arrived, our hosts sighed.  Even when we paid they sighed, which takes a certain sort of idiocy.   When we told them we’d have to leave at 8.15am, they sighed again: “We’ll have to set the alarm then”, they said, gloomily. 

Next morning was beautiful:  crisp, clear and sunny.  We made the mistake of remarking on it - 'nice morning', we said, as you do.  They glared at us.   'All the better for being up so early' was the pointed reply.  There was a blackboard in the reception area on which was chalked “Hello and welcome”.  It was doing a much better job than the owners, that’s for sure.

Lots of love to you all,

M. et Mme. Spanneur

Close (very) to Gatwick

Hello lovelies,

Hope this finds you well.  We are fine after a manic tour of Wales and the North, but our campsite for tonight (advertised as leafy Surrey countryside) is at the end of what must be Gatwick's busiest runway.  It's good for my flying phobia though - no planes have crashed yet, and there have been a hell of a lot of them.

Our first full day off tomorrow, which will be nice.  It'll be a good time to sort out all the cupboards in the van, which were packed in a hurrry and contain a lot of stuff we don't need, making it harder to find the things we do - like passports, which we finally found after a two-hour search yesterday.  Remind me to listen next time Mike says he's found a safe place for something. I think we might also spend a bit of time looking for a new campsite.  We can see the passengers' faces from this one. 

We have been having lovely healthy food and so far it's all been free, thanks to my brother Rob's allotment, accountant Fiona's vegetable garden, and schoolfriend Claire's muck-heap (the best pumpkins and courgettes you've ever seen).  We are hoping to be unrecognisably slim by the time we come back.   Proper cooking photos below:

Rosemary and Rob's butternut squash.  Mike's gin & tonic (honest, guv)

Squash, tomato, onion & chilli soup.  Lovely, and cheap too - gives us hope that our budget might even work.

Time for bed now.  Mr Spanner and I have matching earplugs, you'll be pleased to hear.

Mrs S.  x