Birthday celebrations in Northumberland 25th - 27th September 2026

The long, hard slog...

We were up, showered, dressed, and packed by 8:15am this morning, and Sophie did most of the work, putting everything in the car and making a flask of coffee to drink on the journey. We had no choice but to take Olive, as I certainly didn't want to take our courtesy car with "Crash Repairs" emblazoned all over it! This meant we had to research charging stations along the way, and we planned to stop near Wetherby.

The sun was shining when we left, but we encountered cloud and a bit of fog on the A14 and M1. The traffic was heavy and stayed that way for the whole journey. I know I shouldn't compare the roads in the UK to France, but I thought fondly of the empty autoroutes in my favourite country, and the congestion made for unpleasant driving. I had to keep my wits about me the whole time! 

As we made our slow progress north, the weather worsened, and we had rain when we reached the huge services at Wetherby. We were able to grab a rapid charging station and went into the services to use the facilities, buy a newspaper and some food from Greggs. On the journey, we've been on the lookout for inspiration for my next car, and we admired a new Renault Scenic but then found out the new versions are electric only...

It took almost an hour to recharge Olive to 99%, and we set off again on the A1(M), passing Scotch Corner, Durham and then weaving our way through heavy traffic in Newcastle. Sophie had planned on taking us through the Tyne Tunnel, but Jeeves must have had a change of plan, and he took us through the city on the motorway.

Once through Newcastle, we were on a two-lane highway, and the traffic did calm down a bit. Sophie directed me to the coastal town of Amble, where we planned on having lunch at a seafood restaurant called The Fish Shack. Since Wetherby, the charge had dropped again, and we realised that when Sophie charged her phone in the car, this gobbled up electricity as well!

We found a small car park with a charging point where we had planned on powering up Olive while we had lunch, but the time limit was just one hour... We gave up on that, found another car park, but the Pay and Display machines didn't accept cards. We were starting to feel extremely fed up, but the car park next door did take cards. Strange!

We walked the short distance to The Fish Shack to find out they were full and wouldn't be able to seat us for lunch. Arrghhh! One of the staff then told us about their sister restaurant, The Boat House, which might have free tables. It was a short walk away, across a grey expanse of tarmac bordered by an inlet of the sea where rusty fishing boats were moored. It was obvious that Amble was very much a working fishing town.

I was wearing totally the wrong clothes for the weather today, and had on a short-sleeved dress. Other, more sensible people were warmly clothed in jeans, jumpers and coats. Luckily, the restaurant had a table free, and we took our seats before perusing the huge menus. Chalkboards also advertised daily specials, and the dishes were not cheap! Our choice of fish and chips was £22.95.

The service was slow, and the waiter kept apologising, even though his colleague was more interested in clearing tables rather than taking our order. Eventually, our order was taken, and Sophie and I chose a 500ml carafe of French Sauvignon Blanc to drink with our meal, while Keith stuck to lager.

The food was very good, the portions large and the batter wonderfully crispy, with succulent haddock cooked to perfection. Keith was impressed! Sophie and I shared a creme brulée for pud, and we paid the bill.

"I'm not crossing the A1!"

Before heading to our Airbnb in the village of Netherton, we popped into a Morrisons supermarket on the outskirts of Amble and charged up Olive. We bought milk and pastries for tomorrow's breakfast and then sat in the car until we had 150 miles on the clock, watching people arrive to do their weekly shopping or collect their groceries. The experience today has made me determined not to buy an electric car until the range increases and the availability of rapid chargers increases. Travelling abroad with an electric car would make for a very long journey!

We followed Jeeves's directions to get to the house, but he wanted me to turn right over the hectically busy, two-lane A1, and I refused. Cars were travelling at speeds of 70 mph, and the thought of doing this broke me out in a cold sweat. When I was learning to drive, my instructor once wanted me to turn right across a dual carriageway near my house in rush hour, and she had to use her dual controls to get me across. It has been a problem for me ever since, and I look at cars waiting to cross on the busy A43 or A14 with horror!

Instead, I turned left, and when the road narrowed to one lane, I made a right turn. We then followed a very windey, up-and-downy road to the house. It was like being on a roller coaster! I pulled over twice to let locals whizz past me.

When we arrived at the group of holiday cottages, we found someone had taken our space, so we nicked another space and unpacked the car. We were delighted with the cottage, a four-bedroom barn conversion all on one level with a beautiful kitchen, living room with log burner and views across the Northumberland fells.

Once we'd unpacked, we sat on the terrace with glasses of wine and a beer, and chatted. We took blankets out with us as it was quite chilly! In the distance was a herd of cattle (male, I think), and we saw lots more people arriving to stay for the weekend.

The sun came out and bathed the distant hills in a golden light, and we all hoped the weather would be fine for the rest of the weekend! Those hot and sunny days are a distant memory!

Our evening was spent watching BBC1 and we had no inclination at all to eat anything else!

Frustrating issues!

Today has been frustrating at work, mainly due to computer issues and I wrote down a list of things that we've had problems with this week! I asked Sophie if Mercury was retrograde, but it wasn't! I finally managed, with the help of someone from payroll, to get onto one of our systems that I need for my job, but there were still glitches that affected the whole company.

Thankfully, the day passed swiftly, and it was great to be driving home and looking forward to a three-day weekend! We are going away to an Airbnb in Northumberland tomorrow, but I haven't even packed yet or thought about what clothes to take. The weather forecast is mixed for the weekend, so it's difficult to choose what to take!

As it was Keith's birthday today, we toasted him with Champagne, and he opened his cards and my gift of aftershave (Sophie bought dinner and the wine), and he FaceTimed with Mike. We ordered a Chinese takeaway for three people, which was delicious, with a couple of dishes we hadn't tried before.  

We made plans to leave at 8:00am in the morning, slightly later than originally planned, but at least we could have a little lie-in!                                                                                                                                                                                        

Happy Birthday, Keith!!

80 years young today!

Feeling annoyed!

I drove Olive to work today, and managed to call the insurance company at 9:00am to sort out the payment. I now need to find another car quickly, but this is not the ideal week to do it! I want to actually look at another car, drive it and make sure it's OK, rather than buy it online and then take delivery.

Sophie and Keith were expecting a new tumble dryer that I'd ordered today, and I received multiple text messages, emails and phone calls from AO to say the machine was on its way. The driver seemed to text or call me every five minutes, and it was a bit over the top! I also had texts from the insurance company, so I felt frazzled! To make things worse, the owner of our Airbnb in Annecy in April texted Sophie to say she couldn't accommodate our booking any longer, as she had a long-term let. Sophie was furious and extremely upset and refused to cancel the booking, as it wasn't our fault. This was all going on while we were at work, but thankfully it happened during Sophie's lunch hour!

When I finished at 4:00pm, I took Olive to the car wash in Kingsthorpe and sprayed the front of the car with insect remover, as there were little creepy crawlies squashed on the bonnet. Back at home, I wasn't pleased with the result and had to go around with a cloth to finish it off!

Sophie was still looking frazzled with the delivery of the tumble dryer and trying to work with texts flying back and forth, so we relaxed with a drink before dinner. We looked at Airbnbs and found another one that we both loved and submitted a request to book. This one had fantastic views but was more expensive...

Dinner tonight was delicious: we enjoyed chicken burgers with salad and decided to forgo the potato wedges for once. "What? You have no potato products?!"

Hunting high and low!

Today has been fine, and I swing from enjoying this new job to disliking it! I think a lot of employees who worked for the old company feel the same! I know many people who left and bounced right back, so it's not a surprise. We are still getting used to the procedures and the way the company is managed.

My insurance company called me today to discuss the value of the car. I was expecting a battle with them, but they offered me more than I was expecting, so I readily agreed. They wanted details of the logbook, which I didn't have on me, so I would call them back after work. Before I left, I called Keith to ask him to find it so it would be ready when I got home.

When I arrived, he had the wrong one out, as I'd transferred the car into my name last January, with the blessing of my Dad. We hunted everywhere for the proper one, and I even called the repair company to check that I hadn't left it in the VW. She told me off for leaving it in the car, but I hadn't anyway, and she couldn't find it. By now, it was too late to call the insurance company back, and then Keith had a brainwave and checked the little plastic folders we take on holiday. We found it, along with the breakdown cover and the headlamp converters! Phew! One of the French laws is that you need to take your logbook with you when you drive abroad, but I have never been asked for it! I put it in my bag to take to work tomorrow, and I'll call them there.

In the evening, Keith went to see Sileby play and Sophie and I made jerk chicken pasta again. We are watching A Place in the Sun avidly at the moment and focusing on people looking for houses in France, particularly in the Charente region. We are both astounded at the prices! Just over £100,000 for a three-bedroom house with land!

Sophie went upstairs with Mooney at 9:00pm while I settled down to watch another episode of Britain's Lost Masterpieces. Keith arrived home slightly earlier this evening, so we had a quick chat about the game, and then it was time for bed. I am back at work tomorrow, as I've swapped my day off for Friday this week. It was a bit of a shock knowing I was back at work in the morning, while Sophie was working from home, lucky thing!

A quiet start to the week

Monday was quiet and uneventful, with not a lot to report. I felt a bit upset when I got into work and found four timesheets on my desk that hadn't been included on the payroll run, and I feared I'd made a mistake. It wasn't a good start to the day! However, I learnt that the staff had put the timesheets in the wrong folders, so it was an error on their part. Next month, just in case, I will check, though! We can do advances on pay, so it wasn't a disaster, but 

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and when I arrived home, Lynn came around to pick up the car shampoo I was giving away. We had a moan about the tip, both of us disappointed that they don't seem to be recycling as much as previously. I honestly thought that most items could be recycled these days!

The evening passed in the usual manner, but we watched a new French crime drama called Coastal Unit, which is a worthy successor to both Panda and Carpe Diem!

Annoying the spiders!

I was up quite early, and by 9:00am, after a cup of coffee, I was in the garage and starting a mammoth clear-out! I decided to tackle the garage methodically, commencing with the shelves near the door, which were full of paint tins, old plant pots, decorating implements... You get the picture!

Keith came out to join me and went through the drawers where he keeps all of his "man" stuff - boxes and boxes of screws, nails, hammers, tools, etc. Within a couple of hours, Sophie's car was full, and she had booked a slot at the tip.

In the process, I swept up leaves that get blown in and upset many, many little creatures, most notably spiders! Ugh! While we were clearing out the garage, Sophie stayed in the house, preparing breakfast and lunch for work tomorrow, hoovering, sorting out the laundry and making us mugs of tea.

Keith and I went for the first booking, and I was disappointed that the tip is no longer accepting hard plastic to be recycled. It now goes into landfill, which was a huge shame. We try to recycle everything we dispose of, but today quite a bit went into the unrecyclable skip. 

As well as taking stuff to the tip, I advertised some items on Facebook to give away for free. Sophie had brought home a load of paper, staplers and hole punchers, so they found a new home and Lynn, our neighbour, said she would have some car shampoo bottles! I also ordered a box from Vintage Cash Cow and enquired about a cabin at the antique emporium at Weedon Bec. Any money we make will go towards a holiday!

We had ham and cheese baguettes for lunch, and then carried on all afternoon, going to the tip one more time. Predictably, it was busy both times with people making use of the gorgeous weather to tackle their gardens, sheds and garages, just like us!

By about 4:00pm, we'd had enough, and I had a long soak in the bath. I was so glad that Sophie was cooking dinner and most of it had been done. Our dinner was delicious and well-deserved, as we had all worked very hard! Isn't today supposed to be a day of rest?!