A Blogger in Black

Friday morning and the temperatures had – as predicted – dipped some way below zero. The heating was cranked up whilst a downed a warming cuppa. There was the usual mopping up of the condensation to be done – it happens on pretty much every winter trip. The windows were dripping and condensation had gathered on the shelf in the corners under the front windows. Several sheets of kitchen roll were duly deployed. The first time it happened years back sent me into mild panic, thinking that dear old Patsy was leaking, would be ravaged by damp and eventually collapse around us. Thankfully Trev had thought it through and realised what was going on! The next item on the agenda was a bit of cleaning and given that my guest was due to arrive mid-morning I needed to get shift on. After checking that the jacketed Aquaroll hadn’t frozen I extracted Henry from the car – Henry is the eponymous vacuum cleaner in case you were wondering, not a young hunky manservant. I certainly wouldn’t have kep...

Wednesday the 7th of December and the last day of Michaelmas Term for us. Always the longest term of the school year and one which the majority of us were glad to see the back of. It was a lunchtime finish as per usual with no lessons for the kids, just assembly, chapel service and the chance for parents to bribe teachers with gifts – sorry – show their appreciation. As you may recall we lost our highly respected manager in October and the powers that be had coerced the deputy head of another department to take up the reins for a bit. He was well appraised of the situation and the discontentment amongst us and to be fair has been making a real effort, so much so that a team breakfast was promised once we had dropped the kids off on the last day. Like my colleagues I was looking forward to a full English, my usual first meal of the day being a bowl of cereals or a pot of instant porridge depending on my work schedule. The ’full English’ was, we were advised on arrival in fact a continen...

Friday and our last full day in London. The light leaking around the blinds suggested a bright morning as we sank our respective cuppas. There was just one place of interest on the agenda today, one that had been on my list for a long while. Mid morning we set off, accompanied by a packed lunch of sausage baguettes and bananas, on a journey that would involve two bus rides, the first being the now usual one down the hill to Sydenham station. Thereafter the Overground, the two tube rides, before another bus brought us to our destination - a small industrial estate in Walthamstow. I take Sandra to all the best places you know! Sandra continues: "Richard had mentioned wanting to visit God's Own Junkyard some time ago and I was not sure where or what it entailed. Some online research only proved to catch my interest. It is certainly quirky and its location in the middle of a small industrial estate adds to its charm. There is a small cafe which serves the most delicious homemade c...

Wednesday morning, overcast but mild and a bit muggy. I was up early, the usual mug of builders’ eventually galvanising me into action. I was heading to meet my friend and fellow caravanner Sandra at the train station – usually Euston which is a straightforward enough trip from Crystal Palace – number 3 bus to Brixton then the tube. Thanks to Avanti West Coast being unable to do the one thing in their remit – run a reliable train service – I was instead heading to Paddington – distance wise little further but to be there on time a trip which involved a bus, Overground and three packed tube journeys. Sandra writes: "It was the middle of October 2022 and it was time to pack the suitcase once again and head South for a few days away in London with Richard. Given the well known issues with the railway at the moment, travel arrangements ended up being last minute.   I was to join Richard with another Richard and colleague from Cover4Caravans insurance for lunch, and needed to be i...

Tuesday. The usual early morning cuppa to coax the little grey cells into action, then onto the TFL app to sort my route out for the day. Boring to some but I do enjoy planning days and trips out. Apps and the like make things so much easier, you can almost pretend you’re a local as everyone else is staring at their phones too! It was set to be a later finish today so I wasn't in a rush to get out. There was one last thing to prep for the little slow cooker, and yet another new recipe, this time Hawaiian Pork, for which I'd had to procure some sherry at the weekend - not a drink I'm a fan of. That having been done, this time I made a point of clearing the washing up - as some lazy sod had left it the day before - before doing all the usual caravan jobs. I headed out just before lunch, sporting my high Doc Marten'esque boots - a much cheaper alternative. I knew that there'd be a fair bit of walking and these had proved themselves to be very comfortable indeed and loo...

The rain continued through to the early hours but the light leaking through the bottom of the front blinds suggested the sun had made an appearance. I checked the forecast again and we were all set for a sunny and relatively warm day. I already had a rough idea of what I wanted to do so, after briefly emerging from my pit to make a large mug of tea, settled back in my pit, perusing the TFL app and Google Maps to see what routes I needed to take. I may have grabbed some extra Z's too before eventually deciding to get moving. First item on the agenda once I’d finally surfaced was prepping the evening meal, once again utilising the little slow pot, this time for ‘beef n beer’. My kitchen at home is hardly big, but with less work space in Patsy being organised was key – not one of my strongest points. However in a short time the slow pot was filled and switched on and I set about getting ready to hit the road. The washing up could keep. I would be heading down the hill once again on th...