Out Of The Loop

This is the message that I'm seeing most of the time when I'm online (or should I say "not online" ) at the moment. Yes, once again we are staying in our St Andrews caravan and, once again Caravan Connect WIFI is sporadic to put it kindly. Marion's been complaining that I'm spending too long on the internet whereas, in reality I'm spending too long trying to use the internet. My games of Words With Friends have been protracted and my presence on Twitter minimal. Whether I'll get to the end of this blog before midnight or not is the question of the moment. 

Anyway, must press on as the elusive signal is here and, as the rest of the site appears devoid of caravaners, I'll crack on before someone spoils it by trying to download their email. Yesterday it took over 60 minutes to download The Archers Omnibus our weekly dose of soap but we got there in the end and heard Bradley Wiggins' historic performance. 

The third week of my experiment of selling antiques on eBay ended yesterday. This nice little porcelain plaque that I bought at Campsea Ashe in a job lot of three did okay but overall, after eBay, postage and Paypal charges the three weeks have yielded just under £200 profit on items that cost £520 - a margin of 35%. I'm still regretting the fabulous cheese dish that arrived in a hundred pieces as I am certain that would have made a very good price and would have skewed theses figures upwards in a positive way. As it stands £200 hardly covers the cost of diesel and entrance to antique fairs etc but at least it is a profit and I've had a lot of enjoyment from it. I think that I've learnt quite a lot too. I probably won't continue on a regular basis but maybe will still buy one or two bits and pieces that have prices too good to resist. As Marion (sensibly) keeps telling me, my new mantra has to be "be more selective".

On Saturday we headed off with the family to Edinburgh. Sarah and Duncan had treated Marion to tickets to see Northern Ballet's production of Cinderella so Duncan and I took the children to the fabulous Edinburgh Museum while Sarah and Marion enjoyed the dancing.

Melody was as good as gold although she wasn't greatly impressed by the exhibits.

Rose was very impressed - especially by the excellent children's discovery room where she flaked out from exhaustion after an extremely busy couple of hours. As always, it has been great seeing the family and whilst it isn't exactly the lap of luxury, the caravan is comfortable enough and has been a great buy in letting us see more of Sarah, Duncan and the children regularly without getting under their feet or breaking the bank.

Whilst we've been away we've been reading The Sunday Times top 100 places to live. Interestingly, Framlingham and St Andrews both figure in the top 100 as does Southport - quite a surprise that all three places with strong connections for us feature - must be our impeccable taste.

And on that note, I'll finish quickly before the WIFI disappears. 

Things We Learnt Last Week

We spent the last week in our lovely caravan at Craigtoun Meadows in St Andrews and, whilst it is great that Caravan Connect have extended their WIFI coverage to reach our section of the site,we've realised that  it's hardly high speed internet and I gave up on blogging out of exasperation. I had enough time to make a meal - and eat it - waiting for a single page to download. All credit to Caravan Connect, at least I can send and receive emails, but I am afraid that I won't be doing much blogging from St Andrews (is that a sigh of relief I hear from my loyal band of followers?).

With the nights drawing in we watched a bit more TV than we did on our last Scottish visit. When we were kids in the late 1960's Marion and I used to think that Simon and Garfunkel were brilliant musicians. And do you know what? The excellent documentary The Harmony Game on BBC showed that we were dead right. Whilst a lot of 60's music now sounds dated and amateurish, the duo's lilting harmonies sound just as good today as they did then.

Another discovery for us was Tom Hollander's Rev on BBC2. How on earth did we miss the first series? Well I know exactly how we missed it - we watched episode one of the series and didn't think much of it. We should have stuck with it and listened to the crescendo of critical appraisal as the series continued as, if the first episode of series 2 is anything to go by, the BBC has got another timeless classic on its hands. Tom Hollander as the mild and self deprecating vicar of the title is a master of understatement and his performance is both gently comic and brilliantly observed. With a very strong supporting cast including another two fine actors in Olivia Colman and Steve Evets this is top notch whimsy with a tougher edge than the comparable Jam & Jerusalem.

Here's our TV highlight of the week. Our super daughter in law Josephine got two credits for her fabulous new show Sorority Girls. But which is better? Producer or Developer? There's only one way to find out

I'm Shocked

I subscribe to a brilliant Internet service called Front Pages Today. It costs nothing and every day I get an email with a snapshot of all of the major UK newspapers’ front pages together with those of The Wall St Journal and a few regional rags. But this morning saw me spluttering into my Weetabix as I opened the email and saw today's front page news in The Daily Star "B BRO BABES THREE WAY ROMP". The shortening of Big Brother to B Bro in down with the kids text speak was bad enough but it really is coming to something when a supposedly national newspaper fails to use an apostrophe in their headline. How many "babes" were involved in the three way romp. I suppose that the accompanying photo may have held a clue but I was shocked by this terrible grammar. What is the world coming to? 

By the way if you want that daily email simply visit www.FrontPagesToday.co.uk and subscribe.

I was able to read those headlines over breakfast because Caravan Connect have finally beefed up the Wifi at our caravan park and I am able to browse away to my heart's content which, after buying a Toshiba PVR to allow us to pause live TV completes the final piece in the caravan jigsaw puzzle and makes it as well equipped as we could hope. We're here for a couple of weeks again as tomorrow we are having a celebration for granddaughter Rose. It's like a christening but without the christening bit.

Once again we are indebted to our friend Jan Harbon for creating another  magnificent celebration cake for us. Jan pulled out all the stops to make this enormous cake at short notice and even got up at five in the morning to allow us to collect it early yesterday before driving up to St Andrews. This single photo does not do justice to the beautiful cake and I will post some more with the blog on the celebrations.

It's been a busy week on the culture front as Wednesday night saw us at the Echo Arena in Liverpool to see Dolly Parton with her enormous repertoire. Dolly performed for almost three hours with just one short break - not bad at all for a sixty five year old. It was Marion who persuaded me to book for this show and I have to admit that it was a very entertaining evening. One bad note was Salt House Tapas which I have praised on here so many times. I booked a table for a pre show meal but was disappointed to be seated in a cramped upstairs table way away from the bustle of the restaurant. As one of only three couples who bothered to book I would have thought that a decent table would have resulted. Not only was the table poor but the food fell well below the usual high standard. This may have been due to the numbers going to the show but a good restaurant should be able to cope. It won't stop us going back but the halo certainly slipped this time.

The other cultural? event of the week was Final Destination 5 at the local Vue. We've seen most of this franchise and yes they are all the same but I have to say that the 3D opening credits - a sequence of shattering bloodied glass - were quite spectacular and as good a use of the 3D technology as you will ever see. Even arch 3D critic Mark Kermode would find it hard to fault this one. The final credits too used the medium well. As for the bit in between, a hundred and one ways to come to a sticky end,  squelch, yeuch, eurghh, blood, gore all in the best possible taste and with tongue firmly in cheek.

Another regular service I subscribe to is Unruly Medias viral video chart. Here's one from today's list. Have a great weekend.

Getting there.

Just as the blog was building up a steady number of daily hits I found myself Internet less in the caravan. I've been on to the wifi providers, Caravan Connect, and it seems that they are going to put a new hot spot near to our caravan soon so maybe it will be up and running next time we are here in St Andrews. For now I have to sit outside the cafe with a cup of coffee as the signal is great here and the connection is nice and fast. Fortunately the weather is good too although I do feel a little conspicuous. 

Before long we will be able to take real advantage of the caravan. Sarah's partner Duncan came yesterday and helped me to put up the bike store. Or perhaps I should say that Sarah's partner Duncan came yesterday and put up the bike store for me while I watched admiringly. It's a super and sturdy construction, it looks good and it doesn't take up a lot of space.

After that we went to Dundee and bought two bikes. There are scores of bike stores in the area. I sounded out a couple with what we wanted. One seemed uninterested whilst the other, Nicholsons of Dundee could not have been more helpful. So, despite being thirty minutes further away, we went there and found them highly knowledgeable and as helpful as they had been on the phone. We chose two hybrid bikes and they are being set up for us tomorrow and delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday. We also bought all the extras like locks, helmets (despite Marion's objection that it will ruin her hair - I'd rather her hair was ruined than her head), mudguards, lights and a puncture repair kit. It came to a fairly tidy sum and it just goes to show the importance of showing an interest in enquiries and treat all approaches as a potential sale.


After the bikes it was a trip to a retail park for for bits and pieces - a radio, some cushions, loo brushes and a few nick nacks to make the place look more lived in and now we are pretty much ready to go. The only thing remaining on the wish list is a PVR (a digital TV recorder). They only had a couple in Dundee and I would like a bit more choice before forking out so I will do some research on the net before buying one.  

This afternoon we are having our first break from settling in and we are off to the St Andrews Highland Games. Looking forward to it. Will let you know how it goes.