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. 

Not So Fine Dining In St Andrews

Whenever we visit the caravan we try and treat ourselves to a meal out at least once during our stay. I was about to book for our usual favourite when I spotted some terrible recent reviews on TripAdvisor. Any restaurant or hotel can get the odd poor review and, provided the general trend is good, we tend to ignore the isolated grumble. But these reviews posted over the last few weeks were very bad indeed and we felt that we shouldn’t risk wasting a considerable sum if something is amiss there.

So we tried somewhere new; at least new to us. I’m not into criticism so I’m not going to name the restaurant but, whilst it had a lively and buzzing atmosphere, the food was decidedly average and we won’t be heading back in a hurry. At £65 for two including a glass of wine each it was not the cheapest venue in town - we’ve had far better meals in St Andrews at half the price. So it was a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. We avoided the risk of disaster at our favourite place but didn’t enjoy the substitute. We’ll be reading the Trip Advisor reviews with interest next time we’re here in September.

Today we discovered somewhere new when we went with Sarah and Rose to Craigtoun Country Park. It adjoins Craigtoun Meadows Holiday Park where we are sited but it was not open last year as far as I am aware. It’s a very pleasant park with a playground, boating, putting and plenty of other stuff to keep families amused and we had a very enjoyable couple of hours there in warm sunshine.

Our fortnight here is drawing to a close. It’s been very hot and sunny and I believe that there’s been similar in Framlingham. I just hope that after all the time and effort that Tony from DNA Landscapes put into landscaping the garden, our gardener has managed to keep everything alive. We’ll find out on Monday.  

Ten Things We'll Miss About St Andrews

With just three more nights to go before we head south (weather permitting - I see that the Mirror and Express had big weather scare headlines yesterday), it's time to take stock of our six months in the caravan here in St Andrews.

Little did we know when we told the buyers of our house that we'd be happy to move out before the work on the place in Suffolk was finished that we were committing ourselves to over half a year of living on a caravan site and eighteen thousand miles of driving up and down the country. But it hasn't been at all bad. In fact, although we've known St Andrews ever since Sarah started university thirteen or so years ago, we never really KNEW it until 2011 when we bought the static at Craigtoun Meadows and even then we only knew it as temporary visitors.

Eighteen months later we've grown to love it and if we did not have family in other parts of the country we could quite happily have opted for retirement here. We watch A Place In The Sun Home And Away regularly and it never ceases to amaze me how people hanker for foreign climes when there are such fabulous places in the UK. Anyway, here are the ten things we'll miss the most. The list excludes our family who, it goes without saying, will be missed a hundred times more than anything else.

1. The caravan itself. You may think that being cooped up together in such a small place twenty four/ seven for six months would be enough to send anyone stir crazy but it's been cosy and quite relaxing (when not dealing with 101 queries from builders, architects, decorators, electricians and other suppliers) and there's a lot to be said about a place that takes just an hour or two a week to keep clean.

2. The wildlife. Unfortunately I don't have any photos but since most of the regular caravan visitors have stopped coming during the winter months more and more animals have shown themselves and we find ourselves watching rabbits and buzzards and listening to owls. Recently new arrivals have appeared and we regularly see three deer wandering across the site and even spotted a rare red squirrel
last week. 

3 The local scenery. Rugged coastlines, glorious sandy beaches, spectacular ancient monuments. Few places can equal what it has to offer.

4 Cycling. We've not done much in November and December but from July through to October we were on our bikes frequently and built up a number of excellent routes raging from a simple ride to the shops to more grueling hill climbs with exhilarating descents.

5 Dining out. There are scores of places to eat in St Andrews and we've tried most but you can't really beat The Seafood Restaurant. We've only been three times in the last six months but it has an unbeatable position above the sea, the food is fabulous and the service is first class. 

6 And of course, there's coffee shops too. Forget Starbucks and Costa, our favourite is Mitchells. It's not just a coffee shop. There's a cracking deli, and they serve, breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as our favourite coffees, teas and cakes. The service is great and there's a really buzzing atmosphere. We're going there for their delicious chicken and chorizo bean casserole on Saturday and looking forward to enjoying it with a couple of glasses of chilled wine. The North Point is also worthy of a mention. They advertise it as the place where William and Kate enjoyed coffee and it's usually packed with students enjoying their great teas and some delicious cakes.

7 Metal Detecting. The farmers around St Andrews have been extremely welcoming and I've enjoyed regular days in the fields in glorious countryside and made some great finds to boot. My favourite was this little piece of Bronze Age gold which is currently at the Treasure Unit in Edinburgh but hardly a day out passed without finding something interesting.

8 Fraser Gallery. We only discovered this super little art gallery in November (which is perhaps a good job or we'd be broke). They exhibit paintings by some excellent Scottish artists and we couldn't resist these by Alice McMurrough and David Mackie Cook. Roderick, the proprietor is passionately enthusiastic about his artists and, even if you don't buy, you should have a look at what they have to offer.

9 The night sky. There's virtually no light pollution at Craigtoun Meadows so (although this is not my photo) the sky at night often looks like this. Combine this with the stillness and peace and it's the perfect recipe for relaxation.

10 Last but by no means least, the people of St Andrews. Now I know that many English people see the Scots as a dour race but nothing could be further from the truth. Be it shop, supermarket, cafe, hairdressers, restaurant or hotel we've been served with charm and friendliness without exception. When Marion went into a shop today to buy an obscure battery for my car key, the shopkeeper, on finding that he didn't have one, phoned a competitor for us and asked him to reserve it, Now that's the sort of service you don't find every day. 

St Andrews - we'll miss you.