Sleeping in Swimming Goggles.

As well as the Jag, there was one other item on Neil's wish list for moving back to the UK. He had always talked about having laser surgery on his eyes but while he was working, he had never got round to having it done. He wore contacts lenses and had glasses which used to cost about £350 each time he changed them.

Just before moving to Spain we both got new glasses with reactalite lenses and prescription sunglasses and even with discounts the bill was not much short of £1,000!

By the end of the first year in Spain, Neil's glasses were showing signs of scratching - even with an anti-scratch coating, because there is just so much dry dust there. You have to be really careful how you wipe your glasses to minimise the scratches.

As time progressed we noticed the reactalite coating seemed to be peeling off and eventually he reverted to an older pair of glasses as he was having difficulty seeing properly. By now 2 years had passed and any warranties were no longer relevant.

We did price up replacements in Spain but they were no cheaper there than here. All the adverts offering cheap glasses were the same in Spain as in the UK, not applicable to Neil's prescription.

We looked into laser surgery in Spain which is just as expensive as in the UK, and despite the adverts saying from £395 - for Neil you could multiply this by 10.

Before we had decided what to do in Spain about the surgery we had decided to move back and that finalised Neil's thoughts on what he wanted to do. The fact that he would be playing golf in rain more often here meant he wanted rid of his glasses. He had taken to wearing his contacts when playing golf but with his vision it meant he couldn't read small print, including texts on his mobile. The frustration over his sight was obvious. Just marking he scorecard was difficult.

Within a week of being back we had an appointment at a clinic in Sheffield. They did all the tests and confirmed he was suitable for surgery. He was scheduled for the following week.

The clinic were very keen that all his questions were answered and, while I wasn't too keen on knowing the details of the actual operation, they always included me in the discussions.

On the day of surgery Neil was obviously nervous and I tried to keep his mind of what was happening later in the day. We arrived for the appointment in plenty of time and joined a few others in a very quiet waiting room. There were a couple of large TV screens on the wall showing the golf tournament which helped pass the time, but made us chuckle as they were not tuned in very well so the picture was quite blurred. Considering we were in an optical clinic, I wondered how many people looked at the screen and thought their eyes needed more work!

Finally we heard them call Neil's name and I then began my lonely wait while they carried out the surgery. It seemed to take longer than others but after about 20 minutes he came out wearing his sunglasses.

The anaesthetic was still working so he wasn't in any pain and he had a bag full of drops to use. One of the main problems after surgery is dryness which will affect the healing so he had drops to help fight infection, drops to keep the eye moist and drops to encourage healing. He also needed to wear his sunglasses for 24 hours as his eyes would be more sensitive to light.

They had suggested the best thing to do when he got home was to sleep. As I don't think he had slept much the night before, it didn't take him long to fall asleep and he slept for a couple of hours. I had told him to take painkillers before he went to sleep so that as the anaesthetic wore off the painkillers would keep the pain at bay. It seemed to work.

Everything seemed to have gone Ok. One of the biggest no-no's is rubbing your eyes after surgery, yet there is a massive urge to do just that. During the day it's easy to control the urge but at night it's not.

And that's where the swimming goggles come in. They stop any attempt to rub or scratch the eyes while asleep - and they work very well. They just look really odd.

To be fair, they must be reasonably comfortable as they didn't stop Neil sleeping and by the time he woke the following morning his vision was starting to settle. He saw an immediate improvement in one eye, the other was slower to heal but now, a few weeks after surgery he is finding he doesn't have any problems at all. He still uses drops at night and he now needs reading glasses for small print but he can read his texts without his glasses.

There is an advert on TV where Podraig Harrington says how much laser surgery has helped his golf. Well, I'm sorry to say Neil cannot say the same - but it has improved his enjoyment of the game. And when it does rain, he doesn't have the problem of trying to keep the rain of his glasses.

Would I have it done?

No way.

And how do I cope on the golf course when it rains?

I stop playing and go into the club house for a coffee. It's so much cheaper than surgery!

For Dianne

Hi Dianne,

You kindly left a comment for me on my post 'A quick 9 holes'. Could you please drop me a quick e-mail to the address on my profile as I would like to e-mail you with more information.

Thanks

Work Update.

I completed my assignment yesterday. I did a 3rd week at the same firm but apart from going in on Tuesday to go through all the figures I am back to being unemployed until the agency can find me another assignment.

One thing I have become very aware of is that my Excel skills while competent, are not at the level that a lot of the companies are wanting, and it is stopping me from taking some assignments, so my task while I wait for the next placement is to teach myself about filters and pivot tables. I have a couple of websites to try (courtesy of my brother's research) and my husband has bought me a large book on Excel so, rather than sitting in queues of traffic on Bank Holiday Monday I shall be sitting infront of my laptop with columns of figures hopefully transforming themselves into the required pivot charts.

Wish me luck!

Visiting the local farm shop.

One of the things I used to love in Spain was my weekly wander around the local street market. The fresh produce always looked so fresh and tasty and somehow our shops just don't get the same effect with the prepacked produce. Whether it is the produce, the volume of stalls, the obligatory Namibian Pan Pipe group or the atmosphere or a combination of all I'm not sure but wandering around the fresh produce area of Tesco or Sainsbury's doesn't quite have the same effect.

We have a large area of allotments across the road from our house but I have been unable to find whether there is an allotment shop so I was quite pleased to see we have a Farm Shop less than 10 minutes from us. Each time I drive past I remind myself I should stop and have a look to see what the shop is like and today I made a deliberate effort to go and take a look.

From the road it was difficult to assess how big the shop was but once we were inside we were pleasantly surprised. There was a large meat counter with very good looking meat so we treated ourselves to a couple of Rib Eye steaks. The lamb also looked good. I don't often buy lamb but as it looked so good I decided we would treat ourselves to a leg, but as there are only 2 of us I asked for a little leg from a little lamb!

They have a veritable array of deli stuff plus a a fine display of in-season fruit and veg. By the time we had finished I had a trolley full of (hopefully) good quality foods.

http://arrowfarmshop.co.uk/aboutus.html


And now, a few hours later, the Rib Eye steak has been consumed and was really good quality meat. Very tender and lots of flavour. Definitely worth the extra £1 it cost us and definitely means we will be back to the Farm Shop in the not too distant future.

I love finding new places that are as good as you hope they will be.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the Garden Centre a couple of minutes away from the Farm Shop. The entrance looks very impressive but the plants and coffee shop left a lot for improvement. Still, we are not short of good Garden centres with quality coffee shops nearby, so I shan't struggle when I want to buy my rhubarb plant.

I have a Bank Holiday to look forward to.

One thing that did seem odd when we weren't working was that Bank Holidays and Weekends meant less. Most of the time we didn't even realise it was a holiday day unless we called at the shops and found them closed.

Now that I am working again I can look forward to my weekends. And this week I have the joy of a 3 day weekend to look forward to, as Monday is a Bank Holiday. For this week at least, I am still working in the same place. Tomorrow I should find out whether I will still be there next week.

3 hours with a 3 year old.

One of the joys of being back in the UK is that we can get to know our granddaughter. She is 3 and a half now and although she has only seen us a few times she is starting to be quite settled when she visits us. Today she was looking forward to coming through to see the pups.

Unfortunately, the feeling is not reciprocated by the pups.

The pups are terrified of her and cling to either Neil or I the whole time she is in the house. She is very gentle with them and doesn't grab at them but they cannot work out what this little person is all about.

Last time she was here it was obvious how child unfriendly our house is. The only thing that was remotely suitable for her to play with were the dogs toys - and that made them totally unsuitable for her to play with.

And so, in preparation of her visit today I bought a colouring set. One that she can keep here. Uncle Glen brought her through and we opened up the colouring set in the kitchen. She dragged a dining chair across so she could reach the centre island and happily settled herself to turning Snow White into a Smurf as she preferred the blue crayon to the pink one.

Once Neil arrived back from golf we were off to McDonald's for tea. Cadey decided she wanted to go in Grandad Neil's big car so we swapped her car seat over and clambered aboard.

McNuggets and chips WITH red sauce and a purple fruit shoot. There's no dithering when she's at the counter. As for us 3 adults, plenty of dithering.

Once we were back at the house, we settled in the conservatory and Cadey kept us entertained with her never ending stream of chatter.

3 hours after she arrived, she left. It was a lovely but very tiring 3 hours. As she left it was hugs all round, Brandy & Brinkley included, much to their dismay.

In expectation of her next visit, I need to find a really good story book. I love shopping for books but this will be a whole new section of the store for me.

I'm enjoying being a Grandma.

A quick 9 holes.

Today is warm and sunny and a perfect day for golf, and so I am having a couple of hours with my husband playing 9 holes at his new golf club. This is only the 2nd time I've played golf this year and I am really looking forward to it.

I've just got back from walking the dogs along the canal to live rock music. There is Dub Odyssey 2010 going on, which is some sort of festival at the Rugby Club and there are hundreds of camper vans there - the local events page describes it as:

A small, local, chilled out VW show. With traders, caterers, live bands playing throughout both days, a fancy dress disco in the club house on Saturday evening (theme On The Farm), a bouncy castle, prize winning quiz and Show & Shine event (on Sunday only).

It’s like a throw back to the Hippy Days! Maybe it's thanks to them that the sun is shining. Whatever the reason, I am taking full advantage to go and swing a club.

Job Hunting

One of my main goals on returning to the Uk was to start working again.

I have been an Accountant all my life and I love it. So, I have been bugging agencies on every vacancy I think I can do, knowing it will not be easy to get a job. After all, I have been out of the job scene for over 2 years, I am the wrong side of 50 (and no, I don't include my age on my CV but anyone with half a brain can work out an approximate), my last role was in senior management not hands on accounts and I'm job hunting on the back of the worst recession so I have a battle on my hands.

The biggest hurdle I have found so far is getting the agency staff to accept that I am capable of doing a proper job again. Fortunately, I have a couple of agencies that have taken to me and are working hard to find me a permanent position. In the meantime I am working on a temporary assignment for 3 weeks.

Tomorrow will be the end of week 2 and so it was with some puzzlement tonight when the HR Manager came to speak to me and commented that tomorrow would be my last day. I showed her my paperwork that confirms it's a 3 week assignment and that I was expecting to be working there again next week.

According to her they have only approved funding for 2 weeks!

I rang the agency to tell them of this latest piece of information and they will sort it out for me. In the meantime, if I am finishing tomorrow the agency have another assignment for me that would take me through to Christmas and beyond, starting Monday.

So, it looks as if I will be working next week, I just don't know where. The work experience can only help my CV and in the meantime I am able to go in, do my job and come home and switch off.

Well, time to go and trawl through the latest vacancies published on the various websites. Last time I was job hunting it was a case of buying the local paper on a Thursday night and working your way through the Situations Vacant pages with a biro and a notepad. Now it's as easy as search, sort, click apply and attach CV.

And no matter how many you apply for the one thing that hasn't changed - you rarely get an acknowledgement or letter advising you have been unacceptable - and how difficult would that be with e-mail?

How much more furniture won't fit?

We always expected to store the hot tub in the garage until we decided if we wanted it putting in the back garden, as wewill need a crane to lift it over the house! Not a simple process.

We then had to put 3 wardrobes in there as they wouldn't go through an arch in the hallway and turn 90 degrees to get up the stairs!

The 3 seater sofa was already in pieces to get it out of the last house, so that went on ok.

When I viewed the house I asked about the main bedroom and was told the bed in there was a King size, as is ours, so that was ok.

Or so we thought.

What I hadn't realised is that because we have a large bedhead and footer as well as the bed being King sized, when we put it altogether - the head would be against one wall and the foot would be against the other. If I wanted to nip to the loo in the night I would have to clamber over Neil.

Not ideal.

We decided to dismantle the bed and move ourselves to another room. It meant we weren't in the main bedroom with the built in wardrobes and en-suite, but hey, it will make a great guest room and they will have their own facilities.

Finally, we had the bed in place. Tomorrow we would dismantle the wardrobes, carry them upstairs and re-assemble them.

Time to charge up the screwdriver!

Moving In.

We were so busy sorting out the cars that we were almost too late for our appointment to get the keys for the house. When we arrived, 15 minutes late, having telephoned the office to ask them to let the guy know we were on our way, we were met by a very unhappy chap. He was busy checking the house, making notes of it's condition, taking photos of areas that were a problem, so it's not as if he'd been hanging about waiting for us but he was determined to be grumpy with us.

Finally, having agreed meter readings with him, he left and we looked around our new home. The pups quickly inspected every room and ran outside. It took Neil and I a little longer to go through all the rooms talking about what furniture would go where, when our furniture eventually arrives.

And then my mobile rang.

It was the removal guys.

Now remember, this was Tuesday. They weren't supposed to be leaving Southern France until Wednesday so I was a little surprised to get a call from them.

The call went something like this:

We're just leaving London heading north and should be in Sheffield by 6ish. Are you able to take delivery of your furniture tonight?

What? When? How.....? Doesn't matter. Yes, yes, yes.

It turns out that the pick-up in France had cancelled so they had been able to travel through the last few days and rather than take the furniture to the depot to be unloaded, only to be re-loaded onto another van another day, they wanted to bring it straight to us.

By 9pm we had all our furniture in the house, the hot tub was in the garage along with 3 wardrobes that wouldn't go up the stairs and the guys had parked their van on our drive for the night. We had a final night in the hotel and early the following morning we would be able to start unpacking.

It could not have worked out better if we'd used a bespoke removal company.

It meant we would have chairs to sit on and a bed to sleep in as well as all our clothes again, not that we had any wardrobes to put them in unless we wanted a trip into the garage every morning.

The overall removal experience had taken less than 4 weeks and looking back I have no idea how we planned it, organised it and then did it in such a short time.

Amazing what you can achieve when you put your mind to it!

And here they are.

His

And hers

More car shopping

Having sorted Neil's car we now needed to sort one for me. I have much lower ambitions as far as cars are concerned as I do not like driving big cars. All I wanted was a little hatchback that was good for getting the dogs about, getting the shopping in and reliable.

On my trips back to the UK over the last couple of years I have had a variety of hire cars and the one I had particularly enjoyed driving was the Kia Rio and so that was top of my shopping list, well to be honest - it was my entire shopping list.

Again, we spent time on the internet to find cars to go and see on the Tuesday morning while we were waiting for the the 2pm time to arrive when we would get the keys to the house. It was good to keep occupied as I was aware that we were getting the keys to move into a house that Neil hadn't actually seen and so I was a little apprehensive about what he would think about the house when he finally got to see it.

2nd hand Kia Rio's were not in abundance but there was one in a garage close by and it was red. Would it look a bit excessive to have 2 red cars sitting side by side on the drive? Would it be like a couple who go out in matching sweatshirts? No, we didn't think so - so we set off to have a look at the car.

Now, I'm not sure whether we looked like time wasters or what, but the garage decided to give us the trainee to practise his selling skills on. This is a rough translation of our conversation:

Us: We've come to have a look at the Kia Rio you have for sale.

Trainee: Ok, let me check where it is for you........Oh, I'm sorry we have sold that one.

Us: Do you have any others.

Trainee: No, but we have mobility cars coming in all the time.

(Neil and I exchange glances as we weren't aware we looked as if we had a disability that would need a mobility vehicle)

Us: So do you have any Rio's due in?

Trainee: No.

(So that was a rather useless bit of info then)

Trainee: We could arrange 0% finance for you.

Us: Why? We're paying cash.

Trainee: Well then you could buy a more expensive car.

Us: Why, do you have a Rio that is more expensive?

Trainee: No.

Us: (Big sigh)

Trainee: Would you be interested in a Kia Cee'd?

Us: Don't know, what does a Cee'd look like.

(Trainee takes us over to look at a New Cee'd in the showroom and it was fine)

Us: Yes, that would be ok, do you have one for our budget?

Trainee: No.

Us: (Another big sigh)

Us: Thanks for your help

And we left.

Now, this wasn't a Kia dealer and there was a carpark full of 2nd hand cars but we had lost the will to start trying to discuss other cars.

Then we went on to a garage we had bought from previously. They are a 2nd hand car supermarket and always have hundreds of cars in stock.

Us: We're looking for a Kia Rio, our budget is this, do you have anything?

Salesman: No, but what does your car need to have?

Us: Smallish, diesel, hatchback.

Salesman: Well, we have just received a Seat Altea that is a nice car.

Us: What's a Seat Altea look like.

Salesman: It's in our valeting suite, come and have a look.

And so, I found my car. it was smallish, it was a hatchback with 5 doors, it was a diesel, it was sparkly black and had a 6 CD changer. It was for our budget.

We took it for a test drive. It has a 1.9TDI sport engine and zips around the lanes. The rear seats move forward so there is no gap between them and the front seats for the dogs to fall down. There are lots of compartments in the boot (that's the trunk for my American readers) to stop the shopping bags sliding everywhere.

And that was it. I had found my car. I could collect it on Thursday. Neil could collect his on Friday, so within the week we would both be mobile again.

And all this before we'd picked up the keys for the house.

Not a bad couple of days shopping.

Crepes for tea!

Neil loves to cook new dishes and he knows one of my favourites is a stack of American Pancakes with fresh fruit and cream. A few years ago we visited Calgary in winter (and it was nothing to do with skiing - but that's a whole different story) and stayed in a guest house near town. The Lady of the house was away for the weekend and had left us in the very capable hands of her parents. They were a lovely couple and rather than leaving us in the breakfast room, they invited us into the very large kitchen so we could chat while they prepared our breakfast.

A stack of Pancakes with lashings of maple syrup.

Neil got talking about finding a good pancake batter mix and they told us the secret was a mix of flours. Since then we have used their recipe and have good American pancakes frequently.

For a change tonight, Neil decided to have a go at Crepes Suzettes. Completely different to our normal pancakes, crepes are incredibly thin and delicate. We had plenty of fruit in the house as Sainsbury's have started doing a multipack of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries and I'd picked a pack up earlier this week.

We brought some cointreau(ish) drink back from Spain with us which had cost us about 7euros for a litre from a local Bodega near Pulpí and Neil made a tasty sauce to pour over the crepes.

And so tonight, this was on our dinner table.

And they were absolutely delicious - 3 of our 5-a-day and weeks worth of calories!

And that's before we've poured the fresh cream on.

Car shopping

We phoned up about the first 2 cars on the list before driving out to see them only to find the first one had been sold and the 2nd one had very high milage. A little down hearted I logged onto the internet one last time before leaving the hotel for the day, just to see if there were any new listings.

And there was. Half an hours drive away was a car that ticked all the boxes PLUS, it was red!

It rapidly rose to the top of the shopping list and we telephoned the garage to ensure it was still for sale and it wasn't a mistake.

Yes, it was new into them that morning, so much so that they hadn't even started to clean it ready for the forecourt but we could go and have a look if we accepted that it needed a valet.

As we drove to the garage it was difficult for Neil not to have high hopes he had found his perfect car. I so didn't want him to be disappointed when we got there.

As we pulled up at the garage we looked around for it but there seemed to be everything except the red Jaguar. We spoke to a sales guy and he told us it was parked in the carpark around the back and he would bring it round.

As it drove into view I knew there would have to be something really wrong with it for us not to be buying it. Neil looked at the car in the same way that he used to look at me when we first met. He was smitten from that first glance.

And why not, it was a beautiful car. A wonderful rich red, cream leather and wood trim interior. It was an automatic with satnav and just so much luxury.

'Would you like to take it for a test drive?'

Would we? Rather!

It purred, as a big cat should as Neil drove it onto the country lanes. I sat in the back with the pups and felt like Lady Penelope with Neil as my Parker.

There was no doubt we had found the car of Neil's dreams. He was a very happy boy.

When we got back to the showroom we started to talk the deal. It became very interesting when they asked us whether we had anything to Part Exchange. Neil jokingly said we had, and pointed to the Kia. We expected them to laugh at us and continue on with the deal, but they didn't. They told us they had a contact that dealt in LHD cars and could they take a look and then phone him to see what he would offer us. Within half an hour not only had we done the deal on the Jaguar but we had also agreed a deal on the Kia and got an extra £500 for it.

All we had to do now was wait for the phone call later in the week to tell us the car was fully valeted and ready to be collected.

Neil was like a child waiting for Christmas Day to arrive.

Bless!

New Girl.

A bit of a leap forward - just a few weeks, to this morning.

I went to work this morning. The first time in over 2 and a half years.

I was the new girl, I didn't know where anything was, I didn't who anyone was and I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing.

It was quite amusing.

One of the reasons I wanted to move back to the UK was to go back to work. Although I had needed a break, I wasn't ready to retire ..... not yet. I missed going to work. I missed the buzz of work. I missed the challenge of work. I've always enjoyed going to work and I wanted to go back into a work environment.

And today I did.

And I'm going back tomorrow!

Last leg of the journey.

It was nice getting up knowing that we had a shorter day of driving. In total it would take us just over 3 hours to do our final leg of the trip but we were having a short stop to meet up with my brother first.

As we headed for the M25 to start our journey North I offered to drive the last couple of hours so that Neil could relax and listen to the World Cup match between England and Germany. We stopped at services, as we joined the M1, and swapped over just as the match was about to kick off. Which ever way the match went, it was likely to cause some distraction for Neil from his driving, not a good idea when you're travelling at 70+ mph.

The match started well enough, but soon began to go down hill and the frustration for Neil finally peaked when at 4-1 he switched the radio off in disgust. England were out of the World Cup to our archive rivals. We would be arriving at our new home in England just as the euphoria of the World Cup came to an abrupt end. I hoped this wasn't an omen.

And so, by 5pm we were settled into our hotel, which would be home for the next couple of days. It was Sunday and we would be getting the keys to the house on Tuesday. The pups were used to living in hotel rooms by now and soon made themselves at home while we went for some dinner. We could only leave the pups in the room providing we were somewhere in the hotel, if we left the hotel, the pups had to go out with us. It meant that we were a little restricted in where we could go as the weather was too warm for us to leave them in the car for very long but, we had decided our first job would be to sort a UK car out as driving the left hand drive Spanish car was not ideal on the English roads and we could certainly take the dogs with us while we car hunted.

Before leaving Spain we had contacted some companies in the UK that dealt in LHD cars, so we had an idea how much we would be able to sell it for. Not as much as we would if we'd sold it in Spain, but we needed something to drive back in and decided we would use a LHD company over here to sell it on for us.

After dinner I settled down with my laptop to start searching for cars for us to look at, that was something that could easily be done while we waited for Tuesday to arrive.

Neil had been really good in agreeing to move back to the UK, as he had been really well settled in Spain but, he had attached a couple of conditions. The main one involved the car he wanted. His dream was to own a Jaguar, S-type. Always had been as long as I have known him, almost 13 years. I'd agreed with him that IF he could find one for the same amount as we would get for selling the Spanish car - he could have one.

His shopping list was:

Jaguar S-type
Diesel
Sat Nav
Red

After an hour on the internet we had a list of garages to visit, the first 3 wishes were no problem, the colour was a little trickier. I had always been told when buying a 2nd hand car you can choose almost anything but the colour. Red was not a common colour so Neil had resigned himself to the fact he may have to have a green one, or a silver one. We planned our route for Monday to visit the various garages which had cars that fitted the wish list and then we settled down for the evening, knowing tomorrow would not be another long distance drive.

After 2,500km we had finally arrived.

Our Spanish adventure was over.

Getting connected!

When we moved to Spain we knew that, technically, we were not supposed to have Sky TV but, there were ways to receive the Sky channels providing you can keep a UK address. Most people use an address for a family member or a friend, and we were no different. We couldn't get all the channels we could in the UK but we got enough to give us the variety we needed.

Not long after we arrived in Spain our Sky+ box developed a problem and wouldn't do any of the Sky+ features, such as record or set program reminders, and so it was just a receiver for the programs. To get past the problem of it not recording we bought a DVD recorder, which worked fine except we could only record the channel we were watching so if we went out and forgot to put the tv onto the right channel, we missed our program.

There wasn't much we could about it in Spain and so we just carried on with the old Sky box.

Now that we are back in the UK it was time to get the box sorted out and finally, we had the Sky engineer here yesterday who installed a new box, an upgraded dish and left us with a brand new remote. Last night we spent all night playing about with the record facility, series links and instant pause - just because we could.

Next week we get our phone line installed and proper broadband again. All this and mobile reception at the house, I really feel as if we are back in the modern age.

Photos for Linda Lou

The Eurotunnel train is effectively a train engine pulling a very long container full of vehicles. I have lifted the following photos from other websites to show you the outside and inside. I cannot take any credit for these photos but they will show you what the eurotunnel train is like.

Photos from:

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/fr/private/passenger/Eurotunnel/pix.html

Finally, back in England

For those of you outside the immediate area of the channel tunnel, I should explain.

The channel tunnel is exactly what it says a tunnel under the English Channel connecting Folkestone, England to Calais, France. It takes about 35 minutes to cross under the Channel this way and we had never used the tunnel before so I thought it would be nice to use it on our trip. There were 2 main advantages to us, one being how quick it is and the second being that our beloved pups would stay with us in the car throughout the crossing. For any new readers, on our trip to Spain we used the overnight ferry and this is what Brinkley wrote about his experience.

http://2littlepuppies.blogspot.com/2008/05/weve-moved-to-spain-and-its-brill.html

Not one we wanted to repeat.

We had to keep an eye on the electronic boards around the car park which would tell us when we were to proceed to the holding stage of the terminal and we saw the lights change just before midnight. Suddenly there was a dash by all the cars parked nearby. We were happy to follow others as we didn’t know where we were going and we were channelled towards a kiosk where a guy checked our tickets and sorted us into the right lanes, cars, 4x4 cars, cars with top boxes, caravans, coaches and lorries all needed to be sorted. We were behind 2 mini-buses and we all sat there waiting for the time to tick away. Boarding would begin at 12.10.

Finally, the time arrived for us to start our engines and move forward. We followed the 2 mini-buses and then came a bit of a shock, when the marshall at front held up the 2 buses and waved us ahead. We didn’t know where we were going. We followed the lane around a corner and looked for signs of where to go. Suddenly we realised that we needed to drive down a very steep slope. As we approached the bottom of the slope we could see another marshall way in the distance, with a clip board and we headed towards them. As we got closer we could see there was an opening on the left hand side ahead of us and the marshall waved us into it. Getting a car in isn’t a problem but I can imagine some of the larger lorries and coaches having problems. Apparently, they have one chance at it and have to get it right or they can’t get straightened up to drive along the train.

We started our drive along the train and the front seemed so far away I began to think we were actually going to be driving the whole way under the sea. Eventually, we arrived at the front of the train and switched of the engine. Within a few minutes everyone was on board and we set off on time. There is no sense of movement because there are no windows to see out of. There is a little noise but nothing much at all. We could get out of the car and walk alongside the cars if we wanted to but the dogs had to stay in the car, not that it was a problem, the dogs were extremely settled. They had the back seats all to themselves and they had found the whole journey perfectly comfortable. They sometimes slept a little but mostly they stayed alert, not wanting to miss out on any excitement.

Before we knew it, we were driving off the train in Folkestone. We had done the passport control bit as we went through the terminal in Calais so we were straight out onto the roads and off looking for our hotel. This time our directions were spot on and within 10 minutes we were checking in for the night.

We were in Folkestone, back in England.

Cats, paperwork and delays!

Q. What happens now?

A. Get a later train!

And that's all there is to it.

What us newbie Channel Tunnel users didn't know is that your booking is valid for anything from 2 hours ahead of time to 2 hours after the time booked. So if you miss a train, you get a later one and if you are early, you can get an earlier train.

Simple!

We checked the schedule and there were 3 more trains listed. 11.45pm, 12.30am and 1.15am

Even with the delays at the Pet office we were hopeful of getting one of the later trains. We both let out our breath that we hadn't realised we were holding!

And so, to the delays. It seems that the couple at the counter had 3 cats and some of the paperwork wasn't right. I think it was an issue with the paperwork for the rabies blood tests which is crucial for entering the UK. The lady behind the counter didn't normally work there and was on her own and was trying to be as helpful as she could, considering the language difficulties BUT she had been trying to sort this out for 2 hours.

Yes, some people had been waiting 2 hours and seen trains leave that they should have been on.

So, even if we had arrived in plenty of time to catch the train we still wouldn't have been on it because the dogs would still be queuing for their tickets to be stamped - approved to travel!

All that dashing had been for nothing, but we weren't to know.

We took a seat and settled in for the wait.

As we waited another couple arrived, dog in hand desperate to get seen as they were late, had driven like demons through northern France only to find - they were going to miss their train anyway. We could explain it all to them, after all, we were experts now!

After a further 15 minutes the couple with the cats were dismissed to go and find a local vet to confirm the papers that were being faxed through from wherever and finally we all started to get dealt with.

The main problem then seemed to be with vanishing microchips. Judging on the number of chips that were proving difficult to locate, we all felt it was probably the machine that needed new batteries but eventually it was our turn.

Brandy, as always, was calm and we located his microchip quite easily. Brinkley is never happy when you go towards with him with some kind of instrument in your hand, scissors, syringes and scanners are all treated with contempt and an immediate need by him to hide behind my legs. We know that Brinkley's chip has moved and instead of being on the back of his neck, it's now over one of his shoulder blades. We know this because a few months ago we discovered this lump on his shoulder and thought he had been stung or bitten. After a few days of applying cream I realised that it wasn't a bite at all, just his microchip on its travels. I had been warned that this sometimes happens.

Eventually we heard the beep of the machine finding his chip and both dogs were verified as fit to travel and we headed back to the car.

We drove through to the check-in machines and entered our booking code and the ticket machine spat out our tickets for the 12.30am train. We had over an hour to wait but we were happy, we would travel tonight after all. I rang the hotel in Folkestone to let them know we had been delayed (not a complete surprise to them as I think they get a lot of Chunnel users staying there) and we would be arriving with them about 12.30am. The tunnel is magic, it makes time stand still, we would arrive the same time we left.

No, of course not. France is an hour ahead of the UK, we would merely be turning our watches back an hour.

We parked up and went for a wander to find a café. It had been a very long day and it wasn't over yet, but at least we could chill for a little while.

Euro Tunnel, here we come.

The scenery in northern France is not as extreme as that in the south, or it didn't seem so to us, but that could be because of the speed at which it was passing by!!!!

Without any stops and with, thankfully, clear roads we approached the channel tunnel terminal just as the clock clicked onto to 10pm. We had 20 minutes to our ticket time. We had to get the dogs scanned and checked in at the Pet office and then through to the tunnel terminal. We might just make it after all.

We pulled into the car park and hurried the dogs to the office............

............only to find there was a queue.

There was one attendant on the desk. There were 3 cats (in baskets) on the desk. There were 4 dogs and 2 more cats before us and nothing was happening.

On the wall behind the desk was a large electronic notice board announcing that boarding for our train was closed.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

As Neil was inside the office trying to find out what was happening I started to ask the people outside with the animals. We only wanted the answer to one question

- what happens now?

The length of France in a Day!

We calculated that to reach Calais for our Channel tunnel train at 10.20pm Saturday we would need to leave our hotel no later than 8am. Our route planner said it was 13 hours and 13 mins and we had, of course, to factor in stops every 3 hours for the pups and allow time incase we encountered traffic, especially the closer we got to Paris.

I had asked about breakfast when we had finally checked in the night before only to be told it was served from 9am. OK, so we would need to find somewhere for breakfast on the road. The reception would be open at 8.30am so we would also need to leave before they were open for us to pay!

Mmmmmh!

I had given our credit card details when I checked in and so I wrote a note in my best Spanish to say we had needed to leave early for our channel crossing and would they charge our room to the card and if there were any problems to ring me on my mobile and slid it under the door to reception.

We left hoping we would not be challenged by the Guardia at the border for trying to leave the country without paying our bills.

As we left the hotel complex and started back along the country lanes we came to a junction. To retrace our steps last night we should have turned right but Neil felt we could probably get back onto our route better by turning left. 50 yards along this lane we came to a main road, only to find it was the lane we had used to turn around in last night and if they had put a sign at this junction we would have saved an hour driving around in the dark and had an extra hour in bed.

We called at the first service station to refuel the car and ourselves and then we were on our way, heading for the border between Spain and France.

The border crossing was huge, there must have been 24 lanes and being a Saturday, there was plenty of traffic there. It took us a few seconds to work out which lane we needed and queued behind several cars towing caravans. We had to keep remembering about the top box so we didn't go under anything with a height restriction.

And so we were in France.

By now we were ready for a break and a re-fuel so we pulled into the first services. As Neil went in to pay and to get some coffees I walked the pups around and then gave them a drink. Now, our dogs have a talent for drinking from of a bottle and this saves carrying dishes about. As I was giving them a drink several people smiled at how cute they looked.

One chap stopped to talk to me and this is when life got a little surreal. He was French. I don't speak French. He didn't speak English BUT he was married to a Spanish lady and so we found our common language for a conversation was Spanish. I never expected to find my Spanish studies would come in handy while travelling through France.

I have to say the area that we travelled through in the south of France was beautiful and there was some very striking scenery, huge bridges across ravines and very pretty villages. It helped pass the time as we made our way north.

We kept our stops to a minimum and by the time we approached Paris we were making good time. We were due to take the outer ringroad around Paris and I knew my navigation skills would be tested to their extreme.

There were many road numbers to look for and Neil did a great job switching lanes as we went from 3 lanes to 6 lanes to 4 lanes, as lanes left and more joined. I kept a close eye on the signs overhead and guided him to the right lane for the road numbers indicated on my printed route.

And then all of a sudden none of the road signs had the right numbers on, none of the places quoted were on my list and I had to make a snap decision.

And it was the wrong decision!

Suddenly we were on the inner ringroad on a Saturday afternoon and within minutes we were at a standstill. We then crawled around Paris anti-clockwise. We needed to follow signs out of Paris for Lille and the overhead neon-signs were telling us that we were 45 minutes from the junction and there was nothing we could do but sit in traffic and crawl along with the thousands of other cars trying to get away from Paris.

Suddenly, our channel crossing looked unlikely. As we left the inner ringroad and joined the motorway to Lille our routeplanner told us we had 3 hours 30 minutes drive to our destination and we had 2 hours and 30 minutes to our check in time.

All we could do was hope there were no more hold ups and no police about. Neil put his foot to the floor and I avoided looking at the speedometer and kept my eyes peeled for speed cameras. Instead of arriving with time to spare we would be lucky to make it before the train departed.

We needed some luck to be on our side!

Starting the drive north.

One thing I needed to make sure on this trip was that when we arrived in Sheffield, Neil was not without his golf clubs. When we moved out to Spain, our furniture was delayed by 3 weeks and the golf clubs were with the furniture. Neil was not a happy man.

Using a groupage removal means there can be delays on when your furniture arrives. We had been quoted anything between 5 and 14 days, although they thought we would be one of the earlier drop offs as the storage depot was in Sheffield, one reason we chose this company.

Although we were due to arrive in Sheffield on Sunday evening, the van wasn't due to leave France until the Wednesday and had a couple of days travelling before they got to the depot.

We had the luxury of travelling in the big car going home unlike the journey to Spain, but we didn't have room for Neil's golf clubs if we wanted to take the dogs AND suitcases with clothes in.

Not a problem, we got a top box. Neil's clubs & golf trolley fitted in lovely and we even managed to get some bedding packed around them so we had something to use while we waited for the van to bring our stuff. We wouldn't have a bed, but we we have some bedding! Whilst night time temperatures in Spain meant we were throwing covers off at night, it was still cool enough in the UK to need a quilt.

It was 6.30pm when we finally got onto the motorway and started heading north. Our destination was 5 and a half hours away, not including stops and we would need a couple of stops for the dogs. We had a cool-box filled with sandwiches and drinks so we could keep the stops as short as possible and we knew we would be arriving late.

What I hadn't realised was that I had chosen a hotel that didn't have a 24 hour reception. Fun and games were waiting for us in northern Spain.

We were headed for L'Ampolla. I had chosen the distance based on leaving about 4pm and the hotel on the basis it was right on the side of the motorway so we would not be spending too long trying to find the hotel once we reached the area.

How wrong can you be?

We reached L'Ampolla around midnight and started looking for the hotel as we came off the motorway. We knew we didn't want to be in town or on the sea-front so we took the road away from the town. Within a few minutes we were heading out into the countryside without a building to be seen anywhere. It felt wrong and after a few more minutes we decided we would be better to turn around and try another route. The map I had printed off was not helpful. We found a narrow lane to turn around in and headed back. As we entered the town I noticed sign boards with lists of hotels on them and direction arrows - and ours was listed so we started to follow the signs.

And follow the signs.......

And follow the signs.......

We had gone right through the town and along the sea-front, which, even at mid-night , was buzzing with people. Then suddenly, as happens, our hotel had vanished of the list but we hadn't seen it.

We turned around again and as we drove back I notice a sign-post off to the left with the hotel name on it. We followed the arrow.

Out of civilisation and into the open countryside. We lost tarmac roads and even drove through a large storm drain but we were still following the arrows. Finally, after a few more twists and turns, we saw a large sign at the entrance to the hotel - we have been driving around for almost an hour. It was almost 1am and we were both ready to fall into bed. It had been a long day.

Before dragging the case into the hotel we decided we would check-in and find out where we were going and also give the pups time to have a bit of a walk around. We reached the door to the hotel reception ..... and it was locked. My lack of attention to detail when I booked had failed to notice that it wasn't manned 24 hours a day.

We wandered around the carpark with the dogs and chatted about our options. We could have a few hours in the car before setting off or we could just carry on driving and take it in turns to drive and sleep. In the end we decided we would carry on driving. Before we got back to the car Neil suggested I should ring the hotel number and leave a message to say we arrived but they were closed so we couldn't book in, in the hope that they would not charge us for the room, so I rang the number and instead of an answering machine cutting in, a rather sleepy man answered.

In my best Spanish I explained what had happenend and he told me to wait a few minutes and he would come down and let us in.

And so, we did get to sleep in a bed that night. We needed to be on the road early to make Calais by 10pm the next day but at least we could have a few hours sleep.

A long day was finally over.