{"id":361,"date":"2018-10-12T14:49:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T14:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=361"},"modified":"2026-08-18T21:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:03:17","slug":"north-country-2018-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=361","title":{"rendered":"NORTH COUNTRY 2018. 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are off on our travels again! \u00a0Heading for the Arctic once more. \u00a0Well, anywhere north of Devon is in that direction! \u00a0Basically we are going to The Lakes and Northumberland – which, it should be noted, is a third of the way to the Arctic Circle from home!<\/p>\n

I have also started to put the messages from Portugal, Spain and France written in June as emails. There’s nothing new there although some of the formatting has been improved. \u00a0And a few typos sorted. \u00a0However, and this is quite significant, there was one spelling mistake in every single episode – the same word spelt incorrectly every single time – and nobody noticed. \u00a0Or at least nobody was bold enough (or they were too polite) to comment. \u00a0I’m going to leave it to you to locate the word (and let me know, of course!)<\/p>\n

Before we start on this trip I have to record that there was one bit of excitement on board the ferry coming home from France.\u00a0 A silly old codger carrying a tray with three cups of coffee fell over.\u00a0 Went his full length ending up skidding head first into the wall.\u00a0 Right beside our table.<\/p>\n

A Dutch couple scored it at 5.9.\u00a0 The staff came running over (probably concerned about law suits).\u00a0 Several people went to help.\u00a0 Glenda remained placidly seated – that’s cannabis for you.<\/div>\n
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All I can say is that I was jolly lucky not to have hurt myself.\u00a0 I’d almost come to a stand-still before my head hit the wall.\u00a0 I did feel very silly though!! … and I thought it deserved a 6.0 for grace and slow-motion precision!<\/div>\n
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Hey ho!<\/div>\n
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Departure on this trip has followed the previously established “non-smooth” preparatory routine!\u00a0 We managed to fill the calendar pretty much completely on the basis of a Friday afternoon departure.\u00a0 However, that got brought forward by a day and a half.\u00a0 On the Sunday before we were due to leave we had half the roof taken off the house looking for an extremely well hidden leak. For the record, it remains hidden!\u00a0 Then one of my teeth fell to bits and I needed an emergency appointment.\u00a0 On the Tuesday I had a couple of stitches removed from my back by our doctor son…\u00a0 Then on the Wednesday (less than 24 hours before scheduled “wheels turning”) another bit of the tooth filling fell off – so yet another emergency visit to the dentist at 5 pm.\u00a0 Theatre at 7 pm.\u00a0 Then a bit of packing!<\/div>\n
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As another departure – this time a departure from my normal serious sort of commentary, I’ve included a story supplied by Mad Mary. \u00a0If I wanted to add one to each post, I have enough similar stories to last about 27 years – and that’s just counting Mary’s contributions!<\/div>\n

Listening Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Little Johnny watched his daddy’s car pass by the school playground and go into the woods. Curious, he followed the car and saw Daddy and Aunt Jane in a passionate embrace.\u00a0 Little Johnny found this so exciting that he could not contain himself as he ran home and started to tell his mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Mummy, I was at the playground and I saw Daddy’s car go into the woods with Aunt Jane.\u00a0 I went back to look and he was giving Aunt Jane a big kiss, then he helped her take off her shirt.\u00a0 Then Aunt Jane helped Daddy take his pants off, then Aunt Jane…..”\u00a0 At this point Mummy cut him off and said, “Johnny, this is such an interesting story, suppose you save the rest of it for supper time.\u00a0 I want to see the look on Daddy’s face when you tell it tonight.”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the dinner table, Mummy asked little Johnny to tell his story.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Johnny started his story, “I was at the playground and I saw Daddy’s car go into the woods with Aunt Jane. I went back to look and he was giving Aunt Jane a big kiss, then he helped her take off her shirt. Then Aunt Jane helped Daddy take his pants off, then Aunt Jane and Daddy started doing the same thing that Mummy and Uncle Bill used to do when Daddy was away in the Army!”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mummy fainted…<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS:
\nSometimes you need to listen to the whole story before you interrupt.<\/p>\n

So, let me finish this message…!<\/p>\n

Day 1, (11th October). Drive to Bath. Via Taunton to check on our caravan which is in hospital having its back end replaced.\u00a0 Then to Highbridge and Davan Caravans to look for potential replacements should the surgery on the current van not be totally successful!\u00a0 There was also the compulsory stop at Cribbs Causeway shopping centre…<\/p>\n

Now it’s Friday and it’s piddling with rain in Bath. After dropping Glenda in the city centre, I headed to the park and ride – via the BWM garage to check out the new X3 model and, incidentally, their cappuchini and flapjacks.\u00a0 Superb. … And the cars were pretty good too!<\/p>\n

Some views of a damp Bath:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pultney Bridge and weir.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Why would anyone?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bath Abbey under renovations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

St. Michael’s Without…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

… but with cafe!<\/p>\n

Now we are off to Hinton Parva – also known, less classically, as Little Hinton.<\/p>\n

More to follow!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are off on our travels again! \u00a0Heading for the Arctic once more. \u00a0Well, anywhere north of Devon is in that direction! \u00a0Basically we are going to The Lakes and Northumberland – which, it should be noted, is a third… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-country-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8121,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions\/8121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}