Ahhhh Appledore

 

I didn't write last week because I didn't think it was a great idea to say I'd just spent the week packing for my holiday. Never sensible to post that information m'thinks. Especially as a lot of it would have been moaning how tired I still was.

Though something exciting did happen that week. I went to the hospital for a knee appointment for my arthritis. I thought it would just be for them to see how long I needed to be on the waiting list. But it was a full blown physio session. So now I'm doing exercises every day (which is a point, I haven't done them yet today).

I'm now back from my holiday. We went to our normal place Appledore, I know it's dull going to the same place every year, but we love it. Husband and I got really serious with our planning this holiday. We do plan to move there when son leaves home. Now he is 14 all he talks about is leaving home and so now the dream is starting to feel like a reality.

We stayed in a different street this time. We normally stay in Irsha, but this time we stayed in One End Street. I'd never stayed in that part of the village before. It was very nice being close to the shop and all that, but I feel that if we moved there I'd soon get how I felt when we lived in Poets Corner in Hove. Hemmed in and claustrophobic. When you live in a narrow street with terraced houses you never get the joy of seeing the sky. Add to the fact that there is often little foliage to be seen by the sea and the seasons end up passing without notice.

Although the house we live in how is hideously ugly the fact it is built into a hill means there are vast sweeps of sky out of every window. For sanity I need water and sky. To be fair it can be any type of water - anything from a small stream to the sea - but there must be water. There's only one sky though!

The house we stayed in was lovely - son was excited because he had a choice of two rooms. He decided to use both - to have one as a computer room. In the end it didn't work out quite like that. Half way through the first day he turned up in the sitting room ashen faced. He'd sat on the bed and the frame had collapsed. Now he's not the type to jump on the bed so we just thought it misfortune. We let the owner know and apologised.

He moved to the other bed in that room and that night I sat on the edge of the bed to kiss him goodnight and that bed broke as well! Now I know that neither of us are butterflies, but I stand by the fact that a bed should be able to take somebody perching on the edge. Anyway, imagine our embarrassment having to tell the person who owned the place we'd now broken two beds. As you can imagine we were not their favourite tenants - especially as we were the first visitors of the season.

Son spent the rest of the week in the other room, being very careful with the bed and he wouldn't allow me anywhere near it!

That said, I doubt we'll be the last this season. The frames of the beds were great - it was the slats, they'd obviously purchased the cheapest beds they could get their hands on. We're actually really careful when we stay in other peoples places. The first thing I do is cover all the sofas with blankets and tuck any pillows away safely so we don't destroy them. I even take along a couple of pans so we don't scratch the ones they have. Anyway, enough of this boring stuff.

Husband and son had surf lessons for the first 3 days, whilst I took the dog for a walk along the river Torridge (stunning). Then on the 4th day it was my turn to decide what to do. There were two things I wanted to do - the first was to find a good spot on the Torridge - further from the sea where son would be comfortable going kayaking with me and as well as that I wanted to follow the coast around in the opposite direction from the one we always end up taking. 

We looked at the map and decided to check out the river at Puffing Billy Cafe that was recommended on kayak sites and also to go to Hartland where Rebecca and bits of Treasure Island were filmed. The kayaking place looked amazing, but son was still not comfortable going on the kayak there. So we ended up carting it all the way to Devon and back for no reason.

Hartland was absolutely stunning. Extremely dramatic rock formations. There was also a very amenable seagull who just stood about a foot from me and let me take photographs. One of which is with this post.

No dogs were allowed on the beach so I sat at the top with dog whilst son and husband went down to beach to explore the caves. I didn't mind it was nice to just sit there in peace and not worry about anybody but myself.

The final days of the holiday were spent on the beach at Westwood Ho! Walking and with the boys surfing. 

The weather forecast before we went had been hideous - rain every single day. Actually the weather was pretty good, we got lots of sunshine and were never too hot. There was rain, but actually very little and it didn't stop us doing anything. I didn't even need my raincoat until the last day.

On the day we left the heavens opened, we drove home in an absolute deluge - it was a terrible journey home and took about 6 hours (the journey up was surprisingly clear). Once we got home we unpacked and then this was when I discovered something traumatic.

At some point of the holiday I'd lost my car keys, I hadn't used them because husband was driving, but I like to take them as my house key is also on them and just in case of emergencies I can get back into the house.

Having turned the house upside down I had to accept that they had gone. I found my spare key as I needed to use the car to get something for supper (Tesco Whizz order arrived 4 hours after I had ordered it!!!!!). Horror of horrors the battery in my spare key has died.

So I now have a car, but no way of driving it. I'm back to work tomorrow so husband and I are calling every services we stopped at and also trying to get hold of the owner of the house (who hates us because of the beds). My neighbour mentioned they may be able to put in a new battery at Halfords. But this still means I don't have a spare. I remember when I purchased the car the garage I purchased it from tried to get away without giving me a spare and then moaned it would cost them £250 to get one. I've had that car for about 6 years and with inflation I dread to think of the expense.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes when I know more. I'm back to work tomorrow and whilst the week flew past in seconds, I've hopefully now had enough rest - even if it's been sporadic.