Tuesday 11th April 2023
Thursday lunchtime my phone rings, ‘Where are you’, ‘I’m working, why where are you?’ I’m on the drive at home ready to go to Wales! I inform him, we’re not booked in until tomorrow and I’ve not packed, his response, we’ll be alright, get packed and ring them for an extra night.
And that was how our Easter weekend away began…
Thankfully, Elle was happy to cover, so home I went to get sorted, we only forgot a few things so not too bad. I drove the car so we could all get about over the weekend, the motorhome is too big to nip out and about really.
We arrived just before 5 and got set up, reception shuts at 5, the brochure we’d been given said we had free wifi, but oh no, it was dreadful, I read we could purchase ‘premium’ so said we’ll sort it in the morning, don’t panic. Early night all round then I'm thinking!
Before that, we drove out of Harlech to get a meal about 20 minutes away because the hotel at the top of the road said they had no tables, although no one was actually eating and there were no ‘reserved’ signs on the table like there was when we nipped up a couple of days later, anyway, I reckon they just didn't want to accommodate us, but we'll never know, thankfully the food at the Ship Aground was very good, horseradish mash works well.
Friday morning, we drove to Barmouth, I was looking forward to fish and chips on the beach (I’d have to wait 24 hours for that because they didn’t want to queue!) the rest of the day was wonderful. The arcades their are just enough to not waste too much money, we played shove penny, I love that game, they did the basketball one, I won at the smash the heads down, I don't know what it's called, the one where they pop up and you have to hit as many as possible as quick as you can. Air Hockey went down well, finished off by a shooting thing. £20 later, we'd had a good giggle and Aryn had done another first, he'd never been in an arcade before. When we got another pound worth of 2ps to carry on with the shove penny, he asked, 'Is this what gambling is then' and yep, I said sadly people get hooked on these machines and that's exactly what gambling is and why we weren't playing the slot machines, we don't need that in our life.
He was too old for the donkeys by 4 years and about 3 foot so that's an experience he'll never get, I'm sure he'll survive. Instead we did the Waltzers, hilarious and then another ride which nearly dislocated my shoulders, what with Aryn smashing into me every time we flipped round lol.
Aryn wanted to go in the sea (loony) but we thankfully didn't have towels and the sea was a good distance out, so we'd said we'd go to Black Rock Sands tomorrow where you can park on the beach. We drove out of Barmouth to go to to a cafe by the beach between there and Harlech, oh how I wished we hadn't, we may as well of queued for chips, we paid to park for 2 hours, that was the minimum. Ordered 2 Paninis, I ordered home made quiche, oh dear, half hour later it finally arrived, there was only 1 person in front of us in the queue, half hour and the panini's were tiny baguettes and the homemade quiche was microwaved, I wasn't asked if I wanted it hot, I would've said no, never mind it was food and filled a gap.
Now I had a glass of Prosecco with my quiche which made it feel better, then when we got back to the van, I felt absolutely shattered, everything hurt which I put down to the fair rides and the walking. I'd been sneezing since the day before and thought maybe I had hayfever so I did the sensible thing NOT, took an antihistamine, painkillers and opened this...
This is posh prosecco and very, very drinkable, well what can I say, bottle empty and half a packet of cocktail sausages later, I was very, very drunk and in bed fast asleep by half seven!
I had gone and sorted 'Premium' wifi on the morning, but turns out that doesn't work 75% of the time either so Aryn couldn't get on his laptop, himself couldn't even watch the news and I'm asleep so don't care.
Woke up at 1am couldn't breathe, I was so blocked up but I managed to get back to sleep eventually. Of course I'm always awake at silly o'clock in the morning so I make my way to the washing block for a shower, you wouldn't want to do that walk in the rain, 5 trips to the loo at day from our motorhomes a mile and we weren't the furthest away from it, the downside to a huge site and one toilet block! We do have a bathroom in our motorhome but I was trying to save him the emptying the toilet so often hassle - let's just say I'm very, very regular! I also like the larger shower space, makes getting changed easier. It was lovely and clean too.
That's as much as you need to know about the toilet block!
I sat reading whilst they snoozed and when they woke we had bacon baps and drove to Black Rock Sands where fair play to Aryn, he went in the sea in his shorts, it was bloody freezing, I paddled but that was as far as I was going and his dad was like 'not a chance'.
We drove round the coast to check out possible future sites, plus I still wanted fish and chips by the seaside, Criccieth was the destination and Castle Fish and Chips was the supplier of a damn fine portion, don't have a cheese and onion fry it though, I ordered one out of curiosity and I'm still not sure what it was lol, all I could taste was mash in a crispy outer. The rest by the sea was damn delicious though, nothing's cheap anymore is it, almost £32 the bill for 3 portions of fish and chips, 1 fry it, 1 portion of scallops, curry sauce and a can of pop.
A few days at the seaside is not cheap, the sites are more expensive than last year too, £50 they charged us for that extra night! Yeah between £45-£50 to stay on the sites we checked out. I looked at the Haven site and we could hire a chalet for not much more!
We wanted ice cream but the shop in Criccieth was heaving so we found out there was a shop in Harlech, how glad were we to wait, it was the tastiest ice cream I've had in a long time, I opted for honeycomb and white chocolate flavours - nice, Aryn had raspberry and strawberry. Their brownies and eccles cakes were good too. No dieting this weekend.
Anyway, back at the van, we chilled out and I cooked some gammon hocks I'd got, one was from Lidls, the other part of a Tesco meal deal, the Tesco ones were bigger but they were a bit more expensive too, both tasted equally as good as each other. That was tea on baps and they took the rest for a snack the next morning.
A busy day and no internet made for an early ish night again, I was shattered anyway, still feeling bunged up and now starting to question whether it was a cold or hayfever, every bit of me still ached but I was still thinking it was what we were doing, so I just kept taking the painkillers.
Turns out it's not hayfever unless that's catching too cos in the middle of the night, he's opening the window because he can't breathe, he's all bunged up - oops!
Sunday, they're off to go Zip wiring on Titan 2, it's a trial run to see if they're both brave enough for the big one later in the year, I've already planned to stay at the van and cook a lamb dinner. I spend the time watching my lamb cook and finishing my book finally, it was okay, not brilliant.
They were buzzing when they got back, they loved it and can't wait to go bigger, faster and longer. We had dinner about 6 and I listened to the sound of 'the wifi's crap here, it's a joke' tune I'd been listening to for the last few days. To be fair, you don't realise how much you use it until it's not there, doing research on places to go and things to do, check directions, send messages, watch tele and on and on and on.
But then it happened, it only took 3 days but it finally worked - they started having a conversation and we all ate and chatted and sat for hours, laughing and talking, enjoying each others company. I went to bed early again though, tired and done nothing but cooked dinner.
Sunday night / Monday morning the rain and wind was horrific, now imagine if you're in a tent or camper of any sort that doesn't have a loo and you really need a poo lol, I couldn't do it, I need to poo too often to be running about in the dark and wet weather! The weather was set in for the day so we set off as soon as we were up and ready.
The drive home was a very, very long one, the traffic was dreadful but we stopped a couple of times, once for the view of Tryfan, it's good having a toilet following you :) then once for food.
I got home first and because Elle had said her parents had Covid, I knew I had a spare test in the cupboard so as they'd joked I'd got covid when I told them about Elle's mom and dad, I thought I'd do the test and
now it all makes sense, the tiredness, the runs, the coughing, the snotty nose and sneezing!
Thankfully Elle has the work side of it all under control, I'm sat in the living room typing this blog, knowing I have so much washing to do, the house needs a good clean but it's all gonna wait a little longer cos I'm resting today.
Despite Covid, I've had a cracking Easter, no chocolate eggs in sight, but lots of photos taken and memories made, given us lots of ideas for summer, just need the weather and the cash.
I might have chucky eggs and soldiers today, comfort food to get me well.
Hope you've had a wonderful weekend too.
Mwah, luv ya
Love me x
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