'Speaking too soon'

Sunny evening at Cravant

A useful little phrase and a particularly annoying little phrase especially, yesterday. The drive between our place in France and BOA is do-able in one day, but is a bit of a trek. Yesterday took sixteen hours rather than twelve to thirteen. The French end went really well. The crossing itself was terrific. But about forty minutes late departing. There weren't that many people on board. Some fabulous accents from some of the lorry drivers, we think Basque or close to the Spanish border. The sound was heavily Spanish, but once we'd tuned into it, we could hear it was French. Dinner was excellent and we arrived around 9.45pm. It took an age getting off the boat and another hour getting out of the port. But finally we were on our way.

All went well until about an hour and a half later when we got to Salisbury and were stopped by the police. None of our back lights were working. From Salisbury to BOA there are big chunks of the route which are completely unlit and understandably they didn't want anyone going into the back of us.  Neither did we.  A really friendly couple of police officers, who escorted us to a nearby supermarket with a Shell garage just off our route the A36, then we phoned the AA. The AA man was fab, but had to come from Basingstoke! He'd got delayed with the job there, so was an hour getting to us. Thank goodness for mobiles. We were texted with updates so we knew what was going on. Another really lovely guy and like a ferret up a drain pipe in his determination to get to the problem. Electrics seemed to be the culprit. He worked on the car for an hour. Got everything up and running except for one of the side lights. But it meant we were road worthy and able to continue our journey home. You rather these things didn't happen, but everyone was incredibly efficient and very considerate towards us. Fortunately Mike already had the car booked in for an early service this morning. But given we didn't actually get home till nearly 3.30am, we're both feeling a bit jaded getting up for a comparatively early start at 8.15. Never mind. Safe and sound. Thanks Salisbury police. Thanks AA. And no I didn't take any photos!
 
Having got in we found our good friend John, who lives nearby in BOA and who had been dropping by the house while we were away to sort out the post, had also very kindly got some bread in for us. So this morning has got off to a reasonable start with coffee and toast. Mike has disappeared off to the Honda garage, the sun has gone in in BOA, I'm typing my blog and trying to get enthusiastic about walking into town for the market. 

Two hours later we're both back at the house. Thanks to the AA man the garage only had dodgy light bulbs to deal with. But also spotted the front tyres were looking a bit tired, so they got sorted out too. I'm back from the centre of town having done the shopping. And I've just opened my latest camera lens - a second hand one as everything is else, which saves a fortune and comes fully checked from a specialist in the UK for Canon and Nikon cameras. This time it's a wide angle lens which is specifically for landscape and architecture. It looks fab. Going into Bath tomorrow for hair cut - I currently do a very good impersonation of a yak - and to meet some French friends who have a place in Bath for lunch. If it's a decent day I'll take the camera along and will try it out. One more lens to find if I can and then I am well and truly set up. Macro/middle range zoom/wide angle lenses. Don't need anything else.  Yeah!

Back tomorrow.