And we arrive in 2022.- UK and Skiing.

Finally managed to remember how to do this blog!!!!  ( I think)

Last year- to recap we took a quick trip - finally to visit Portsmouth and the amzing old ships- 

The HMS Victory and The HMS Warrior - only 30 mins by train from Chichester.

Then the winter sport of tramping through the woods, beating, in all sorts of weather with The Langford Shoot.

--- The Xmas Girls.!!!

 

2022

Alot has happened so far this year and alot still to happen - some things totally unplanned and others we thought well planned.  

💖

Last year Emma got engaged to Jesse, and we have a wedding to attend in Toronto in Septemeber.

And on New Years Day, Benji proposed to Claire. (so all go on the mother and father-in-law front)

💖

Then we were invited to meet Benji's parents in Gstaad, - so we had a great few days in January skiing with Benji, Claire and Marion ( Benji's Mum).    

During Febuary we managed to go on a small tiki tour for 10 days to Italy starting in Champoloc ( a favourite) with our ski-buddy Steph, and then going on to Courmeyer.

Difficult to decide what size bottle to order- but hey- the glasses were a good size.                                                         

Skiing is a very tiring pass-time!!!!!!!

  🎂                              

March- my birthday, so a quick weekend trip to visit Betchley Park with Bill and Min Jennings.  

Then the final skiing trip in April didn't end so well- other trip with about 16 friends from Chichester -- but lots of time to party each night.

 

THE PIGS ARSE--- great place to stop on the last run home.

Other nice stops along the way.

So, while the party week continued, --- I ended up having a crash    during a friendly ski race. Obviously going too fast and managed              to hit the second to last gate and fracturing my Pelvis.

Have to say the Italians were fantastic and of course thank god                for insurance.

I lay in a hospital bed, quietly nursing my wounded pride,                            (and being on the receiving end of my profession) for 10 days.

Then a UK ambulance repatriation crew came and delivered me from Aosta back to Max                    and my own bed after a very comfortable 16 hr journey. 

SO then I am on bed rest/crutches for at least 6-8 weeks(not fully wt bearing)--- so all summer plans had to be tweaked a bit.

Max and I have got quite adapt at over the last few years.

Lastly but not least, my big brother who married Pippa on June 1st in Brighton.  Such a lovely wedding and its great to finally welcome Pippa and her sons, Leo and Max to the Stallibrass clan.

 Oh and not forgetting Kirk🐕

So now Max and I have to sort out how we are going to manage the coming

 weeks as we go to the boat....

 2021, September and the coming to the end of our holiday😢😢😢😢😢😢.

Not much to say really as we just pottered over old ground.

Flamingoes.

The 3rd tent fitting ----we are getting very good now at putting the framing up!!!!

Phillip and Nicolas doing the final fitting of the new back end of out winter tent...we bought some rather heavy material from the uk (circus tent plastic type canvas) so that made things trickier.. but all done now.

Just love Phillips' car.

These guys are pretty cool, and if I could stand up on a board with confidence, I would have a go.

Luckily the rains came the following day!! Cold, miserable, and it rained so hard we felt like we were in a submarine ( I even got my hottie filled for my cold feet) 

At last we have visitors in Bill and Min for 5-7 days.

Off to Marsellian for a few days then we headed up towards Beziers.

To make the buildings flow the builders here have put up a stainless frontage down the side of the building which gives you the impression of a slopping roof side.

And Marseillan of course is famous for its production of Noilly Prat Vermouth.  

Hire boats get up to all sorts of things, playing bagpipes and trumpets,, but the guy sat on the

front and played the drums everytime they went into a lock

Lunch out with Bill, Min, Alan and Shelia.  

And the wine was so good we bought a small 10L cask home with us 

from the winery next door.

One job Bill and Max got done was to put in the new galley fridge--- a well deserved beer I think..  

Odd pictures of Beziers from our cycle rides.

 So now ready for packing up, and finally leaving France on our 88th day. 

PCR tests all done and the mountains of paperwork, tent erected again, but fits well-- this one should hold!!  and we are ready.

We left at 10am and did a long drive to Dieppe and caught the midnight ferry. 

Arrived home at 5 am, with a slight feeling of jetlag.

Another use for a face mask--a eye mask!!! 

2021 Up to the end of August. 

After all the excitement of Marseille, we are back to being lazy and just pottering around. So not much to report except chatter.

We passed this little sail boat twice in 10 days, a family of 4 having a lovely holiday on the water. 

------Small  !!!!! and soo cute.

At Frontignan you see all sorts and these ladies were constantly having  a tete-d-tete everynight on the bench next to us, being thoroughly entertained by the antics of the hire/bumper boats coming through the bridge at 7pm and mooring up.

Visited the lovely old town/village of Marseillan on the E'Tang---no free mooring here unfortunatly but with tongue in cheek you can ask for the 3rd night free. 

Able to get a good picture of Kiwi Rose.

At night, romantic lights across the E'tang , warm night and company..

Off on our cycle rides to ride to Marseillan Plage and Cap D'Adge for excercise and to be noisy. Amazing what people take to the beach........

Boys and their toys   😁

This rubbish bin is used-- may work for all beaches especially Auckland beaches.

Then into Agde and past the nudist colony-- have to pay to go into the village and beaches,and produce your vaccines certs or 48 hr neg covid test --needless to say, we thought we might give it a miss.

Walking around naked, shopping,  pushing a supermarket trolley just didn't appeal to us!!!

Back to Les Arsequires and oysters again.... brought back to the boat by Lucy's trusted bicycle..

and saw this--- the hireboat passed us at speed, driver up top chatting away on his cell phone, .. next thing we saw was this 😲😲😲😲😲

After about 10 mins of rocking and engine reveved he managed to get off the rocks--                           and he was still floating as he rounded the corner.

 Off to Aigues-Morte which we have visited the last 2 years, this time we wanted to see the 4 day                  re-enactment of the crusades (11-12AD) before Frontignan, but lucked out again through COVID. 

Aigues-Morte has a rich and historic history, built by King Louis in 13C to provide the kingdom of France with a mediterranean sea port in which to send off his Crusades. . Now sea and land has jiggled and it about 8 kms inland up a canal. Surrounded by salt marshes which produce huge amounts of salt, the area is also famous for its white Camargue horses and breeding bulls which still run in semi freedom and are looked after by herdsman.

T

The next night the sea mist comes in after a hot day.

The plan below shows how intact the old town is. 

Out on our bikes again exploring.

The gates of an ancient watch tower toll road, The Carbonniere Tower still stands out on the marshes.. 

Thought this might be a nice small project to keep us busy over rthe winter-- sometimes we are quite tempted till we think about our age and the cost and effort....

One of our cycle trips took us to one day we decided to cycle to the village of Saint Laurent D'Aigouze to watch the bull running. These Camargue bulls are small and fast!! The idea is the runners have small hooks on one hand in order to try to take the rosettes off the bulls horns. Points are gained and its a real competition.  The roseetes on the bulls back show the bulls postion in the competition as well. Nobody is supposed to get hurt, but a few twisted knees, and an unfortuate horn in

 a mans buttock was about all we saw,-- oh yes and a bull that stunned hinself when he jumped out of the ring-but not for long!! A few videos follow.

This is day 5 of a 7 day festival. The arena is right next to the church in the centre of a small village with bars around the outside. people drss up to honour this time old tradition.

These bulls are fast and have sharp horns. This one jumped out 4 times during his 12-15 mins of fame.. No wonder they are so respected ( this was the one the got a man in the buttock) 

The final part of the day was watching the herdsmen return the bulls to the fields, guilding them through the village streets.

This video is very short and fast -- you may to look a few times...no wonder they gallop through the streets.

 So now we go back to Frontignan to get ready for a final fitting of the winter tent.

Our summer play area.