Best Of
Re: Food Banks
Earlier in the year MK Food Bank started a competition to break the Guinness World Record for the longest line of food cans. Local residents were asked to contribute cans for the record. They did achiever their aim with 102,400 cans! A bit of a fun way of getting food donations? Apparently it provided about half the canned food they need for a year.
David
Re: What are you all up to
About to post this last night at about 9.30pm when the forum went down rather early!
We couldn't make up our minds whether to bother with Christmas Decorations this year but in the end we decided that we would, although we have gone for a minimum approach in the house. Decided to put the Christmas Tree in the porch rather than the lounge. I have also put up some outside lights. The three year old from two doors down seemed rather excited about the lights which made it all worthwhile. Not many of 35 houses on our estate have so far bothered with outside lights. Perhaps I need to go for a walk in the dark!
For me this time of years is jigsaw puzzle season. I have completed one with three more to do, although I sometimes find by Christmas day this number increases! The one I have completed is called Waves, see picture.
David
Re: What are you all up to
Hope you manage to get away soon Nellie.
We are just enjoying being together and being able to do some of the things we love. We both have lots of happy childhood memories of North Wales, as well as shared ones. Dropped on lovely with our cottage, I could live in this one permanently. It’s nice being out and about, despite the not great weather and the short daylight hours. Enjoying the Christmas lights around and about, and we came across some fantastic knit bombing in Criccieth, lots of knitted/crotcheted Xmas trees and toppers on post boxes and bollards. Best Xmas lights so far? Caernarfon Castle all lit up. Hard to beat that🤣 When the sea mist cleared, we could see the Irish coast this morning. Sea is a bit rough mind🤢
Re: What are you all up to
Missed all of yesterday's posts on here because of the dreaded Essential Maintenance
so have a lot of catching up to do. Nice to read all the updates from B2, H&T, Millie and wish Moulesy all the best with cooking the Xmas dinner, rather him than I. Hope Mrs M's finger is not too painful and that she soon has full use of it. I know from experience how painful and backward broken/dislocated fingers and thumbs can be.
Good to hear that the WNs and the tdas met up, and that the latter made it to cottage and has also had a good day out today.
Re: What are you all up to
Better still I checked out server error thread to post,I keep it open as a tab, as I do this thread, it's been removed 🤐 and I get road signs........ page not found
Well just checked in on my tablet. Server error thread is still there............
Good to read others news.
All mince pies, 5 dozen, made frozen and safely in containers 😀
Early for us but we've been putting our decorations up. Anything to cheer up the days! Christmas cards are coming in - I love them. Good to read sender's news, not generally round robins, but a few lines of news.
Spent several days trying to locate the Christmas tree. Reshuffled the loft cupboard to do so and find the electric plate warmer. Horrified to find the Christmas tree bag empty and neatly folded 😱. More scratching of heads..... OH has been saying is it in the loft? - definitely not I reply we don't use it! Eventually today he says I remember putting it in 2 bin liners as it was. Penny drops! 
We opened the loft hatch, he's not steady enough and I DON'T do ladders. So peering in from the landing with a torch 'bingo'. Now have to wait son's visit, should be tomorrow, to retrieve it, as he placed it there last year.
No sign of plate warmer, so last resort, the 4 bed drawers at the head end. Means moving bedside drawers. Double 'bingo' in the first one we looked. All items now sorted for Christmas catering.
I blame moving, 36 years of things have the same storage location........
Managed a dry dog walk. Round the village streets. Lots of water running fast through the ditches (dykes as the natives call them 😉). Tried what's usually a hard off road walk but gave up halfway as I was slipping and sliding everywhere. At least dog got an off lead run. Our dog shower is a fabulous boon. She returns muddy, me too, trots round to the back of the house awaiting nice warm water shower to get the muck off. Must be heavenly on cold wet paws and fur. Good on my wellies too. I rarely wear wellies, preferring supportive walking boots, but they've certainly been very necessary this last week.
Milliehull sounds like a fabulous day. We have our grandson tomorrow while mummy and daddy go to make door wreaths. Then I'm feeding us all. 🤣🤣 can I still cope with an inquistive almost 3 year old and prepare a meal? IF it stops raining I'm aiming at a dusk walk to see lights in the village. We have a house covered with illuminations which raises money for local air ambulance and the rest of the village puts on quite a show.
Right must wrap present from NZ for grandson as their package arrived with various things for distribution including labels. She orders online for delivery here. I return the favour 😉 by sending labels and send her out shopping 🤣🤣. Now getting to the age that things will probably be noticed....... this year its a nice box 😊
Bakers2
Re: What are you all up to
We have had a great first night, and full day here in North Wales. Bit damp this morning, but it stopped raining mid morning. Gale force winds though. We decided on a scenic drive via Rhyd Dhu and Beddgelert down to Criccieth, and visited the castle and Cadwaladers ice cream shop. Lucky enough to see WHL steam train on line on way, photo is of Moel Hebog, the mountain that dominates Beddgelert. We last climbed this some 25 years or so ago. Winds nearly took us off our feet at top of Criccieth Castle, so we didn’t linger for long. Drove back up coastal route to Caernarfon, then back to cottage. Fire now lit, lovely and warm, still blowing a howling gale outside.
Re: What are you all up to
We have just been with our nearly 4 year old great grandson to see Father Christmas with his mummy and daddy and a great time was had by all 🎅. It is our annual treat to him. It has rained here most of the week with Wednesday being the only really dry and bright day. It teemed with rain all night last night and all morning but a dry, bright and windy afternoon but not as windy as predicted thankfully. We put our Christmas decorations up this week including a few outside lights.
I hope Mrs Moulsey's injury is getting better. Our eldest son dislocated and broke his finger a few months ago (trying to stop a ball going out of play at our granfson's football game). It took a while before he got full movement back but all is well now.
Re: Scotland to Spain and return costs.
Hi TG, Read with interest as we are planning a trip to Portugal & Spain next year-our MH buddies arrive on Monday for a three day planning meeting-OK, that's just an excuse to cover the amount of alcohol and food that will be consumed!
(Hi, commeyras-some Nobile will be quaffed, but it's from Tesco as all my Trasimeno stock is long gone!)
As you, and others, say the costs can vary wildly depending on time you travel and of course the crossing/route options. We have, over the years, used all of the cross channel routes and for many years it was cost driven with the short sea routes being most used-which as Italy was the usual destination actually worked well.
As the "drag to Dover" became more and more of a pain we priced the BF routes and were surprised, pleasantly, that with a Club ITX fare they often beat the short routes on price-we have also used Harwich a couple of times and that beat the short routes hands down.
We will use non toll routes where they are viable but, for instance in France, towing can be a pain with all the traffic calming measures you will encounter off the autoroutes, and we calculate the toll costs using viaMichelin and Mappy.
However, the question from LLM raises a related issue-that of "real world costs" of whatever vehicle you are using. Back in 2020 and having some time free time-remember that?-I decided to practice/improve my spreadsheet skills and used a holiday costs comparison exercise using excel.
I calculated my costs at my anticipated MPG towing, at current prices, but also at the Inland Revenue mileage rate of 45p/mile. I think this a good figure to use, and almost certainly still an underestimate, for a more realistic costing and rather than doing as the AA do and considering;
Fuel
Tyres
Service and MOT
Labour and replacement parts
Parking and tolls
Car tax
Insurance
Cost of capital
Depreciation
Breakdown cover etc!
So, using this criteria I recently calculated the costs for the trip, using BF from Plymouth, and posted the results on another forum as follows;
All the rows show the costings of the ferry, from the BF website, with a CV discount, the tolls from viaMichelin and the fuel costs based on the mileage
However, in row one the fuel costs are based on the current cost per mile for my car, towing, which comes to 30p/mile.
Row two is the cost at 45p/mile, which is the HMRC rate and more accurate as to the actual cost rather than just the fuel-my opinion.
Line three is line two plus our estimated cost for each overnight stop to include the site fee and a meal.
Via santander via Roscoff SantRosc
£1,821.82 £1,642.65 £1,648.90
£2,123.17 £2,110.80 £2,021.35
£2,323.17 £2,610.80 £2,421.35
As I say, these are our calculations, based on our take on things, but even in line one its clear that the oft expressed astonishment that people pay the high fares for BF Spanish routes is likely based on the ferry fare alone and with no account taken of the additional costs involved with other routes.
The line two costing is at a cost per mile rate of 45p which is what HMRC allow as the cost and, on the presumption that they won't be overpaying, seems a reasonable figure-real world costs are higher.
The line three addition of a £50 per night cost is based on our preferences and experience over many years foreign travel and covers the site fee and a meal.
Enroute sires are chosen for their convenience, and are often more expensive, compared to the norm abroad out of season, and, after a day travelling, we are happy letting someone else take care of the catering when we can.
As you can see even at worst the Santander route is app £180 more and at best its app £290 less than going via Roscoff. using row two, discounting my estimate of enroute costs, Santander is just £13 more than via Roscoff.
Another plus for us is the saving of near 1400 miles on the car which we are keen to keep as long as possible.
However, and wherever, you all end up going have a great 2024!
Re: What are you all up to
Dry this morning and a lot less wind than they forecast. Had a good wander and met quite a few of the villagers en route which lengthened the time spent out.
We bumped into one of our friendly near neighbours and told him we were dismantling a decent desk to make way for a new one arriving tomorrow. He took a look and wanted it for his granddaughter. Carried it outside. Didn't fancy having to carry it down the whole cut-de-sac but a very kind Postie came along, said pop it in the back of the van and lo and behold problem sorted. We get great service from our regular Posties.
Chucking down now so off to put a pot of coffee on.
MiL has hearing aids and has no trouble with hearing phone. They were expensive hearing aids though.
Re: Vloggers Experience of Metering
Everyones usage will differ, depending on numerous factors.
We used meters on a couple of CLs in our Autumn trip. Both CLs allowed a small amount "FOC". First one in August. No problem of getting anywhere near the free amount of 12kw per day (a very generous amount). We used less than 4 per day, no gas used except for cooking. Second one at the end of September was slightly different. Only 6 kw per day free and weather quite cold with a cold easterly wind. Nevertheless we still only used an extra 6 kw over 4 nights.
We don't have heating on at all at night and like to be out and about for a good portion of daylight. We tend to keep the caravan at 18º until about 9 pm then switch it off. Back on at around 8 am.
I would anticipate using about 20-25% more in winter months. We still switch off overnight even in minus weather. Maybe we're unusual. (Don't care
).
So metering for us wouldn't necessarily result in huge extra expense but can see that for some it would be a shock to the wallet and could very well put people off touring out of high season or warm weather at least.