I last went on an overseas camping holiday 15 22 years ago. Nothings changed. And I do mean nothing. It’s the same tents, the same beds, the same appliances and the same people you meet. It’s the same reps you see over and over again and its the same meals you eat every night.

I really enjoyed it though

Apart from the weather, my bed and Vonnie’s health we done not to badly. We lost out by staying in the middle of nowhere with very little in the way of touristy things we could do in weather we had but what we did get up to I rather enjoyed.

We started off by running late as usual but actually ended up being several hours early for the campsite. Took me a couple of days to get my head around that one. Our plan was to leave yearly doors on Friday morning, camp overnight at Dover and get the ferry the next morning so that we arrived at the campsite around lunchtime. What ended up happening was we left here just before lunchtime, hit Dover just before midnight after realising the campsite would be shut, got on a night ferry and after a brief detour to Bologne we arrived at the campsite at about 5am local time. The kids were great on the entire journey which really surprised us.

Where we were staying was a campsite in the grounds of the Chateau de Drancourt which is about a 5 minute drive outside St-Valery-sur-Somme. Turn that into a 20 minute walk and add in that the nearest decent supermarket/shop is there and you realise just how awkward a place it is to get food. A 9″ basic pizza from the onsite pizzaria that you would pay £4 for in your local takeaway cost at least 10€! It was a lovely campsite mind you with what appeared on the surface to be lots of things to do.

Everything costs money though. Gone are the days of just getting your name on a list to get a game of tennis. Now your paying 8€ for an hours game. About the only free thing there were the pools. When you seen the blurb it stated that one of them was heated. What they actually meant was that one of them had a hose from the toilet block that ran hot water into the pool as and when they remembered to keep the tap on. That was a bit of a let down. Thoroughly enjoyed the pools though, especially the races from the top of the slide to the gates we’d do once we got the kids all dried and in their pram at the end of the day

It wasn’t just the site shops that were expensive though. You don’t get cheap restaurants in France. We spent 40€ on crepes and soft drinks for lunch one day and easily spent that on 2 omelette’s and 2 cheeseburgers with drinks as well. This meant we spent our evenings enjoying either home tent cooked pasta or BBQ’s. As you can guess I really enjoyed the BBQ’s seeing as the first one I made with only charcoal and nothing other than a couple of matches to get it going. We finally managed to get firelighters but sill it took a good 20 minutes to get the damn thing going each time! We soon got fed up of kebabs and burnt burgers though.

We did do something other than complain though

The region we were staying in has a narrow gauge railway that links up the entire bay with the national rail network. The link from St Valery to Cayeux-sur-mer is a separate line but is run by a diesel train so we went on the longer journey on steam train to Le Crotoy on the other side of the bay. It took us an hour each way and the kids loved every second of it. In fact I loved it as well. Theres something about standing on the kickplate at the end of a carriage or hanging out a window as the steam train takes you through the countryside that just makes you smile no matter how old you are.

We also went to Nausica in Bologne on our last day. Take the Sealife centres in the UK and make them about 10 times bigger and you’ve got this place. You don’t have as large a shark tank as the one on the Firth of Forth but everything else is bigger. It was also about half the price of that Sealife centre as well!

The journey home was interesting. We weren’t supposed to get the ferry until Wednesday night but after chancing our arms again we got on the 5pm ferry to Dover and drove through the night getting home at about 5am. That was some drive on Vonnie’s part with only a wee stop over at Stratford Services for a wee rest.

There are far more photos (we only just finished uploading all 800 odd of them to Flickr yesterday) but I need to dig through them and delete those that are either crap or embarrassing. Theres also a few I’d like to hit with Lightroom/Photoshop before to many folk see them as well. Those that are interested will get to see them soon though… I promise.

Originally published at The Apochrypha. Please leave any comments there.

Being a non-American the only impact the writers strike is currently having on me is I’m living with the knowledge that there are several films in the works that I quite fancy seeing that were either rushed to get them finished before the strike happened or are being hamstrung by being unable to change whats in the script if something better comes along.

I won’t even pretend to know the ins and outs of the strike other than from the sound bites I’ve picked up over the last week or so on the internet. It’s just not as big a deal here in the UK as far as the daily news goes as it is in the USA.

Of all the things I’ve seen and read though on the matter this has been the one that seems to show the effect its having in it’s simplest form. Click the pic to see the vid.

‘Beautifully fucking illustrated’, as Sick Boy said in Trainspotting.

No tag for this post.

Now you guys know I like my military history but this one is slightly different from the norm. This book follows the history of the breaking of the german codes during WWII and focuses mostly on the naval enigma code. For a book about codebreaking it managed to fit a surprising amount of war into it. If you’ve ever seen the film Enigma you’d maybe think that it was the folk at Bletchley Park that cracked the code single handedly but thanks to Hugh Montefiore you soon realise that folk from Poland, France and the USA all had a hand in it at some point in time although most of the plaudits do go to the UK codebreakers. You also find out just how close the Germans were to realising the code had been broken which would have been a disaster.

Like I say for a book based on codebreaking and one that has a surprising amount of maths in it its a very easy read.

Didnt manage to post an entry for yesterday at all. Bugger

I could have cheated but I thought better of it. The only person I’d be cheating is myself after all.

So yeah saturday we went over to my parents to catch up with my cousins who’d came up to visit from England. good to see them again but it was really weird to see their kids as teh last time we met only Alan had a kid and she was something like 3 months old at the time where as he’s now got two and Julies working on her second as well.

Sunday was spent being tired, narky and generally downright rude to folk. It was nice

Headed out to Possil to the Comet Clearance place. Managed to pick up a bloody expensive frisge freexer for about 1/3 of its normal price because the sides were scratched and dented with a few wee dings on the front. Considering the fridge will be covered it things anyway thanks to handy magnets and it will have a wall and cupboard on either side of it I think we won a watch with that. In saying that though we are going to have to build an extension to hold it though
Got a cheap washing machine as well but there wasnt anywhere near as much damage on that so I think it was something like 30 quid off the full price for that one.

Finished watching NCIS Season 3 and I can’t believe how it ended

“Khazi’s a British slang term for “toilet”.
Therefore Bob’s in the UK.
It logically follows, then, that he’s a dirty pirate.
And piracy funds terrorism - As we know from all the wee bits at the start of videos.
So Bob’s proven himself to be a terrorist.
Which means that he’s going to kill us all, with, like a bomb or some gas or something.

RUN AWAY!”

1)Was 2005 a good year for you?
Both good and bad. The good outweighs the bad though.

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
Hearing my soon to be son’s heartbeat after rushing across glasgow for an emergency scan because the doc couldnt find it.

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
I’d have said the doc not finding the baby’s heartbeat but that lead to much happiness afterwards. It’s a toss up between seeing Vonnie crack up through not knowing what was happening with the flat and being unable to do anything about it and Susie telling me there was no friendship left. Neither were very good.

4) Where were you when 2005 began?
In a drunken heap on Mark and Clare’s floor txting Vonnie.

5) Who were you with?
Most folk…it was a party and M&C’s

6) Where will you be when 2005 ends?
Most likely it will be a quite one in the flat.

7) Who will you be with when 2005 ends?
Vonnie and Finn

Did you keep your new years resolution of 2005?
I dont make resolutions..i just make promises. I promised to sort my life out and I did. Never imagined it would turn out like it did but I’m not complaining

9) Do you have a new years resolution for 2006?
nope

10) Did you fall in love in 2005?
Quite simply, yes.

11) If yes, with who?
Vonnie

12) If yes, do they know?
Yes

13) Are you still in love with them?
yes.

14) Do regret it?
No.

15) Did you breakup with anyone in 2005?
Yes and No. I’d broke up with Susie way before the end of last year but I decided to stop trying to get back with her on New Years day.

16) Did you make any new friends in 2005?
A lot more than I thought I ever would.

17) Who are your favorite new friends?
Shug and Jen though I dont get to see them enough

18) What was your favorite month of 2005?
June…I had a great summer!

19) Did you travel outside of the UK in 2005?
Only in my head.

20) How many different states did you travel to in 2005?
2…awake and unconcious

21) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2005?
No.

So…catch up again. Why do I always seem to be playing catch up?

Mark and Willie came round to the flat on friday night for a beer or two while Vonnie was out with her friends for what will probably be the last time before the baby appears. Had a good laugh but with Willie having to get a lift home it was quite an early night for all concerned. Think Mark got to see teh pilot of The A-Team for the first time ever as I dont think he was aware someone else played Face. Stag night plans were discussed along with possible travel arrangements. Turns out some places abroad are a hell of alot cheaper than heading to places in the UK!

Weekend plans were to do nothing. I had Barry’s 30th on saturday night which I was having trouble getting to as we were having trouble finding a babysitter for Finn. Vonnie had forgot this and had got 2 tickets to see the Bloodhound gang in the hope we could find a sitter as well. So…we managed to find a sitter and went to the gig. The idea being the gig finishes at 10 and we were only popping by Barry’s party to say hi anyway as we’re skint. Didn’t quite work out like that though. Gig was good despite missing the opening act because we got lost in Cranhill. Electric Eel Shock blew us away before the Bloodhound Gang did their usual on the stage. By the time the gig finished Barry hadnt got back to me with what was happening after his party so myself, Mark, Willie and Rev headed to the cathouse for a couple of hours. Between the 4 of us only one person paid thanks to guestlists and PIYP’s so a cheap night was had. Still didnt hear anything and have vague memories of my phone going at the back of 2 but I’ve no idea who it was as I’ve only just remembered about it and I havent touched my phone all weekend! In fact I forgot it this morning as well

Sunday was spent vegging on the PC, tidying the flat up alittle and ‘better’ organising the stuff in teh living room so we can acess it a bit easier to unpack as well as taking up less room…we have all our seats free again! I then spent the night sitting in front of the TV watching my Teachers Series 1 DVD’s.

And now if you’ll excuse me my lunchhour is finished so I’d better get back to the mess I left behind on my desk from before I went on leave. I’ve not stopped all day