Mattonsea
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- Location
- New Forest
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We are going to a tiny old cottage about five metres from a creek. There will be a modest tribe of four souls including my mother-in-law who is great fun. We will be there for a week, during which time about 90kg of house coal will be consumed in the grate in the sitting room, the only form of heating in the place. It is internet-free and mobile signals don't reach you unless you climb 600 yards up a hill, which we don't . Food and drink will be consumed, and we will all sleep like babies after some brief walks along sunken paths and lanes.
The end of the M4, on our way home, will seem like this....
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There are some real shockers on the M5 south of Bristol. Here's a taste of Bridgewater. Add in some hamburger gas, the smell of hot tarmac, a whiff of spilled diesel and a couple of hundred exhausted families with fractious kids. It's quite unique.Pont Abraham is worse than Hell
Sadly I have 1st hand experience of spending a night in the travelodge here. In august . In 2006 when it was a heat wave . Needed the windows open but opening them meant too noisy too sleep. Never ever again will I stop at a services overnightView attachment 74832
There are some real shockers on the M5 south of Bristol. Here's a taste of Bridgewater. Add in some hamburger gas, the smell of hot tarmac, a whiff of spilled diesel and a couple of hundred exhausted families with fractious kids. It's quite unique.
I see exactly where you're coming from but you should answer the phone to your sister.If it would not upset a lot of people, I would stay at home alone, watch only pre-recorded non-Christmas TV shows, eat my normal diet, turn off my phones, and ignore the whole thing. This party blackout would last through to the New Year, then I would get on with my life again, such as it is!
My sister rings me at 00:00:01 every Jan 1st to do the HNY thing. I never answer, but she keeps on doing it.
If I had the money, I would take a bike to somewhere warm and sunny and get a few hundred miles of cycling in while half of the population of the world went mad.
So ... as usual, it will be family, friends, and a few big meals for me, and no cycling!
That's awful, you poor thingI wasn't a great fan of Christmas in the first place, but spending 24 hours holding my dying mum's hand on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day 2010 while wonderful nurses dressed in Santa Claus outfits wandered round the ward handing out cards and presents and singing carols to the patients ripped me to bits and I don't like to be reminded of it.
Oh ****, I just reminded myself ...
Happy Christmas!
I would but she gets mighty upset if I try and hurry along a phone call. We would probably end up on the phone until 01:00:50 at which point she would say "Oh, my free hour is up - must dash"! I would then have to either give up on the film I had been watching, or continue until about 02:30 to see it through to the end.I see exactly where you're coming from but you should answer the phone to your sister.
By this time Mrs Vernon will be inebriated on the vintage Krug that I've hidden from the butler and things become hysterical. Things calm down and we retire to bed looking forward to the Boxing Day fryup.