Today is officially the last day of our holidays so we want to make the most of it because who knows when we’ll get the opportunity to travel again. Regrouping over FaceTime the evening before we pondered on what we could do and as it was weather dependant, and as rain was forecast we decided we’d have a wee shopping trip to Yeovil. It had been a flurry of telephone calls this morning to Autoglass as we’d had notification that ‘Christopher’ was due in the afternoon to replace the windscreen on Maices car, despite us cancelling it the afternoon before. All sorted, I picked Maice up in my car, good old automactic Missy Micra. Thing was I kept trying to change gear…..it’s funny how your brain stores the change of gear process for a while! We got to Yeovil just as it started to rain and parked right next to the ticket machine in the carpark at the back of the Octagan Theatre. With our track record of car parks we wanted to get this process right so we read the board and deliberated how to pay. I’d left the kitty purse at home so cash was a bit limited, I had no coins and Maice had just £3. Why don’t we download the App we suggested to ourselves. Good thinking M&A, only when we googled the reviews, like the Cartmel racecourse parking, this too had bad reviews! Ok, we’d use the coins we had, only the machine didn‘t give change and as the charge is £2.40 we’d lose 60p! Honestly, the robbing so and so’s....….to be polite! Need to add that cost to the spreadsheet! Before we left the carpark we took a photo of the ticket, and the information board, you know, just in case!
Still sat in the car I had to call Churchill to update them on what was going on with the latest developments, that we were no longer using Autoglass to replace the windscreen but YEOVIL Body Shop who were going to be carrying out the cosmetic procedure on JJ’s derrière. I then received an email from Nationwide regarding the courtesy car which Maice was having, only the paperwork said it was being delivered to me rather than Maice! Another call was made to Churchill, to Maggie who was very helpful, but due to the confusing nature of this claim Maice and I made an executive decision to cancel the courtesy car deciding that if Maice needed to go anywhere during the time her car was in for its cosmetic procedure then I’d don my chauffeurs cap and drive ‘M’lady’ around!
We finally ended up in M&S, drinking coffee and enjoying their cheese scones, which incidentally are the best scones you’ll find anywhere, they are completely delicious and very tasty. Maice received a final call from Churchill to check she knew that the courtesy car had been cancelled and that was it, we were free to head off and potter around the shops. We bought a few things in the M&S ongoing sale, a few things in Primark and then ended up in the Cow and Apple where we probably had the quickest lunch ever. Having only forty minutes left on our parking ticket there was no way we were going to be stung for another fine! We made it back with two minutes to spare, phew, that was a close shave!
Deciding she needed a food shop I chauffeured ‘M’lady’ to Sainsbury’s where said food shop was carried out. All I can say is it was fortunate for Maice that I wasn’t sat in the car but I too had decided I needed some food and we both found ourselves side by side at the checkout where Maice realised that she didn’t have her purse, and couldn’t remember what she’d done with it. Paying for Maices food as well as my own we returned to the car and had a rummage. Ah, there is was, at the bottom of one of her shopping bags. That was lucky. I had visions or driving back to Yeovil to restrace our steps!
Over lunch earlier, we’d mused about the highlights of our holiday and there are many, too many to mention. In fact everything about our Iona and Beyond holiday has been amazing, but here are just a few that really stand out……the brilliant weather and blue skies, paddling in Ullswater lake when two fighter jets flew overhead, Adams lovely B&B at Crookabeck, the ferry trips over to Iona and back, staying in a pod, the boat trip to Staffa, seeing the dolphins having fun alongside the boat, seeing a basking shark fin moving through the water, standing on the beach in Iona in the dead of night, gazing up at a starry, starry night sky, the laughing cows, Brenda and Derek at Tranna Hill and their hospitality….and most importantly, meeting up with our friends Pearl, Dianne and Sandra fondly known as ‘the Scottish contingent’. It’s been an absolutely totes AMAZING holiday!
We’ve laughed every day, so much so that we’ve cried tears of laughter and when things didn’t quite go to plan, we remembered who we were, we’re M&A and we ‘go with the flow’. We’ve met some lovely people on our travels and of course we really must give a huge shout out to Lisa and Maggie from Churchill Insurance, Jessica and Tony from YEOVIL Body Shop Repairs, the staff from Autoglass and everyone who helped us when poor JJ had her altercation with the telegraph pole. Each and every one of them has given excellent customer service. Well Done 👏👏👏👏👏
So, who knows when or where our next holiday will be. Hopefully there’ll be a number of ‘daycations’ and maybe even more local ‘staycations’ over the next six months. Whatever we decide to do, why not stay connected by joining our website when you’ll be notified immediately we post a blog. For now though, don’t forget to check out our photos on the Holiday Snaps tab.... you just need to scroll down to view the latest photos.
Until next time……
M&A……and not forgetting our trusted travel companions, Marvin, JJ and SatNav Steve xxxxx