The plan was we’d set off at 11am and arrive at our intended destination, Captains Cottage, Brixham at more or less the same time, hopefully two hours later. Of course, as we all know, things never go according to plan and this morning, as you can imagine, according to plan they didn’t go!
It all started when Maice texted a photo of herself sat in a queue for petrol at Sainsbury’s. ‘Is there a problem with petrol’ she said. I mean, come on, where has she been for the last week when its been splashed all over the news! She eventually arrived at my place and we walked into Dorchester to the hat shop (don’t ask), then traumatised by the petrol experience we found ourselves with a ‘coffee-to-go’ at Coffee 1, took it to the park and reflected on Sir Winston’s first holiday thus far. In the grand scheme of things it’s not going so badly, it was after all, only one queue. We left twenty minutes after our anticipated ETD (estimated time of departure) and found ourselves sitting in a queue for forty five minutes trying to get through Bridport. It was at this point we decided it was going to be a very long day!
Sir Winston, Maice’s six month old puppy, who was sat on my lap was by this time becoming very fidgety so once through Bridport we pulled over and moved him to his car seat in the back, hoping he’s be more comfortable in his bed and would nod off to sleep. Thankfully he was good as gold and we didn’t hear a peep out of him…..so far so good! Wondering where the other two were, the other two being Abi and Jane, we texted to say we‘d only just made it past Bridport and warned them about the traffic. They texted back to say they were now at their third petrol station, and still in Dorchester, hoping to get petrol…..there was a big queue at Owermoigne, an even bigger queue at Tesco’s where they were marshalling everyone to the petrol bays and ended up at Loders, paying an extra £20 for diesel ‘ultimate’ as the other stuff had run dry. Honestly, what’s going on! Not only that, but Abi only started to pack her case at 9.30am so there was no hope of them arriving at 1pm.
They eventually got going at 11.15am and decided to stop off for coffee and cake at Felicity’s Farm shop, Morcombelake where it just so happened they bumped into an acquaintance of Abigails who raises his own pigs and sells their produce to the farm shop so they left with a string of sausages and some back bacon! That’s breakfasts sorted out then.
Meanwhile somewhere on a road in Devon Maice and I found ourselves trying to locate the service station so we could use the facilities. Unfortunately we’d turned off at a very complicated junction that took us to a huge roundabout with numerous sets of traffic lights. Turning left instead of right we had to double back on ourselves and decided to forgo the loo stop ending up back on the dual carriageway, a manoeuvre that cost us ten minutes! Ah, where was SatNav Steve when you needed him?
Thirty minutes later we were driving around Brixham listening intently to the instructions given by the new guy in the iPhone MapsApp. SatNav Steve being currently on vacation! Can you believe we arrived at our destination without getting lost, but what a nightmare trying to find somewhere to park. The road was that narrow you couldn’t really park safely so we followed the road round, found a wider road in which to park, parked up and set off in search of the harbour for a much needed glass of Pinot and a portion of cheesy chips.
It was exactly 15.38am when we received a text from Abi and Jane to say they had arrived, were lost and could we direct them to Captains Cottage. No chance girlies! We tried to offer directions but think we confused them even more and after fifteen minutes of them driving round in circles with Maice and I on the lookout for their car they finally arrived. We unloaded the cars, taking two trips to do so. unpacked the food and drink, opened the snacks and cracked open the prosecco. Hey, happy holidays to us…….!
Having sorted out who was sleeping in which bed and in which room our thoughts turned to supper. Of course we were eating out, but where to eat? We rang a number of eateries who were full so ended up in a pub, the Burton Brixham four minutes away. Arriving fifteen minutes later due to us taking a wrong turning we ended up enjoying four meals and a bottle of Pinot Grigio for just £31…..what a bargain!
The night was young, it was only 8pm and we didnt want to go home too early so made it down to the harbour and enjoyed another bottle of wine. We could have gone to a rave that night for on the way from the pub Maice got chatted up by a rather salubrious guy who invited us to a rave……obviously we turned it down, opting for a nice calming drink overlooking the harbour.
At the very late time of 21.30pm we wandered back up the very steep hill to Captains Cottage, Sir Winston leading the way, with us, his entourage of four ladies lagging behind. We’ll certainly be fit at the end of this holiday if nothing else!
So, on that note we bid you all good night and see you in the morning ……
Sir Winston…..Maice, Angela, Jane & Abigail xxxxx