holiday – Page 5 – C J AIREY

Day 7 – Cocksure Pussies

I’m writing this bit as I wake up. It’s 7:30am, and the room is heating up already. The aircon may get a blast shortly.

All is quiet, all is still. All through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Outside however, the hoarse Cockrell is clearly pissed off with the peacock, because his piping up has woken the deep-voiced dog. I’m not arsed though, whilst now I’m awake I can hear it, it’s not disturbing anyones sleep, and it’s not even the tiniest bit irritating.

This place has basically zoned me out – I’ve tried CBD oil to help me sleep (didn’t do a thing, it’s a total waste of money, imho), but this holiday is making me feel how I hoped the CBD would have made me feel – I have a zen-like calm.

The only issue with the above is that it’s having the same effect on two of the most laid back people I know. And it’s definitely had the same effect! They are now so laid back there stood up again! There’s not a chance I’ll see Jane awake until at least 10am, and as for Charlie…

Yesterday, as I mentioned before, he only surfaced at about 3:30pm yesterday. We got back after tea at about 10pm, maybe a touch earlier. He went straight to his room & balcony, but I know he was ‘lights out’ at 11pm. Up less than 8 hours in the day! WTFlip!

GPS accuracy puts me right at the pool bar…

On the basis that we need to leave the house tomorrow at 9am and will be out for likely over 12 hours, sailing, swimming, snorkelling, island-hopping, beach-combing, turtle-spotting, tea etc, the chances of me getting these folks to leave the locale today are now slim to none!

Oh! Should have put in yesterdays post, we met our neighbour Mustafa yesterday just as he was setting off to work (Taxsi driver), so I dropped him that bottle of Red I’d bought at duty free, and as best as I could explained it was nice to meet him and that the gift was to apologise for any disturbance we cause (we won’t). He was very lovely and wished us a happy holiday, and if we need any help, to just ask.

That was as we left yesterday. On arriving back, there was a large bag of fruit tied to our door handle. Which bearing in mind is surprisingly hard to get in the supermarkets, was a lovely gesture. What a nice chap!

One thing we are aware of that may affect plans so we are taking into account, is that there is an extended public holiday here as many celebrate Kurban Bayramı, or in Arabic, Eid el-Adha, the most important religious festival of the year. This year it starts today, running through to the 12th July, but there are additional public holidays tagged on, so we’ll assume the rest of our time here. It’s likely to be very busy as I’m advised by Google that many wealthier Turks travel here to celebrate, and why wouldn’t you!

So to my Muslim friends & colleagues, I bid you Eid Adha Mubarak!

Anyway, let’s see how today pans out!

[Time passes 😂]

It’s now 11pm and the day is more or less done.

Jane & I went down to the pool at 12.30, just after I’d found out that John Gwynne, the incredibly charismatic Darts & Football commentator, (whom I’ve had the pleasure of being in the company of as he compared the Turkey Supper evenings), had decided he’d shown who’s the boss and after 18 months of bossing, he moved on from his battle with cancer. Rest in peace John, the sports world is poorer without you.

Charlie at least made it to the pool today, albeit at 3:10pm!

By 5:30 we realised we’d enjoyed & relaxed another day away. So the plans (what plans?) evolved into a walk down to a local bar for tea.

We arrived at the ‘K Bar & Gastrolounge’ to another warm welcome. Genuinely can’t think of a more welcoming area/country that I’ve been to!

Beers & food ordered, (steak & chips, pizza for Jane), we settled back and watched the ‘roadies’ set up a stage for live music. Beer came. Then cats came. One floofy one, one sleek & all ‘black panther’. Both with seemingly feline intuition that food was close to arriving.

And it did! Crafty & manipulative as cats are, it took them about 5 seconds to figure out that Charlie was the weak link. And another 5s to suss out you could kill me with cat or rabbit hair.

Defying a certain, slowly-asphyxiated death, I continued my meal despite the constant meowing every time I raised a fork of steak to my mouth. Blimey, were they cocksure little pussies! Most annoyingly, they weren’t actually annoying, and it was quite a laugh. (For those that know me, my allergic reaction means I’m not a cat fan, so this is a big statement).

“Your steak, or your throat. Your choice”

Food eaten, and the true cat emerged. “No food? No friend. I’m off”.

Live music started up to a Dire Straits “Sultans of Swing” intro as he was tuning up. This chap has cajones to set the bar that high (irrespective of whether you like DS or not, that’s some guitar to try to emulate).

Turns out he’s:

a) a neighbour,
b) bloody good at the singing malarkey,
c) even better at the guitar stuff
d) plays Oasis…(amongst other things)

“Top, sorted ar kid, Emre”!

He took a break after lots of decent tunes, so we took that as our opportunity to head home. After all, we have to pack for our Moby Dick adventure tomorrow. At 9am. Charlie will be a zombie until minimum midday, I reckon unless I push him overboard.

Oh! And I see clouds. First this hols. They lasted minutes.

Early night required, so “Night, folks”

Chris x

Day 6 – Short & Tweet

Boy, this will be a short one today! We’ve done loads. But it’s load of one thing. And that thing was doing nothing but chill out…

My turn to hunt and gather today, so it was a walk down to the local shop before anyone else was up, for me.

As I was at the bread cabinet, I noticed what looked like pancakes, one of which had spinach in it. Not quite brave enough for the green flecks, I took one of the plain ones. At least I though it was plain!

On return, and when Jane surfaced I fished out the massive pancake which we split between us. Turned out it had feta & mint in it, and wasn’t even really a pancake – less eggy and a touch on the bready side. It was really nice, really filling & really cheap!

After a while of sitting on the balcony & staring out over the really nice views of the mountains, and doing a bit of birdwatching (some sort of jay, plenty of cheeky collared doves, and a good few housemartin type birdies), we heard the prayer call, which we now observe, by turning it into a pool call.

We packed the pool bag and went and sunbathed. Until I got bored and turned to the GoPro, setting on slow-mo.

One bit of “top-bombing” later, and having checked that Jane survived the tsunami, I began a bit of video editing – “Fatbombing” coming to a Facebook post soon!

More sunbathing before another break. This time behind the pool bar, but only to test my beery knowledge with a found card game. It was a beer identification card game called ‘All the beer, No idea’ – 80 Beers from around the world. 32 identified without clue, 25 should have got, but no one to read clues. 20 not heard of. 3 beers MIA.

Jane retired to the balcony & I had another swim before packing up & heading upstairs.

At one point, the plan had been to go into Fethiye, but on the basis Charlie only surfaced at some time after 3pm, and hadn’t eaten, that got scrubbed for today.

Instead we decided to visit one of the more local bar/restaurants & keep the whole day low key (& lower cost, after Charlie’s fashion shopping yesterday!).

We walked the 15 minutes up to the Turtle Bar on the old road, to suss out their menu first, with the intent of walking a bit further if need be to Karizma Restaurant. Didn’t need to. Menu & prices were really good.

Prawns in a creamy garlic sauce for my starter, followed by a chicken shish served with rice, salad & a few nice chippies! And the obligatory cold beer, of course. Tonight it was a bottle of the Bomonti Filtresiz 5% unfiltered pale lager.

Charlie made a friend, although she dropped him like a stone as soon as he stopped feeding her a couple of little pieces of chicken.

On the way home, we called in for supplies at the local Carrefour Mini, and we stocked up on a few things, including beer. Charlie enjoyed being pack mule, once I’d loaded his rucksack. His reward being a bottle of the Frederik Yakima IPA. Suspect as I’m typing this, he’s on his balcony, in a beanbag, reading & supping his cold beer. He’s had worse holidays!

That’s all f-f-folks!

See you tomorrow!

Chris

Day 5 – Animals & Nitrate

Well this day started even more slowly! Even I ended up not getting up ‘til after 10:30! Fitful sleep, but an overall higher total.

Anyway, maybe it was all the late night action I got last night. After all wild squealings & enough noise to get the dogs barking, it’s bound to get the heart racing.

At first I couldn’t make them out, but I could hear the wild pigs in the field at the back (front?) of the apartment. A quick blast on the torch, and I saw their shadows, as they moved around though.

It then went quiet for a while, so I thought I wasn’t going to get eyeball contact, but it didn’t take long for the dogs to set off again. This time I went & joined Charlie on his balcony, which overlooks the road at the side of the apartment.

The next thing was realising that in front of me, and just on the fenceline into Mr Retail Moguls gaff, were around 6 or 7 piglet-sized oinkers, just snuffling around. Sadly no ‘insta proof’, so in todays parlance it didn’t happen.

Aye well, today brings more animal encounters, almost to a Steve Irwin level of encounters!

So, bread, thanks this time to Jane’s hunt/gather instinct, topped with jam for ‘Brinner’ (“Brunch” if you choose).

Pool-tang! The weather on the front is going to be hot, hotter than a snakes ass in a wagon rut. So pool time it was. When Charlie eventually joined us, it came with a moment of entrepreneurship…

I introduce you to the new game of PoolPong (tm applied, (c))! Take a lilo, turn upside down, so the ‘holes’ (think golf) face upwards (there’s an up and a downside on most & it’s the bottom we are after, as Mr Pincher would say).

Next, take a waboba ball (Colors May Vary), stand on the poolside or take a lower handicap & throw from eye level, have the opposition steady the lilo at a repeatable location in a pool, and then try & pitch the waboba into one of many lilo holes. For every miss, and there will be many, many misses, take a slurp of cold beer – you need it anyway after the exertion & tension. Winner is the first to be able to shout “poolhole”.

After this excitement, we could only look on in awe as we were graced Poolside by a male Peacock. (GoPro Footage may follow).

Early evening came around too quickly, as we were so immersed in PoolPong & Peacocks, but having done so, we readied ourselves for a bin-mission followed by a tea mission.

Bags of rubbish taken care of at the recycling unit at the bottom of the road, then a Taxsi to Hisaronu. After a 15 minute, unintended site-seeing walk around the town, we headed back to where the Taxsi driver dropped us off, which was directly opposite where we wanted to walk to.

Hidden Gem is a Turkish Tapas restaurant on what I’ve heard referred to as ‘The Strip’. It’s on the first floors and having navigated a sleeping dog in the middle of the road, we were once again made very welcome by the staff, and then served by the owner.

I had reliably been informed that the lamb shank (“ask for mint sauce”) was incredible, so that was my order sorted. It came with plenty of veg, including one of my favourites, Broccoli (which happens to thankfully be high in nitrates). Charlie copied me, but added a needless starter of chicken (needless as in portion sizes were massive). Jane however, went Tapas. And went bonkers by ordering the world largest & possibly strongest Margarita. (Jane is allergic to alcohol, so rarely imbibes).

Food arrived. Was all incredibly good & we are yet to have anything that was as low as ‘average’. Once finished, one of the waiters came over and asked if he could have the two shank bones to give to “Teacher” (can’t remember the Turkish version, sorry), the dog in the road, owned and very well looked after by a business across the road. “Of course”.

The bill (hesap) squared away, we took a walk. During that walk, Charlie & Jane went shopping. I went to Fez Bar. I think I win that one.

Part of ‘The Strip’ (pedestrianised after around 7:30pm)

They went, they ‘haggled’, they bought! Moncler, Stone Island etc in hand, Charlie & Jane swagger into Fez Bar with their trophies. I was more impressed that Serdal, the owner, as he passed by on a busy evening (quiz night), took the time to say “Hi, Jane, welcome back”, having remembered her name!

Tired, so home is now required, & we supped up the Frederick’s IPA & headed off that way.

Another day of “who knows what” tomorrow, but we do now have an all day boat trip booked (& arranged by our amazing tour guide) for Sunday.

See y’all on the POSTBOJO side.

Chris x

Day 4 – Getting High, Turkish Style

Awake at 6am, I wandered down into the balcony. Just standing there, I realised the error of my ways, writing about that breeze. What breeze? It was a whisper in the ear at most, this morning. Already into the high 20s, today feels like it’s going to be a lounge-lizard day, sloth like in its pace.

That said, now I had been fiscally primed, it did mean I could walk down to the Ovacik Market at the bottom of the slope & hunt & gather.

I hunted “Meats” (for a ‘picky dinner’) to accompany the cheese we brought with us as Turkish cheese is not a patch on Cheddar, Wensleydale or Red Leicester! Oh, and crisps & beer to replace Charlie’s supper consumption.

We may have the cheesy upper hand, but Turkiye slam-dunks us on the bread front!

The bread here is bloody gorgeous! Keen on understanding why it’s so good, I ended up trying to read ‘Ekmek ve ekmek çeşitleri Tebligi. Teblig No. 2012/2’ (a copy of which can be found here for those of a similar bent)

Failing on the reading front, it basically is because they don’t use any preservatives or modified ingredients. It’s just bread. Proper bread. And it’s bloody lovely!

A slow walk back up the slope, passing the recently demolished hotel that is soon to become new apartments, and a sharp ‘sa(g)’ turn up to the gates. The ‘front’ of the apartment faces more or less east, which means the metal door handle directly facing the morning sun, is to be treated with due respect!

I settled in on the balcony for the inevitable multi-hour wait for any other life forms appearing. The good news being that the whisper was turning back to a lovely breeze.

Jane came down at around 11, when we had some of that lovely bread, with a bit of cheese. A coffee & a bottle of water later, and we went downstairs to the pool.

Factor 50 for me & my milk-white skin! Then a sunbathe, a dip, a sunbathe, all whilst listening to one of last weeks 93:20 Podcasts, where Ahsan, Howard and Lloyd discussed the ins and outs of Manchester City’s transfer dealings & rumours. Perfection!

After being joined for a while by Charlie, and playing with a ‘Waboba ball’ in the pool, we eventually made our way in for a late bite to eat, before setting of in a Taxsi to the Babadağ Teleferik cable car.

It was around 5pm, as the driver dropped us at the entrance, where we paid for our tickets (approx £8 each), which would get us up to 1800m AMSL in three stages.

We stayed on the (recently built) cable car, passing through the first stop at 1200m and getting off at Babadag 1700. This is the main attraction here, as it’s the launch pad (literally is a big pad) for the paragliders, and has a very fancy looking wine & dine place. With it’s exceptional views over Oludeniz & the Blue Lagoon, (which also means you can watch the sun set whilst slugging back a glass of Pino-G), it’s unsurprisingly popular, and charging accordingly.

We took in the views, and watched a few tandem launches (one of which was aborted), before Charlie & Jane started to flag. Before they did, I’d remembered to pack the little Leica binocs, so we did a bit of spotting. The apartment was pretty easy to pick out due to the temporary building plot in front of it. I even managed to blag a photo on the iPhone through a binocular lens.

Pressing on, I took the chairlift up the next hundred meters to the yet-to-open burger bar & terminus to the final chairlift to the 1900m summit (which wasn’t running today).

Glad I did, as the view is spectacular! Probably the best view of the Blue Lagoon & coastline, other than if you were the tandem on a paraglider!

Back down to join them (“I’m starving”),before we all returned to the bottom, again taking in views as far as Fethiye harbour & the Dalaman peninsular.

We flagged a cab & headed to Sandinos Restaurant, which is on the way home. It specialises in Thai & Indian cuisine, so had to be given a go.

Thai spring rolls, Thai Prawn rolls, and Charlie on the Chicken Tom Yam soup, which was delicious! Then on to Pad Thai (unsurprisingly Jane), Lamb Dupiaza (unsurprisingly me), and Charlie with a Hariyali Chicken curry (mint & coriander with a dash of fenugreek). All we’re lovely, although portion size was generous enough that finishing was a challenge.

After a “Hesap Lütfen”, we paid up, and began the walk home. Nothing too exciting but we did nip in a quickymart & get some jam for breakfast.

Charlie went straight in the pool after getting back, which on reflection was probably a good call.

Have broached the subject of 6-Island boat trips and Jeep Safaris today, but may need to improve my timing & sales pitch, as the two Sleeping Beauties are seemingly exhausted! Tough life, this relaxing & holidaying!

No idea what tomorrow will bring, as if I push now, I may end up with a ministerial revolt & a vote of no confidence.

So for now it’s a “Night Jim-Bob, Night, Mary Ellen” from me!

C x

The End – Sloth Level Holidaying & Home

Morning!

Anyone heard of it? It’s getting to a point where if we stayed longer, we’d be getting up at dusk.

Decided to make sausage butties for breakfast as it was out last morning and I’d been reasonably healthy each day until tea time. A combination of ‘economy’ sausages, an oven they seemed to be unevenly hot, and a lack of attention from me led to a popping of sausage skins, an oily tray, and subsequently caramelised & burnt ‘bread-fingers’. Lots of red sauce didn’t offset the poor food.

Having tried and failed to get in a couple of pubs, we ended up booking back in the The Ring (where Toby’s ring caused much consternation, previously). A 6pm table meant we only had 4 hours of time to do something.

With no one else suggesting anywhere I set off for Rhosneigr, where we could walk north along the beach and past RAF Valley. Ten minutes in and we did our now customary u-turn, advised by Jane and headed back to the house – for the house key this time. 5 minutes later it turned up, so another 180, and back to parking up at the viewing point on the north side of Rhosneigr.

Had a lovely walk through the sand dunes (except for the bit where Toby tried to roll in the carcass of a long-dead seabird), and then onto the most wonderfully deserted low-tide Sandy beach. We just walked, chatted, threw the ball for Tobes, and looked for unusual stones and shells.

Jane came back with a bird skull (now identified as a Manx Shearwater, whuich is pretty rare), a crab claw, and some coal. Each to their own. Pity Valley was quiet though as I got right in the end of the active runway. Would have got some superb photos if anything had been taking off that afternoon.

After knocking up another 6km and getting a closer look at an Egret, we headed back to the Ring. Good food and a decent pint (Surfin’ IPA by Conwy Brewery), and back to the cottage to pack as we had to be out by 9am.

A busy pack, an early evening, and an early-for-us start, hence the tardiness of this, the last post of this little sojourn.

Got up by the alarm this morning, and then walked down to bring the van back to the house (which used to be a workshop, btw, evidence of which are the steps to the upper workshop floor from the outside of the building). Oh! There’s a lovely Triumph Stag convertible a few doors down. Nearly as good as it’s £££ number plate (5TAG).

A quick stop-off at the local quick-e-mart as we’d spotted multipack bags of salt and vinegar and prawn cocktail flavoured quavers. Impossible not to take some home!

I tried to call in at the Mona Brewery to pick up a few tinnies, but it was all shut up, so nothing more to other than pass by the Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Railway station before crossing the bridge and heading east to the M56 and home.

Enjoyed the break, the fresh air, the food & some of the drink, but mostly enjoyed the company. Not sure Charlie feels quite the same however!

Anyway, won’t bore you all anymore! Now back home, so see you next holiday, perhaps!

Day 5 – Mizzle & The Dancing Dog

Thought we’d best make an effort today and get off our ‘localised’ arses and “see Anglesey”. It didn’t work. Couldn’t be bothered. Not in a bad way either.

We eventually got in the van, did the now-obligatory u-turn to get Janes forgotten phone, and then set off. No idea where to, but we at least had managed to set off.

With little input from any of us, self included, we drove clockwise. Bull Bay, then Amlwych, but due to a classic mizzle and apathy combination, we carried on. Until we hit a dead end at Pen Cei. A swift u’ey and we’re back exploring, until we hit a dead end, this time at the intriguingly named ‘Consuelo Caravan Park’. Must Google that one at some point!

Then we set off again and found Moelfre Ice Cream Parlour. And one remaining space in the tiny carpark. So £3-all day later, we went for a stroll.

Gravelly beach done (Toby was still surf-sensitive), we headed along the coastal path, past the old lifeboat station to the very slick looking new RNLI one. Hint to any charities. Put a contactless card reader in the window of any properties, that are pre-programmed to take £2 increments. So easy you can’t not donate!

Sadly it’s the first time the weather cut short out plans, and after less than a handful of kilometres, as the misty drizzle rolled in we headed back to the van. Me, muttering because I’d forgotten to pack Arthur’s ludicrously sharp Zeiss binoculars and/or his ludicrously small & sharp Leica compacts with which I would have got a better look at the lovely Small Egret on the beach and the myriad of birds out on the island.

The Van! Our sanctuary! Hop in, phones on charge, Toby’s tea out of the fridge. Post-Ice Cream Parlour retreat! Charlie went ‘bubblegum’, Jane, ‘fudge’ and me, well, liquorice of course! Lovely.

After some time passed, it felt right to get an inside table at the Robbies pub opposite, which we knew to be dog-friendly, and serve food from 6pm. What we also knew, down to an earlier recon mission was that if you wanted food before 7pm, get in for at least 5:30 and be ready to place an order at 5:48pm latest.

We got in for 4:45, because it was busy outside and the rain was coming in again. Inside was quiet. Until around 5:15, after which it was a scramble for a table. Settling like crows (an outstanding lyric) the older folk began congregating around the food till at around 5:48, exactly as predicted.

I had our order written up in notepad, Table Number highlighted of course, and a checksum total just to save any haggling. Armed with experience of olden days ordering of beer from a packed pub, plus basketball, plus identifying ditherers, I muscled & elbowed my way past the grannies and got the P3 spot at around 5:51pm

Smashed it! I’d suspected P2 was a closet ditherer. One question (the obvious “chips, new potatoes or mash” conundrum) from Server 1 and they buckled. I waved my phone with a screen full of succinct answers to all questions, and I was escorted to the secret fast serve till. Result!

Apart from when my starter of Tempura King Prawns was delivered and just before table, one of the 6 fell off (“oops, sorry” said the embarrassed young girl that was serving, but with no further reference to the 1/6th of my £7.75 starter that I would no longer eat), the food & service were superb.

Toby made Friends with the people on the table next to us, and the table next to that, and some passers by and a big dog on the next nearest table, who at one point stood on his back legs and did what I can only describe as an Irish Jig. Then, stuffed & amazed, we came back to Cemaes.

We’re opposite a pub, The Stag. Next to the pub is a pub. Called the “Ye Olde Vigour”. Google it and the reviews. Quirky. I like quirky, but I can’t say I wasn’t slightly trepidatious before crossing the threshold. All I can say is I had a thoroughly enjoyable chat with the Landlady (read the reviews) & staff, finding out loads about the locale. I’ll be nipping in again before we leave, for sure.

Just goes to show, eh. Don’t always trust everything you read on the internet.

Night!

Day 4 – Well Choughed! [sic]

Always a tad odd coming away this week. We’re always missing two.

Yesterday was the anniversary of our loss of Scooter, our first dog although she would argue she wasn’t a dog, she was “above all that bum-sniff nonsense”. She was such an integral part of our family. She was ‘Grandads favourite girl’, after his daughter, Jane.

And today was the anniversary of the passing of Jane’s Dad, Arthur Robinson. I can’t tell you how much we miss him, not even close to expressing how much of an influence he has had on me, my values & my love of learning how to do stuff.

But he’s had positive effect on today. I’ll get to that. Charlie’s bailed again, so it’s just Jane, Toby and I today. The plan (there really wasn’t one), was to do what felt right to do, so we went for another walk.

This time we decided to skip driving & walk door to door, which meant a left or right decision. It was left (west), for a closer look at Angleseys now-decommissioned nuclear power station.

It wasn’t, it was actually because it’s a lovely coastal walk, and compared to yesterday, relatively flat, as both of my Achilles and my left anterior cruciate are playing up.

Had a lovely walk, sometimes cliff-top, sometimes beach level, all radio-actively monitored. Points of note are:

Toby finding fox poo & draping it down his left ear
A pebbled cove where it was confirmed that Toby is scared of the “light crashing” of surf
Nuclear facilities are designed by the “Architects of Doom” that design sets for James Bond films
Toby being in the sea only marginally washed off the smell of fox crap.

Actually, the highlight was seeing a chough. A moment where we particularly missed Arthur. He’d have been in his element.

Windswept and as typically uninteresting as we are, it was a more-inland but “shoobie” filled walk home. Thank Anne Wilson & her equally miscreant daughter for that regional nomenclature.

Getting back, we had little enthusiasm for a drive out, so we tried the local chippy. Having googled it, I have to say, I had a sense of dread. “Grumpy”, “chips were anaemic”, “Fish? Must have still been in the harbour because all I got was batter” were some of the comments.

All I can say, is that we all enjoyed our food, chips were decent, fish & scampi also. Didn’t even mind the hidden 5% surcharge of a missing pot of curry sauce, and no vinegar on the chips.

Given up on the local beer, btw. It’s cans of Tyskie tonight, to complement a sesh of 8 out of 10 Cats.

Night, all!

Day 3 – Stacked

Seems that “sluggish” is our pace. Both in terms of waking up and walking.

A bit of brown toast and a couple of boiled eggs for me, before we all got van’d up and set off for South Stack.

A stop for diesel (a T5 is a £100 fill-up, btw), and a turn around to return to pick up Janes misplaced phone. All good though as it turned up on the toilet floor. Suspect Jane was planning to ‘upskirt’ me on my return, tbh.

Take 2, and we got ourselves to South Stack car park. It’s about half an hour from here, a squeeze to get in at this time of year, and a fiver to park for the day, which could be worse.

Sadly, the Lighthouse complex isn’t dog-friendly, so we weren’t able to skip across the scary bridge and suffer ‘The Steps’. But we did make up for it, I was sure of it.

I’d planned a fairly ambitious 5 mile circular walk, ambitious for us at least, so after Toby had spun himself a pound lighter in the middle of the busy road, we set off.

Up the hill on the road, past Ellin’s Tower, the RSPB Info Centre, and then off up the rocky, steep steps to the right and to an old lookout building, where there are some great views down to the lighthouse.

Further on up the climb and to the highest point on Anglesey, Holyhead Mountain, where we briefly took a watch of the rock climbers (rather them than me), before head in on towards North Stack through the lovely heather & gorse. Unless you’re combat shorts, that is.

Out that way, Jane (a birdie at heart, like her Dad), spotted a stonechat with its back to us. Clack-clack of its call, like hitting two pebbles together being the ‘tell’. Think she was chuffed, no pun intended.

After a hefty walk down a steep drop, we could see the buildings and Magazine Building (munitions, not Melody Maker), before an even steeper drop down to what looks like another potential afternoon out, Holyhead Breakwater Country Park, after the heavily collapsed quarry face.

Now turning onto the home leg (Charlie tbf had been very patient up to now, especially as his Jordan AirForce One’s were now not “box fresh”), it was a climb back up to the previous levels, before a slightly more rolling southern side westerly walk back towards the Van.

I felt we’d properly earned a decent Soup du Jour, followed by a Steak pie, chips, peas & a pint. Charlie & Jane felt we’d earned a McDonalds. What a let down.m – I feel robbed. Mainly because it cost me £28 as Charlie ordered three mains. Seriously.

Back via a quick trip to Church Bay to suss out the Lobster Pot Restaurant (turns out Joe won’t be on the pier with his £14 lobsters on Wednesday), so our search for a treat continues.

Happy holidaying folks. x

[Editors comments (mine): going to be honest, I am super chuffed that I did that – Achilles stapled to my heels, a knee that’s as solid as jam. May suffer but it was a bit like what I used to be able to do.]

Day 2 – Free Beer and Football

Sooo, the awkward and oft disappointing second…

As day follows night, and as night follows… you get the gist. Charlie just followed XBox/Parties ‘til 4am which means another late start.

Layout is, in the main, great in the cottage if you’re a couple, (truthfully), even if you have a lazy-ass, nocturnal Teen. Wifi is great. Xbox stream is good. Apparently. But I had to get up. My snoring was waking a couple in Port Erin, which to my shame is around 80 miles north of here on the Isle of Man.

So, I had a nip to the shop (siop) in the morning mizzle, where I thought I’d looked like a right piss-pot, buying a replacement bottle of white wine, and, as it turned out 3 bottles of local ale. At before 11 am.

Pleased to say the two farmers (honest, not stereotyping), who were outside a local, finishing a second at least of Carling, made me feel better about myself.

Having dropped the stash off, I collected Toby and another compliment of poo bags, before wiggling his ablutions out of him on a walk. Toby has a unique ‘spin’ technique to that, flinging it out as he chases his own tail. Bless.

Home and a farewell to Charlie, who’s decided to skip today, before Jane, Toby & I headed off on a diametrically opposite walk to yesterday, on a non-nuclear reactor walk.

An uneventful but enjoyable outbound leg led to Toby having his first proper sea swim (poor lad was scared of waves at first), whilst Jane looked for beach stones. Until we ‘met’ Angel. A little French terrier pup. No angel it turned out. Don’t throw her a ping pong ball…

After dodging that arrow, we walked back the same path before nipping in a very local sports bar attached to a hotel to suss out the ambiance. Turns out the fella I spoke to, Ben, was in charge and they’re dog-friendly, serve food, and have a fridge laden with a local Helles Lager that’s not been bought, so we struck a deal. I’m happy.

City lost. So we went to the other pub where we’d previously booked a table for 6:30. I went straight there. Jane, Charlie & Toby a couple behind me.

“Booked a table for 3 plus dog , 6:30 in the name of Jane”.

“But we don’t serve on Sundays” was the answer.

Frozen pizza, Oceans Eleven, and a dog walk later and I’m writing this.

Happy hols 😉

Post-Apocalypse Anglesey 2021 – Day 1 (and 0)

A day of contrasts, here in Cemaes Bay, on the northern coast of Anglesey.

After a grotty 3h journey yesterday, where we averaged around 40mph due to traffic, collisions & roadworks, (the immature highlight of which was a diversion down Penisaf Avenue in Towyn), we arrived at our funky little “one up, one down” cottage on the harbourside.

An orientation stroll before tea, then I earned my pie tea, by walking the full distance to the pub, all on my own.

I was sat in the beer garden, acclimatising, whilst Jane & Charlie did the same at the cottage. The breeze picked up and I got a tad chilly, so I shouted across and asked Jane to bring my hoodie when they came across.

Decent wholesome food done, and back to the cottage for an early night after the furthest I’ve driven in 18months, due to the pandemic & lockdown.

Saturday. Late start, then later factoring in Charlie, before leaving our temp accom for the week.

A moochy walk, then rain, then sitting in our van watching the rain, then a more-jaunty walk towards two decommissioned nuclear reactors, then a “get back to feed Toby”, stopping off 50yds from our door to see a fella land his catch.

Who the * (apart from non-fishy folks), wouldn’t want a massive 2.5kg of fresh-onto-the quayside, line-caught sea bass for under £40, when Waitrose Dutchy sell it for £30+ a kilo, filleted and rubbed with pepper and veg. Someone tried to haggle the fisherman, bless ‘em.

Don’t even get me started on the lobster & crab! Doubt we’ll be going out Wednesday eve, when he next arrives.

A nip “home”, then out for tea at a pleasant enough place with great service, decent food, but, tbh, lacking in decent beer.

All interrupted, towards the middle of main, by me thinking someone had dropped those lobster pots outside the pub front door [wafts hands].

Turns out (look away now, if squeamish), it was a recurrence of an issue with Toby’s anal glands. Our near neighbours seemed to agree with my lobster pot assumption though, so I think we got away with one there.

Meal done, so just the simple matter of (Jane) donning appropriate protection & squeezing his arsehole surround (repeatedly) into a tissue, using the camper shower, shower gel, wipes etc to clean up, in the pub car park.

Fresh as a daisy, we all went back to our lovely cottage to watch a Netflix film about a man who was imprissoned for over 15 years at mainly Guantanamo Bay without charge, 7 of which were after his successful ‘innocent’ verdict & years of horrific torture.

Looking forward to tomorrow!