What are you all up to

Our dentist (NHS) has been pretty good with appointments since they were allowed to start taking patients again.  They are not at present calling patients in for the 6 monthly checks, but rater concentrating on work that needs to be done.

Appointments are rather spaced out compared to normal, but they will see you sooner if you are in pain.  They do also do private work, and if you go private you will be seen sooner, but hopefully I will not need to take up that option........it is expensive enough as it is!!

We are hopeful that we will be able to get away in the van as planned in early/mid June for 5 weeks, so have started looking at whether we can save a good bit by using CLs.    Paying £25-£30 per night for a CAMC site if facilities are still to be closed does  not represent good value IMO.  Same with CCC sites, though they do usually tend to work out less expensive for us when we get the 60+ discount.  

Last night OH checked out a couple of CCC sites for our first stop in the Lakes, one had no vacancies, the other did, but was only about £1 per night less than the CAMC site, and not so well placed.   I presume this is due to the way they push up prices due to demand.   Not something we have fallen foul of previously.

Do not want to book anything we cannot easily cancel or change should the FM decide to keep us all locked up even longer!

Rufs said,  Interesting statement TG, we have 3 sites booked May,June,Sept, September is for 1 month, I am one of those who does not like dragging the caravan around, would much sooner pitch up and then just use the car to tour around. We seldom use club sites, have had no problem booking commercial sites and give or take a few pounds are pretty much of a similar price to club sites.

OH doesn't mind towing the caravan, I on the other hand won't tow it. Happy to drive the MH though when I get the opportunity, which isn't often as OH prefers to drive than be a passenger, he's not good at that 

We rarely stay any longer than 5 days even with the caravan, though our longest was 12 days on the south of France and that was with the previous MH. Things might change as we get older but with the MH probably 2 -3 days while touring is a good length of time.

Been busy this morning doing the ironing and housework, bit grey and cold this morning but the sun has just come out so might get out this afternoon for a walk/cycle.

We've had nothing yet re the census.

OH was at the dentist again this morning after breaking another tooth, he is NHS at the same practice as me (I'm Denplan) like Kj he had no problem getting an appointment to get it fixed, they seem to be working through their list quite well now. I've got an appointment for a check up in 2 weeks time but couldn't get the hygienist until the beginning of May.

KJ, when I last looked at the C&CC for sites I didn't have a problem getting availability in Cumbria/Lakes providing it wasn't the most popular sites. What I did have a problem with was their booking site was playing up. When you checked the calendar to see  availability it  showed there was but when you put the dates in it wasn't available, couldn't get through on the phone as they just said " lines are busy please call back"  as it happened with lots of sites I took it to be an IT issue rather than the sites were vanishing before my eyes 

I think we will look at more CLs/CSs for June or private sites, we have a few private sites booked for the west coast of Scotland in May and prices were reasonable. Definitely will be CLs/CSs for July and August. Fingers crossed France/Spain in September/October. 

We've got C&CC bookings for Cumbria, booked last year and moved on to this year. If you do manage to get a booking write them down as their "my bookings page" hasn't been working for a long time.

I've just had a reminder for our dentist, had forgotten all about it, next week, denplan...hope it's not as bad as last time, it took nearly two hours, mostly waiting.

Our census details arrived today, I see you can do them before the actual day if nothing is likely to change with the house occupants. I had visions of everyone going on line on the 21st and the whole thing grinding to a standstill!

We haven’t heard anything yet about the census. We have a few sites booked beginning from the last week in April all club sites so far but we may change a few nearer the time if there is a suitable CL in the area that we can get in to. So far not had much issue booking although things do seem to be filling up now so we maybe got in just in time . Been a lovely few days here sunny and quite warm during the day so we have got a lot of work done out in the garden. Doing all these jobs now so that when restrictions ease we can make up for lost time and head away in the van 

"Things might change as we get older" careful TG, i might take offence

Brilliant day again today, been out on bike round Tichfield Haven followed by walk with pooch, just wonderful and so peaceful. I sometimes wonder why we want to travel. Had to return early to help OH with facetime call to MH, who is now in a Carehome but they have 5 confirmed cases of the dreaded so no chance of visiting for some time yet. If weather holds up car cleaning planned for tomorrow  

Have been checking the web cam at Glenshee ski centre, amazing how quickly the snow has vanished, we used to reckon some of the best snow would be around the Easter time, perhaps there will be another fall and the FM will let people free

KJ - I read further.back that you are maybe considering a motorhome. We had a motorhome for 4 years and enjoyed it the bathroom area in it was actually big (not as big as the one in our current caravan) but our MH was over 7 meters long so we found it difficult to park when away. I believe you have a smart car have you considered maybe getting a slightly bigger MH then towing the smart we done this and towed our Peugeot 107 around on an A Frame which worked for us and the upside was that if we were just heading off for a few days to a site within walking distance of a town we didn’t bother taking the car. Doing it this way May allow you to get a slightly bigger motorhome than planned therefore allowing more space inside. We had ours 4 years but went back to a caravan 4 years ago mainly because we wanted a fixed bed and we could get a brand new caravan for half the price that we would have had to have paid for a  decent fixed bed motorhome also I missed having a big comfy car ao we sold the 107 and bought a Volvo to tow the van and cut down on maintenance costs as we didn’t need to MOT and Tax the caravan .

Hope this helps 

But as our friends say who tow a car , unless we are meeting up or touring together "do we need to bring our car?"

Got our letter today with online code. They want it completed on 21st March or as soon after as possible.

David

Happy days, have spoken with the club re our tunnel booking due to expire on the 28th June, all ok, the tunnel are being very generous and allowing folk to extend the dates due to all the lockdowns in both countries.   will need to work out dates for September now.

I can now go on and book sites in the UK for June hurray (surely the nippy one will let us out by then) I've worked out a tour (I think) had to pin OH down to dates as we have 2 vehicles require MOTs, not going to bother with service as they have hardly done any miles, MOTs will be brought forward a bit to fit with our tour but still within allowances. 

Got very confused with the pricing of sites with C&CC, so called the phone line and spoke with a very helpful and open honest member of staff, everything is much clearer now. Their system is not very transparent or easy to work out, you only get a price once you get to the final booking page. You can of course back out from it but it would be nice to know before hand what kind of price you are looking at. They have changed the way they work this year, it was confusing before but now its even worse, so have asked for a note to be sent to whom ever that the system is worse than before. 

OH been busy taking away garden waste to skip and charging up the MH battery as it was flat  might have to buy a new battery 

Rufs, snow still on hill tops but not enough for skiing, we always used to go skiing at Easter with the kids but that was in Germany. When we got back here we gave up as you spent more time heather hopping than skiing. We have been warned for more snow end of the week, we might not get any but the hills could. Its getting colder again Brrr.