Camping Chez Dunnes!

Well we made it to the Dunnes for our weeks holiday, though not without event. It seems that every time we seem set to go away something sets against us. This time it was the car – again! The red battery light started flashing and the rev counter seemed to be unresponsive during the week before. My friendly mechanic came and took a look and couldn’t see a problem, so we got it serviced in the hopes that it just needed a good ‘tune-up & clean-up’. Next day she didn’t start – the morning we were due to go away and I had already loaded half the camping kit in the boot! So P hopped off to buy new battery, which proved a challenge to fit, but once it was installed we just set off and hoped for the best. The bus made it down to Oxford and run arounds on the weekend, but still the rev-o-meter was not working properly and occasionally the battery light would flash on. My mechanic had said that he thought it might be something electronic in the dashboard shorting out and draining the battery, so we planned to get it sorted as soon as we returned home again. P returned home on Sunday (leaving the rest of us at our friends’ for the week) to do the church holiday club for the week and is due to collect come back for us on Friday again. A phone call from him tonight, I chatted to him to night and our ‘baby’ is in hospital! Apparently she got him home OK, but this morning the battery was completely flat again :( Seems it may be an electrical shortage, as we thought, or it may be a fault with the alternator (although my mechanic seemed to think it was working fine when he tested it) or some problem INSIDE the alternator. Whatever – the cost is mounting- again!! Hopefully she will be sorted and back on the road by Friday, or my poor friends might be stuck with us for even longer! At the moment it’s only the boys ‘camping out’, but if we have to stay on she might kick us all into the garden!!

The big girls have been collected by M&D and have gone off down to Portsmouth for a few days – I haven’t even heard from them so I guess they aren’t missing us too much and are having a great time :)

We that are here are having a lovely time too. It’s great to be with old friends who you just ‘fit’ with and muddle in with. The big boys are such good friends and have a ball together. They are tucked down in the tent under endless layers of sleeping bags and duvets and seem to be plenty warm enough, so that’s great. Thankfully it seems to be warming up a little too.

We went to Tilsley Park today with the children. It was warm and sunny and they had a lovely time. The boy got thoroughly caked in mud by playing in a stream and the wood.

 

 

 

2009_02_16 - Tilsley Park