Tag: christmas

Morning conversation

Posted on By admin

So grandad, after I peed on my usual tree, I went to the park to see Edgar Alan Crow, but I couldn’t catch him, cause mom wouldn’t let me run after him, and then I stole Nala’s ball, but I had to give it back, and then I was going to go into town to go see the lady at the meat library, and….

SQUIRREL!

MOM! MOM!! Did you see? There was a squirrel in the garden!!!

It’s ok, granddad, I protected you!

uncategorized

UK-ho ho

Posted on By admin

After a night of little sleep (the beds were comfy but the hamster wheel in my brain started turning at 4am), we got up at 6, loaded the car and left for the ferry terminal. Our ferry was scheduled for 940 so we’d have ample time to get sorted. Which is a good thing, because we needed it. We’re all a bit crunchy at this point (except the dog), but Ben is extra crunchy and reactive. Allowances are made.

We get to the ferry ticket office, get turned around, and realise that we need to check in and get our tickets at the gate we were just at. Go back, get sorted. Byron passes with flying colors. Go through French border security. Get mildly, but politely, told off for not showing our Swiss residency permits (which would explain why we have no entry stamps in our passports). Then we have to queue for UK passport control.

This is where 10 years of conservative government austerity measures and brexit shine. They’d booked us for the earlier ferry, which we should have been able to make, but passport control took forever so we missed that departure. We had to get to a specific boarding lane. Calais port is F’N HUGE. The French border agent jokingly told us that it was well signposted and that even the Belgians could figure it out. Apparently stressed-out Anglo-Swiss people rate lower than Belgians because we got lost for a bit and Katy was at the edge of a full-blown panic attack (happy birthday!).

After a bit of turning around, we found the right lane and just waited until someone came and dealt with us, as promised. In the interim, Byron explored the port and left them a gift, which was properly dealt with because I’m a responsible dog owner.

So now Byron is chilling in the car, hopefully will have a nap while we cross, Katy and I have coffee and Ben is trying out black pudding for the first time as part of a nice-looking but overpriced full Irish breakfast.

The weather is fairly windy and the ferry rise is a bit choppy but not overly nautical.

The boat is swaying just enough to make it interesting to walk a straight line, but we’re nowhere near Deadliest Catch territory.

We’re on the motorway at the moment and the roads are starting to get busier. According to BBC Radio 2, today is the start of the holiday travel season when millions of people want to get from A to B. It is recommended to not be on the road between noon and 4pm. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Satnav says 2h to Leicester.

Also, the state of UK highways is shocking. These are definitely not Swiss standard, and they even make the French nationals look good.

What the RAC has to say about travelling today

Millions of people across the country are making their Christmas getaway on one of the busiest days for travel of the year.

There are long queues at the Port of Dover after a surge in demand for ferries caused by Thursday’s Eurotunnel strike action in France. Domestic train services in parts of the UK have also been disrupted.

The RAC has advised drivers to travel after 18:00 GMT to avoid long queues on the roads. The organisation has said Friday will be the busiest day of the festive season as those heading away will share the roads with commuters and those on the school run picking up children.

Some 13.5 million leisure journeys are predicted to take place between Friday and Sunday – a 20% increase on the three days before Christmas Day last year – with 21 million trips overall.

You have arrived at your destination.

uncategorized

UK-ho

Posted on By admin

Christmas plans this year involve us – all of us, including Bubba – to go to England. The easiest and cost-effective way we found to do this was to drive from Morges to Calais, spend the night there, then take the Eurotunnel shuttle from Calais to Folkestone the following morning and drive to Leicester. In total, it’s a 1000km+ journey.

We left at 7:30 this morning for the 750km leg to Calais. Byron was not impressed at the early start but he was a super good boy along the way. We averaged a stop every hour or so to stretch legs and let him out to pee.

The rest of the time he was either sleeping with his head on my leg or alternating between sitting looking at me or sitting snuggled next to me. We made it to Calais at around 16:30. It was a long drive…..

I was really relieved to have made it, because I had a lot of anxiety about Bad Things Happening. None of which materialized.

Then I get a text from Gino, while we’re in the hotel parking lot, telling us he hopes we’re taking the ferry tomorrow because the French just went on a no-notice strike at 11 this morning and all tunnel activity is suspended until further notice and nobody knows how long it’ll take to get resolved.

Fuck.

Read more about the strike

Unions called the strike at 11:00 GMT. Under French union law they can run the strike for as long as they like, and there is no indication at the moment how long it will go on for.

The tunnel operator is not covered by a 2007 French law that makes a 48-hour strike notice compulsory for transport operators, which is why the walkout took everyone by surprise.

Staff were offered discretionary bonus of a €1,000 (£867) bonus, but the unions’ request is for three times that much.

Of all the things I was fretting about, this was not one of them. We only expected to be in Calais overnight so only had one night booked. This could turn ugly quickly. Thankfully, I could reserve a (different) room for tomorrow night and cancel it if we didn’t need it.

In the meantime, Byron, Katy and Ben were getting comfy in the room – which is quite nice. It’s a dog friendly hotel.

While we were waiting for our dinner booking, we weighed our options. Our shuttle tickets were refundable, so erring on the side of actually making it to the UK tomorrow, we cancelled the train and booked a ferry crossing. Hopefully that goes well tomorrow, but that is a worry for another day.

Being dog-friendly, Byron could come to the hotel restaurant with us. He was very well-behaved, especially considering that there were at least 4 other dogs there – two of which were uber barky.

While we had dinner, surrounded by other people and their dogs, we started chatting with a nice older couple from Strasbourg who were in the same predicament as we were, but they informed us that the strike had already been resolved. Murphy’s law says that this is because we cancelled our booking and made alternate plans, because has we not done so, the strike would have lasted forever. I firmly believe that the universe hates me.

So now Byron is snoring, Ben is watching Netflix on his laptop and Katy and I are going to try and get some sleep. It’s going to be another early start and another set of anxieties to deal with.

We’re not in Leicester yet, but hopefully by early afternoon we will be.

Pray for Omarion.

uncategorized