Catchup - 23/12/13

Mick had another salvage yard on his list of places to visit.  With many places being closed between Christmas and New Year’s Eve it turned out today would be the day we’d have to visit.  It wasn’t far away… just half an hour or so in Little Rissington.  He spent a happy hour or more and I had a look around and then retreated to the car to send a merry Christmas email to all the folk back home.  

The weather, as predicted, was dreadful.  It just rained constantly.  The roads coming down into Chipping Campden were like little rivers of orange water.  Something we really noticed today is that the roads are simply not designed to handle the volume of water that comes with heavy rain.  At home the roads are graded with run-offs so the water doesn’t sit on the road.  Of course there are times when the rain is so heavy that the roads are awash but it seems to happen here every time it rains.  The cars were just driving full speed through the deep puddles all over the roads.  It was a bit chaotic really.  

We came back to the cottage for our lunch and headed out again later to Stratford upon Avon to collect our Christmas dinner order.  Oh my goodness…. I thought it was bad at home in the day or two before Christmas but this was just insanity.  We’d chosen a Marks and Spencer in a retail park rather than the one in the centre of town.  We thought it would be easier to access.  The carpark was madness with cars in gridlock and madly tooting horns at each other.  Mick came into the store and made a fast about face and went to wait in the car.  There wasn’t much trolley pushing as it was too packed with people.  The online orders are dished out on a timed basis and we were a bit earlier than our slot.  I had a browse in the supermarket while I waited the 15 minutes before our order would arrive. 

We had seen an antique “barn” the other day as we were on the road.  We spotted it again today and decided to stop and look.  By this time the wind had really picked up and it was so strong that I could barely open the car door.  We raced across the carpark in the wind and rain and all but burst through the front door of the barn.  The lady at the desk had been watching… and obviously giggling.  The barn was really just a shed and the walls shook violently in the high winds.   We stopped once more to check out a farm shop but by then we’d had enough of the rain, wind and huge puddles on the roads.

When we got back to the cottage we were glad to be off the roads.  We think we might just have a walk around Chipping tomorrow and leave the car where it is.  It’s so cosy warm inside we really don’t mind a day in.