This morning I was up with the lark and off to Ashley Car Boot sale, we went a few weeks back and there must of been at least a dozen rows of vendors, today, 2 1/2, shame, but what can you expect with a -1 temperature reading and a stiff breeze!

Got back around 9.30am after having a cup of tea and a bacon roll for £2 and found "M" still in bed!

We had to take China back to the vets for a check up after her Op, but first we went for a short walk along the Castlemanway trail along an old railway track running through the back of Ringwood and across the river Avon, forgot the camera, which was a shame as there were some good photos to be taken, another day!

The vet gave her the all clear, everything healing up nicely. We thought as much the way she has been leaping about, even trying to stop her, but you try stopping a thing on a spring! The vets were really good, this was the first time we had used them, as they are the vets used by Dorset Dog Rescue, which is where we found China. http://ccvets.co.uk/bournemouth Her final check up is next Sunday, when hopefully she will signed off.

We ventured into Christchurch for lunch and found a pub called The Ship,  http://theship-christchurch.co.uk the sign hanging outside said pub of the year 2010, we went inside, and it does look exactly the same as the website, the staff were great, we got a table straight away, in fact alarm bells should of rang as it was suspiciously quiet for a Sunday lunch time, with just a handful of people in. We ordered Roast Beef with all the trimmings, the table was laid for us and both given a linen napkin, always a good sign! or so we thought. The food arrived within around 15 minutes, the veg had been nuked, I had to ask the waitress when she cleared the plates what a certain vegetable was as it was dark brown to almost black, apparently it was swede! The roast spuds were tougher to cut than the beef! No wonder the pub was empty if that is the quality of food they serve up! I did mention this to the waitress, who's reply was at least the veg is fresh, well, fresh it maybe but not if its been reheated several times! But, give them their credit they did give us a free desert each, but the thing is, how hard is it to steam veg or cook it properly!?  its just slackness on the chefs part. And that's the real shame as the location, the decor, the layout and the service is spot on. Oh and £3.70 for a pint of Guinness - a bit steep? I'm in Christchurch, not bloody Waterloo train station!

Talking of expensive pints, once stayed at the Sheraton on the Heathrow strip, it was a company thing, I at that time was the National Sales Manager for a company based in Uxbridge. Went to check out in the morning and my bill came to £150+, no problem as that happened to be around the same as the room rate, with a few beers about right and therefore thought it was OK. Put in my expenses a few weeks later, got a phone call from my boss who queried my bill that day, I said that I paid for the room, no he said, that must of been your bar bill as the company paid for all the rooms in advance! Now I vaguely remember several bombay saphires, ok alot of it, but £150! No way, so I called the hotel and queried the bill and asked to see all the bar receipts that I had signed to my room. Obviously they couldn't check back, so to my utter surprise they refunded me the money! Result!!

Back on the campsite, the mains water has now frozen up! So I had to go around to the farmers house and found a mains tap sticking out of the wall, thankfully this is not frozen, so we still have water, all though its a bit of a trek! Thank God for aquarolls!

"M" has also done a trip to the laundrette, and Ive had a shave after nearly 4 weeks of growing a beard, I no longer look like a yeti, well that's debatable, beard or no beard!

A busy week back up in Shaston, weather permitting, it is a notoriously bad stretch of road that I have to travel, high ground, windy B roads. So fingers crossed Ill get up there ok.

Hope everyone who reads this has a great week, and as Ive said before, please feel free to leave us a comment or ask us anything, looking at our stats, we can see that alot of people read this, but very few leave comments, so come on, don't be shy, say hello!

Till later........