An Utter Shambles
I should have had a duvet day today. I did make a plan but there is truth in the saying the best laid plans of mice and men....etc
Plan A: Go and visit The Little Gem arts and Crafts Gallery here in New Biggin-by-the Sea. Free entry and free parking.......aaaaand closed everyday except weekends.
Plan B: Spend a good chunk of the day at Woodhorn Museum and Archives and find out about the mining history here and the Pitman Painters about whom an excellent play has been performed. It's a fantastic museum based in original colliery buildings. Everything I had read about it suggested it was a really worthwhile place to visit. Free entry - and just £3.50 for all day parking. I was looking forward to it.
Buuuuuuut today is Monday and it's closed til Wednesday.
There were a group of maintenance men painting picnic tables so, not one to miss an opportunity, I asked them for 'must see must do' given their museum was closed. I believe I have an excellent musical ear but I honestly couldn't understand a single word this nice Geordie labourer said!
"That's great." I said brightly, hoping he hadn't said "Best go to Newcastle canny lass."
I turned the car around in Queen Elizabeth Country Park where there was a peaceful lake and more swans than I have ever seen in one place.
Maybe someone should tell that man that swans shouldn't really be dining on loaves of white bread.
Surprisingly there was also a Premier Inn there, looking great.
What a beautiful place to have one. A far cry from an out of town industrial estate on under the flight path of an international airport.
Plan C: I left my coat in Helmsley and my hostess had lent me one of hers, and suggested I replace mine in Ashington where I would find lots of charity shops. There were - and I did.
I also needed a rear brake light bulb so made the mistake of taking Gloria in here.
To put in a brake light they wanted all my personal details just short of demanding a kidney.
Why? Company policy. The company also wanted to keep my car and do a thorough check of all her systems. Why? Company policy.
I needed a simple brake light bulb not an MOT. Besides, her engine management light has been on for 4 years. A ' thorough check' would give them permission to keep her for a month!!! And charge me accordingly. I nearly told them that where I would suggest they put their company policy, they would need a light bulb. But with my beloved daughter Morgan in mind - I refrained. I will find a little independent garage instead.
I asked the lass in Asda for a 'must see and a must do' in Ashington and she did a Bexhill on me. "Nothing" she said. "You'd best go to Morpeth."
Morpeth is was then, particularly as it was on route to Wallington - a National Trust House where I planned to lunch.
Morpeth is a bigger town. It has a castle, most main street shops and a very intriguing Bagpipe Museum.
Who knew bagpipes were a Northumbrian invention, not a Scottish one?
However this is what really matters in a county that appears to be footie mad.
Their team is playing at Wembley on May 22nd.
Plan D: Lunch at Wallington House, walled garden and estate.
Except that my state of the art Sat Nav claimed there was no such place, no such town and no such post code as NE61 4AR. So I never found it.
Getting grumpy and hungry.
According to the Tourist Board, Amble is a retro chic little town. Excellent.... not excellent.
Am I missing something here? Margate is a retro chic town. Amble? Everywhere was shut by 4.30pm except a pub and the Co-op. The chi chi little eateries established 2014 were also closed.
Today has been a total shambles.
I decided to buy bacon, eggs and gin and call it a day so I drove back to New Biggin.
I passed a wind farm run by Scottish power. The child in me loves wind farms.
Arrived back at my holiday flat. Took my food out of the boot and, for the first time in ten years, shut the boot with car and house keys inside.
Rang Green Flag Rescue. A man in a van with a coat hanger would arrive in 50 minutes.
Fine.
Not fine.
I needed the loo.
Across the road is a pub with a large commercial For Sale sign on it but the door is open. The five men drinking in there stopped talking the moment I appeared. No-one behind the bar to ask, so I made my way to the loo. Someone grassed me up to the landlady. An elderly woman, nothing like a warm friendly barmaid was waiting for me, arms folded when I came out. I thought I'd better buy a drink. I asked for half a cider. She popped the lid off bottle and shoved it towards me. I paid and left without asking for s straw!!!
Meet Kieran Magee a white Knight of the Green Flag fraternity.
He opened Gloria's boot in under ten minutes with a secret bit of kit that cost him £56 to buy and had never ever worked. Well dear reader - it worked tonight. If I told you what that secret piece of kit was - Kieran would very probably have to kill me.
Thank goodness tomorrow is another day.
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