Heart Attack Hill !

After a bit of a whirlwind first couple of weeks back in the UK, which had involved driving a lot of road miles, after returning from our Lancaster and Morecombe trip we decided on having a quiet weekend, our final week would not be as frenetic but there were still things that we wanted to do ourselves. We had pre-ordered lots of ‘goodies’ from Amazon which had now all been delivered. We had known before departing Spain that we would have a car boot full on the return trip, so had limited our outward trip to just the essentials, two small aircraft cabin bag sized suitcases and our two individual rucksacks, but my concern wasn’t fitting it all in, which would be a challenge in itself, but more the fact that some items would, if checked by the Spanish Authorities, potentially attract ‘Customs Duty’ (Small hand held Electrical Appliances) or in fact be considered as ‘Prohibited Items to Import’ (Shazza’s Plant Based foodstuffs, Oils and other ingredients for cooking) but we had agreed that for once we would take the risk 😳

Shazza and I have always been law abiding citizens throughout our whole lives and never risked even the most minor of demeanours, however, it seems to us that it is always the honest individuals that seem to be the only one’s to get shafted by the Authorities, easy targets. On this one and only occasion it wasn’t actually as if we were smuggling drugs, weapons, explosives, people or, heavens forbid, cheese and ham sandwiches into the country 😲 All very serious offences without any doubt, but all of which seem to go unpunished, due mainly because it would appear that the Authorities do not have the time, inclination or perhaps the manpower resources to deal with the real and actual perpetrators of such crimes 🤷‍♂️ So, although our stomachs may be churning inside our bodies, we would attempt to put on our innocent and smiling faces, as we pass through the ‘Control Points’ and trust that they just wave us through 😳🫣 Then perhaps we may need to stop at the nearest rest stop and change clothes after what will, without any doubt, be yet another ‘brown trouser moment’ to add to our previous list of similar moments during our former Motor-homing experiences 😂 Anyway, what is the worst that could happen to us if we were to get stopped and searched 🤔

On the Monday we set off early, with Shazza’s mum, to drive the short distance to ‘Meadowhall’, a large shopping complex on the outskirts of Sheffield. Before we had departed Spain we had both conducted an inventory of our wardrobes and agreed that we were both now in need of some modern replacements, although we wouldn’t throw away those cast off’s, we were sure that the 1970’s fashion items would become fashionable again, at some point in the future 🤭 We had each made a list of our requirements, comfortable casual footwear (Sketchers), casual shirts, shorts and lightweight jackets for the cooler Spanish Autumn and Winter periods (Hoodies or Fleeces). We do not tend to treat ourselves to new clothes very often, only when really required, or when buying something for a special occasion, like we had to do for our daughter’s wedding celebrations in Austria last Summer. We do not generally buy each other gifts for Birthday’s, Anniversaries or even at Christmas as, if we need anything, like new Kindle’s, Phone’s, iPad’s, or even Colognes and Perfumes, we just buy them as we need them 🤷‍♂️ So this clothes shopping extravaganza would be a real, and very rare, treat for the both of us 🤗

The Tuesday was a day off for me, giving me an opportunity to try and continue to catch up with drafting another one of these rambles 🙄 Not being a professional literary author, I am not one to carry a pocket book in which to write notes as we go about our travel adventures, so I hoped that my memory, and photographs taken, would still be good enough to prompt me in to remembering all the things that we had done, the places we had visited and some of the things along the way that we had heard or observed. Shazza on the other hand had her own day off, well at least from driving, as her mum and her two sister’s, Shazza’s Aunt’s, live locally and all three have a weekly day out, shopping and going for lunch and coffee, so Shazza, after very recently attaining the special status of joining the elite 60’s club, joined in with this small ‘purple rinse’ group 🤭

The Wednesday was a much more productive day for me, it was time to give the car a thorough clean. In Spain, due to the nature and impracticalities of the location of our apartment, more so the distance of the car parking arrangements for the ferrying of buckets of water back and forth, it means that cleaning the car entails driving it to the local car wash, which actually does a reasonable job on the exterior, but nowhere near as good as I would do it by hand, and there are no hoovers available for doing the interior. Whilst I do always pay for the highest level of car wash, which includes a coating of wax, the wax spray nozzles are not powerful enough to apply any wax to the rear of the car, so this was an opportunity for me to do a complete clean of the interior, give the outside a good wash and then hand apply a good coating of wax. However, whilst we were personally enjoying the lovely hot and sunny weather, it was not so good for washing or waxing the car as both the water, and the car wax, dried out very quickly leaving dried water streaks, and hard wax deposits on the car, so I was restricted to doing it over the next two much cooler morning periods and, I also already knew that, after our long drive back to Southern Spain, it would probably be just as bad again and covered, from bonnet to boot, with encrusted insect remains 🤷‍♂️

Shazza on the other hand wasn’t having a completely restful day, as she was catching up with all the laundry we had amassed on our travels, and of course the ironing, but at least we were not now driving all around the country, perhaps we should suggest to all our family members that they should move and all live in the same one location 😂. In between times, we had also cut her mum’s ‘three’ lawns, twice, repaired her leaking toilet cistern, attached a new lock to her bathroom door and ordered and hung a new set of bedroom curtains, you wouldn’t think that she had three grown up son’s who all live within a thirty minute drive away 🙄 All the days we do spend staying at her mum’s, Shazza does all the cooking, don’t misunderstand me, this is not either of us complaining, after all her mum is nearly 83 year’s young and so has difficulty in doing ‘some’ of these things for herself, but it is simply the reason why we do not consider coming back to the UK to visit, as being an actual ‘Holiday’ as such for us. We also realised that in fact, three weeks in the UK is too long a period, we could have done everything in just two weeks and were now just stretching things out to kill a bit of time before reporting to our pre-booked return ferry home. It wasn’t as if we wouldn’t be seeing family again soon either, as one of her Aunts, and Uncle, who we had seen a couple of times already on this trip, would be coming out to stay with us for a week within just three days of us returning home and, we had just booked the flight tickets for her mum to come and stay with us again, for two weeks in October. But we were also reading reports that the Airport at Doncaster, just a shortish 15-20 minute drive from her mum’s house, and which had closed only a few year’s ago, which had previously had direct flights to and from Malaga, was to re-open in the Spring of next year, so perhaps on our next visit, instead of the long drives, we will just catch a flight from Malaga to Doncaster and hire a car from the airport upon our arrival 🤔 Although that would have one distinct disadvantage in that we would not be able to bring as much contraband back home with us 😂

Over the next couple of days I finished cleaning the car, had got the pre-ordered new tyres fitted and, I even had time to go and get a haircut, which would save me a job once we returned home. We had also sorted, and re-packed, our ‘additional’ luggage items ready for loading into the car. So we had a free day on the Friday, our last day at Shazza’s mums, so we decided to take a short trip to a local historical stately home and gardens, and then have a nice lunch out somewhere, before going back and secreting the contraband, packing the car ready for the start of our journey down to the South of England 🤭

In the numerous year’s that we have been travelling and staying at Shazza’s mums, including the numerous year’s when we actually lived in the UK, I had never heard my beloved ever make a mention of ‘Cusworth Hall & Park’, which is only a very short drive away from Doncaster. The other amazing revelation to me was that entry to the House and Gardens were completely ‘Free’, ‘My Most Favourite Word In Any Dictionary’ 🤗 Although, I had reservations on just how good it would be if they were not charging an entrance fee, something almost entirely unheard of in the UK 🤔

We pulled up into the large car park and Okay, they lied, for there was an actual fee to park the car, but even that charge was very reasonable and very much less than the cost of one cup of medium sized ‘Latte’ at Costa Coffee 😂 The grounds looked quite vast but our first stop was the house. Now the house itself does of course have some history attached to it, being built in the 1700’s, and it now has ‘Listed Building’ status and is a museum, but my brief on-line research, before my eyes fully glazed over, didn’t reveal any earth shattering revelations that I could astound you my reader’s with, all I will say to any history buffs reading this is, go and check out what ‘Mr Wikipedia’ and ‘Mr Google’ have to say about it but don’t even think of blaming me when your eyes start feeling heavy 😴

Although Shazza had been here on a previous occasion, very many year’s ago as a child, when I suspect the park and gardens had more adventure appeal than the actual house, she was quite excited this time around to get inside and have a good nosey around the place. Now I do not normally take too much interest in such places myself, however on this occasion I was actually quite surprised and rather enjoyed it, probably because each room showed the different periods of its, and the immediate local area’s, history.

What was unusual to see in this particular residence was that they had made replica displays in the kitchen, scullery and laundry room areas, which we were able to wander in and out of, whereas normally, in the majority of Stately homes, the below stairs areas are not accessible to the public.

From the kitchen we decided to do the ground level first before proceeding to the second floor, although if you look at the external photo of the house it shows a third upper floor level, for which public access was not permitted 🤔 Probably because that was where the ‘ghostly spirits’ took their coffee breaks 👻🤭

There was room dedicated to the history of the early justice system, from the medieval periods up to the inception of the official uniformed Police Service. I have to confess that I found the information in the displays quite interesting although, having seen some of the punishments for things like stealing a loaf of bread, it made me wonder what our punishments would have been like in respect of our own upcoming future minor misdemeanours 😳 Although there was one offence, during the medieval period, which had a punishment well deserved, and I personally believe that this particular one should be continued right up to this present day 🫣

Now sometimes, visits to such historical places can end up being very enlightening, I mean I can remember as a child, and right up to this modern day, eating ‘Nuttall’s Mintoes’ sweets, and never thinking once about where they came from, but it wasn’t until this particular day’s visit that I realised that they were invented in Doncaster 😲 A good job they were not invented in ‘Nuneaton’ then, I thought to myself, or they may never have seen the light of day and have been enjoyed by millions for over a century 😉

Now, if I thought that this revelation about ‘Nuttals Mintoes’ was informative, my curiosity was raised even further when I saw, locked behind a glass fronted exhibition case, what looked, at first glance, to be a pretty boring water jug. But what made it interesting to me was the inscription upon it…………

We spent a little more time popping our heads into various other rooms, costumes and jewellery worn by the ladies through the decades, the two great World Wars and the role of the Hall and it’s other buildings during those periods, then as we moved forward into the 60’s and 70’s era, there were household accessories, domestic equipment and products that even I began to recognise as being common place in my own parents households when I was a teenager 😳 It was time to get out of there before I came to a room showing the future 😲 We made a brief stop at the Cafe and enjoyed some ‘more up to date’ tasty delicacies to have with our coffee’s, before we took on the challenge of the Park Grounds, where Shazza’s mum wisely elected to perch on a bench and wait for us to return, I think it was one of the groundsmen we stopped to chat with who referred to one of the walks as ‘Heart Attack Hill’ which had been instrumental in her decision 😂

There were so many different walks around the vast grounds, that we could have stayed here for hour’s and, other than the Cafe, which we had sampled earlier, their was also a micro brewery on the site with a small ‘Pub’ with an additional seating area in a small walled courtyard, however, visitor’s were also encouraged to bring their own picnics and sit on the grass overlooking the scenic lakes and enjoying the long reaching views across the fields to the outskirts of the city of Doncaster. Shazza and I strolled around the perimeter path of the lakes, enjoying seeing Canada Geese, Mallards, Moorhens and a couple of Swans, before we walked back up ‘Heart Attack Hill’ to re-unite with her mum. To be honest, although she certainly would not have managed it, for us it actually wasn’t as bad as it sounded, or perhaps we really are fitter than we think 🤷‍♂️ Overall, and I can say this in all honesty, that what I thought was going to be a bit of a boring day out for myself, actually turned out to be a wonderful day out and I once again asked Shazza why she had not brought me here before ? She said that she didn’t know why, although perhaps, I thought to myself, she may have had memories from her younger days when she may have came here on previous romantic interludes. I didn’t press her on the matter, some memories are best kept to one’s self 😉

As we returned to the car, Shazza’s mum mentioned remembering that there used to be quite a large Garden Centre very near to where we were, although she had not been there for year’s she said, so didn’t know if it would still be there. I checked on ‘Google Maps’ and discovered that it was, so, as this would be our final day with her, and not seeing her again until she visited us in Spain in the Autumn, we took a detour and spent a good hour at the huge garden centre, one which sold everything, and not just for the garden, we even bought a large home-made treacle tart, which Shazza said she would heat up and we could have with a tin of thick creamy Devon Custard for supper 😋😋

We had been out since the early morning and it was now late afternoon, apart from the brief snack at the Cafe at the Hall, we hadn’t eaten anything else and we were all ready for something substantial to eat. This time it was me that remembered an establishment where we had all visited before, a couple of times in fact on some of our previous trips here, it was spacious, the staff were friendly and the food, from what I could remember, was basic, but delicious, ‘Pub Grub’ with several Vegan options for Shazza which didn’t include a Goats Cheese Salad 😉 We agreed unanimously, albeit it would normally have been a traditional Friday takeaway Fish & Chip supper evening. On the way to the eatery I sent a text message to ‘Michel’ (He was actually French and not Spanish) and was the Plumber in Spain, just to confirm that he was still coming to fit a new water boiler for us on the following Thursday, the day after we returned home. Within a couple of minutes he sent a text saying, ‘Yes 👍 Will be there at 10:00am’, so that was another thing that had been whirring around inside my mind that I could now forget about. God help me if I ever get Dementia, I thought to myself, that would certainly make my OCD Buddy redundant 😂

We were all pleased to get home, we were exhausted, it had been a long day, but Shazza and I still had a final task to complete, the loading of the car and an almost certain jigsaw puzzle that would undoubtedly involve us filling every available inch of space. However, we consoled ourselves in the knowledge that we have been here before, several times in fact, when we first purchased our apartment and were carting lots of personal household stuff across, although that was in our then much smaller car, so this should be a breeze, shouldn’t it 🤔 We actually did get it all packed away quite quickly, except for the final few bits, but they would fit into our rucksacks which would go behind the front seats. Then, we sat and enjoyed our warm treacle tart and custard, washed down with a mug full of hot strong tea, we both exhaled, the long trip was nearly over, our journey South would commence the following morning. Then once home we could sit on our sun-filled balcony, looking out over the sea views and just relaxing. Well, we would, after we had unpacked at the other end, Shazza had got the laundry sorted, we had done the shopping to re-fill the food cupboards and the refrigerator, got the water boiler fitted and working and then, got ourselves and the apartment ready for our guests impending arrival 😮‍💨 We agreed that perhaps after that, we would need a holiday ourselves to recuperate from our ‘Holiday’ 🤔 or better still, just remain here in Spain in our own permanent holiday location and accommodation, bugger the adventures, well at least until the next one 😂

Our current journey continues, but is nearing its conclusion……

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena