My Average Holidays

Just a quick post this month, even though April has really been the start of the year for us. It gave us our first proper National Trust day out, a surprise new car, and the windows are finally finished, so nobody has to die.

We decided to do a double header for what is essentially our first NT (National Trust) day. We drove down to Plymouth, which always seems further than it is on a map, and our first stop was Saltram Park. An 18th-century house with apparently a ‘magical garden’. We didn’t see any of the grounds because it was chucking it down, less April showers and more cats and dogs. Before we did anything, we visited the café, which is normally quite good, but the woman on the till was definitely not full of the joys of spring. In fact, when I asked for a soy cappuccino, she shouted at the top of her voice, “Intolerance Coming Through!” in a very aggressive manner and claimed she had to do that. Personally I think it’s just because she’s a C.

Saltram was okay, and there are some interesting things in the house. Unfortunately, now that I’m a volunteer myself, I felt obliged to listen to other people’s ‘patter’, one of which went on for a very long time. Lyn, however, felt no obligation and kept wandering off, leaving me to nod and put on my ‘interested’ face.  To be fair, the weather really didn’t help. Our next stop was a place called Antony. This was in Torpoint across the Tamar. I was fully expecting to have to pay the bridge toll, but the satnav instead took us to the Torpoint Ferry. We’ve not done that before! It’s not exactly a bucket list event, but still interesting, especially as we timed it just right and drove straight on. We didn’t even have to pay because apparently you only pay the £3 coming back the other way, which seems a poor business model, but I’m not complaining.

Antony is an interesting one because the family still live there and it’s only open for three days mid-week. Like Powis Castle on our trip to Wales (see here), the family ‘gave’ the house to the National Trust while keeping all the stuff on the inside and the land that would provide the money to maintain it. Unlike Powis, though, they allow photos inside and at the end of each day the NT people have to go around and remove all the cordons, etc. This seems a jolly good idea and I’m wondering if the NT would like to take on the maintenance of my listed house, which is in a conservation area, on the basis that strangers can have a look around for half a day each week. I’ll even put some trousers on that day.

Finally, we got our new car a month early! I was fully expecting them to spend the next month running it ragged. Normally, when you buy a car, you suddenly start seeing loads of them, but for the first time ever, I hadn’t seen a single Geely in North Devon. After a week of driving it (and it does get a few looks), I still hadn’t seen another one… until yesterday when I looked in the rear view mirror to see I was being followed by a white one. FFS! My son laughed when I told him and said, “So you’re no longer the cool kind in town,” which is obviously ridiculous because I’ll always be that, but it was annoying nonetheless.

Next month we’re going to Italy for a well deserved break unless the Orange Caligula somehow manages to fuck that up and with elections coming up (not for us) remember Quis Autem Reformationem.