travels so far or not so far ....

On Wednesday morning we set off bright and early in our van (Evie) for adventures up north. This was the test for Evie as the furthest she has been so far is Hampshire!

We sailed up the M5 - with a quick pit stop In sunny Birmingham to collect bits for a friend and see where Gayle grew up (other highlights included Adam's old stomping ground and the Villa ground!). We made brilliant headway up to Dumfries and stayed in a awesome campsite in the Mabie Forest - where you can stay in a roundhouse, tee-pee, bunkhouse or your own tent or van. the site comes complete with compost loos and wood-fired hot tub and sauna - which was great! Pictures to follow.

Thursday morning we set off and as we stopped in Hamilton there was a strange clunking sound and Evie refused to get into gear... both of us felt slightly nervous but decided best ignore these things!! but by just north of Glasgow there was no getting her into gear and so i surrendered and Gayle called the AA - a "very nice man" arrived (who thought we were travellers!! how many travellers belong to the AA??) who did everything he could but there was nothing else for it - we had to take her to a garage... this the day before the Scottish bank holiday!!
we had visions of being stranded in Glasgow until Tuesday - not quite the plan!
Amazingly though the garage had the van fixed by this afternoon and we will be back on the road tomorrow after sampling some of Glasgow's nightlife tonight.
As i drove Evie through Glasgow i did ask myself why had i not got the gear box seen to earlier as it is now quite easy to drive!!!
Frank is not sure what to make of all the comings and goings!

yoofs

On Monday at work I was delivering to a house in an nice town we all know - and encountered a group of young people spitting and shouting racist comments at an elderly Asian woman.
Being the shy retiring type ,i decided to intervene and got into a bit of an argument with the young men. at the time it seemed the right thing to do - i couldn't walk past and let them treat that person like that, but afterwards my heart was racing and i was not quite so convinced as to the sensible-ness of my actions!
the interaction with the young men started with just challenging 4 of them but the group grew rapidly to 10 and all of them were wanting to take me on!! somehow i managed to talk my way of of them all attacking me but given recent media coverage of young people attacking those that challenge their behaviour maybe i was lucky rather than a skilled linguist!

the good part is the woman was extremely grateful for my intervention and the young people left! but i still feel quite shaken by the incident.