More British bureaucracy, and a story about a tent...
17/10/12
Today featured ANOTHER drive to Bristol. OK, Bristol is a nice place, but the road there is boring. I've ridden it far too many times and next time I go I'm sticking to the back roads.
We had to go to the Post office to pick up something I ordered from the US and had delivered to Claire's while we were in our cruise. Unfortunately as Claire had no identification in my name the Post Office wouldn't allow her to pick it up. We walked into the Post Office just before closing and presented our little piece of official paper with my parcel's ID number. Of course it wasn't there. "If it's not collected within 18 days, it's sent to customs." To be fair the girl was very nice and very helpful She even gave us the number to call to chase up my stuff. We'll do that tomorrow.
Now, it was time to checkout this tent. We drove to Weston Super Mare to look at a tent that was listed on ebay. It was the exact same tent we had, and they're pretty scarce, and it was in the county right next to where ours was stolen from. Suzanne had spoken to the police and asked what we should do. They said go and take a look and if it's yours, call us. We'll send someone around to sort it out. We pulled up outside the house and nervously rang the doorbell. I saw a "Look out for motorcyclists" type sticker on the back of the car in the driveway, so I hoped that it wouldn't be our tent. I'd hate to think fellow motorcyclists would steal from each other.
We walked in and met Sam and Clare, who were selling the tent. We felt really bad playing stupid and asking them to put up the tent for us. Once the tent was up it was pretty obvious it wasn't ours. It was then that I said "We have to come clean guys." Poor Clare looked really worried but once we told the out story it was all fine. Sam and Clare are about to head off on a trip around the world riding a pair of KTM690s. What a coincidence.
We Sat for some time and talked bikes, travelling, sat navs and gear, including She Wees, over a few drinks. When we left we had a replacement tent so we could continue our journey, but more importantly we'd made two new like minded friends. They're a great couple and I'm hoping they'll come and stay with us when they reach Perth in early 2014. I can honestly say they're the only people we've met on out trip that I'm envious of. Their planned route is amazing.
You can visit their website at http://www.chasinghorizons.co.uk/ but be warned, their full on website makes my humble blog look pretty boring.
We got back to Hemel at about 9pm so this one day car hire has now turned into three. I wonder if I can claim that on travel insurance? Tomorrow it's time to pay some board. I'll be helping Paul setting up his new project.
17/10/12
Today featured ANOTHER drive to Bristol. OK, Bristol is a nice place, but the road there is boring. I've ridden it far too many times and next time I go I'm sticking to the back roads.
We had to go to the Post office to pick up something I ordered from the US and had delivered to Claire's while we were in our cruise. Unfortunately as Claire had no identification in my name the Post Office wouldn't allow her to pick it up. We walked into the Post Office just before closing and presented our little piece of official paper with my parcel's ID number. Of course it wasn't there. "If it's not collected within 18 days, it's sent to customs." To be fair the girl was very nice and very helpful She even gave us the number to call to chase up my stuff. We'll do that tomorrow.
Now, it was time to checkout this tent. We drove to Weston Super Mare to look at a tent that was listed on ebay. It was the exact same tent we had, and they're pretty scarce, and it was in the county right next to where ours was stolen from. Suzanne had spoken to the police and asked what we should do. They said go and take a look and if it's yours, call us. We'll send someone around to sort it out. We pulled up outside the house and nervously rang the doorbell. I saw a "Look out for motorcyclists" type sticker on the back of the car in the driveway, so I hoped that it wouldn't be our tent. I'd hate to think fellow motorcyclists would steal from each other.
We walked in and met Sam and Clare, who were selling the tent. We felt really bad playing stupid and asking them to put up the tent for us. Once the tent was up it was pretty obvious it wasn't ours. It was then that I said "We have to come clean guys." Poor Clare looked really worried but once we told the out story it was all fine. Sam and Clare are about to head off on a trip around the world riding a pair of KTM690s. What a coincidence.
We Sat for some time and talked bikes, travelling, sat navs and gear, including She Wees, over a few drinks. When we left we had a replacement tent so we could continue our journey, but more importantly we'd made two new like minded friends. They're a great couple and I'm hoping they'll come and stay with us when they reach Perth in early 2014. I can honestly say they're the only people we've met on out trip that I'm envious of. Their planned route is amazing.
You can visit their website at http://www.chasinghorizons.co.uk/ but be warned, their full on website makes my humble blog look pretty boring.
We got back to Hemel at about 9pm so this one day car hire has now turned into three. I wonder if I can claim that on travel insurance? Tomorrow it's time to pay some board. I'll be helping Paul setting up his new project.
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