Brenda’s Boxing Day Buffet

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An annual event in the Cassidy-Edley Social Calendar is Brenda’s Boxing Day Buffet. Held in Sheffield on (appropriately) Boxing Day, the Edley side gather for a light finger buffet and Christmas games and Stones’ Bitter.  We also meet for a ritual which involves my throwing discarded wrapping paper at Uncle Pete, and for my 18 and 21 year old nephews to call me Uncle Duck Egg (while siding with their Dad).

The last few years we haven’t been able to make it – nothing to do with being called Uncle Duck Egg or being beaten in the Wrapping Paper Wars – just logistics about getting from Brussels to Sheffield……BUT:

Good news at last in 2010: we now live in the UK!  We will eat prawns; we will drink Stones; we WILL compete in the Wrapping Paper Wars. (We’ll also go to York to see my Mum and Day, aka Chris n Aud, who will feed us Christmas cake and Cheddar Cheese (is that a Yorkshire thing?)

Travel arrangements:  Brenda’s Boxing day Buffet (Sheffield), Audrey’s Christmas Cake Cheese Feast).  Days away – not telling you in case you want to burgle us…but not too long.

Train (preferred Choice): impossible – no trains on Boxing Day;

Flight BMI Baby: £19 each on Boxing Day (with a thousand hidden extras) – but flight arrives after the cheese sticks have gone soft);

Commercial Car Hire: only available from the airport (booo) and coming in at £210 cheapest plus petrol plus insurance for most things that could actually happen;

City Car Club: £230 incl petrol and ALL insurance included and pick up 10 min walk away.

This makes us festively happy.

PS: apologies for lack of video footage – Flip camera has died

PPS: Photo Montage = Audrey pre-Christmas cake and cheese…and after.  (Audrey has kindly agreed to release these pics to prevent younger people from such indulgence.)

Wild Child, Poppy & Freddy, Robin Hood & Boggle Hole

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OK this year’s summer holiday has involved hiring a 1972 VW Camper Van and driving over the N Yorkshire Moors and visiting a music festival.

This begs the important question, as posed by a friend: should car free family be hiring a van for a holiday? Good question.

I suppose it’s all about ownership versus use.  But hey, a few facts (and confessions)

Last year’s holiday:

Location: Greece

Operator: Club Med

Cost: Extortionate

Travel: Taxi, train, flight, Bus, bus, flight, train, taxi

Food and locale: Everything you could eat and more,  lager and wine, and lots of green grass (despite heat – lots of watering), plus air con

Entertainment: French Extravaganza (every bloody night)

Celebrity rating: 0

Carbon: Ouch

This year’s holiday:

Location: Robin Hood’s Bay, Boggle Hole, Fylingdale, Buxton

Operator: Cassidys (and my mate Ian)

Cost: 75% less than last year

Travel: Taxi, train, taxi, van (350 miles), lift from Ian, train, taxi

Food and locale: Quorn, pasta, flies, bitter/ale, cold and blustery, drafts

Entertainment: Ian, kids and amazing music (esp The Futureheads and Imperial Leisure)

Celebrity rating: 9 (Emma Roberts had been there once for Wild Child – see link)

Carbon: A lot less than last year!

Summary: I think this year’s holiday was the most relaxing I have had for years, and T&M enjoyed it more than they have a holiday in ages.  Just drive (very slowly – that is the only ption in a 1972 VW Camper) and sit and listen to music. Even cooking on the stove was strangely relaxing (if not for the fly).  Greece was more of a rush and a push to get there and enjoy – at all costs.

So – yeah, we hired a van.  Result all round. Our friends at flightlesstravel (see link) may be onto something.

 

Wish I knew the full accurate costs of each holiday: money, environment etc

World Cup 2010: goodbye England – hello the beach

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Today started so well.  Nice run up Arthur’s Seat and views which seemed to say “This is the day when England achieve”.

I had laughed at the Scottish strategy to win the 2034 World Cup by having children with Brazilians (see link) and thought that really, today, it would be the start of something big.

So we set off to Fife – 40 miles away –  on the bus and train, to enjoy the game at Boyley’s footy party.  It would be so easy to pop up in the car, but, that wasn’t a choice.  Planning to get a taxi from the station (Leuchars) to Boyley’s.

Dot rang to say she’d pick us up and we could have a pre-match-relaxation-walk on the beach. Hurrah!  This would not have happened if we’d driven  -we’d have been straight to Boyley’s.  All very sociable and nice.  Thanks to public transport…?

I do feel a bit bad that people give us lifts: we go car free and they pick up the tab. But it wasn’t a big detour for Dot and we did have a nice walk.  Flick was happy too.

Little did we know that England would never show up (well, we kind of guessed they wouldn’t).

And not driving meant I could ehjoy a beer and had empty bottles to throw at the telly.

Roll on 2014.

Getting to the ferry and a surprise meet with a celebrity chef!

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After a busy time packing and saying our goodbyes we took the car to the ferry..oh no – we were supposed to be selling the car weren’t we?  Well it turns out that if you are travelling to the UK and have cats forget NOT using a car!!

Eurostar = only guide dogs (we could have disguised Andrew and Oswald but I think they would have found it hard to stay in role)

Footpassengers on Ferries = P&O only.  But we needed to go to Hull with P&O =  No pets with foot passengers, unless guide dogs or hearing dogs. (We need to train the cats better)

Hire a car = yeah right! £1200 one way ( we could have made it much cheaper if we did two hires – one to port in Belgium and other from port in UK, but dropping the car some way from the ferry terminal and arranging transport between these points is a big pain).

Fly = only via Heathrow – we wanted to go to Edinburgh.

Removals company = they kindly offered.  Only £1500 – a snip

So – take the car and bring it back to sell – what a pain.

Ah well, at least there was a celeb on the ferry – nice one Mads (the really annoying Sophie Dahl can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJFufGa8upk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKUEFSSVqPM)