Vaguely

Isn’t 11pm the time most sites ask people to be quiet? As long as they weren’t emptying at midnight then I don’t think I’d call them inconsiderate. It’s irrelevant that you were already in bed, they weren’t actually doing anything wrong.

One of my favourite memories is of sitting on a bench facing the sea, chatting for about an hour with an elderly French couple. My French is schoolgirl French, didn’t even pass an ‘O’ level in it but was always willing to give it a go. Between this lovely couple with no English, and my very basic French, we thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company and managed to get across to each other what we meant. Another time was in a pharmacy, needing to buy indigestion remedy for other half. I explained in English that I spoke very little French but then gave it a go, in French. The three members of staff couldn’t have been more helpful and I honestly believe it was because I was prepared to try. Personally, I love France and the French.

Crikey, one of the huge things we miss about giving up touring is our twice a year, six week trips to France!! I absolutely loved every minute of it..toilets (they’re toilets for goodness sake, have you been in some English public conveniences recently???)shopping, food, people, beaches, restaurants, everything. Never met a French person we didn’t like or who was unhelpful. Indeed, I agree with legaleagle, get rid of the moaning brits who can’t find ‘decent’ bacon, marmite, baked beans, etc. 🙄

I’d say over half of the owners on our site were previously tourers, us included. Our neighbours one side have an apartment, the static, and a motor home. So pleased you’re enjoying it Tonks, and you’re certainly in a lovely part of the country 👍

We’ve had our static for ten years, bought brand new through the site, and haven’t regretted it for one single second. We can’t be the only ones who feel like this as there are a heck of a lot of statics and sites, and happy owners😁 We knew all the costs involved before we signed anything, we also knew we had to buy through the site (similar to buying a new car from a dealer rather than the factory), visited a few caravan manufacturers and chose the caravan that suited us best. The site didn’t give us a list to choose from, they were happy with whichever one we wanted. As is the case with many things, the bad things that happen are far more talked/written about than those, like ourselves who’ve had no problems. Our licence is for sixteen years, extendable by another eight years as long as we meet certain criteria...keep the caravan and pitch in good order, gas and electric tested every year, don’t suddenly turn into ‘ravers’ and make a nuisance of ourselves to other owners 🥳 Unless something untoward happens we see ourselves keeping it until the licence expires, knowing we’ve had good use and very happy times in it. If at any time we want to pass it on to any of our family, we can, it will just be a change of ownership, no fees involved. If we do decide to sell then the site takes a % of what we get for it, something we’ve always been aware of. We’re not allowed to let it out..not that we want to..but family and friends can stay in it. We spend so much time there though, it’s only been family stay there a couple of times. Friends have stayed when invited by us while we’re there. Site fees are £3000, insurance approx £300, electricity about £100, and gas about £160. Per year. It’s not for everyone but there are many hundreds of people who thoroughly enjoy owning a static and find it worth every penny 🙂

I’m glad we’re at home then, otherwise we’d be right in the middle of it 😱

We have a static caravan and owners are only allowed two dogs per caravan. Im really not sure how we’d go on with our very lively cockapoo on a touring pitch if we were still touring, he’d need to be restrained with the big screw in tether we have, at all times, which I doubt he or us would like.

That’s just the way it is with many caravan cookers, very inefficient. We never use the grill and rarely the oven. We just change our shopping and eating to take this into account,

So don’t you just put it on the pitch with the hitch the other way round, so the door is facing the same way as everyone else? or is that too simplistic? 😕

You not been tempted yet Graham? I know you were teetering on the brink 😉

No, not the one in the sky but our own little piece of heave ...our static. For many reasons..lots of appointments, a week long visit from family, other stuff..we’ve been at home for four weeks. Tomorrow we head back down to our static, this time for four weeks, interrupted only by having our 18 month old grandson in our sole charge for two nights, yikes!! It’s a trial run as another baby is on the way so mum and dad want to get him used to staying with us without them 😱🤞as it will be another home birth. We can’t wait to be honest, he’s a lovely little chap and we’re going to spoil him to bits 😁 Anyhow, car is all packed up, click and collect booked for Thursday, bring it on!!!

Dyson cordless rechargeable, we have one at our static and one at home. Wish I’d had one when we had the tourer. I never use the big dyson at all now.

We’ve never had a problem with the ff in our static, which we’ve had from new and which is now ten years old. The ff backs onto the shower cubicle. It gets switched on at the beginning of the season and only gets turned off when the seasons ends eight months later. The static gets very, very hot at times, to the point we had air con fitted last season..not for the ff but for us 🥶 Perhaps we’ve just been lucky.

Depending on what it’s going to be used for, one of those telescopic poles for hanging net curtains or voiles might do the trick.

We used ours whether we were away or not, it was all set up so why not?