Ely Cathedral

SPAIN & FRANCE 2020

Welcome back for this, our first trip of 2020. We've allowed up to three months to cover it, the theory being that after Brexit it may not be as easy to do this.

Our intension is to drive down to Spain, stopping off at Carcassonne in France on the way. It's a very touristy place which has always alluded us, so we thought we'd make the effort to drop in on the way down. Then it's off to Barcelona, south along the Mediterranean coast as far as Gibraltar, round the corner for a bit, then inland heading for the top left hand corner of Spain so that we can travel along its northern coast. From there we'll enter France and travel along the western coast hoping to visit those locations we never had time to go to during our much shortened trip last September.

Quite a lot has happened since our last trip. We had a General Election of course, which gave us all the opportunity to have a spring clean of MP's and now we've  got some direction, even if we don't all agree with it.

At Christmas we did our usual thing of going to the evening carol service at Ely Cathedral. You have to get there about an hour before the service as it's so popular. I will normally give a decent donation on the way out (well it is Christmas) but this year I was annoyed to see yet again Gift Aid envelopes on all seats, requesting that if we pay tax we should fill in our details which then allows the Church of England to apply to the tax office to claim the tax we paid on our donation, 25% in all. I never subscribe to Gift Aid and if it is ever suggested that I may want to, I always make it clear that I prefer my taxes to be spent on the NHS or Social Care. So I kept my hand in my pocket. That coupled with the fact the heating was barely on we had a cool, cheap evening.

Christmas Day was spent with Rosina's middle daughter and her family. It was kind of them to invite us and a very nice get-together. I was pleased for Rosina as she had the rare opportunity to spend the day with all three of her daughters.

Father Christmas was kind to me and I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Boris Johnson's new book 'Balloon Modelling - A Clown's Blow Job'.

Prince Harry and Megan MeMe have decided that hypocritical preaching is not as much fun as they at first thought and have moved to Canada, which is probably the best place for them. Come to think of it, if America's FBI ever investigate, and successfully prosecute rude, pompous, sleazy, Uncle Andrew, then Harry will be ideally located for making regular prison visits.

The coronavirus continues to cause concern. We have precautionary kit with us, but at the end of the day you have to just get on with things.

As for the widespread outbreak in northern Italy. I think it's the Lord's punishment for them giving me a speeding ticket on the outskirts of Florence last year (just 2kph over the limit).

I have very reluctantly decided to revert back to using proper blog pages for this trip because although it's a hassle clicking on the 'Earlier' or 'Later' tabs at the bottom of the pages they do hold more information.

So that's you up to date I think, so let's go pay our European cousins a visit.

REGRETABLY THIS TRIP HAD TO BE CANCELLED AFTER LESS THAN THREE WEEKS DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC