2nd - 4th July Leaving Eddie at home to work on his Coursework and we packed up the van and headed to Oxfordshire to join the “South Central Self Build Get Together”. What a wonderful weekend! While we were there, we had a good nosey through some absolutely beautiful van conversions and were blown away by the help and support the more experienced members were giving to newer members. Sometimes the support was hands on, sometimes it was all about boosting confidence. If you need help and support with your own conversion, this incredible facebook group would be a really great place to start! As always, we met up with old friends and made lots of new friends! George and Rosie (Those Weirdos) were introduced to the joys of matchstick craft by the amazing Barry and his “men in sheds” organisation. Evenings were spent chatting around the fires. This was our first time attending one of these events, and we could not have been made to feel any more welcome. What an amazing weekend. I don’t think anyone there noticed we didn’t have a Self Build van, AND if they did notice they didn't care!
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26th June 2021 A Grand Day Out at Stoneleigh! Warner Shows run a series of motohome and campervan shows up and down the country. We had already attended the largest of these at the East of England Show Ground in Peterborough. This weekend Steve and I headed to Stonleigh Park for the Midsummer event. This event seemed much smaller than the Peterborough event. Speaking to the organisers we learned that many of the Motorhome Dealers that usually run stands at all the events had pulled out due to stock issues. This is a theme we have heard several times over the last few months. The impact of Covid and subsequent need for “staycations” has created a massive demand for leisure vehicles. Motorhomes and Campervans are now selling in higher numbers than ever before. All was not lost though, the accessory stands still provided great shopping opportunities, and we bumped in to several familiar faces! 14-17th June 2021 At home in Milton Keynes Those Weirdo’s are a family of 3 humans; Dom, Missy and Rosie who share their bright yellow submarine themed self converted sprinter van with 2 dogs and 2 cats! The van is a stunning riot of colour and sunshine bursting at the seams with love and laughter. Steve first met Dom at the International Campervan and Adventure Overland Show and they immediately struck up a great friendship. I’m not entirely sure how someone as super laid back as Dom can cope with Steve’s manic approach to life - but he did and we invited them to come and park up for a couple of days on our driveway. Steve and I have been talking about reducing the meat in our diet for a long time now, and as they are vegan, we decided that this was a perfect opportunity to join them for a couple of meat free days. Before they arrived I popped in to Sainsburys and stocked up on huge cart of veggies and meat and dairy alternatives. Monday night’s dinner was all about pizza! I made a giant batch of dough and we all built our own individual pizzas. The wine and conversation flowed as we cranked up the BBQ and tucked in to our own creations. Tuesday dawned bright and beautiful. It was still term time, so our boys went to school as usual, and Rosie hung out with the adults as we worked in the garden. In addition to my usual business work, we found time to record the first in Series 2 of our “Conversations With…”. I don’t want to share too many spoilers, but Dom and Missy’s approach to parenting and schooling is polar opposite to ours. It was genuinely fascinating to get an insight into their approach and understand why they had chosen such an unconventional path. At school run time, Steve and Dom picked George up on eScooters! They absolutely did not take the most direct route, and I’m pretty sure they bombed around MK like a pair of delinquent teenagers. While they were scooting around town, I spent the afternoon rustling up a couple of curries. I made a nobutter, no chicken; butter chicken curry, and my famous coconut dahl. They were both blumin delicious!! After another wonderful evening of chat and fun in the pool, Those Weirdos headed off on the next step of their journey. Saturday 12th June 2021 A Grand Day Out! As the boys are getting older, we have promised them that they can have regular weekends at home. This is espeically important right now as Eddie is preparing for his GCSEs and Harry has his end of year tests looming, so, this weekend we had planned to have an "At Home" weekend. But, the boys had all made plans to see friends, and Steve and I were at a loose end. Instead of hanging around all weekend feeling sorry for our housebound selves, we decided to take a day trip to The National Motorhome and Campervan Show. Held at the East of England Showground in Peterborough, this annual event is the largest and longest outdoor motorhome and campervan show in the UK. This is the first time Steve and I have attended any of the outdoor motorhome shows and we were excited to arrive and explore the "UKs largest selection of new and used motorhomes for sale from a huge range of local and national dealers". Unfortunately, once again, the pandemic had impacted the scale of the event. Of course there were many dealers there, but when we chatted with other visitors many were a bit disappointed especially when thinking back and comparing to previous years. Even though we explored the whole show in just a couple of hours, we managed to see a huge variety of vehicles. From giant luxury Fifth wheel vehicles, to tiny pop up tents, this show had something for just about everyone's budget. It was really interesting to compare a £57K Airstream with a £57K Fifth Wheel. Both are vehicles you can tow, but the difference in size and features for the same money was... ummm... surprising! In addition to the vehicles on display I had a lovely time visiting the smaller stalls. The variety of travel accessories was great. A particular highlight for me was seeing Darren from Rainbow Screens, it's always lovely to bump in to a friend! Steve enjoyed watching the professional sales demonstrations, I think the bloke selling super absorbent cloths cast a spell on him! There were lots of stalls sharing food samples, I particularly enjoyed the cheese and liquour stalls, and the brownies were pretty spectacular too! But the absolute tip top very best moments of the day were all based around meeting up with our friends. If you have been following our channel for a while now, you will know that we consider Liam the (not so) Terrible to be one of our favourite people. He and baby Phoenix had come for a boys day out, so it was fab to bump in to them and steal the odd baby cuddle! Our lovely new friends the Travel Trolls were staying nearby at Ferry Meadows, and after a morning at the show we whisked them off for a spin in the Tesla, then out to a local pub for lunch. All in all the day was lovely. It wasn't at all like the International Campervan and Overland Adventure show, this event was more like a trade show with a nice campsite attached. Thursday 3rd - Monday 7th July 2021 A Festival of Travelling Homes! WOW! What a weekend!!! I don't think I can express how exciting and wonderful and happy this event was. Steve travelled straight from Hollingworth Lake to Stratford-upon-Avon arriving early ready to film some of the set up days. The boys and I joined him on Friday night ready for a weekend of fun. The show was sprawlled accross the whole of the Racecourse with exhibitions, rides and catering in and amongst the various camping areas. We loved seeing everything from poptop tents teetering on the tops of landrovers, to huge American RVs, from pristine motorhomes to an incredible variety of self converted vehicles. Each vehicle had a story, and every owner was proud to share their story. We were parked up in the "YouTube Village" with several other content creaters. Some we knew, and some we quickly made friends with. Saturday was fantastic, we had an amazing time chatting with subscribers then hung out with our friends Liam, Amy and baby Phoenix. Sunday was a quieter "meet and greet" day for us so we took some time to go and explore the show for ourselves. For many people attending the event this was our first weekend of freedom in over 15 months. I'm not sure if it was a feeling of liberation, or the glorious sunshine, or the shared love of travelling with our homes, but there was an amazing sense of optimism and happiness. A key moment for me was the realisation that George was the very first child to bounce on the trampolines since before covid hit, we were their very first paying customers in over a year.
Friday 28th May - Monday 31st May 2021 Fantastic base for visiting Yorkshire family! Hollingworth lake is man-made reservoir at Smithy Bridge in Greater Manchester. It was completed in 1800 as the main water source for the Rochdale Canal. From the 1860s the area developed into a fine victorian tourist resourt with the Manchester-Leeds railway bringing weekend and day trippers to the lake. Hotels and Ammusement centres were popular around the lakeside, but small row boats and a couple of Paddle Steamers provided fun on the water. Today the area is a thriving base for water sports and nature walks. There is a popular campsite right on the lake front, but we were staying with our Motorhomer.com friends at the Littleborough Lakeside Cricket Club. The Rakewood Viaduct elevates the M62 high above the valley creating a stark contrast against the natural beauty of the Pennine hillside. Steve arrived on Wednesday and helped Phil and the Motorhomer guys set up the camping area right on the edge of the playing field. I understand that before we arrived he at fish and chips twice in the same day!!! The boys and I arrived on Friday evening. Littleborough is a lovely base for visiting my side of the family. Both Ilkley and Queensbury are less than 20 miles (as the crow flies), unfortunately 20 miles = up to 90 mins of drive time! We really miss our Milton Keynes grid system. While I visited old friends, Steve and the boys spent Saturday exploring the area's cycling trails and climbing mountains. The weather on Sunday was glorious as we packed up the car and set off to Ilkley to visit Great Grandma. As it has a Bradford postcode, Ilkley was badly affected by the pandemic. Each time we planned to go visit, she would end up back in lockdown, or one of our boys would be put in isolation. To celebrate finally getting to see her, we "smuggled in" fish and chips from a chippy and enjoyed them together out in the garden. YES, Steve really did eat fish and chips again! Despite Steve threatening to have his post redirected, the boys and I were ready to enjoy a relaxing day on Monday. We played games, climbed mountains, drank tea and spent hours catching up with our friends. On Tuesday morning we packed up and moved on. I took the boys back to MK and Steve headed off to our next stop! Friday 30th April - Monday 2nd May 2021 Fun with our Motorhomer.com friends! We've been to Hereford with our Motorhomer.com friends several times now, and we always have a great time - except the time we found the mouse, that was not such a good trip. Eddie was sent home from school early on Friday which meant we were able to get on the road earlier than expected. It was wonderful to be sat upfront with Steve, the weather was glorious and the traffic was light. We spent the first night catching up with old friends, with fire pits burning and wine flowing you would never have realised it was several months since we had last seen each other. Later in the evening Steve headed to the Rugby Club outdoor bar with Wully and Ken, I caught up with the ladies and the boys caught up with their friends too. Eventually George wanted to explore and see the twinkling lights in the distance, so we followed the river path and ended up joining Steve and the men at the Rugby Club. I felt like I had won the lottery on Saturday morning. I had swapped some of my particularly good flapjack for some Black pudding and Tatty Scones. I fried the black pudding with an egg and put it all in a soft oven bottom roll - breakfast of Champions. Thank you "Laird", you are my black pudding hero. Steve has a group of friends that he meets virtually on the Club House App. I tease him and call them the "Youff Club boys". Several of them had joined the meet and they spent many happy hours talking all things "YouTube" and "Van Life" and generally taking the mick out of each other. Instead of cooking on Saturday evening, we headed to the pub for dinner! We eventually settled in The Black Lion on Bridge Street. As all indoor entertainment is still illegal, the pub had turned it's wide delivery alleyway in to an outdoor dining area. My steak pie was really really tasty and both Eddie and Steve enjoyed their Fish and Chips. Lunch on Sunday was wonderful. We took "Liam the Terrible" on a tour of Hereford City Centre. We introduced him to the statue of Elgar, showed him the Pilgrim's shell at the Cathedral and had a good mosey around the quaint shops. Eventually we stopped for lunch at The Den. The temperature dropped quickly soon after we sat at our outdoor table, so we huddled under blankets provided by staff and ate one of the best roast dinners we've ever had. Absolutely delicious. Sunday evening was another night of wine and the kind of chat that soothes the soul, but the weather had turned. It was a cold evening that lead in to a wet and windy morning! We hadn't planned to rush off on Monday, but it was typical British Bank Holiday weather. Cold, windy and very very wet so we packed up and pulled off our pitch stopping for a KFC lunch on the way home. Did you know... It's not illegal to kill a Welshman in Hereford? There are a few specific conditions; it must be Sunday, you both must be in Cathedral Close, you must use a Long Bow and they must be exactly 12 yards away from you. Thursday 15th April - Sunday 18th April 2021 A Tale of 2 trips in one weekend! We are finally free! Free to roam in our own country. Well, kind of, within very strict parameters, but that's OK! We are all incredibly excited to get away, especially Steve who was so excited that he set off a day earlier than the rest of us. Once he got the motorhome engine started, which took a couple of hours, a lot of effort, a failed jump pack and a desperate call to a mechanic friend, Steve's first stop was Lyndon Top Caravan and Camping Site Situated on the banks of Rutland Water, just 2 minutes from the nature reserve and visitor centre, Lyndon Top is a quiet campsite which welcomes families and couples. Although there is currently no electric hookup or toilet block, the campsite provides fresh water, elsan waste disposal and rubbish bins. It was the perfect place for a catch up with our good friend Phil, who also helped change the Kon-Tiki's battery. Steve enjoyed a leisurely morning, drinking coffee and chatting more with Phil. My morning was a little more frantic with packed lunches, school runs, business accounts, yoga, cleaning the house and running around finding everything we had forgotten to pack in to the motorhome. Arriving at Willow Fields campsite mid afternoon, Steve soon settled in to camp. He had a wonderful afternoon and evening meeting new friends and catching up with some old friends too. All perfectly socially distanced, but all perfectly lovely. After picking Eddie up at 5pm, all 3 boys and I finally got on the road. With loo breaks, food breaks and charging stops it took almost 3 and a half hours to get from Milton Keynes to Doncaster. But it was well worth the drive! We spend a lovely couple of hours around the campfire, then enjoyed our first night in the van together in over 4 months. Saturday dawned bright and lovely. Steve settled in for a day of socialising and I packed up the boys and headed to my sister's house. It was the first time I'd seen my Dad, Aunt and Sister's family in far too long. The weather was gorgeous, and perfect for sitting outside catching up on several months of separation and eating homemade pizza. My boys and their cousin's had the best fun playing and chatting and generally loving the time with each other. 2020 has been hard on all of us in so many ways, but the thing I have missed most is family time, especially with my Dad. We returned to Willow Fields slightly sunburnt, but very very happy, and found Steve slightly drunk but also very very happy. After a brilliant day, we spent the evening talking with friends around the campfire. This fabulous weekend was the perfect antidote to a long, dark isolated winter. It was really a long overdue tonic and we loved every minute of it. Friday 11th - Sunday 13th December 2020 One Last Get Away Before Christmas! https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-sites/england/east-anglia/cambridgeshire/ferry-meadows-caravan-club-site/ Ferry Meadows Caravan and Motorhome Club site is a lovely family friendly site with a safe play area for children. Situated in a beautiful open country park, the site is perfectly placed for fishing, cycling and walking! It was a perfect location for hooking up with Darran (The Urban Motorhome) and Tash and Jon (Life Beyond Bricks). We tricked Darran into a walk to see the Christmas Steam Train! We had a fabulous Chinese Take Away and Steve and Jon drank looooooooots of Whiskey while we kept warm and Covid-safe around a new Fireball heater! It was just the tonic we needed! Thursday 28th - Friday 29th October 2020 https://www.cotswoldview.co.uk/ The final stop on our Half Term Tour was the Cotswold View Caravan and Camping Site. What a wonderful location! Nestled in the midst of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, in an area of outstanding natural beauty and over-looking the Evenlode Valley and Wychwood Forest. Cotswold view are a great family site! They have lovely play parks, ziplines and disc football all set in rolling wooded farmland. We especially loved the Halloween Pumpkin trail. But as ever, the very best part of the weekend was spending time with friends around the wood fire! It was the perfect end to a wonderful Half Term break! Tuesday 27th - Wednesday 28th October 2020 We got wet in Bath! Is it "Bath" or "Barth"? We woke up in Portsmouth Marina having headed there from Stonehenge. The Marina is a fabulous free parkup! When you arrive, all you have to do is call the main office number and register your van, the phone number and instructions are all over the signposts as you pull in. When we arrived in the evening before we headed out for a walk and explore! We found some lovely looking bars and restaurants, spent a lot of time gaping at the prices of yachts on sale in the agency windows, and the boys had a great evening playing king of the castle on a small hill near the carpark! Way after dark the boys returned to the van tired and happy! The next stop on the Half Term Tour was the beautiful City of Bath. We managed to find the one and only parking space big enough for our Kontiki 649 right in the centre of Bath's Charlotte Street Carpark. Famous for it's fantastic Roman heritage, we spend a wonderful (if wet) afternoon wandering the stunning Georgian streets. George had spent much of last year learning about Romans at school, and was very excited to find the "ACTUAL ROMAN BATH"! What3Words Portsmouth; Marina Keep : https://w3w.co/dragon.herbs.vibes Bath; Charlotte's Street Carpark : https://w3w.co/brands.saving.descended Sunday 25th - Monday 26th October 2020 The Henges! We left Thruxton Circuit and headed off in search of some of Britain's ancient and mysterious sights around Avebury. It's was time to give the boys a History Lesson. Our first stop was Silbury Hill where George learned about how the Romans had used Silbury Hill to build a wooden fort a couple of thousand years AFTER it was originally built! From there we explored the Avebury Village and the largest Stone circles in the world, before heading to our FREE wild campsite at our final stop Stonehenge. Did you know you can camp at Stonehenge for up to 72 hours completely free? We slept so well, and woke up to the most magical sun rise. What a magical place! In this video Steve gives directions to this incredible free camp spot. As promised here is the link to our pans - https://amzn.to/2JNWglT Use this HelloFresh Discount Code to received £20 off your first order - WRWQ3U Friday 23rd - Sunday 25th October 2020 More Racing??? Really? Yes Really! We had such a great weekend at Mallory Park we decided to join Russ and the Kuhmo Racing Teams for the Season Finale! And what a great weekend it was too. Do you know what Crisp Jenga is? I'm not sure who won, but the shots seem to have been spread pretty equally among the Men! Team catering was provided by Paul who let us film a tour of his tiny converted trailer. Pizza night sparked the great "pineapple" debate (of course it doesn't belong on pizza) and the final evening meal was the most glorious hog roast! Saturday 10th - Sunday 11th October 2020 At last we back on the road! Our great friends are competing at the BMW Kumho Championships and we decided to support their racing and spend the weekend cheering them on! We arrived early and Steve and Russ were like children in a sweet shop exploring the quirky toys and vehicles on sale at Huggy's Speed Shop at the entrance to the circuit! After setting up camp right in the middle of the race circuit, the boys had the most perfect Petrol head weekend! They got to see exactly what goes in to prepping a car ready for race day, and Eddie even got to reverse Ben's race car out of the trailer! It's fair to say that I don't really know (care) much about cars, so my personal highlights were talking to an "old boy" driver about his racing experience and the tour of Russ & Di's American Slide Out RV - they have so much space! The boys had a fabulous weekend and to top it all off Russ won his race! It's very difficult creating travel content, for a travel channel in a worldwide pandemic! So, we are changing things up a bit. Let us introduce you our second channel: The Radfords at Home. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr0fMpwQBcsjB_pwMl12BHQ Well that didn't last very long! Ironically we have been all over Spain and France for the last 6 weeks, and managed to keep completely safe and Covid Free. BUT, the boys have been back at school for a just a few days and poor George has to Quarantine for the next 2 weeks! We had really exciting plans to meet up with Darran the Urban Motorhome, ah well, it could be so much worse! AND we have so much to look forward to in the future. Friday 28th - Sunday 30th August 2020 Although we were back in the UK, we weren't ready to be stuck at home at home just yet! After a quick trip to the barbers, we packed up the van with fresh clothes and fresh food, and headed to Hereford Rowing Club to meet up with our Motorhomer.com friends. We had a wonderful evening enjoying socially distanced catch ups and were excited to wake up the next morning and install our new Victron Energy Multi Plus Inverter Charger- HUGE Thank Yous to Alpha Batteries for helping us with these big beauties! It was such a soggy weekend, that Steve and the "men folk" had great fun watching (and helping) larger motorhomes get on and off the next field! HOWEVER, all did not go according to plan. As I was making our morning cuppa, I found shredded biscuit packages, tiny little poops AND WORST OF ALL; evidence that something had been at my custard!!! The evidence was conclusive, we had an uninvited guest! Friday 21st - Sunday 23rd August 2020
We have an uninvited guest! After almost 6 months off school, we are excited to make the most of our last weekend of the holidays! So it's off to Hereford to meet up with the www.motorhomer.com crew. As we left Milton Keynes it started to rain, and it didn't really stop until we returned! We spent quite a lot of time watching and pushing the larger vans get on and off the meeting fields. Steve was very excited to meet up with Phil so they could install the new Victron Multi Plus Inverter Charger. I need to take a moment to say a HUGE Thank you to Alpha Batteries for supplying the new unit, what an incredible beast it is! On Saturday morning we woke up and discovered that something had been nibbling at our nuts and chewing on our custard cartons!! After a bit of an investigation we discovered that we must have a mouse - or maybe a whole family of mice??? What a Friday 21st - Sunday 23rd August 2020 Woooh the wind!!! After a week at home, we were all keen to get out on the road again! Swapping Sunny Spain for Stratford-Upon-Avon seemed like a wonderful idea - and we were right! The racecourse at Stratford-Upon-Avon is a regular location for www.Motorhomer.com meets. We've been attending Motorhomer meets since December 2016 and have made some incredible friendships over the years. The boys have practically grown up with the other children who are regulars at these events. Over the weekend we explored Stratford, celebrated Tylor's 12th Birthday, and the big boys got to test drive a VERY expensive electric bike - NO we will not be "investing in one". Wednesday 12th August 2020 We woke up nice and early and started our day with a shower. When we are travelling we keep our washing basket, a couple of footballs, maybe a big 5L bottle of water or two at least 5 dressing gowns and anything else that can roll about as we travel in our shower, so it always feels like a lot of work before we even turn the water on. The Kontiki does have a great shower, nice a spacious and a large hot water tank, so it was well worth the effort. After our shower we got out of the van to explore. The aire was a pretty, nondescript carpark with no signs close to a supermarket and a boulangerie - so hurrah Croissants and Pastries for breakfast! We were soon on the road and headed North. We were expecting huge crowds of Brits to be queueing for the Euro Tunnel, but were very wrong. I don't think we have ever seen the terminal and loading areas so quiet. We arrived slightly ahead of our planned departure time, and were moved to an earlier crossing. We drove off the train and in to the Kent countryside at 10.35 and were home at Radford Towers by lunch time. What an incredible trip; we loved exploring Spain and France, learning how to travel during a pandemic, and enjoying the wonderful sunshine. But once you decide it's time to leave, arriving home is the best feeling. Aire at Nouvion, Somme, Hauts-de-France, France, 80860 What3Words link: https://w3w.co/competitive.flexes.motivational |
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May 2022
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