Wrexham County Borough 69 - The tide is high, the village is cut off /Storm Franklin arrived /the holiday plans /Concorde and a Minotaur

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Sunday - Bad news - a quick call to Eurotunnel to check if our train tickets were still valid after two years . Yes they were but only if we used them by the 13th March. We had to go out to France before the 13th but worse still return by the 13th. We had used a stash of Tesco vouchers before Covid and all those had been lost . We had topped up the trip ever time we moved it . All that too has been lost . I wanted cry over split milk but in the end why worry. The vouchers have gone. The money long forgotten . But a bitter taste remains over Eurotunnel keeping the money . We even considered switching to the ferry until we checked the times and the prices . So sticking with the tunnel despite our reservations is what we are going to do.

So what did we do . Got the French atlas out and started to rethink our plans . The requirement for a PCR test had been dropped by FRance last week and our government had stopped asking us for PCR tests before return so finally there was some light at the end of the tunnel regarding travel . Storm Franklin was blowing a hoolie . Quite unexpected as the work of fiction the weather forecasters had not predicated this one . As the wind blew rubbish about and bins were blown round the yard we sat in the warmth of the kitchen planning . The rain poured down and the river is up. The flood alerts started to come in . A text message to my phone . A recorded message to the drivers phone . The house phone kept ringing us up with updates . No danger to life or limb but there was the likelihood of surface flooding . It was exactly a year since the last big flood in the village . So far the roads were clear so not as bad as twelve months ago .

The moody black sky looked omnious as we went on to the Tesco site to convert our Clubcard points to a voucher . That had changed . We always did it on line but now rather than ring up Eurotunnel we could go on line put the dates we wanted in , add the voucher and pay the difference . So for £90 we were off to France . Well maybe not quite today but soon . We could start to count the weeks down.

We made the start to sorting out travel . Gabbys insurance is due and that had arrived . Should we stick with the company we are with or search for someone else. The lazy part of us thinks we may as well stay where we are . So in a few weeks Gabby will be insured for another year . Our girl is taxed so that was another job ticked off. Our travel insurance has been kept up to date . That will not require renewing until May. Our health cards have been ordered . We check our API information and that was up to date . What else would we need to do ? Gabby would need a thorough clean. She was MOT'd but there was so much to do . So what does France want from us ? We need to upload our QR codes for our vaccines boosters . We need to print off a certificate of honour to say that we have not been in contact with Covid . Those cannot be done until a few days before we travel . Coming home may be more difficult . We will need to access the internet and upload a declaration on the Gov web site . But listening to everyone already abroad it seems perhaps we are worrying too much about what might go wrong .

Monday - The village is almost cut off . The river has flooded its banks and the road to Wrexham and the Straight Mile are waterlogged and look more like rivers than roads . The journey to Wrexham takes longer via the only clear road . The fields are flooded and look more like lakes than fields . The wind had died down . The mornings looked lighter and the nights were going the right way. More plans were hatched . We will set out around 8am and slowly make our way through Whitchurch and Shropshire , Telford to the M6. Roads we know well. We plan to avoid Birmingham if we can and go anticlockwise around London . A route that feels better , feels shorter , takes us straighter to Kent and avoids the toll over the QE2 bridge . We should arrive at the tunnel in plenty of time for a late afternoon train . If we get an earlier train that will be a bonus . The fridge may be empty due to the new rules we have to abide by regarding taking food to France . It seems funny that its a rule we signed up to but now hate . We can buy Brie in this country which has come from France but we are damned if we try to take the said same Brie back across the Channel .

We will stay hopefully overnight at the aire on the Baie du Somme . Always wanted to stay there and this holiday may just give us that chance . We have also found another stop off . So where have we found to visit ? It involves Concorde and a Minotaur . Now that has probably got you guessing .

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