Sosban Fach.

Monday 7th September 2020 - Gowerton Caravan & Mototohome Club site.

We had been concerned about getting out of the CL we had been staying on because of the slope but the weather had been kind for the last couple of days.  We weren’t rushing to move on to the next CL as it was only about 6 miles away.  We were delaying our exit till later in the morning until an unexpected downpour made us quickly pack up and leave before the ground got too soaked.  We did manage to get out without any help.  Phew!

We stopped enroute for coffee so that we weren’t too early arriving at the next CL.  It’s bad form to arrive too early because if a site is full we could arrive before a departing ‘outfit’ has had chance to leave.  During the waiting time the rain continued to pour and when we did arrive at the next CL we took one look at the field we should have stayed on and decided against staying.  The field was very wet and had muddy tyre tracks all around the entrance.  We quickly checked the Caravan Club website and booked a pitch at Gowerton site and although we weren’t guaranteed a hard standing we thought we would have a better chance of getting on and off a pitch.  We arrived just around lunchtime and scoured the site for a hard standing pitch......we got the last one!  Phew again.  We might also take advantage of the facilities and have a shower.  Don’t jump to a false idea that we haven’t had a shower during the whole of the trip so far, as we have a perfectly good shower in the van that we use regularly.  It’s just nice to have a more spacious shower where I don’t have to replace the water that I use.

Club sites are all of a very similar standard.....a very high standard to be honest but they are a bit samey if you know what I mean.  The toilet blocks are identical and they work by the same rules.  We should know we worked on a site for 6 months in 2018.  In this coronavirus era new rules are in place.  We have stayed at two Club sites earlier in the year and whilst the rules are supposed to be consistent they seem to have differences between all the sites. This one seems to be strictest of the three.  Only one person in the reception at a time.  No shop is operating and the toilet block is closed for a longer period than normal, for extra cleaning.  I don’t quite understand the logic of extra cleaning when half the cubicles are closed off.  They have half the toilets to clean in twice the time and there seems to be no other cleaning periods through the day.  I would have thought that they could clean the toilets in half the time and should therefore increase the occasions of cleaning to other parts of the day?  There are masses of ‘information’ posters up with rules and advice.  So many that in actual fact they can’t all be read.  When we checked in, the lady warden gave me a catalogue of does and don’ts.....in a pleasant way.....but I confess to switching off half way through.  Never mind, we have the last hard standing and it makes it all worthwhile.  As I previously blogged I am trying to be stress free regarding coronavirus but I do struggle with the extremes of responses of different people to the situation with not much in the middle.  Clearly the lady warden was rather stressed about any possible contact with the public and that may be because of an underlying health problem that I don’t know about.  So, again I must tell myself not to get stressed about other people’s behaviour......roll with it Richard!  

Staying at a Club site does bring back memories of our work in 2018.  It was a bizarre experience with crackpot Warden, Alan and equally crackpot Assistants Doug & Jean.  Janice and I still laugh about phrases that they used.  We will walk around the site tonight with our ‘wardens eye’ to check pitching problems and comment on any vehicle driving over 5mph.

On a slightly different coronavirus theme, I saw a cartoon that showed an Airport Arrival Test Centre where officials said they were testing arrivals from Portugal for any signs of Welshness!  Also, it was on the news today that Caerphilly has been put into a virus lockdown (not a fake news item)....it’s too late, we sneaked in and out again last week.  We didn’t even buy any cheese in the town and we full sanitised as we left.  So, we can’t catch the virus by eating the cheese or by paying homage to Tommy Cooper.

No pictures today as it is a bit grey and we haven’t done much.  We did walk into Gowerton town but it isn’t up to much.  We have good plans for tomorrow.  Maybe cycle along to Pembrey Country Park and visit Llanelli.  I have been to Llanelli before in October 1980 to watch Llanelli play the All Blacks at Sradey Park.  A great experience.  Guess who won?  In actual fact it was a good game and some of Wales’ famous players of the era were on the pitch....Ray Gravell, Phil Bennett, JJ Williams and Derek Quinnell.  All Black players included Murray Mexted, Andy Haden, Dave Loveridge, Stu Wilson and captain Graham Mourie.  The score was Llanelli 10, All Blacks 16.  We sang the teams song, ‘sosban fach’ which means ‘little saucepan’ which is a story of a harassed housewife (probably sexist) but has some reference to Llanelli’s tin plate industry and their are saucepans are fixed on the top of the rugby posts at Stradey Park.  Well I didn’t quite sing the song except for the ‘sosban fach’ bit, the rest was me singing diddy diddy dee to the tune.