Once we were all parked up I got Little Empi out of his co-pilots seat and climbed in the back with Mrs Empi for a spot of lunch before hitting the beach. Let's just say I'm glad I don't have a cam leather interior in the back



I'm also glad I've got Lino and not carpet as after he'd finished dropping his sandwich all over the place he finished it up with tipping a bowl of wotsits all over the floor

Once he'd has a little snack it was time for some beach action, and he was chomping at the bit by now and just wanted to get out and play



And who am I to say no....

So we wrapped him up in his waterproof suit (he likes jumping in puddles and sitting down on wet sand) and off we went. To say it was windy would be an understatement Once we got onto the beach the wind was bitingly cold and made your face burn. But it's still good fun for a 22 month old to be able to run up and down a deserted sandy beach, especially when he's wearing Gruffalo wellies



And it's good for us as well as we know he's safe as there's no way he can get out onto the path/road so we just let him have a run about.
After a little while it got too cold and he'd run himself out so back to the bus for the trip back home. We got all packed up again a d off we went. Little Empi had managed to wear himself out and shirked out of his co-pilot duties as chief gauge watcher and chose to have a nap instead



Journey home was a mellow cruise along the same roads and every now and then I hit the outside lane for a blast
On the way home I also called in to see a man about a roof, but more of that another time

Cheers, Lee.

Wow a trip to the English riviera on a work day......how the other half live!
Love to see the kids getting a good run around, ours become unbearable if not properly exercised.....
Are you going to volksworld?

jonthebuilder wrote:Wow a trip to the English riviera on a work day......how the other half live!
Love to see the kids getting a good run around, ours become unbearable if not properly exercised.....
Are you going to volksworld?

Ah y'see days off in the week means working weekends - the downside to shift work Which means we can't make volksworld and loads of other shows. Should be at Bug Jam though all going well.
Yeah we find that if Little Empi doesn't get out for at least half hour during the day he's a right git to live with. Luckily there's also a mahoosive soft play gaff in a big warehouse a few miles up the road from Empster Mansion where we can knacker him out for £2:50 for the whole afternoon Failing that a run about chasing the ducks over the pond does the trick
Need to catch up soon dude ad see how that bus is looking

Cheers, Lee.

Well that was a very busy weekend in the Empster household.
Racked up about 300 or so miles in the bus with no trouble at all
Loaded Little Empi up in the front in his child seat and gave him his teddy and off we went for a drive to Colchester to have a look at and give some advice to a new owner (hello Colin ) and he fell asleep almost immediately as I'd left it until his nap time. Fueled up and took a nice leisurely cruise up the A12 sitting at about 60mph quite happily and the sun was shining and I had my Oakleys on and all was well with the world
Little Empi stayed asleep right until we pulled up outside Colin's house so he'd had a nice nap and woke up full of beans and in a good mood
Had a look over their bus and gave them a few pointers of little things to do, nothing major and it's quite a nice bus and seems to have been restored well and the panel work is all good. Little Empi was a bundle of joy and spent most of the time playing with their dog (he loves dogs but isn't going to ever have one as I'm allergic to them and they're far too much work ). He was also crouching down with us and pointing to stuff in the engine bay copying what I was doing He even had a little baby chatter as he was pointing to stuff
Once that was done we headed home and just took another leisurely drive back down the A12 enjoying the sunshine. Another mellow journey without any drama and we arrived home with one stop en-route for a nappy change. Thankfully only a wet nappy, not a pooey one
Timed it just right because I'd been home about half an hour and the heavens opened and it chucked it down all night.
Didn't get any pics as I was driving and Little Empi hasn't quite got the hang of a camera just yet.
A big thank you to Colin and his family and their dog for being so friendly and Joshua loved playing with the dog and chasing it up the drive.

After a good nights sleep we had a packed day planned for Sunday......

Cheers, Lee

Sooooooo.....
Up nice and early on Sunday (little Empi gets up anywhere between 05:30 and 06:30 so we don't have much choice really ) and made our plans for the day.
Had a quick breakfast then jumped in the bus for a mad dash to the first stop of the day before LIttle Empi was due for his nap. En route we went under this monster



to get there. The picture doesn't do it justice as it was about 100ft high Even had a train go over it as we were driving back. Any guesses for where we went?
A couple of clues are it was very very very old and it's in Kent....

Cheers, Lee.

Well as no one guessed it I'll tell you.......it was Lullingstone Roman Villa in Kent.



It's basically the foundations of the entire villa and the parts that were added over 300 years. The foundations are extremely well preserved and there are two floors of displays around the edge which contain artefacts that have been excavated from the site plus various models of what the villa would have looked like thought it's life during the different statues of it's occupation.
It was discovered just before the war and the excavations started properly after the war over the course of a few years. It has a fantastically preserved mosaic that would have been in the main entrance hall and although I tried to get a decent picture the angle was reflecting the light really badly so I did my best



You can't get the size from,the picture but the bit remaining was about 20' x 20' and the pictures were really clear.....not bad for 2000 years old.

Had a measure up of LIttle Empi to see how he compared in size to the average Roman and basically he's about the size of the average Roman dog



Whereas I on the other hand am not only taller than the average Roman was but I'm also taller than the taller Romans that had the better diet But I'm not posting a picture of that because I look like a complete tw@t standing next to the measuring graph

So from there it was a quick spot of lunch in the van, which Little Empi managed to eat most of rather than chucking all over the place
And the on to the next stop..............
Which was...............................................a place referred to as Islington by the Sea. And judging by the tossers that live there and frequent the place I can certainly see why
Any guesses??

Cheers, Lee.

Oh and no cheating and using Google either!!!

It's famous for its Oysters (yuk)

Whistable? If it's full of tossers and oysters then it's got to be there

jonthebuilder wrote:Whistable? If it's full of tossers and oysters then it's got to be there

spot on mate, it was indeed Whitstable
I was getting a bit worried that no one was reading my ramblings
Pictures to follow....

So after a mellow cruise along some fairly deserted roads with Little Empi having a snooze we arrived here



Well not precisely here obviously but here as in Whitstable. Would've been very nice if it wasn't so rammed with "Shoreditch, Islington and Hackney" trendy type w*****rs All with kids called Tarquinius and such
Our plan is to go back on a random day during the week when they'll all be at work at their fair trade Quinoa importing business
After circling around along the front about 5 times I managed to find a side street to park down and fitted my big chunky wheel clamp on the bus as I do t really like leaving it where I can't see it. We packed little Empi into his pram and off we went.....

Think you will find they are all DFLs, most of the folks that live there are very normal and not pretentious, its just that it has become one of those places.
St Leonards next me thinks!!

Hmm, I'm obviously not down with the slang as I don't have a clue what "DFLs" means

you should know your an Essex boy, Down from London