Saturday 14 August 2021

Car Park full

 Yes, it is that time of year again.   The time when all locals get thoroughly frustrated because it is impossible to park anywhere in town, impossible to have a coffee in any of the nice little local cafes,  best to stay at home and do jobs like mow the lawn and cut the hedge (exactly what the man opposite is doing today).   Why?   Well, this week all the horse-drawn traffic going to The Appleby Horse Fair has been going through at a lower 'horse-power' than we are used to and now they are gone we are back to school holidays which means all the holiday cottages are fully booked, every parking place is permanently taken and every cafe and shop in the town is full of browsing tourists.   In addition bus loads pass through and stop off here for their morning coffee on their way to The Wensleydale Creamery for lunch already booked in (so no good going there 'on speck' because there won't be a table).

My carer, who collects my medication for me and several other of her clients, says she will 'nip in' tomorrow while her Sunday lunch is cooking to the Pharmacy which opens for an hour at lunch time in the hopes it might be less busy.

Everybody complains.   Well I don't suppose the shop owners do - it must be a real boost for their trade and I am pleased for them, especially this last couple of years when trade must have been so bad.

Caitlin Moran has written her column this week in The Times from Cornwall, where after queuing for two hours for chips went back to their holiday cottage and cooked oven chips instead.   I must say I might have bought ordinary potatoes in the first place and never stepped outside the door, but each to his own.

She argues that we - mainly the middle classes- have bucket lists of places we wish to go both in this country and abroad.   The places she specifically quotes are Venice, Kyoto, Barcelona, The Forbidden City, New York, Istanbul.   And, she says, while we are busy doing this we ignore places like Ayrshire, The Welsh Marches, Cumbria (and I of course would add he Yorkshire Dales)  All these places are struggling to cope with the number of tourists.   She says - and here I quote -"Despite the world being full of dozens more places" we will go to just these and nobody enjoys it - it is all too crowded.   And Cornwall itself where she speaks of one holiday home which is advertised at costing seventy one thousand pounds a week!!

Her answer is to ship a lot of the 'treasures' we 'plundered' on our colonial past back to where they came from - repatriate things like jewelry, crowns, statues, paintings- thus creating new places for the bucket list.   Not sure it would make a lot of difference to Cornwall though are you?

26 comments:

Rachel Phillips said...

Although I don't take medication myself I am regularly emailed about home delivery services and know of several people who use them, pills to their door. Could you not organise this with the chemist or the surgery? It might be one less thing to worry about.

CharlotteP said...

I don't feel sorry for people with 'bucket lists' of places they are unable to visit on the other side of the world...many of them also wring their hands about climate change, but are quite happy to take several long haul flights a year for must-have holidays, so contributing to global warming. Don't I sound like a miserable old woman?! But really, there has been a global pandemic and if the worst thing people have to moan about is that they don't get quite the holiday they want, perhaps they should focus on how lucky they are to still be here, and on the 131 thousand who no longer are, thanks to Covid. End of rant...sorry Pat!

Derek Faulkner said...

I agree with Rachel, where I live here on Sheppey there are a couple of medication delivery vans, part of local chemists, who organise repeat prescriptions and dispense and delivery them on a weekly basis.

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

I spent a thoroughly pleasant morning in a village just 5 miles down the road - no tourists there except me and I guarantee it's not on anyone's bucket lists! I know that Well Pharmacies, formerly the Co-Op, have a free delivery service.

Heather said...

Your previous comments have said it all. I am lucky in having only a few minute's walk to get my prescription. As for holidays; if more people did a little research I am sure they could find less crowded places and more plentiful bookings. I don't like crowded places and a bit of peace and quiet for a week or two is my ideal. No good if you like the bright lights though!

Bonnie said...

I think one of the best things about being retired is the ability to go places when school is in session and there are not big crowds. The older I get the more I dislike crowds and these days with Covid we should avoid them anyway. Hopefully your crowds will lessen in a couple of weeks.

Rachel mentioned getting prescription meds in the mail. I'm sure many things are a bit different in our country, but my husband and I have gotten our prescriptions in the mail for many years and find they are even less expensive that way.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Tasker Dunham said...

People are going to have to get used to not going anywhere much at all, and not having cars either.

JayCee said...

As others have mentioned, several of our local pharmacies offer free home delivery. Perhaps you may be able to find one nearby that offers that service?

Janie Junebug said...

Tourist trade is usually good for the local economy. It's something we don't get where I live. How many weeks does it last?

Love,
Janie

The Weaver of Grass said...

June - it lasts through the Summer.
JayCee thanks for the suggestion but there is only one Pharmacy - a very good one and I have no complaints.
Bonnie when over retirement age we do not pay for our prescriptions here because we have the NHS
John - If your photographs are anything to go by then you have super holidays
Charlotte That's not a rant - that's just stating a fact.
Rachel - how our local surgery works is that if you are in the outlying village then you get your medication at the surgery. If you live in the town then you send your medication details to the surgery who then pass the details to the Pharmacy in town who deal with it. It works very well - once you have found somewhere to park!

Tom Stephenson said...

Friends of ours own the most popular holiday house let in St Ives. We used to stay for free in the run-down old house which they demolished to build the spanking new green one. I miss the old one, where we slummed it for s few lovely, care-free breaks at no cost. I would be scared of living in `the new one for fear of causing damage. Times change, not always for the better.

Anonymous said...

My husband and I have always travelled off season. The sights may not look as pretty as they do in the sunshine, but they are the same nevertheless, and queuing holiday crowds are never fun. Only difficulty is that many B & B's only operate in the holiday season. Have had lovely travels in your country Pat, and did actually travel to Cornwall off season. Someone there told me it was too far for them to go to London for family research from there, which made me laugh as I'd come from the other side of the world to do so !
When I pointed that out, they said "Yes, but I've got the dogs.". Can't argue with that! ..and yes , lots of ancestors from Cornwall for both husband and myself, one being captain of the mines who helped discover deposits of copper and small quantities of gold for the Government here in South Australia...Pam.

Susan said...

I typically avoid crowds of any kind. This means visiting places of interest off season. Crowds give me an unsettled feeling so I know to avoid them entirely.

sparklingmerlot said...

When we are allowed to travel I much prefer the popular destinations off season. You will find me walking on a windblown beach in the middle of winter or walking through the high country small towns in the middle of summer. Our poor tourist industry is really struggling. Late 2019 we saw devastating bush fires in many of our tourist areas followed by covid lockdowns so they never got the chance to recover.

lynney62 said...

Just to say: Please don't put New York on your Bucket List right now..the city is in turmoil with random crimes and killings. The Governor of New York State has resigned (sexual harassment claims by 11 women).....the Mayor of New York city is releasing convicted criminals from jail to send them to Social Welfare Rehab............Chinese and Saudi billionaires now own most housing in the city as well as most Hotels. Take of this what you will but my advice is to stay as far away from there as you can. Oh, and just a note...Broadway is closed.

Cro Magnon said...

My oldest heads off to Cornwall today; he must be crazy.

Derek Faulkner said...

I still think it is unfair expecting people like yourself, or their friends, to have to go in to the town to collect prescription medicine.
Like I said above, here you can supply a pharmacy with your repeat prescription details and then ever time that they become due, the pharmacy has the prescription sent to them from your surgery and then they dispense it and deliver it out to the patient by van. We see the pharmacy vans delivering most days, sometimes it might only be a mile, sometimes it's several miles.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Lynney72 This really saddens me. One of my happiest memories of the US and I have been many times is my first visit to NY when the NY bus driver made us all close our eyes as we were coming to the bridge into the city and as we crossed he put Frank
Sinatra singing New New York New York on the cassette player and told us to open them. Wonderful memory.

Interesting Pam.
How true Tom.

Such interesting comments. It does not make easy reading the state of the tourist trade. As for pharmacy deliveries - our outlying districts do have deliveries but we are a very small area - have never thought of it before - just of the parking.

thelma said...

There are too many of us on this earth to take holidays, perhaps staggering the holiday dates might help. As for prescriptions, posting seems a good idea as long as they don't go astray.

Derek Faulkner said...

The biggest problem we have here on Sheppey, in respect of tourism is motor homes. Seems since Lockdown begun scores of people have bought/hired motor homes for staycation holidays. The respectful ones who use official overnight stay sites are OK but it's the hoards of park anywhere, often for weeks on end, types who are the problem. One stretch of seafront near me could often have a line of up to 50-60 of them parked along it, often staying for several days and nights. Eventually the local council had to put parking restrictions on them but we still find them parked up in the countryside lanes round here.

the veg artist said...

Re the pharmacy, from how I understand it, you'd be doing them a favour if you had medication delivered. It means they can manage their time and resources better.

Our area is heaving with tourists. RNLI seem to be out several times each day around the coast for people who either don't have the skills or are completely unaware of tides. It's rained a lot lately, so our small towns will be dripping with kagoules. Supermarkets are heaving with complete extended families who can't decide what to have for their dinner (this is according to husband!). Locals who don't service the tourist industry are just staying home because we can't park anywhere.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Such problems for us all it seems - these last three replies just tell of more tourists everywhere. Perhaps it is as well I can't any longer travel far.


Thanks everyone.

Unknown said...

I live in Dorset and the influx of groggles here is horrendous. Litter, human excrement and worse on the beaches, so I never leave home in August. I will be glad when the uncultured and uneducated can get back to their Spanish beaches and leave us in peace. Fortunately there are enough car parks in local town for everyone to find a space, you just need lots of money to afford the fee. Dorset Resident.

Derek Faulkner said...

We used to call them "grockles" but these days on Sheppey in North Kent, we call them "Smoggies" as most seem to come from London.

Karen Michael said...

How I Got My Ex Husband Back………..I am Karen Michael by name. Greetings to every one that is reading this testimony. I have been rejected by my husband after\(5) years of marriage just because another woman had a spell on him and he left me and the kid to suffer. one day when i was reading through the web, i saw a post on how this spell caster on this address drpatrickspellcaster@gmail.com I helped a woman to get back her husband and I gave him a reply to his address and he told me that a woman had a spell on my husband and he told me that he will help me bring him back to me and after 2 days that i will have my husband back. I believed him and today I am glad to let you all know that this spell caster has the power to bring lovers back. because I am now happy with my husband. Thanks for Dr. Patrick. His email: drpatrickspellcaster@gmail.com or his phone number: +1 662 493 2087 https://www.facebook.com/Drpatrickspellcaster11

Victoria said...


I was diagnosed as HEPATITIS B carrier in 2013 with fibrosis of the
liver already present. I started on antiviral medications which
reduced the viral load initially. After a couple of years the virus
became resistant. I started on HEPATITIS B Herbal treatment from
ULTIMATE LIFE CLINIC (www.ultimatelifeclinic.com) in March, 2020. Their
treatment totally reversed the virus. I did another blood test after
the 6 months long treatment and tested negative to the virus. Amazing
treatment! This treatment is a breakthrough for all HBV carriers.