We took Caro and Ava to Highclere one day and after finally finding the place promptly got into a fight with the parking attendant (to be fair he did have some lovely straight rows going on) but we really needed to park somewhere kind of flat so we can put the pop out out (when its in you can barely move in the living and if its not flat it’ll get jammed and not go back in at all – could make driving down those narrow streets a bit interesting…) so we finally settled on a spot at the bottom of the hill and all was fine until the end of the day when were all packed up and ready to leave and find that were stuck. Now this isn’t usually a problem we just go find the guy on the tractor and get pulled out, its happened at most of the events we’ve been to this year. So he comes over and gets hooked up and I go into the back to finish a couple of things that I was doing and I'm kinda thinking man its taking a long time to get going, I poke my head out and see the tractor wheels spinning like never before flinging mud all over the cab (great I'm going to have to wash that when we get home…) but the truck didn’t even budge!! Mr Tractor driver then decides to get some rather interesting bounce thing going, I'm guessing he thought it would help? I dunno it was bloody hilarious though and didn’t do a thing. By this time we’ve got a bit of a crowd watching and we’ve dug the back wheels about 10cm into the ground. Mr Tractor starts saying he's pulled a truck that big out before and it took 5 tractors - right…. Nevertheless the keeps trying and we find ourselves 20cm deep. And thus it goes for 90min before some bright sparks suggests going to get the other tractor – well duh!!! So along he comes and starts pulling away and SNAP breaks the chain (do we have another chain? No. Oh super) Anyway 2hrs later, after they’ve dug enough dirt to fill the grand canyon from around the wheels, filled it up with sandy/stony stuff, hooked up both the tractors with a belt thing they found and had Clayton Fredricks and some other dude at the back pushing WE’RE FREE!!!! Just in time to make it home before midnight.
Were now back in Italy (alas the days of speaking English are over) and it’s HOT HOT HOT!!! 
We had a very dramatic time unpacking. I was in my room and I hear this scream from the lounge so I poke my head out and Laura’s white as a ghost pointing at her bag and shaking stuttering spider. Me here things oh you big wimp and goes for a closer look and see out of the corner of my eye the biggest spider in the world (ok maybe not quite but it was about 5cm across!) skittering down deeper into her bag. OMG!! It’s the same spider from Waresley. We were sitting in the living room one day and it kept crawling out from under the couch and then going back and coming out again but when we got brave (armed with a can of fly spray) it was no where to be found (now we know where it was hanging out!) OK OK OK its fine we can cope with this we have a stick with a hook on the end and a can of flying insect spray (surely it’ll be just as effective). Plan of action is Ill hook out the clothes and Laura will spray it as soon as it surfaces. Slowly one by one standing as far away as possible from the bag the clothes come out when Laura starts screaming and runs out the door! OK that does wonders for my nerves cheers - she could have at least left the bug spray! After retrieving the spray and making my way to the bottom of the bag the spider decides to do a runner! With my pulse having increased to twice its normal rate I promptly empty half a can of spray until the spider (plus half of Lauras bag…) is covered in white foam an
d not moving. Feeling quite proud of myself I turn around and when I look back he's running straight towards me - eek! On goes the other half of the bug spray and he plays dead for another 10sec before continuing his run for freedom. As I'm in bare feet I quickly rule out the standing on it option and reach for the nearest solid thing which happened to be Mauris shoe and start beating it until there’s nothing left (photo of the remains on my webshots) The moral of the story: flying insect spray will not kill insects that don’t fly (it’s doubtful about the flying ones too).
We had a very dramatic time unpacking. I was in my room and I hear this scream from the lounge so I poke my head out and Laura’s white as a ghost pointing at her bag and shaking stuttering spider. Me here things oh you big wimp and goes for a closer look and see out of the corner of my eye the biggest spider in the world (ok maybe not quite but it was about 5cm across!) skittering down deeper into her bag. OMG!! It’s the same spider from Waresley. We were sitting in the living room one day and it kept crawling out from under the couch and then going back and coming out again but when we got brave (armed with a can of fly spray) it was no where to be found (now we know where it was hanging out!) OK OK OK its fine we can cope with this we have a stick with a hook on the end and a can of flying insect spray (surely it’ll be just as effective). Plan of action is Ill hook out the clothes and Laura will spray it as soon as it surfaces. Slowly one by one standing as far away as possible from the bag the clothes come out when Laura starts screaming and runs out the door! OK that does wonders for my nerves cheers - she could have at least left the bug spray! After retrieving the spray and making my way to the bottom of the bag the spider decides to do a runner! With my pulse having increased to twice its normal rate I promptly empty half a can of spray until the spider (plus half of Lauras bag…) is covered in white foam an
d not moving. Feeling quite proud of myself I turn around and when I look back he's running straight towards me - eek! On goes the other half of the bug spray and he plays dead for another 10sec before continuing his run for freedom. As I'm in bare feet I quickly rule out the standing on it option and reach for the nearest solid thing which happened to be Mauris shoe and start beating it until there’s nothing left (photo of the remains on my webshots) The moral of the story: flying insect spray will not kill insects that don’t fly (it’s doubtful about the flying ones too).
