Around Arundel

Dragons den or dragons pots? That was what went through my mind when, after a nice lunch at the Black Rabbit, a three mile walk along the River Arun from Arundle,  we lunched well despite a rather long delay between ordering and food arriving. It was a Sunday in August which I would guess must be the height of the season and every table inside was booked. I am sure the Cafe Des Arcades in Valbonne Square was comparatively empty inside at lunchtime yesterday.

We sat outside in intermittent sunshine, and despite what you may have seen on the TV either at the Olympics or Headingley, the venue for the Test match between England and South Africa, where rain was a recurring feature, it remained dry and mostly sunny. Sufficiently sunny for that nice lady decorator to don a bathing costume and lounge about in our cottage garden bleating about how hot it was. It is true that I removed my sweater for about 10 minutes so she had a point. I believe a high of 20 degrees was forecast, but it may have been a degree or two warmer in the sunshine. She is so keen to put a brave face on our enforced exile in England, but we will be back in Valbonne in just three weeks and then I will be able to wear shorts again..

It was during the afternoon, where she took to testing our white wine stocks almost to the point of oblivion, that she mentioned her dragon pots. It seems that these did not come back from storage and it will be my job to venture to the far north, Milton Keynes, in the next week to retrieve said urns. I will have to have winter tyres fitted or snow chains, check the anti-freeze levels and wrap up warm. It is a dragon’s den of winter weather that far north, hence the opening line of today’s column. The dragons pots must be found, the dragon’s den awaits.

My picture today was taken on the walk from Arundel for lunch which started off with a pint of Badgers. Only the Reverend Jeff will understand and appreciate that one. It is some three miles from the town to the pub along the river which winds its way down the valley. As the crow flies, it is probably just over a mile but it is a fabulous walk and all the better for knowing a nice restaurant and a pint of real ale awaits at ones destination. Better still, sprog 1 can now drive so he was able to drive down and drive us back. Having said that, buying him and sprog 2 lunch was about 20 times more expensive than a taxi would have been, so I am not sure it was that good. Despite my best efforts I found no one who wanted to open an account with Currencies Direct, even with all the benefits that opening an account for all your forex needs can bestow.

Several people have been in touch to recount similar tales of hijacked email addresses at Holiday Rentals, the focus of my main story in this missive yesterday. It seems that the police are uninterested in this kind of fraud, preferring to issue parking tickets which they did to that nice lady decorator yesterday. Obviously, mistakenly over staying ones allotted parking time is a far more heinous crime that a fraudster ripping off a family of up to £5000 and leaving their holiday in ruins. Angry? Me? Yes.

So what does the week ahead hold, apart from my trip to the tundra of north Buckinghamshire? Who knows, I have not yet received my orders.

Chris France