Fresh Eggs, Tesco Vans and Split Pants

I thought I would just tell you about our brief trip to Buckinghamshire. There's quite a lot that I can't talk about because it's embargoed, but I'll try and describe some of the things that we did that I can tell you about. So we went down on Tuesday. The journey wasn't great. It took us five hours. It should have been about two and a half, but one of the junctions that we needed to come off at was closed. And then we ended up in this loop and Sat Nav is just taking us round in circles. So Chris and I joke, we went past this sign for fresh eggs three times. And there was a Tesco van parked at the side of the road. We went past that three times as well because I went back to where we were supposed to be and it was saying go right. But then we went right and that was coned off as well. So in the end, we got the atlas out, worked out where we could go just to try and get out of this loop. So we ended up going to Leamington Spa and then we managed to pick up the A40, the M40 and we finally got there.

And when we got there, it had been a lovely day and it just absolutely poured. It was torrential rain, so we had to sit in the car then and just wait for that to ease up a bit. But the funny thing about this hotel, we didn't book it. It was booked for us by the production company. It was literally two minutes away from the house that my Mum and Dad lived in, going back to when I was about 24, 25. They weren't there that long, but they'd bought this house and I remember going, I lived in London at the time, so I wasn't visiting a lot and they weren't there for that long. But it was just really bizarre that we should be in a hotel that was just a stone's throw away from my Mum and Dad's old house. So I walked round after we'd had some dinner and walked up the street, found the house and yeah, just quite amazing to be standing there again. Because it wasn't really anything, not anything I've thought about for a long time. My Mum and Dad lived somewhere else for much, much longer and I always associate that house with them. But yeah, it was quite interesting just to go back and see it.

So the next day we went to the venue for the filming, which was an absolutely stunning place. It was only about five, ten minutes up the road and yeah, just gorgeous place. It is actually up for sale. I won't tell you where it is because I can't tell you anything until the episode goes out, but it's actually up for sale. It's up for sale for about six million. It had its own mooring and there was a speedboat on the jetty. And yeah, I saw a sort of storage space for canoes, but it was yeah, just absolutely amazing. So when we got there, we got there just before eight, well about quarter to eight, I think. And the crew were all really great, really friendly, really helpful, couldn't do enough for us. And Chris was the main one being interviewed. So I think, I don't know, that probably started about half nine. He did the interview. I just sat out of sight so I could still listen to what was going on.

And then he had a bit separate. So I went back downstairs with Bamber and poor Bamber, the floor was wood, but it was very slippy. So as we were going up the stairs, he was struggling to get any purchase on the stairs. So they had to put yoga mats down so that he'd got something that he could grip onto. And we had the same problem coming back down. He and I went out into the garden and we walked down to the river just because I wanted to be nosey really. And yeah, we just had a look at that. Then there were a couple of celebrities there so I had a bit of a chat with one of them. There was another lady there who was doing the sort of sporty bit, I'll just describe it as that. So I had a chat with her as well.

And then towards the end, we were there till probably about half twelve, one o'clock, towards the end of that there was a sort of wrap-up session where I did my little bit and it was a little bit. I'd kind of been briefed as to what I was going to be asked so I'd been thinking about what I was going to say and how I was going to say it. Anyway, the questions were completely different. So yeah, I think it was okay. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see what it's like. It's always funny, we've done stuff before for production companies and it often starts, oh this is going to happen and that's going to happen and then it can change really rapidly and they don't sort of tell you, oh we're not going to do that now. You just kind of work out that that's not going to happen. But yeah, it is quite interesting just being behind the scenes.

So that's probably about as much as I can tell you right now. The episode that we recorded, we think it's going to go out the week of the 9th of June or thereabouts, maybe the 8th because it goes out on a Sunday, the 8th or the 15th. So yeah, I'll find out and we'll be able to share. I've taken a few photographs but not as many as I would have liked because there weren't that many opportunities for photographs and on most of them, there's one or other of us has got our eyes closed. So yeah, none of them were really great. But hopefully there might be some production photographs that we can use later on. We shall see. I've got to send some photographs of Chris and some video footage that they want to use whilst they're doing the editing.

So yeah, I think that's about it. We came home, we left about lunchtime, stopped off at the services just to get a sandwich for lunch because we'd really not eaten much all day. It took us about four hours to get home and I was still wearing the clothes that I'd been filming in and I just put my hand on the back of my leg and I could feel this hole and I've got a massive hole in the back of my trousers. Fortunately, they're kind of double-layered trousers, so there's like, imagine a normal trouser and then there's a sort of silk layer over the top and it was the silk layer that had torn. No idea how I did it, when I did it. I presume I did it yesterday. So I was doing all the filming with this great big hole in my trousers but nobody will see it because the camera wasn't on my backside. But yeah, just couldn't believe it when I realised that. As I've said to people on Instagram, if you get to watch the episode if you're in the UK, just know that I had this massive hole in the back of my trousers, which I think is quite funny.

So yeah, that was our little jolly down to Buckinghamshire and we're back home now. I went to have a look at the sheep this morning. We've got three in the orchard. The cow still hasn't had her calf, cow number four, and we went to a meeting this morning as well about the men's shed that I'm involved with and Chris is the Patron of the whole charity. So yeah, busy day and I just thought I'd give you a little bit of an update.