Poxy Chesil Beach, A Ridiculous Venue That Does Not Live Upto Its Reputation

It had been a long time coming, but it was time to head off fishing for a full day again, and yet again Chesil Beach was the venue of choice.

We had discussed going down to the Chesil Cove end of the beach, but recent reports suggested otherwise. So we headed down to Chesil Beach Bait & Tackle, a new shop that has opened since the demise of Dennings.

To be fair he had a ton of stuff for sale in the shop, much more than Dennings. The bait was excellent, great quantity and size. So we got £24 quids worth of ragworm, and 3lb in unwashed squid and headed off to poxy Ferrybridges.

Now I friggin hate Ferrybridges and its ridiculous overpriced car park of £6.50 for more than 12 hours. Its a dusty shit pit in the middle of nowhere, how they can justify the cost is beyond me! It has toilets, but you hardly need to leave a tip when departing there for a splash of cologne! Infact it’s pretty lucky that you are wearing boots and fishing to save you from wading through all the piss.

The other thing I hate, is the stupid shingle beach! It is just a complete pain in the arse to trudge across this stuff to get to the fishing areas! Especially when you know the prospect of catching fuck all or 1 fish is the expected outcome.

With all that said we trudged across the bloody stones laden with rods/chairs/food and so forth to get to the top of the shingle bank, only to be greeted with something we hadn’t expected. A massive sea swell!

It was roasting hot, there was no wind… how could there be a massive swell!

Anyway the day commenced and Dave was the first to catch a dogfish, check out the video below.

Caught a doggie

 

Now Neilboy and DT always beat me to getting a rod in the water, but today he decided to do a bit of sun worshiping as seen below.

 

DT managed to catch a nice few fish, like the above specimen.

The sun began to settle, and DT and Neilboy were chewing the fat down at the waters edge.

Then the unthinkable, I caught a nice whiting! You can see my fish butler Neilboy holding it for me as I took the picture.

Then even more unbelievably Neilboy caught a fish and broke his fishing drought, look how happy he is to have caught the fish below.

The sea was very odd that day, massive waves and such. Certainly at night only a fool would have gone down to the waters edge! Infact one wave was so big it crashed in out of nowhere and then thundered in up the 20ft shingle bank in seconds, a stark reminder of how dangerous it can be on the Chesil Beach coastline.

So we wound up the night just after high tide with 1 a piece for me and Neilboy, and we believe 6 for DT (1 doggie and I think 5 whiting).

We headed back to the car park where the car had been valeted as part of the £6.50 fee only to realise that the car park was not accessible anymore without crossing a wide piece of seawater behind the shingle bank!

Dave waded straight in, but there was no chance me or Neilboy where doing the same as no bugger was sitting in my new Audi with wet clothes. So we had little choice but to remove the boots, the socks and the trousers to cross barefoot!

Well I followed Neilboy across the freezing and rocky sea bed only to veer off course and go up past the old nether regions, by god it was icy cold!

So now we are on the car park side with wet legs and feet, and dripping boxer shorts in my case also. I had no choice but to remove them.

Well just my luck as I did this a car drove in the car park (boy racers I think), with me and Neilboy behind a bush, one half naked, the other in boxer shorts! I couldn’t get my legs in my jogging bottoms as my feet were wet still. The harder I tried the worse it got, hopping around on the spot. Eventually I got them on and we headed away from that godforsaken shithole.

THIS WAS THE LAST VISIT TO FERRYBRIDGES THAT I WILL DO!

Audi A3–1900 Miles Later

Ok so now I have driven 1900 miles and a few more (in two weeks) I thought it was time to post my views on the old girl on my blog site as promised.

So as a car it is fantastic, it drives beautifully. It feels like it is glued to the road, out handling my old ‘08 plate Ford Mondeo by miles. Also as a bonus the dashboard hasn’t gone bonkers like the Mondeo did. But that said, the size difference between the two is instantly noticeable, the Mondeo was cavernous in comparison to the A3. I didn’t order the Audi for its size though, it was for the fun!

Everyone is interested in fuel economy these days and I left it a little too close to the bone on Friday to drive from Reading to Bristol on the tanks contents. So I had to drive more like the majority of people on the inside lane of the M4 Friday, with the occasional foray into the middle and outside lane. With an average cruising speed for 60 – 70mph I managed to get to the M4 junction for Bristol (J19) with an average MPG of 59.8 (see picture below for evidence).

 

Now that is impressive in my opinion!!

Ok so that’s the good points so far, now how about the negative…. well to be honest there aren’t that many, and at best they are just inconvenient more than massive issues.

The centre armrest that comes with the SLine stops you from putting the handbrake on and off easily. You have to lift it up in the air to get to the handbrake. Also underneath said armrest is a drinks holder, not for two, just for one. Again if you dare to put something in the receptacle you cant put the arm rest down.

You may have gathered by now my armrest is probably sky bound for the majority of the time!

The doors are very big on the car, making parking in a car park like Russian roulette, will it be dented or not when I return!

So I find myself going out of my way to park miles away from any other cars, so what is it that attracts other cars to mine when I do so, its so bloody annoying!

The iPod dock in the glove box is crap, I have had to stick a “wedge” under it to stop my iPod Touch from falling out. Even that doesn't stop the randomness of the “no audio” syndrome! For no apparent reason the audio disappears but the device is still playing and can see the iPod (see video below). So I have opted for MP3’s on CD instead, at least I get full track information that way (as you don't on the iPod dock connector!)

Listen to my iPod audio dont it sound good? Oops sorry you cant hear it because my car has an issue!

Mrs.Miggins Pie Shop

This lunchtime Jeffers and I partook in a light luncheon at the pie shop in Reading. Named Sweeney & Todd and located in Castle Street in Reading we whipped down the town on the free bus from TVP.

A shandy for me and a Becks for Jeffers, ordering a steak and ale for new and a Sweeneys Special for Jeffers, both with cauliflower cheese.

Here is Jeffers enjoying his fine fayre….

My pie (Steak and Ale) was equally as nice…

They were handsome! £6 for the pie, £2 for the cauliflower cheese.

EDIT: I forgot to mention these pies were insanely hot, and I mean hot! I have no skin left on my tongue at all, that’ll teach me to be so greedy eh!!

Test from Blogaway for Android

Just testing some new software on the Android device called Blogaway.

Today The Audi Arrived!

Today was the day the Audi A3 finally arrived, I’ve been waiting really since December to sort out the car. The order with Audi took since March this year, so in total about 6 months.

Here are a couple of pictures for anyone interested, its a real shame that today was the worst days weather this week so it was a bit of a damp squib getting a cabriolet on a day like today!

I will post my initial findings on the car in a few days, as I only have completed 90 miles in it today.