Not showing its best side

Well it is safe to say that, since the last time I was typing on this blog, it's not been the best of times. I'm slightly cheerier than I was so that is good.

I finished the blog last night, made a toasted cheese sandwich "a la Schiedler" (a family in joke which I'm not explaining) and then headed to bed in the hopes of getting lots of sleep. Various things conspired together to stop this happening including a huge storm which came right over the top of me including one lightning strike which was only a few hundred meters away (and I have checked on the lightning website and there is the dot, right on top of my village) which disturbed me from any doze I had managed to find at that point, and also woke Rambo up to come outside barking. It started raining again (having stopped briefly) and sent him back inside which shut him up which was good.

Another water feature over night

My phone (which is my alarm) has not been charging well and I had it on charge and fortunately checked it in the night ot find it was almost completely dead as the usb had again come loose in the phone. Such a dreadful design, these phone chargers have no. No strength. I was able to get it seated properly and it had charged fully by the time the alarm went off. This was a good thing as I snoozed for 45 minutes, with no watering needed and also the knowledge of what the day was likely to be like. When I got up I found a substantial water feature on the landing again, though it wasn't so bad as to go down the stairs. I ignored it.

Sun first thing; cloud for the rest of the day

Feeding time was pretty good; I was able to take the water bowl to the standpipe while they were eating and no problems erupted while I was gone. The sun, which had greeted me, was rapidly disappearing behind clouds though. I left the boys sitting while I walked out and then locked them in as I was heading for the men shortly after. On the way down the hill I stopped and picked up not one but two of my village men for a lift just down to the new road, which they were really grateful for and this was a highlight of my morning.

I rushed to the men and they were ready and we had a normal journey back, but no stopping for the tobacco man this time (Bekir has three times needed to stop on the way to pass something to a friend by the side of the road) but when we got back I told him to not shut the gate as I was going straight out and this is what I did; I opened the front door, told them to help themselves to coffee, and then got into Julian and drove to town. I almost took a stupid chicken out driving through the village as it darted in front of me both ways. I got to the carpark with time and read for a bit, getting a quizzical look from the girl in the Eco tax booth who obviously recognised Julian from yesterday, and then Lubo arrived and we went straight over to KAT.

We stood by the gaggle of civilians at the end of the inspection shed, where the officials in their uniforms (and with guns. At an MOT place. Yeah, exactly) were standing and I overheard them talking about the Englishman with the camper. The one finished with the person he was talking to and called us over to take another look. I'm not sure what for; it wasn't like the number was about to have changed. Anyway, Julian was still parked across the way and in the time we had been standing waiting I had been blocked in by a car. I looked around and a person in the queue to the Eco tax place looked guilty so with a few pleading glances I persuaded him to step out of line so I could move him.

By the time I got back over the official had wandered off but he returned pretty quickly and they were down and looking under the wheel arch, under the bonnet, and then spending some time looking for a sticker (I do not know what this sticker was supposed to say, but they didn't find it).

All of these comings and going eventually bled into a mishmash so I can't really be absolutely sure what order it all happened in; another thing to note is I was without breakfast and also only having had the single cup of tea, so my brain was not that sharp.

Anyway, I was aware of the issue with the Engine number being incorrect but then another issue raised its head. Lubo started talking about the car being "too old" but what he meant was, the date of "first registration" which was 1992 on the V5 was not the date of manufacture. They found a note on the seatbelts (of all places) saying October 1986 which was the date it was made and then, on the bottom of the V5, it made clear that the 1992 date was actually the first UK registration, and it had been done in America back in 1987.

So many problems, so many confused faces. The officials went into their huddle for about an hour or so, while all this was going on, talking about a few vehicles as well as my own, and then came out, talked a bit more, and disappeared again. I was reading my book, talking to Lubo when he sat in Julian with me, and also getting chatted to by a few of the other drivers who were standing around waiting for the big cheeses to make their decisions. A fair few people were really impressed with Julian and asked where to buy one and if they could see around him. Flattering.

After a bit the junior member of the team came out and I was shouted by Lubo to go across and we were ushered back into Office Number 2, being glared at all the time by the massive queue of people stretching down the corridor waiting for entry. There was already someone in there but we had obviously been jumped in the queue and the lady input the details, getting quite flustered at one point when she couldn't find the model on the system, and then when she got to the year of registration. She called one of the really senior bosses over (he had four stars on his shoulders) and I am sure he just said "just put 1992 down, who cares" haha. They were all getting fed up of this by now.

After this apparent progress I was all set for finishing the rest of the inspection and getting the new number plate however it seems that this data entry was only so the big cheeses could all huddle again and keep making their decisions. I was back in Julian and reading and then Lubo came to join me and we put some music on (Nirvana, if you must know) and then it was starting to get closer and closer to lunch time and Lubo went to find out what was going on, and came back to say "in ten minutes they shut for an hour".

I think my incredulity showed and I asked him to go and tell them that I would just take the documents back and post them off myself and return when they all matched but when he took this message he returned saying "they say wait ten minutes" and ten minutes later it was another ten but then a camera appeared, pictures were taken of the offending (or correct) numbers, I signed a bit of paper, and after Lubo giving them his number, they said they would be contacting DVLA by email and hope to get this sorted out for me soon.

Now I know I have been told a few times that my local KAT is awkward and difficult but I can say that this has (frustrating as it was) been a really good experience as they have not been awkward at all, have always seemed to be doing all they can to help and move this forwards, and are certainly going the extra mile to help me out. So thank you all the officials at KAT.

I shook Lubo's hand with conviction as he has really helped me out and jumped in Julian and went home, tooting to the men as I drove along the track and they were sat out having their lunch. Ralf and Rambo were barking up a storm and I carried Ralf inside so he wouldn't go and bother the men at their lunch. I was starving so I made myself some very lovely cheese and home made pickle sandwiches which I washed down with a cup of tea and then chased with a chocolate bar and finally felt a little more human.

Miserable day

When I got home it was quite a pleasant day but quite rapidly the weather took a turn for the worse and within half an hour it was hammering it down, really high winds were blasting the building, and the men (who had gone back to work) were running for cover as it lashed down. I went onto the balcony to get some pictures and the rain was like little dart of ice, with such a frigid breeze I came back inside and tweeted about not being aware I'd moved to Wales. What a terrible day it was turning out to be.

New boy doing new boy jobs

I wasn't sure what was happening during this period of rain so I went up and found that Mahmet had come inside and was scooping water into a bucket to empty it out, from the pool that was feeding the water feature on the landing below. I got this picture before he realised I was there and jumped when the flash went off, which caused the others to laugh as they were now used to me with my camera sneaking up on them.

Mokava under cover

The weather was really whipping up a storm while I was on the roof with the men but the waterproofing is coming on so less is getting through now. They weren't idle and Bekir was working with Orhan to measure out the rest of the roof for more materials and I was grateful for this. I snapped a picture of the stacked Mokava (which I had helped with yesterday) as I forgot a picture yesterday.

Still nice over there

The storm was now full force with loads of lightning and thunder and the rain was hammering down heavily. The edge of the storm, however, was fully within sight which is super frustrating. I was chatting to Lubo about the weather and he was saying that there is a micro climate up my way from the big town; normally, however, it seems to be another microclimate in my village but this has stopped which is really frustrating with so much time being lost for the men.

Checking out the bezir factory

It stopped raining for a bit but then started again really heavily and so another task was completed as far as possible; the decorative boards were taken to the kitchen and painted with bezir until the bezir ran out; we will now either have to hope that the normal builders merchant gets more in stock, or we'll have to go elsewhere.

Once the weather cleared, and eventually it did, the banging started up again from the roof and the men were hard at it until 6.30 which is 20 minutes after we normally are heading off, attempting to get as much of the waterproofing on as possible. Looking at the forecast I think the next few days are set fair which is great but I still want progress to speed up slightly. So much time lost through no fault of their own with the insane weather that has been effecting all of Europe, really. I drove really fast both ways to take the men and it was a bit of a subdued car for most of the journey, though the men were happy enough as they left with the usual banter; maybe my mood was effecting them.

Progress creeps along

I got back, let the boys out and they went a bit nuts dashing up and down the patio and driveway a few times, snarling and barking at each other, but (to be fair) stopping when I told them and then starting again when I gave permission. They have had a bad day like me with the period of time locked in while I was out at KAT. Tomorrow I will be sure to be out in the garden a lot with both of them to give them plenty of exercise and fun. I popped onto the back bank to get an idea of how much had been achieved and was slightly surprised to see how little has actually been done. If you remember I thought from the first day of progress that all of the waterproofing would be completed yesterday but they still have quite a lot to do.

More base to my fence

I then walked up, with Ralf bouncing along the fence line with me, to see what Mahmet had achieved today and once again I was impressed. Probably another 6.5 panels done and concreted and he is flying through this task. Soon he'll be needing to use the bricks to build up the level and I hope he turns out to be as handy with that as with just pouring concrete.

I have no more pictures, and no more motivation to type. I have had bright moments today (S caused me to belly laugh, and also my mum sent me her diary of their helping me move, which brought tears to my eyes) and finally I put together a little guide (see above) of the main things I have learned since arriving, but it has been a day where the weather, and frustration and boredom conspired together to make my mood bad and my grumpiness complete.