Packing to leave

Hi there all, I'm sat here late Sunday evening typing a blog up into the publishing engine for the first time for a long while. I've already written part two of my "Islay Whisky Festival" update which you will have the pleasure of reading tomorrow I reckon, but for now this is my regular weekly update taking from the end of said update until today. Yes, I know, that means that the next update from me will take you back in time but I can't do anything about that; I'm not ready to publish the second part of Islay yet.

Tiny caterpillar and green shoots

So, since I got back from that epic week I have been one hundred per cent focused on the next step which is Going Home. How exciting is that! I begin this week, however, with a picture of a tiny caterpillar on the one tree out of the two I bought which has started to show signs of life. The shoots and small sprigs of leaves are very heartening, late as it is for such spring like activity, and I must remember to put this little tree into the trailer on Thursday evening when I am actually leaving here. I left this caterpillar in situ until I realised it could kill my tree and then knocked it off.

Four scrubby things, four different animals

It was a bit of a shock to go back in the office on Monday after the fantastic week in Scotland, but it was also really nice to get back to work and carry on where I had left off. I started my new contract, which will continue while I'm in Bulgaria, on Monday as well so it was nice to know that when I invoice for this I will be doing so through my Bulgarian company. Other than working I have spent my evenings getting ready for the big move, the first stage of which will be next Thursday when I head to John's where I will live until I can visit CJC and his new baby, whenever that arrives. I had a few trips to the shops for various supplies; vacuum pack bags for my clothes, more tinned food for the puppies, and four bath scrubber things as requested by A.

Dinner with Gerd

As part of my last full week here I have determined to get to the pub regularly to eat nice food and also say goodbye to the staff there who have made such a difference to mine (and our) sojourn in England. My first visit this week was with Gerd after work; I went home and did some packing and wrapping of presents and then when he turned up about 6 we both walked round to the pub with the girls. Dinner was the gammon egg and chips which had been my first few meals there and even with the new menu I enjoyed it immensely.

Rapidly incoming Louise

We got back quite early and Gerd legged it as he had some work to do so I was left with the puppies in the back garden and I had a whale of time as they played with each other with abandon. They chase and chase and chase round and round and then suddenly at a signal I cannot see they stop and sniff something then go to pouncing postures staring at each other until one breaks the glare and the other is off after her. It's amazing fun to watch and I hope they never stop playing.

We have frogs in our pond

I have been able to spend a couple of my lunchtimes this week out in the garden with the girls as the high winds that we have suffered all week don't really affect that sheltered spot. One day I was walking around and heard a splash in the pond so went to investigate. I was really amazed to see two rather large frogs looking at me from their hiding places half submerged. This must be the remnants of the frogspawn from earlier in the year. All week I have been startling them and making them dive for water from their sunbathing shelf just on the edge of the pond; the girls have yet to show an interest.

They worship the sun

The one thing you can be sure they WILL show a firm interest in is patches of sunlight. Once more, while I was packing and tidying around them, they went to their favourite location in the front room and cuddled up together to soak up the rays. They will love the summers in Bulgaria but, unless we have cold bright winters like rumoured, I think they may struggle when the snow falls; we'll just have to make sure their bed lies in a patch of sunlight.

Wrapping up the TV in lots of bubble wrap

As the title of this update suggests this week has been focused on packing and tidying for the off. I went round the house on Wednesday evening gathering together everything that I could see which I wouldn't need this side of getting home and packing it up. The one big ticket item remaining was A's TV which was still on its stand and in the office. I took it to bits and then wrapped it in layers of big bubble wrap. If that gets damaged on the journey there was nothing more I could do, hon.

Staring accusingly as only puppies can

This week I also had plans to have dinner with Boris at our usual eatery; a Russian restaurant in Manchester town. I went home from work early so I could spend time with the puppies before heading out, and also feed and water them sufficiently before they were left alone. This extra time was, as you can see, not enough for them and they were not happy at being left alone.

Superb three course meal

The evening was great; I arrived a little early and sat at a table thinking Boris hadn't arrived yet and it was only after a few minutes that I looked around and saw him sat at another table nearby. Whoops. He wasn't sure if A was still around so had booked a seat for her also; bless him. The food was, as usual in here, very nice and the service was as always exceptional. We had a lovely time chatting and eating and when the evening came to an end I made him promise to come visit us the next time he is in country. I really hope that he does.

Not sure what Louise caught herself on to do this

Friday was a work from home day and I was happy of the chance to lay in and then to not really have to try hard to reach my office; the sofa. I was still feeling really exhausted from the previous week and I also wasn't feeling great just in general. I let the girls have a run outside throughout the day and at one point I was concerned to see blood on Louise. Further investigation showed me this welt on my inner rear thigh however I can tell you now that it has healed well so far and looks to be fine.

Really didn't want to have rain like this

I had arranged with Loz that he would come over on Saturday to help me load up the trailer as there were a couple of items that were too big and heavy for me to lift on my own. I was up early as usual with the puppies and pottered around gathering things inside but then I was quite unhappy when there was a brief but very wet shower. Now the trailer bed was soaked. When the shower had passed and the sun came out again I was able to push the trailer out onto the road into the sun so it could dry quicker. After a little while it was pretty dry again so I swapped Thomas and the trailer round, somehow managing to push the trailer back up over the curb into my driveway. I then stacked some bits and pieces outside preparatory to Loz arriving.

Trailer covered and wrapped tight

It did not take long for us to load the trailer together and then he helped me with the washing machine into the back of Thomas and we were done. It was again like a real life game of tetris and I was happy enough with the outcome for now. We got absolutely everything into the trailer without even looking at Thomas which bodes well for collecting the stuff from Hungary, if we can that is.

A huge plate full of pig

Once the loading was done we spent a bit of time playing with the girls, who had been confined to their cage all this time, before making our way round to the pub. My parents were on their way up to Glasgow and dropping past over lunch so I told them to not come to the house but meet us there. When we arrived at the pub we found we were a little early and, even though the girls whined that they wanted to go in, we couldn't get past the locked door so took a lovely short stroll up the canal tow path and back to pass the time. When we got back the pub was open so we took our seats, waiting for the parents before placing our food order, and had a really lovely time enjoying the food and company before it was once again time for the parents to hit the road so as to not miss their appointment in Scotland.

Super relaxed puppies

When Loz went I retired to the garden with a book on my kindle and watched the girls play then they came and cuddled on my lap (much as they are now as I type this) and feel fast asleep. Louise is underneath Thelma in this picture and very comfortable indeed I believe.

Thomas once again full to the brim

I did not sleep very well last night what with my mind whirring over the packing I had done on Saturday and various other things of which I'm not totally clear in my own head but I think boil down to a really rubbish mattress and a desire to be on the road. I had a few ideas about repacking that I decided to work through this morning, and also a solution to the sagging tarpaulin on the trailer. Eventually I did fall asleep and woke up this morning to let the girls out then decided to just stay awake. I spent the first part of the day doing a bit of the other blog post then, when I figured it wasn't too early to bang and crash around outside, I set to on the trailer. It didn't take me long to pull all the kitchen units out and store them in Thomas and then I set to with the task of filling his truck bed completely. With this done I had taken about half of what was in the trailer out and now I am confident that the sofa will come with, as well as the fridge and book shelf which is hopefully still in Hungary. My idea with the straps to use them as cross supports for the tarpaulin also worked perfectly. As A said, not an entirely wasted sleepless night after all.

Sunday lunch

And so, feeling happier with the trailer and truck situation, I headed off to the pub for my lunch. It was quite a warm day, though still with a stiff cold breeze at times, so I sat outside at first and then, when I wanted to eat I went to the usual table inside. I had the normal steady stream of visitors of the puppies through my stay and the food was outstanding as usual; I think I will be missing out on evening meal again today. Once I had eaten and finished my beer I headed back home through the warm afternoon, both girls running happily with me, and I am able to now think that this time next week I will either be in Europe, or at least settled in at John's flat and kind of on my way.

I will leave you for now with this video of Louise inside the rolled up rug in the front room while Thelma tries to get her out. This had me in stitches watching them in real life. They are rather incredible I think.

Here's to next week and (hopefully) my final update in this country coming up soon.

First week back in Blighty

It is the end of the first week since I came back to the UK and how it is dragging; it feels like I have been back for at least a month. Consider as well that I have about two and a half months more until I return to Bulgaria and you’ll understand why this hasn’t been the easiest of weeks for me. To top it all off as I type this A is having a rat problem nightmare and is actually seeing them running around in Room 13 and I feel terrible for not being there to help her deal with and kill them all. Life is what it is, though, and we have to just get on with what is in front of us as there is no way for me to change the arrangements now. It has been a pretty busy week for me though so I’ll just crack on. And sorry to those who prefer her updates; don’t worry, I’ll only be boring you about the UK side of things once a week.

 

Two tickets for one trip to Sofia

So this update starts as the alarm goes off at some unnatural time last Tuesday morning. I had a bus at 5am local time to catch and as we weren’t totally sure where it would depart from we headed off a bit early. It actually wasn’t too long a wait and we watched other locals turning up and standing around which gave us confidence that the bus did actually exist. It turned up and the driver was in a hurry so there was barely time to grab a quick kiss before I was squeezing myself into a single window seat, waving to A, and we sped off up the road. I didn’t get ANY pictures at all on the journey home but there were a few things which I would have liked to capture not least the sun rise which was lovely. The driver kept to what seemed to be his standard speed – too fast, and we made really good time. I had packed some food for the journey which I was very grateful for and, in between snoozing on my moose, I snacked on some butties and watched the scenery.

I had been told to get off at a hotel just on the outskirts of Sofia but I did not see it at all so ended up following the bus route all the way to the bus station which was on the other side of town. This didn’t end up being the most terrible of things as I was straight into a cab and back to the airport. To give an idea of the economy of things the bus all the way to Sofia was 23 lev and the taxi across Sofia was 30 lev, though I am sure he over charged me. I was chattering to him all the way so it was a pretty pleasant journey in the end and I did recognise some of the roads near the airport as ones I had driven down with my parents last year when we were lost in Sofia looking for a hotel; remember the dodgy gypsy area Mum/Dad?

I walked into a relatively empty Sofia airport thinking “ahh I can get my bags checked in and go and relax through in departures” (unusually I had checked luggage mainly as I needed to bring the camper stove back with me) but I could not have been further wrong. I settled myself at the front of a non-existent queue in front of the desk where my bags would go and waited. After a bit the gates opened but when I went up they said “Gatwick only, not Manchester” and refused to take my bags. I settled for a while in front of the “speedy boarding” check in gate but even when that opened they refused to let me leave my bags. In the end I went outside into the sun to read and wait and even when my flight was announced it took some persuasion for them to take my bags via the speed lane; they wanted me to go to the back of the main queue even though I had paid for the privilege and been there about two hours by that point. If I had known this would happen I would certainly have left the cooker and bought a new one.

 

Sneaky picture of Mr Giles

I found a seat near the departure gate and was first on the plane and settled into my customary front row seat and even managed to doze for a bit on the plane. When we landed I was again first off and through customs but then had to wait again for the bag to come through the system. It wasn’t first but was not far behind and then was the saga of finding the taxi who I had booked to collect me. We managed to meet up in the end and then the crazy Albanian driver entertained me all the way home with some agreement politically and particularly when he told me that the police would only ask a few questions and no more if you shot someone on your land after 10.30 at night. He was a nice guy though and was very interested in what we are doing. I hope he finds his dreams as well. While I was standing around at what I thought was the meeting point I saw “The King Of Spain” Ashley Giles who was in his Lancashire tracksuit and apparently off on a flight somewhere. He looked a bit grumpy so I didn’t go to get a picture with him but did snap this sneaky one as he headed inside.

 

Doubled up burger with bacon and cheese

I can’t remember much more of that day as an England-induced migraine/headache kicked in and I was in bed and asleep for about 6.30. I slept through and woke at about 6am feeling much better, however, so it was a fry up at home (seeing as I was awake so early) and then a leisurely stroll into the office. I was there just after 7am and was the first one in. This would turn out to be the routine all week as I have struggled to sleep in and ended up just getting out of bed early and going to work. The best part of today was we had arranged to go to the pub and the, now much expanded, team all piled into cars for lunch time and had a good meal. I went for the burger this time and it was pretty good, though the cheese was just processed cheese and it would be nicer if they had some real cheese on it. This is the new menu though so maybe they are still just bedding it in.

 

Tiny bunny rabbit on the grass near work

I didn’t do much on Wednesday night apart from eat a pizza (bought from Tesco when I went to buy myself some more pillows as I had ended up with only one left in the house), drink beer and read. Once again I was up early on Thursday and I was in work before 7 this time. Work has been better recently and I am working on some interesting stuff so being in there isn’t a hardship; it is good to be achieving things. As I was walking home I disturbed several rabbits which live in the undergrowth around the industrial estate where my office is; they were all sitting out on the grass by the roads and then when you approached diving into hiding. This one was particularly small and cute.

 

When this lot hatches I'm going to be overrun

A had sent me off with strict instructions to get a good picture of the frog or toad spawn in the pond in the back garden and, with the sun out and the light being in the correct place, I popped out and got a quick shot one evening. There is loads of it and I am a little apprehensive what will happen when it all becomes baby frogs. There will soon be work to do in the garden here but I am without a lawnmower so I need to remember to talk to the landlady to get her to drop one off.

 

Frying pork with mushrooms and onions in butter

Dinner on Thursday was my famed Spicy Pork Pasta and it was a triumph. I sat in the living room with my book and a bowl or two or maybe even three and munched the whole lot in one sitting. I did reduce the quantities so that it would not be usual humungous portion and that was a success. I have enough left over for two more of these so that’ll be happening again very soon I think. After eating I spoke with A which was lovely and then took myself off to bed.

 

Just a bit of Model Railway stuff arrived

Friday morning once again I was up very early and in the car by about 6am on the way to Blackpool. I was going to work from the studio so I could get to see Dan, have a natter about things and pick up all the parcels which had been delivered to me. I knew that I had ordered a fair amount of stuff but when I got there and saw it all piled up on the desk I actually laughed out loud. I set myself up, made a brew, and waited for Dan to turn up so I could go get some breakfast but better than that when he got in he made me a butty in our café. It was lovely and also so good to see him and hear all his news. While I was waiting the eclipse happened but my phone was too useless to get a picture and I didn’t know until later that there was an SLR in the office I could have used. Anyway, you’ve all been bored to tears with pictures of a sliver of sun by now so I’m not going to show you my attempts.

 

Some kind of picture postcard

At lunch time I needed some fresh air so I took a walk and went down to the front. It was the first time I can ever remember Blackpool Promenade actually smelling of the sea. It looks really grim here but actually the sun was out and it was rather pleasant to stand there and just stroll around and clear the lungs. I headed back to the office after a while though and finished up my day’s work then it was off home a bit early to avoid the traffic. I had picked up the roof box from storage as this will be coming back with me next time (the last time) I leave.

 

Lamb with veg for dinner and it was superb

When I got home I spent over an hour opening all the boxes and leaving feedback for them on eBay and then, when I was done with that, I was a bit hungry so I pulled the Lamb Chops out of the fridge and made myself a spectacular meal by frying them up and boiling up baby tatties, cabbage and green beans which were then tossed with butter and black pepper and were amazing. I was playing my game for a bit that evening and then headed to bed when I finally felt a bit tired. It has been strange being here alone, after such a good time living here with A, and I am honestly not really that settled here any more at all.

 

Soldering attempt number 100

Finally in place and snugged in the gap

I was up, you guessed it, early on Saturday morning and after making a brew and having some breakfast I set myself to the main task for the day; trying to get my test oval working for the model railway. The first thing I needed to do was to solder the power connection onto the straight as I had tried and failed to do before leaving for Bulgaria. It took me ages but, after melting the plastic cover to the tip of the soldering iron and also swearing a lot in general, I finally managed to get a technique which worked and had both tracks attached to the wire.

When I put the track into place and tried to straighten the wire out unfortunately one of them broke off which caused more swearing but then I worked out a good way to do what I’m trying to do and the resolding was not as hard as I slowly learn how to do this skill. I then tacked down the rest of the oval quite loosely and decided it should go to B and Q to grab some electrical joining block, electrical tape and a clamp to hold track as the little spare hand I bought for model airplane work really isn’t rigid enough for soldering support. It was a quick trip and when I got back I completed the last few bits, plugged it all in, and was able to address and program my first locomotive. Sadly when I tried to get it to go around the track it stopped pretty much immediately and then I didn’t have very much more luck at all with the rest of the locos as they wouldn’t even respond to the controller. I hope this is just a function of my bad soldering and the dirty rails and I will be buying some cleaning things to give the tracks another extra rub down, and will probably re-tack them all down but fixing every section rather than just a few, to stop it from flexing. This was rather a frustrating end to a hopeful start but life is like that.

 

Drinks with Loz, and lovely dinner

I packed everything away including the locos into their boxes and just tidied in general in the front room. Then it was time to get into Thomas and drive over to Chester to meet up with my friend and work colleague Lorenzo. We met at the same pub where we saw Jon Gomm and it was totally packed again; there were no spaces at all in the carpark so I had to pull in on the road. He had beat me there and was stood at the bar with half a pint left but it didn’t take long to get me a pint and we sat down (at the same table I had sat with A before) and drank and chatted and then ate some lovely food and finally I had to choose whether to go onto Lemonade or to stay. I chose to drink Lemonade and head off after that as I was missing A and wasn’t really in the mood for going out at all. It was a lovely afternoon though and he really is a star, is our Loz.

When I got back I settled on the sofa and started playing Civilisation and then I got the chance to talk to A and see her on skype which was great. I have been thinking seriously about buying a trailer to take back to Bulgaria but getting one which can be imported and we spent a fair amount of time looking together at options there. I would like one which can be used to transport the cherry picker so I’m looking at Plant Trailers, but ones with sides so I can also use it to take stuff back to Bulgaria and also hopefully pick up the things which we left in Hungary. The chances of that still being there in June, though, are pretty slim I reckon. I looked into the process of getting the trailer bit added to my license and found that it isn’t £600 (that would include a training course) you can just book in for £120 so I will do that once I have bought the trailer. That is one slightly strange thing; to tow a trailer you have to have a license and to get a license you have to take a test and to take a test you have to bring your own trailer but how do you drive to the test centre with your trailer if you don’t have a license? This is all to be discovered.

I struggled to get a picture of this shy little fella

Once A had headed to bed I thought I’d play a bit more Civ and then I decided to try and stay up really late to see if I could manage to lie in this morning. I was up til about 1am playing but still woke up at 7am and then really could not get back to sleep so that didn’t work at all. All it meant was I had less sleep which was not the aim. I’ll be to bed earlier tonight. So far today I have played my game, chatted to A and cheered on as she dealt with the aforementioned rat situation (including Rambo’s first kill!), arranged to view a Jack Russell puppy tomorrow which I would take back with me to be a housebound ratter and sat in the back room of the house watching the birds eating the bread I put out (and chasing the super fat pigeons who munch it all and stop the other birds getting a look in.

 

Ministry of Silly Walks

I will leave you with this picture of a crazy blackbird strutting towards a choice bit of bread; it did make me laugh a lot when I saw what I had captured by accident. I think I am going to go and have a soak in the bath shortly before cooking up some bacon and cabbage with par boiled then fried sliced potatoes for my dinner.

Thank you for reading and don’t worry A will be doing a FAR more interesting update of epic proportions later I am sure.

One more week to go

Sunday night and I’m once again sat with the laptop trying to force some words out to remember this past week through; today it seems like this will be quite a difficult post to write as I’m tired (but when am I not at the moment) and the words are not flowing as freely as they often do. It has been a pretty brilliant week, however, so it is worth my while to put the effort in and see what comes out the other end. As it were.

House band, with blind drummer, gets going

Of course this post will not start with the Sunday as that has already been written about in the double header I treated you to last weekend, caused by the fact that packing Harrison was more of a pain than expected. So: Monday. Work was pretty standard and at the end of it I went home and we ate before going into Manchester to the jam night at our old local with John and, unexpectedly, his girlfriend. Jam night turned out to be slightly different to the Wednesday Reggae Night (I think I do prefer Reggae Night) but it was enjoyable and worth getting over there for. There were a couple of highlights the first of which was the house drummer was actually a blind man. We watched him with a lot of respect as he set his kit up using just his touch to work out where things should go. He was quite a solid drummer as well which obviously helped, though the band were no way as tight as the one for Reggae Night.

The next highlight involved a character that we know from the Reggae Night and who I have mentioned before. They are a lovely couple of come in on the bus, stop to play a couple of songs, and then head off and the guy has the BEST laugh I've ever heard; rich and loud and you can’t help but to join in. Until it is their time to play they sit together, he strumming his guitar with no chords (or timing, but that doesn't matter) and she leaning on his shoulder with her head next to his. This night it was Tom the Horn Player’s birthday (I've mentioned him before also I’m sure) and so for their songs they chose three and turned them into a “Happy Birthday” medley. I present rather a long video of this above and hope you will click through and listen to it all.

The next and final highlight I have for you from this evening was my mate John getting up and bashing out a couple of tunes for us. John was in my very first band with me many years ago and we wrote our first songs together and it was good to see that he at least has kept his music going (I am sadly not able to say the same for myself). He did a really good job on Johnny B Good and then followed it with Comfortably Numb which maybe was a little too long and difficult to do with a scratch band on a jam night. Either way it was brilliant. After he played myself and A finished our pints of Guinness and headed home; we were both exhausted from the weekend and while happy we had made the effort to get out to do this evening we were ready for our beds.

Taking the boards BACK off Harrison

We had planned to see my old boss MDickens on Tuesday however sadly he had to call off as he didn't have access to a car in the evening which was a shame. Our efforts to organise to see him before we’re off next week failed so I’ll just have to catch up with him when I get back, whenever that is. Our evening, instead, consisted of once again reorganising the van with Loz's uncomplaining help once more. I had, over the weekend, pulled things out of the way so that we could easily get to the planks and we very quickly got to work to remove them. This involved taking the sofa out and putting it by the van, removing the planks it had been sat on, and then moving the fridge into this void so we could get to the planks that had been underneath that. If you see what I mean? Between us (Loz passing them out and A helping me to carry them to the back room) it took no more than half an hour to complete all this and get everything squared away. Loz refused our offer of dinner as he had to go shopping and so when he has left we set to putting the least heavy black bin bagged kitchen units into Harrison and stacking everything else around.

Another (failed) attempt at loading

As we loaded I was jumping down very regularly to check the situation with the suspension and it was looking much better. We got everything in and secured very quickly; we really are getting expert at packing and unpacking the van and it was about 5.30 and no later when I snapped the picture above and shut it all down. As per usual my mind kept turning, however, and I went out again to check and was pretty unhappy with the suspension on one side. I made the decision then that none of the kitchen units could come with us and we would have to dig them out once more.

This was not a task for Tuesday however so after work Wednesday I shifted the few things I needed to allow my access to the kitchen units which had been slid down behind the three seater and, once they were all out, repacked it completely. I think I am now finally happy with how the suspension is sitting and hopefully there will not be any more need to take things out; we do have a few items still to pack and obviously our travelling stuff including water and fuel which is heavy so that may yet still change. I hope it doesn't! I’m bored of lifting and carrying for a bit and certainly A was really stating to flag by the end of Wednesday with all of the effort we had put in to getting this packing completed.

After we had sat down and rested for a bit I got it into my head that I really wanted to see all my locomotives so I pulled them out of their boxes and set them up on lengths of track in front of the fire. This did prompt a plaintive complaint from A that we had only just managed to tidy up the front room and now it was being filled with boxes once again but never mind. The Virgin Pendolino looks particularly good and I was also able, this week, to work out how to join the two carriages of the Class 150 together but I’m going to resist that until I get it to Bulgaria as I can’t see how to then disconnect them easily.

The Pond-ness Monsters

And so to Thursday and first of all vindication for A. For the last few days she has been convinced there was something living in our tiny pond; she called it “The Pond-ness Monster” and I just thought it was methane from the rotting vegetation however she was correct; during Thursday while she was looking out the back window she spotted seven frogs (or maybe toads) swimming around and basking in the sun and generally making themselves very comfortable. This picture was taken through the back window using my zoom lens and you can see no fewer than five frogs in it. There is a follow up to this saga which will appear in next week’s post so hold your breath if you care.

Happy Family

A came straight to collect me from work and we were off up north to Blackpool as Thursday was the date of the 8^th birthday meal for Rock Hard Studios. Every year we go for a meal with the staff and partners to celebrate surviving the previous one and this time we’d decided that a curry was in order. It was a really lovely evening, enjoyed by all, and full of laughter and fun. The food was pretty good particularly when compared to the disaster at the casino last year, and I found the beer going down rather better than anticipated so A ended up going onto soft drinks and driving us home. Fortunately it wasn't too late a night and we were in bed tucked up before midnight.

Scrubbing the tracks clean from rust

Friday was very much welcomed for its Work From Home status and I was up and happily ensconced on the sofa by about 8am. The internet was once again up and down terribly and it will be good for A’s state of mind to be back to reliable internet in Bulgaria I think. At lunch time I popped out to B and Q to get a sheet of hardboard on which to tack down the oval of track for running in my locomotives. I also picked up some wire brushes and a few other bits and pieces which I knew I would need for the task. The dirty curves I had selected cleaned up very well with the wirebrush and a bit of hot water with no need for any other agent so that was quite gratifying. What was less pleasing was finding that the curves I had picked didn't marry up to the straights. Now I knew that I had two different “finenesses” of track in my collection and I have planned around this however I was careless in not leaving the same type out for my oval. I knew I had one more lot of track coming and it would contain straights and curves so I would just have to wait for that before I could lay it out.

We had a nice restful Friday evening and then were up relatively early on Saturday morning. By about 9am we were in the car, after I had eaten a slice of toast to keep me going, and heading down south and east towards the Fens to go and stay with a couple of very friendly dragons. No, really. The drive was easy and we arrived about 12.30 to a lovely welcome from the dragons and their huge and lovely dogs, Freya and Loki. After a cup of tea and a chat it was time for lunch which was a really tasty tapas style feast with the homemade croquettes being my particular favourite item.

The remaining migratory swans

After lunch it was time to take the dogs for a walk and I went along as Mr Dragon took them along the top of the dyke that runs right past their lair. It was really blowy and quite cold but we were wrapped up warm and had a really nice stroll for half an hour or so. There are huge numbers of migratory swans which live on the water here over winter, I think he said upwards of 10,000 this year, however only a few were remaining and without my zoom lens it was hard to get a good picture of them. When we got back, thoroughly blown through and a little tired, we found that Mr Dragon had lit the fire which was most welcome. Dinner was a superb Mexican feast of Enchiladas and Chilli (given a BIG thumbs up by A who is most picky about her Chilli) and set us up for a wonderful evening of beer, wine, whisky and port. I headed to bed relatively early and left A and Mrs Dragon to kill off the rest of the port and I’m glad I did as I got some sleep before I struggled to sleep. It was rather nice to lay looking out of the window of our room at the stars so bright here where there is no light pollution, and then this morning as the sun came up I watched all the colours changing from night to day. I would much rather have been asleep though.

Me with Freya

Loki saying hello to A

I finally dragged myself out of bed when the need for a cuppa overcame the desire to lay in and found that our hosts were already up and had taken the dogs for their morning walk while we were still pretending to sleep. We sat around then had breakfast and it was a really good relaxing start to a Sunday. Breakfast was particularly fine with excellent sausages and eggs from their own chickens. Talking of chickens the Dragons had very kindly given us a chicken coop which will now be added to the weight of Harrison and hopefully won’t tip us over the edge again. We were both cuddled by both dogs repeatedly through the morning as the pictures above testify but with a final brew it was time to head off and say our sad farewells to our marvellous hosts. Mr Dragon walked out to open gates and things and I tooted Thomas as we drove away into the teeth of a gale.

I'm not the only one with this sense of humour

It was a pretty difficult drive what with being so tired and the weather being against us but we made it back safely without any problems; there was a quite bad accident on the M6 Toll going southbound that had obviously only just happened, with a car on its roof and the emergency services in attendance, which just went to show how treacherous the roads were however we stayed safe. We stopped for fuel near our guests at a garage called “Harrison Ford” which just had to be photographed. When we got home I left A in the car to drive herself to Tesco while I just about managed to drag myself upstairs to bed where I slept the sleep of the nearly-dead for an hour or so.

Since then it has been dinner (lovely spicy pork pasta) and a few brews, A had a bath while I was typing, and I also realised that the track I was waiting for to do the oval had already been delivered and I’d packed it into Harrison. I remembered exactly where it was so I’ve dragged it out and now this week I can do the soldering and set the oval up and run in my new locomotives in time to take them over next weekend.

Next weekend!! Can you believe it! This time next week we should be in Hungary, I hope. I’ll sign this off now and probably the next time you read an update it will be from our home, the Old School.

We've moved

Wow what a week. I am currently sat typing in the new house, at the desk (bought last weekend) in the new office with A just having come up to get her laptop connected to the new MiFi. We have had a week of it and I'm pretty tired but tomorrow morning I can walk the five minutes to the office and leave Thomas at rest. Woop. Anyway, back to it (and this time I did make some notes at the beginning of the week).

Awesome cheesy chips for NFL watching

So last Sunday, after I published the blog, it was onto the sofa and settling to watch NFL again. We had some pizza for dinner and then, after the pizza was eaten (and I was still hungry as we only had one pizza that would normally just about do me) we put a huge pile of chips in and munched them with cheese and mayonnaise. The best thing about this was the cheesy part of these cheesy chips was a mix of super strong cheddar, and blue cheese. They were AMAZING and the evening was a really enjoyable one, particularly as this is probably the last NFL I will get to watch before the Super Bowl and then next year back in Bulgaria.

Glorious start to the day

Monday morning was a cold start and my notes about the day remind me that it snowed on the drive to the office and there was some quite impressive lightning as well; some winter weather was arriving. Every day last week I complained about not having a bacon and egg butty and so I also went past the cafe and got one for me and Lee. That really helped. The rest of the day was pretty standard and so on to Tuesday. One thing of note (I'm living such a rock and roll lifestyle) is the ice was so tough on Thomas on Tuesday morning that I managed to snap the scraper in half! Whoops! When I arrived at work it was such a gorgeous sunrise that I kept going to the window to take pictures as it changed; the one shown is the best of them all.

Lunch with friends is the best thing

Other than that sunrise I had such a lovely lunch meeting up with two old friends; one of them a mentor who changed my life pretty much and the other my old boss who is now a very good friend. We chatted away until it was past time to leave and still hadn't run out of things to talk about so it was agreed that this would not be a one off and another date will be set in the new year. I tweeted what came across as a very negative emotion after this but I meant it really positively; as much as I didn't want to come back and I don't want to stay, getting to see people and spend times like that really does make it so much better. The food was really nice as well and then, when I got home, A had a fantastic slice of chocolate cake for me which I ate and spread all over my face as per usual.

This week at work has been up and down; there have been days when I've felt really productive and other days when it has felt like I have been fighting my way through treacle. I'm still really enjoying it and the challenge and, other than when he is super grumpy, working with my mate is brilliant. I'm also starting to settle in with the other people there which helps.

We were still two whiskies light at this point

Wednesday night was Whisky Night. This has been arranged since before we even came back from Bulgaria and I had been looking forward to it for ages. The rules are simple; there are only two. The first is you are male as no women are allowed. The second is you bring a bottle of interesting whisky to share. We've had it before with too many people so this time we made a hard and fast limit of 10 so as to not end up so drunk we drink whisky we can't taste. This flexed up and down a little bit with there briefly being 11 booked on but, with everyone ill (and I was really not feeling well on Wednesday) one person dropped out due to this and another decided he couldn't be bothered to travel so we were left with a sensible headcount of 9.

Wonderful hot pizza

A couple were a few minutes late arriving so we started without but when we were up to compliment Jamadan headed out to do the pizza run and came back bearing pizza and cheesy chips for everyone. We sat eating and sipping and sharing the whiskies and it was lovely to see how the disparate group (it is various different of my social circles all pulled together) picked up where they left off before I went to Bulgaria.

Whisky night in full swing

With the food eaten we settled down to drinking our way through each of the nine bottles that had been brought. One of the guys had just got back from an AMAZING diving holiday where he'd been swimming in wrecked Japanese freighters, and a warship as well. He had one of those video things with him as he dived and he'd brought them all along so we hooked the TV up and had them playing for the duration. I was having very sensible sized measures as I was still feeling pretty ropey but this didn't mean that I could remember the final whisky as well as I wanted to. All the bottles brought were really nice, as per, and now I can't wait for the next one. I'm not going to arrange too many, maybe one more in April.

A few people stayed in the apartment I'd booked but most left about midnight and I headed to my bed. As I got in I started shivering and my teeth began to chatter; I was feeling really unwell and so I pulled another duvet on top of the one already on me and curled up into a ball. I fell asleep eventually but woke when the skylight, above my bed, suddenly banged round in the wind and it started hailing onto me. I fixed this, went back to sleep, and woke again a bit later feeling a lot better. The fever had broken and my head felt clear. When the alarm went off for me to get the train to work, though, I was back to feeling pretty bad and so I decided to not risk becoming worse and to work from home for the day. I made it to the flat before 9am, via the slowest ever bus, and was able to get involved pretty well despite feeling horrible.

Friday is always a work from home day and it was another one with lots of feeling progress being made. Late afternoon we headed off to the estate agent to get the keys for the new house. We were a little late due to traffic, and then I did two circuits of the ring road trying to find somewhere to park near their offices, but it didn't take long to sign everything and get the keys. We'd had an email during the day saying the heating was broken but as we were sat in the office it was confirmed that the engineer had managed to fix it; all good. From there we drove Thomas to the house, unloaded (and put the heating on) and then headed up to Blackpool. Harrison had finished at the garage and we needed to collect him so we went straight there, ordering a Chinese for A to collect and bring to the studio while I drove Harrison up there. Once again I ate lots of prawn toast and sweet and sour pork balls with egg fried rice and then I went and hauled the last of the bits from storage, with a very full stomach making me wish I'd done that first.

Harrison ready for the off; loads of room

We left Thomas at the studio and drove Harrison back to the flat and parked him out back, then went in and pretty much went straight to bed. I let A have a bit of a lie in and was out in the freezing cold (my shoes were actually sticking to the tail lift on Harrison!) to start getting everything loaded and ready for getting across to the new house. Bless him, John woke up and came to give me a hand and pretty soon we were all at it. It did not take long at all and so rather than have breakfast at the flat we waved goodbye to John, jumped in Harrison, and made it to the new house very quickly. I did the unloading and A jogged round to the local shop to get bread and she made some very nice bacon butties for half way through the process, eaten sat at our table. The new landlord and lady came past as well, just after we had arrived, and they were lovely. They brought us a pipe for the washing machine and seem accommodating. We'll see.

It didn't take that long to unpack but the new bed was a bit rickety and I found that we didn't have the right bits for it; it took two trips to B and Q to source the right bolts but this trouble was counterbalanced by the fact that getting the sofa in (which is REALLY heavy) was rather easier than expected. Dinner was fajitas eaten again at the table and it's so nice having somewhere to sit and eat together. Our evening was spent relaxed on the sofa, me reading and A playing a game, both of us really enjoying the peace and quiet after the noise of the main road at the flat.

The moment we got into bed, however, there was a loud "CRACK!" and it sagged; what had appeared rickety to both of us had turned out to be flimsy. With a bit of quick thinking A suggested that we put the still full suitcases under to support it and this worked a bit, though it wasn't that comfy and after finding herself with a bad back rolling into the middle A got the fold our mattress and ended up spending the night on the floor. Not the best of ways to spend our first night in the new house but at least both of us slept in the end.

The bottom light flickers on for less than a second. Sometimes.

Today has been another busy one, with a drive to the studio to collect Thomas, and bring back the three seater sofa and some wood to reinforce the bed with. It was a good day, we got to see my business partner (getting married next weekend) and another good mate at the studio and Harrison had another good run to check him out. There has been a light flashing on the dash very irregularly; it did it three times on the run from Blackpool back to the flat on Friday night, and twice maybe on the run to the new house but not since, and so I was very keen to push him a bit on the way back from Blackpool today. It did not come on once and so I'm less concerned now. The link from which that picture came suggests it is water in the fuel, but I'm not sure if it may just be a faulty sensor?

I fixed the bed (putting uprights underneath the middle wooden piece every 10cm or so) and it seems much more comfortable so hopefully we'll be able to stay in it tonight. We've also straightened the front room and got the book shelf up. A is off to collect a load more bits from her friends in London tomorrow so we'll have a TV to plug the lappie in for watching films, lots of cookery stuff, and a huge bean bag as well.

So dinner is nearly served  and I'm going to get this posted and switch off; we're on mobile internet here so I'm going to have to ration myself until I know what usage we are getting and if I need to get more data. I've just seen that it is hammering down with rain outside so hopefully my first walk-to-work won't be too damp. Next weekend could be a late blog, maybe not until a week tomorrow, as we're very busy at the weekend so don't shout at me if there isn't a Sunday post.