Stairway fun

Hi there everyone, it's me back for another fun day update. It's been another warm one interspersed today for variety with a short sharp shower which was very welcome indeed. For now, let's got back to early this morning... very early...

Sun fully up above the horizon

I woke to the alarm at 5am after a pretty solid nights sleep to find that A wasn't there and hadn't had such a good night sadly so she had ended up on the sofa so as to not disturb me. The reason for the early start was that my parents were up and away for their flight home. We've had such a lovely time with them here it was a real shame to see them go and also a shame they had to leave so early so I wasn't very awake at all. I did get to hug them both and then wave them off from the vehicle gate before stumbling back to bed, letting the birds out on the way past. A stayed awake and put some washing on and worked a bit because she is hardcore. It was actually fully dark when they left but when I woke again gasping for a brew the sun was up. I hadn't laid in too much and we were able to enjoy a time on the balcony before it was time for A to head for the men.

Patio doors look really good

As soon as she went out I popped downstairs with the puppies and grabbed the chainsaw and axe and everything to go round and carry on chopping wood. On the way I was struck again by how well the new double doors, which will eventually lead onto the patio, look now they are in so I snapped a picture for all you lovely people to appreciate. It really does look nice I think; I can't wait for the rubble pile to be replaced with the brick built pizza oven.

I took the chainsaw apart

So feeling happy about that particular decision and how it has worked out I went and set myself up to carry on chopping wood. This morning I was going to be using the chainsaw first thing to trim down the large tree which had resisted axe efforts the day before. This was all well and good but I could not get the chainsaw to work. It started fine but the chain wouldn't go around. I took the chain attachment off and had a look but couldn't see anything immediately wrong other than the bit that spins the chain wasn't spinning. After a few minutes of fiddling I decided to leave it and wait for Bekir to return so I headed in and made myself bacon and eggs to cheer myself up. This worked, of course.

Lots of birds hanging about

While I was waiting I saw that the swallows and house martins are still here in their droves but this time they were sat on "Rambo's wires" rather than the ones at the bottom of the land. Of course as none of us were near him he was ignoring them and they were sat their without a crazed dog barking at them. He only bothers them when he thinks we're watching.

Shortly after the men were back and when they were ready for work I asked Bekir to have a look at the chainsaw. Of course he found the problem very quickly and it wasn't broken in the slightest. I had managed to engage a safety feature that I didn't know about by knocking the hand guard forward which locks the machine out. We cleaned it up and put it back together and now it is working fine however I decided to not carry on with chopping and leave it for tomorrow as I really had to get to work by that point.

Sally clearing rubble from the hole

Sally hadn't waited for us to come back in and was inside shifting the rubble from underneath the hole that had been knocked for the spiral staircase. Bekir went in to help and pretty quickly it was all gone and swept tidy. They are super clean as they work and so considerate with it; for example they always put their cigarette butts in the can we provide as we try to stop Thelma and Louise eating them from off the floor.

Resting in-between play times

The puppies have had a blast today being outside more than they have been inside I think. Every now and then I've realised I haven't seen them for a bit and gone out to call them to check they are OK (old fears from Ralf's disappearance die hard) but every time they have reappeared. Once they were a bit slow to reply and Bekir and Sally joined in the search but they appeared by the front door that time. When they have been inside they have variously been around our feet, right under the my desk by the wires or sleeping really hard on their bed. They're such awesome puppies and they give us so many laughs every day.

Scratches for where the steps will go

It was a quiet morning for the men, after they finished clearing the rubble, as they worked out how this spiral staircase is actually going to work. I left them to it for a large part and then went down to get involved in the discussions. We spent a little while working out where we wanted to enter the staircase from the living room and decided that by the wall walking away from the windows was best. A few minutes later it struck me that this was not going to work with how the hole was arranged with the pole in the middle so we went back to the drawing board and with much discussion including A and Bekir and Sally, and using bits of wood as props, we changed it slightly so you enter the stairs from the room edge. We then had to work out how high we wanted each step so with the help of some books and a block of wood we came up with 15cm per step which will give us 20 steps for the full height. Bekir then got on with building a full size model with wood so we can see what it will look like.

A little visitor

In a brief aside from what has been a building progress day today when I was chasing some flies around with the fly spray today I noticed there was a small preying mantis on the fly screen. I was careful to not spray anywhere near it but it is still there as it refuses to let go when I try and get it outside. Hopefully it'll go soon. I love the wildlife here; my mum and I saw a stick insect the day of the bonfire as well which was also awesome but I had no camera with me at the time.

Thinking about how to make the stairs

The thought process with the design of the stairs did not end there and we ended up having a few conversations and printing out another picture from the internet to show how we wanted to get onto the stairs from the top. Bekir was taking this very seriously and obviously wanted to plan it all out before starting with the metal which is just perfect. He and Sally were using bits of wood to make the model for us but when we changed our entry point they had to take it to bits then start it again.

Big black cloud heading our way

I left them to it for a while and went out to get the washing in as the weather was starting to look a bit threatening. It was good that I did as later, when I was called as we had visitors and Rambo needed putting away, it started raining quite heavily for a while with big drops. I was stood out in it with my hands in the air being laughed at by everyone. The visitors were for the telephone company and apparently in a month the box on our property, and the cables running across it, will go. Excellent news.

The square spiral staircase mockup makes prorgess

I left Bekir and Sally to it for a bit but then went to get a photograph of progress and realised something was wrong; Bekir was holding the wrong picture; not the square spiral staircase that we want but the round one we'd printed out to show the entrance step. By mistake I hadn't taken that picture back after we sorted that problem and he had misunderstood and thought we had changed out minds completely. After a little discussion with A, and a quick trip to google translate, I was able to explain what I wanted which caused them to have to take down what they had done and start again, for the third time. I felt pretty bad about this however we want to have it right and I know they are also keen on that; I think this is proving to be a welcome challenge after the boredom of the guest suite as well.

With this solved I really did leave them to it and when it came time to take them home they were happier and had made quite a lot of progress again. The journey was uneventful completely other than Thomas going past 110,000 miles and leaving A with the chance for a palindromic milage tomorrow, and there being a completely flat dog on the road by our junction which is always a sad sight. There are so many wild dogs though more of them get hit by cars or trucks than you realise.

Superb sea food and chorizo pasta

A was cooking away when I got back and started on this and when it was ready (I was on stirring duty while she fed the chickens and Rambo) we sat at the inside table for the first time since before my parents arrived and ate our dinner. It was just too dark and dingy to want to sit on the balcony and anyway I like sitting there looking out the back window.

So it's a nice early end to my typing this update which means I can get an early night to complement the really deep siesta I had today. Thanks for reading.

Re-learning to drive part 1

Today I had to do something which I haven’t really had to do before and that is check my previous blog post; I honestly couldn’t remember where I had left it. Now, having done that revision, I can just about recall last weekend, the excellent and enjoyable visit of my parents which ended sadly with me not on top form and feeling quite ill, and the fact that there was nice weather on a weekend and a long weekend at that. Suffice to say that weather has now changed and it has been horrible and windy and rainy all day today. But that is getting ahead of myself.

 

A friendly note to the delivery person, which was ignored

There was one thing which I missed out of the update last week which I have remembered to photograph for your amusement in this one. The cables which I was waiting for arrived while I was outside sunning myself on the Monday and, cleverly I thought, I stuck the note above on the front door. Of course the delivery guy ignored it as the package was small enough to slip through the letter box but still; I am keeping that note for another use and maybe (if the weather is good enough) it will even see the light of outside again.

 

Soaking the roots for a bit

One of the main themes (of the pictures I have for last week at least) of the past week has been food. I don’t know why but I only seem to have pictures involving food. This one may not seem like it does but trust me, these are two fruit trees I insanely bought from Tesco on Tuesday after work which I will now have to somehow transport back to Bulgaria without killing. The instructions said to soak the roots for 24 hours before planting so I found a plastic tray and filled it with water. This was after I got back from Tesco doing quite a large shop including epic quantities of meat for dinners over the next week or two.

 

Chicken in chinese stir fry sauce

Ironically, considering just how much meat I had bought, that evening I ate a lovely Chinese stir fry chicken meal with blue oyster stir fry sauce bought by my mum, and it was lovely. The other theme of the week has been work as I have been doing my best to make up for being off on Monday and also for the planned absences next week which I will come to later. After I ate this meal I worked a short while and then I was off to bed early as my day would start sooner than normal because of The Driving Lesson.

 

Some sunshine at last

I woke up even before I needed to, at about 5am, and dozed for half an hour then I was awake and getting ready to leave. I had arranged to meet the driving instructor in a pub car park at 7.30 and wasn’t too sure how long it would take to get there. The sun was rising as I drove up the M6 and I enjoyed the sight of the changing colours as the day began. Of course I was super early and spent the 40 minutes or so waiting for the instructor to arrive reading my kindle. When he got there I was straight out of the car and over to meet him. My first impressions were of a nice chap who was used to telling others what to do and of course that describes the ideal instructor. We quickly got down to it, with him explaining about the test while taking details and then he was out with the cones to mark out the bound of the most important manoeuvring task of the test; the S reversing manoeuvre.

 

Reversing task

We spent the entire two hour lesson in the carpark practising manoeuvres and most of the time was spent on this particular one. I found that the biggest challenge I had was with his car; a very powerful VW Golf which he said would be the ideal car but rolled along with zero gas too fast for the course which meant I had to try and control the speed by slipping the clutch and being very careful with the throttle. I stalled a couple of times once but didn’t do so badly and he said that I had passed every time I tried. There were other things to do including an unhitch and rehitch routine including pointing out compatibility of the trailer with the car (something I hadn’t known about) and also helped me to decide that I definitely need to get a new tow bar as mine just isn’t fit for this job. At the end of two hours I went away quite tired and with eight more hours of lesson planned for next week.

 

Lovely sunny day in Blackpool; makes a change

From there I was off further north to the studio in Blackpool via a train set shop (they sadly couldn’t help me with my broken locos but did give me a contact to try, not that I have as I’ve been too busy to get in touch with them) and then to drop Thomas at the garage to get looked at as he has been a bit smoky to start. It was really good to be in the studio again and see Dan, though he was in a session most of the day. I worked both in the office and then, when a drum lesson started in the room below, out in the café and got quite a lot done. I was also able to ring the bank and confirm that no, Santander do NOT do accounts for foreign companies not at all not ever. Which isn’t great. At the end of the day Dan dropped me to get Thomas and I called past my favourite Chinese for dinner for us both. It was nommy as usual.

 

Planted out

I left about 7.30 and was home in time to have a brew and read for a bit before bed. The next morning I woke up early again and went straight outside to plant the trees which had got a bit more than 24 hours in water. It didn’t take me long and pretty soon I had them both standing up securely, though I’d forgotten which tree was which. Oooops. That’ll become clear as soon as they flower.

 

Steak and Ale pie for lunch

Work was good and once again long but lunch was brilliant as I had bought a steak and ale pie from the butchers in Blackpool I like so much to bring to work with me. It disappeared very quickly indeed I can tell you and kept me going until I was the last person in the office (having been the second to arrive) at about 6pm. There was quite an important meeting at work which went well and I seem to be pushing myself forwards again towards having some role leading the team at least technically but that is probably for the best as I hate being told what to do – this driving instructor has his work cut out I think.

 

Clean bedding; awesome

I can’t really remember Thursday evening but I must have eaten burgers or something and then regretted it as I’d not cleaned the chip pan since roasting the lamb and the fat was a bit nasty on the chips. I can remember feeling a bit ill at some point before yesterday and I think it was Friday morning. I did get up and at it OK and just had a lot of wind in the night (sorry, but I did). One of the first things I did was to put a load of washing on and then as soon as it was done I hung it out, including the bedding which went onto an improvised line outside between a post for that purpose and a tree as the string I was using wasn’t long enough. I had no pegs either so had to hope it would not fall off or blow away. Of course the sun, which had been shining brightly, went in as soon as I appeared with the washing to hang out. Standard.

 

Lovely tasty rice n three

I worked away from early until about 11.30 then was in a sudden rush to leave as I was meeting my ex colleagues for a Rice and Three in honour of one of them leaving the country to do TEFL in China. It was a particular pleasure to get to walk back to their office with the man himself and catch up on his plans; it’s great to see more people taking the plunge and getting out of this country.

 

Beer to finish the day

After saying “see you later” to that group I headed towards town to find a bar to work in for the afternoon. On the way it was great to bump into Scottish Mike again and have a quick chat. I decided to go to my usual bar and found a table with a power socket and tried to use their WiFi but eventually gave up and used my 4g dongle. No matter, I was able to work really well and got loads done with Loz by the time I put the laptop away and bought a pint. I waited until just after 5 and text my mate to find out where they were and they had already gone to the bar we were meeting in so off I went and found them

 

Eating late in the evening

 It was a good crowd of people as he is a popular chap and there were quite a few people there I hadn’t seen for a while so that was good. I was reminded, however, of just how awkward these large gatherings can be when you run out of things to say to the person you’re catching up with and then need to move on to the next; I’ve never been great at that and hope I didn’t come across as rude to anyone. The evening ended with me sitting with Kirsty and Viv, Mdickens and Jane and a few other lovely people while me and Kirsty devoured a plate of ribs and two different types of fries. The food wasn’t great but the company was outstanding.

I left at about 9.30 which was later than planned but I had been enjoying myself. It was the right time to go though and I got back to get the washing off the line, make the bed, then collapse into it. I woke to really strong winds and heavy rain and was glad I’d decided to not stay out as the bedding would probably have ended up in Wales.  I was feeling a little ropey when I was woken then but it was only about 3am so I went back to sleep and when I woke again I felt like I was in the grips of an overwhelming hangover. How this could be I do not know as I had only had the one pint at the pub and then lemonade other than one small shot of dirty bourbon in the evening. I should have drunk gallons as I suffered as if I did; the whole day was pretty much a write off as I moaned and whinged and then eventually took a headache pill which of course cleared my head up. Other than that  I talked to A online, played Civ a lot, and slept.

Ooodles of Gammon, one egg, loads of chips

Today has been better as I spent the whole day working and making really good progress. I had a super breakfast of really well done sausages on toast and then got hungry mid afternoon but held off cooking so I ate about 5.30 to carry me through til tomorrow. I had gammon egg and chips but let myself down by there only being one egg left in the box. It was still marvellous and filled the hole perfectly well.

And so I am now sat thinking about playing some more Civ, or maybe reading, and then getting an early night as I am meeting The Driving Instructor at 8am at the same pub carpark tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed I can get this B + E done and dusted very soon as it really is causing a lot of disruption to work and thus my free time.

Another week passes

Last week’s blog ended, unusually, being written on Monday but I’m back into my routine of sitting down with the laptop and tapping away into a document so I can publish this tomorrow morning using the internet in my office. For some reason this week feels like it has been really long and sitting at her parents’ kitchen table typing away on my lunch break last Monday feels like months ago. A lot has happened this week I suppose and that will do strange things to your perception of time.

So last Monday, after I finished work, we were in the car and off to go past her Nan’s for the last time before our evening flight. We picked up some chips from a fish and chip place in town which weren’t that great sadly and had a good time drinking tea and nattering before it was time for her mum to drive us to the airport. The flight was not very exciting but was short and once again being in 1A and 1B was such a pleasure. Just to be able to not rush around to get to the gate and then have the leg room to stretch out and finally to be first on and off the plane; worth every penny. The bus to take us back to the carpark arrived relatively quickly but it was completely rammed; we only just managed to get on and a few people who were waiting were not able to. It turned out of three buses one had broken down so they were short. Everyone on the bus was really pleasant and kind to each other and helped each other out to disembark despite the crush so it was not a bad experience really. We were home within an hour of landing and after a brew hit the sack.

 

A bit of a blurry picture of a macaroon

Tuesday felt like Monday to me and my boss and two colleagues were in another office so it was just myself, Lee and Ade. Lee had made everyone macaroons for the day before and at my insistence he had saved some of me and A. They were lovely, with a really dark chocolate filling. I took one back for A who wasn’t so keen on the filling but liked the actually macaroon. This is a particular obsession of Lee’s and he goes on about trying to make the perfect macaroon so it was nice to finally taste one of his attempts that he was quite pleased with.

 

Weathered Class 150 in First Northwestern colours

I had received quite a lot of deliveries over the weekend while we were away and one of them was the Class 150 in First Northwestern livery which I had ummed and ahhed about buying. It came without a chip in it, but had a space for one, so on Wednesday I got back from work very excited about getting the chip fitted. About two minutes later I went back to the sofa, frustrated. The body of the loco is fixed on with three screws which is fine until you find out that none of your screwdrivers are small enough to reach down to them. I spent the next two hours looking for a specific screwdriver set for taking apart locos and then gave up and ordered a jewellery set for next day delivery.

 

Lovely pie with a lovely message

Dinner was outstanding on Wednesday (when isn’t it outstanding, actually?) as we had some mince to use up and I had no suggestions then A came up with the idea of a pie. The pastry was lovely and the filling was amazing but she didn’t make enough for me to take in to work the day after as I was planning on a pub lunch with Lee. Anyway the pie deserves more words than I have given it, particularly when you look and see the little heart shape and “Made With Love” picked out and just about visible post baking. I had seconds and was completely over full but it was worth it.

 

Putting books into boxes

The pub was great on Thursday having hoped to have gone on Tuesday with our boss but been let down to only go to the café round the corner. I chose the hunters chicken this time while Lee had my usual of Gammon with double egg. It was nice to get out of the office and actually take a lengthy lunch break. That evening while I was reading A got a box and packed up the books. This weekend our plan was to do as much packing as we can so that next weekend, when we get back from my parents with Harrison full of kitchen, we are ready on the Sunday to do the full load. Lee cannot now help on the Sunday however Loz has said he’ll come over so we do have a bit of additional muscle to help out.

 

The Kong Wobbler, bright red and huge

I’d put a large order into Amazon for the final things we need for the journey (thermos flasks, fuel for the cooker etc) and while putting that order together I’d added some toys and things for Rambo. I thought I’d get two kongs as he destroys them very quickly so I picked a red one and a black one and never thought anything about one of them being called a “wobbler” until I opened the box and saw what it actually was. It is huge and will probably hurt a lot to try and kick but hopefully he will have fun with it. He is a spoiled dog, he really is.

 

Tiny screws and a DCC chip fitted

The jewellery screwdrivers had also arrived so I took ten minutes around lunch to make sure they worked and they were perfect. It took a bit of fiddling to get the body off the loco once the screws were undone but actually fitting the chip was a doddle. I put it all back together and then waited for the evening when my mate Bob was coming over with a load of locos and his rolling road so we could set up the Z21 controller I had bought and make sure it all worked. For a while I was tempted to go and buy a piece of hardboard and actually lay an oval of track but the rolling road was a better idea, particularly as I have no soldering iron to make up a power feed to the track with. He arrived on time and I helped him carry in a stack of boxes and we were able to have a get it all set up really quickly, but with his own controller which he had also brought. He has some locos with sound on them and they are great; eventually maybe I will do that but for now the fact that a sound chips is five times as expensive as a non-sound chip is just too steep for me.

A had made an outstanding lasagne for our dinner and when she carried it through to the dining room then turned around and put her coat on and went to the pub, leaving us, we were very amused indeed. Suffice to say we ate our way through over half of the lasagne before heading back to the living room to hook up my equipment and check it all out. While I was doing this Bob was pleased to borrow my jewellery drivers so he could put a chip in a Northern Rail Class 150 he had bought recently as well so that worked out. Everything worked well first time out of the box with the Z21 and the app on the tablet I bought and now I need to get a soldering iron and either set up an oval or get some rolling road of my own so I can bed the loco in. One thing that was a really pleasant surprise was he had brought a loco to give to me as a house warming type gift for the school. It is a steam loco and has a chip in it already and it will fit in with the idea I have had to have an independent section of track with steam locos on it as if it were a holiday attraction. I’ll stop geeking out now, ok?

I had to try and cut the transfer to make them fit

When Bob left he dropped me at the pub where I had a pint with A which was very nice; it is a very friendly place. We were both pretty tired so we didn’t stay long and walked back in the rain to get a cup of tea and then bed. Saturday morning was a lie in but even though we stayed in bed as long as we could we were still up and about by about 9. Sadly A had work to do over the weekend which was rubbish for her so I left her to it and went and finished the Red Arrow kit. This only involved putting on the transfers but I had a lot of trouble with the triangle on the underneath. There are vanes on the bottom of the wings and the transfer was supposed to go over where they are however it would not fold over and sit flat. I worked it out in the end and carefully used the scalpel to cut each transfer so it went around the vanes. It isn’t perfect and there was a little tear when I cut the first one but from a distance again it is fine. I will now package this up very carefully to go over to Bulgaria on this trip.

 

Piling boxes up ready for the pack next weekend

The rest of the day was taken up with moving things around in the dining room, then stacking boxes up there, and finally taking the big desk down in the office. I put the freezer outside to defrost and actually accidentally left it out over night; thankfully there were no little creatures in it when I took it out to the shed today. Most of the boxes in that picture are actually full of trainset stuff; nothing like collecting huge amounts of stuff just before you’re leaving the country again.

 

The clothes rack slides back into its box

The final task was to start clearing the dressing room which included taking apart one of the clothes rails we bought to move here with. It all just about fit back in the box it came in, with a lot of tape and a bit of swearing. All we are left now to pack is some glassware and other bits from the kitchen and her clothes. All of this will be done before next weekend so they can go into Harrison on Sunday.

 

Emerald Green (Revell: 61 Humbrol: 2)

And so to today. A was still typing away on the long file that was taking longer to complete than she had expected. The sun was out and it was a lovely day so I set myself up on the dining table with the new kits and decided I wanted to make the Sea King. I pulled all my paints together and started to sort out what I would need and realised that I had bought paints for the Concorde and the Air Ambulance, both of which are Revell and the Sea King kit was an Airfix which used different numbering for the colours. I will now have to source a couple of Humbrol paints with which to complete this kit but fortunately it came with some paints so I have been able to make a start anyway.

 

Harrison is now fully dressed

I managed to drag A away from her desk long enough to help me finally fix the flag up on the back of the cab in Harrison. We used a staple gun and this was good enough to hold it firmly in place. I was also able to put the phone holder together and before we leave on Friday I’ll stick my cable tidies around to keep it all under control for the journey. It really is getting very close indeed now and I think this is starting to sink in quite firmly. This afternoon I went upstairs to wait for A and fell straight asleep for an hour without meaning to and right now she is dozing on the sofa next to me.

So what I am going to do now is finish typing this and then sit and read for a bit before heading to bed and hope that, unlike last night, I can actually sleep and don’t have to come down at midnight to read some more and drink whisky in the hope it will help (which, incidentally, it didn’t). I have finished my Travis McGee series after 21 books and so am now casting around for my next book. If the next one I find is even half as good then I will be happy.

It's a family affair

Time is a rushing and the date we have been waiting for is approaching ever faster. There will only be another four or five of these updates before the next one comes from our home in Bulgaria and this is exceptionally exciting (and not a little nervewracking). Everything is rushing and I am going to take a moment to stop, look back take stock and appreciate the last week.

 

Nommy spaghetti bolognaise

So way back all those many years ago to last weekend when we got back from our trip to move my best mate. How long ago that seems now but I am reminded of it by the picture I snapped of the spaghetti bolognaise which A made (with way too much garlic bread, as standard) which put the energy back into us. I had a lovely long soak in my Radox bath before this and pretended to myself that I wasn’t aching any more though by Monday morning those aches and pains had come back with a vengeance.

 

A reading her book

One of the best things about our life at the moment is the peace and quiet and coexistence that we manage; we are able to sit comfortably in silence both with a book (or maybe A playing Candy Crush) every now and then holding hands and just being quiet. We do have music on sometimes, mainly she does when she is cooking, but most of the time it is that lovely quiet which gives you space to think. There is so much on my mind at the moment, so many things to think about, that time and space to think is a must. Anyway, here she is enjoying the present given her by Cjc and Fi; and yes she really was enjoying it just as much as she seems to be in the picture.

 

Dark clouds bringing snow

All week it has been bitterly cold and with a biting wind so it wasn’t that surprising on Wednesday when the weather went from sunshine to driving snow very quickly. I was in the office and managed to snap a picture of the raft of cloud as it swarmed over the sky and engulfed the last of the sunshine.

 

HENRY! He smiles while you're hoovering

The weather held off for the most part, with only a couple of flurries, and I walked home to get in Thomas with A and go into town to collect me old Henry hoover before we swung past the airport to pick up her brother. He imports dairy cattle and was overseeing the delivery of two trucks to the UK from Germany and had asked to stop with us while this happened. Just as we pulled up next to him at the airport the heavens opened and we saved him from being pelted with huge hailstones.

 

It snowed quite heavily this week

I was still tired, having not slept that well, and I didn’t stay up as long as A who was obviously catching up with her brother. We had a lovely pizza and chips dinner, sat around in the living room, however and that was a nice change as well; sometimes junk food is just what you need. I crept out of the house the next day without disturbing him and once again it was a cold day but this time the snow fell seriously and several times it settled and then melted. The irony here was that he needed A to drive him to see the cows being delivered and with the snow on and off it was making that drive look a bit uncertain. Of course, nothing was working out as planned and when eventually we heard that the trucks had managed to get onto the boat it was a celebratory moment.

 

Finally some settled snow

The problem with the massive delay to the delivery was that it meant A was up at 11pm (having had a couple of hours questionable dozing) to drive her brother to the delivery point. When she arrived there she says it was as if the heavens opened and the hugest snowflakes started to fall. By the time they managed to get away from the farm (having been fed coffee by the famer’s wife) it had settled deeply and it was a little bit hairy on the roads. She got them back safely about 3am and didn’t really wake me when she got into bed. When I woke up the next morning I was shocked at how much snow had fallen but you could see from Thomas that none had come down since they got back.

 

Pleased with her new toy

With the delivery done her brother was able to book onto a flight back home and, barring a slightly long visit in the morning, A got back from the airport totally exhausted and to find that I had burned the cake she had made and put in the oven and told me to watch. In my defence I had watched it and turned the heat out when I thought it was ready, but the base and sides had become a little crisp. Talking of which, here she is with the new cake mixer that I got her as a little gift which she has now used again to make a replacement cake which was lovely as always.

 

Here comes the scaffolding

During the day my scaffolding arrived which was a very exciting moment. The van turned up and the chap helped me and A to get the metalwork off into the back of Harrison, and the planks stacked up on the driveway. The only problem with this was that when I thought about it after the delivery man had gone I realised I should put the metal in the back yard and the planks into Harrison and so I got a pretty thorough work out moving it all on my own (I had to be quite firm and encourage A to rest and not try and help me) which was fine until it started hailing and I had to rush to get stuff in which would get damaged by precipitation. Anyway, hard work never hurt anyone and now I have the scaff the next step is to get the kitchen from my parents and then I can pack.

Talking of my parents, this weekend was the one we had booked my parents to visit and they were due any time after 4pm on Friday. This being the day after she was awake most of the night chauffeuring her brother around, I eventually managed to persuade her to leave cooking the curry that was planned until the day after, and that we should go to the pub for food. This was a very good idea and after a cuppa we walked round and everyone enjoyed the fantastic food that place serves. It was a cold wind on the way back however so we walked quite fast despite being stuffed full.

Cutting out shapes for my scale packing model

The next day my parents were over for breakfast which I put together with my famous butter fried mushrooms, sausage, egg, bacon and baked beans with a side of toast. It went down well for everyone, even A joining in, and filled us up pretty well. I had struggled again with sleeping the night before. Actually, that isn’t quite true. I slept very well but woke at 3am with loads of things spinning through my mind (work, money, packing, business plans) and I made my decision for the business, then decided a plan of action for the packing, and only then was I able to get back off. The plan for the packing involved making a scale model of the floor space for Harrison, and then cutting out shapes in the same scale of the large ticket items which will have to take up floor space, and using them to tessellate the items rather than having to do trial and error like I had for the first move. With the electric two seater, the huge three seater and now this massive amount of metalwork for the scaffolding I would rather move some bits of paper stuck to card around than have to drag everything out if I came up with a better arrangement. My mother helped by cutting and sticking the shapes while I was cooking, bless her.

 

And here are the cutouts

I have been running many different configurations of items around in my head over the past couple of weeks and now I have seen the scaffolding most of them went straight out of the window. Now that I have this little scale model to play with I have been able, with A giving good advice, to work out a way of maybe fitting everything in and still leave a space for Rambo. It does require us to stack the two seater up on its end which is not ideal but I would rather that than not be able to collect the little doggy. I still have the large fridge, and a filing cabinet, to get dimensions from my parents to double check this but I think it will work.

 

Me and my parents at the entrance to Beeston Castle

A ran all the way up here to have her picture taken

Looking through an arrow embrasure

Looking towards Wales, with the wind blasting

The curtain wall is still quite well preserved

After eating we had to decide what to do with ourselves. The sun came out and so I dragged everyone into the car quickly and we set off to try and find Beeston Castle. A and I had spotted signs for it while we were on our way to and from the boat at New Year and decided we wanted to explore it. This was our chance and after a bit of driving we parked up and I paid us in. It is really quite a massive place and well preserved in areas. We had a lovely walk around, getting up to the keep and then walking by a roundabout way back down through the woods towards the entrance again.

 

Awesome caves that you can't get into

At the bottom of the hill there was a sign for some caves so, wanting to get the most for the money that had been paid to get in, we walked round the hill and first of all came to a very disappointing scrape in the hill which didn’t really deserve any label let alone “cave”. As we were walking back we spotted some more a bit further down the track and these were much more impressive. Apparently they were dug out by a guy mining sandstone but now they are all gated off so you can’t go in. Health and Safety is boring.

 

The Queen....

... and her brave Sir Knight

We returned via the shop and had a good look around the little museum they had attached to it. I had spotted a Celtic Sword on the way in and decided, while we were exploring, that I would get it. The girl behind the counter was very surprised as I don’t think they sell many but both me and A are very happy with it; it’ll go above the chimney with the two leather bound daggers I got a couple of years ago, and the Scottish kilt knife I bought in Edinburgh. I did not buy the crown now the knights helmet though don’t we both look fetching.

 

Waiting to dig in to the lovely curry

From there it was a windy serendipitous route back home as we took a slight wrong turn and a visit to co-op for some biscuitey provisions. When we got back A set to preparing the curry while I read and once the food was in the slow cooker and my parents were both starting to snooze I went upstairs and we both fell into a dead sleep for an hour. We were heading out for the night to a gig so had to have eaten and be ready to leave by about 6pm so an alarm was set but when it went off it was a struggle to get out of bed and start moving. Dinner was, as you would expect, really nice and I am looking forward to lots of curries, both made by her and myself, from that cook book.

 

My friends rocking out

We left on time and, having followed them back to their hotel so they could drop the car off, made good time and parked up exactly where I planned. The problem was the pub we were aiming for wasn’t where I thought and the map took us walking into the (still biting) wind for about ten minutes before we reached the haven of warmth and beer. It was a tiny place and we were early but the band were already there so I was able to say hi to Andy and then the four of us sat with a beer before finding that there was a balcony upstairs where we could settle. We were alone up there for a while but then other people found it which was annoying. The first act was a bit dull, to be honest; a bit to repetitive and not enough different ideas so after a promising beginning I switched off and I think so did everyone else. It was not helped by some scrotes from Fleetwood who were shouting over the music behind us and managed to break a glass which shattered where my parents were sitting. The evening was saved by my friend’sband which was just as good as I expected and then got better as they reverted to the two piece acoustic band and played some old songs which are excellent.

All in all it was a successful evening but it was a tired group who got back in the car and drove home. After a cup of tea it was into bed and sleeping so I could wake up to cook breakfast again before my parents said goodbye, went to church and from there, home. Bacon and egg butties went down very well this morning and then they were off though we’ll see them again in a few weeks when we are down with Harrison to collect the kitchen and other assorted items they have for us. Oh, and have another family farewell meal with my dad’s side.

So the planning for the next year has also made some progress this week. Of course I’ve already said that the scaffold is here and I’ve got a really good idea of how to fit everything into Harrison. On top of that we’ve decided that the packing will be done the Sunday after we collect the kitchen (we won’t have any other weekends free after that, other than the one right before we go, and I’m not leaving it that late). I have also managed to arrange for a building firm to do the drainage work, for half the price I had been quoted previously, so that is firmed up.

This week is going to be another long one and my next update will be typed from her motherland. More family affairs there I’m sure.

EDIT :: I've done a countdown timer till we leave... less than five weeks til we are on the ferry as I type this edit.