A week today...

... is my last day in the office.

Wow.

All the bottles which were brought

So today I am a little drunk still, having just got into the office after my night out last night for Whisky Night.

Yes, it was another "for the last time" moment. And this time it wasn't just the "last time" for me but everyone there as I am the organiser and nagger who makes sure these evenings actually occur and no one else is stepping up to the plate to take over.

It was a really good night, with some very tasty whiskies and excellent company with colleagues from a couple of my jobs all enjoying the drink and the pool table in the apartment we had hired for the night.

This is going to be a short update (as I can't think) and I'm sure there was something else I wanted to write about but I can't remember it for now. I'll just pop a few pictures from last night below.

These people are VERY drunk

These people aren't drunk, honest

More drunk people

Another drunk person

Standing around being rubbish at pool

Oh yeah, today is the first day of MVC... check the trailer out below :D

Meal planning

Right, this blog is ACTUALLY me doing the planning. I'm going to type it up as I think it through and summarise at the end what I think I need.

Fun, huh.

Barms

So we are going to be leaving Blackpool on the Sunday to drive to the parents and then going on from there on the Monday. I don't think I need to plan for food on that Sunday or the Monday morning (we can make use of my parents house) so that is good.

Monday we'll be heading towards the ferry and then onwards afterwards; I think we'll need lunch that day. Our evening meals we are thinking of eating at the service station we stay in.

Bacon

It is then another five days of driving until we arrive in Bulgaria; I'm going to consider that it may take seven days. This means that, including that first lunch, we'll need eight lunches and seven breakfasts.

Right, so what are we going to be eating?

Eggs

Breakfast: 4 barms, 8 rashers of bacon, 4 eggs.

Lunch: 4 barms, 4 slices of ham, 4 slices of cheese, 3 cuppa soup, 1 packet crisps (for crisping our butties), 3 chocolate bars.

Crap ham

So in total that makes 28 barms, 56 rashers of bacon, 28 eggs for breakfast and 32 barms, 32 slices of ham, 32 slices of cheese, 24 cuppa soups, 8 packets of crips and 24 chocolate bars.

Cheese slices

Hmm that sounds about right.

I don't think I'll be buying all the barms up front; maybe just get enough for the first three or four days. Everything else I'll buy and pack into place so I can ensure it is packed so as our supplies dwindle, the remaining items don't shift around as we drive.

Cuppa soup

That's a fair amount of food, and I'll also be buying a large bag of tea bags, a bottle of instant coffee, a bottle of hot chocolate and a litre of UHT milt.

Crisps

I'm also considering some small cartons of juice to spice up the journey and lunch times; maybe I'll get 48 of them so we can have one each of them.

CHOCOLATE!

Well, this has been a good exercise in thinking it all through; I can now put this out of my mind and move onto other issues.

Second to last weekend of prep

So I'm back from Blackpool after the second to last weekend of preparation before my leaving weekend kicks in.

As you'll have seen in my previous blog I had quite a list of bits and pieces to get done but the first thing to do was get to the garage and hope that the keys were available for me to collect Julian. I arrived just as the owner was about to leave on his bike and yes, the keys had been left in the usual place. He has passed his MOT and so that was the last garage time for him before leaving.

The weight of the trailer effecting the tyres

I got back to the studio and hooked the lights through into the storage unit with the idea of starting work on the tray for Sassy's travel hutch. This plan was revised when I saw the tyres on the trailer; I am sure they are OK however with all the weight sat on them, and it not moving for weeks, it struck me that this could put a flat spot or cause them to become misshapen.

A manually-movable trailer

So I tidied the unit and then started unloading the trailer. Again. It didn't take me very long at all, maybe 30 mins or so, and I found that I could still leave the desk top and the table in (though I may remove the table when I'm there on Tuesday again) and still move the trailer by hand which I did to have the weight on a different part of the wheel.

Most of the stuff for Thomas

I had reorganised the unit a bit before starting the unloading and pulled the stuff which is going into Thomas into one specific area on two pallets. This will mean, when I arrive on the last Thursday, I will be able to reverse Thomas in and immediately put all this kit into its place. This is really important as, if I am loading things that leaving weekend I need it all to be really conveniently arranged so it goes on fast; I don't want to become exhausted shifting things around and tripping over stuff.

Anyway, more of that another time.

By the time I did all of this I discarded any thoughts of making the cleaning tray as all I wanted to do was rest so I did my books then jumped into Julian with my Kindle and read for a bit before turning the light out; he really is the most comfortable of vehicles. I slept really well.

Next morning it was time for another epic Julian cooked breakfast and then I got started on some of the little bits and pieces. First of all I found the dustpan and brush and swept through in Julian, something I've been wanting do to for a while as dirt and muck had been trodden in while loading the back. Happily it looks like my waterproofing has worked again as despite heavy wind and rain in the night there were no drips.

Cable tidy and suction grip

I then unpacked the suction grips I bought for the walkie talkies, and the in car chargers for the same, and worked out where they would sit in the vehicles. I also fitted cable tidies in Julian, and replaced the broken ones in Thomas as well as adding a few more to take the power to the walkie talkie. This did not take me very long at all however I'm a bit disappointed with the car chargers as they are actually the wrong size fitting, and come with an adapter which makes them quite unwieldy. Oh well.

Starting to cut out the foam

Next task up was to begin working out exactly what would go in the Laycorn boxes and potentially cut up some of the large foam blocks to support items in them.

Man-bandage :)

While cutting a shape out of the foam with my Stanley knife I slipped and sliced deep into my index finger (which was careless) but obviously as a man I just grabbed some gaffer tape and wrapped it around my finger to protect it, and kept going. It bled so much the tape slipped off within a minute or two so I got some toilet tissue, held it on with more gaffer, and this sufficed to protect it until the worst of the bleeding had stopped.

I have worked out what is going in three of the four boxes; the pictures following show bottom right (camping gear), top right (charger and jump start cables) and top left (other associated car mechanical stuff like oil, tyre pump and snow chains). I am sure I'll work out what to put in the bottom left box over the next couple of days.

Bottom right - camping gear

Top right - jump start kit

Top left - other mechanical stuff

Finally in the unit for now (I was starting to feel hungry again) I had a few things to amend on the humanure toilet, specifically with regard to the bucket and raising it so the lip protruded a little above the base unit. While I was measuring this up I noticed that the little legs on the toilet seat needed rotating so they didn't interfere with the bucket; this didn't take me long and then I turned my attention to fitting a shelf for the bucket to sit on.

Rotated leg on the toilet seat

All I needed to do was screw this across the bottom of the box as the height of the box (without legs) was almost exactly the height of the bucket. A couple of drilled guide holes and I used the manual driver to put the screws in really tightly and then a quick sit down and proof that it'll be fine. One thing I think I am going to have a look at next weekend is whether I can squeeze the toilet in Julian for the journey; I often need to go in the night and it'd be good to just have it there for urine if not the other stuff.

Bucket support shelf

By this time I had become very hungry and so I went to Julian to cook myself a second breakfast before I cracked on with all the other little bits and pieces I needed to do. For some reason I had the idea that I'd put some music on while I was doing this and this is where my plans fell apart. I could not get the radio to turn on at all. I fiddled around behind the unit for a bit, finding a rats nest of tangled cables, some loose, some not, and made a decision quickly; I would see whether I could find a professional to do a proper job on this. There is no way that I am going to embark on a six day drive with a radio which may stop working at any moment.

So I ate my second breakfast (just as awesome as the first) and went online to find someone; pretty quickly I had arranged to take him to a place in town where he could stay til Tuesday (when I am back for the studio birthday party) and get the wiring sorted and maybe even fix the fascia so it is solid in its fittings.

I walked back from this place across town after dropping Julian off in a quite cold, but lovely and sunny, Blackpool spring day and as I had my camera I took a few pictures.

Evidence of flood defences

Blustery day but people still on the beach

Slightly dilapidated fun fair wheel

Blackpool Tower

When I got to my unit I did a few more little bits and pieces of tidying and then settled myself down to watch the Six Nations games. Because of how focused I am on leaving I have so far not watched a single game this year however I am pleased I made the decision to watch as these two games were probably two of the most exciting matches the tournament has seen for years; Scotland won with a drop goal on the 79th minute, and England beat Ireland after an amazingly close and well matched game. It always cheers me up when England win.

So, I am into the last fortnight; in two weeks as I'm writing this I will be approaching my parents house after the first stretch of driving. This is getting very exciting.

****EDIT***

I had a parcel waiting for me when I got home from my friend in Bulgaria and I am now proudly wearing my Baba Marta band. Thank you so very much for this; the exciting part is I will be able to bury this in Bulgaria, on my land. The last one of these I had I planted underneath my Apple tree in the back garden of my last house.

Me wearing my Baba Marta band

To quote (directly) from the card inside the package:

Chestita Baba Marta....

Welcome Grandmother March is a holiday celebrated on the first of March. Martenitsa - using in the form of a wrist band, woven by combining red and white coloured threads - are worn on that day and through March, until a stork or a tree with blossom is seen, symbolising warmer weather and well being. There are various theories and suggestions about these two particular colours - red and white, from which the bands are made. A common belief is that 'red' represents 'life or birth' and 'white' denotes 'anew' or 'on clear grounds'. Combined they mean 'newborn', 'rebirth', 'a new beginning'; a celebration of Life and Survival. Another popular explanation is that white stands for wisdom and red for good health, which means that anyone giving you a Martenitsa is wishing you both throughout the New Year.

 I can't wait to chose where to bury it :)

***EDIT 2***

It fell off in the night and I have been told off anyway for putting it on; apparently I need to wait until March 1st. So it is next to my bed and waiting for the propitious date.

Things starting to happen

This blog has been conceived for a few days but I've just been too busy to actually get round to writing the thing.

I need one of these for Julian at the school

I sent a chase email to the architect last week detailing exactly what I had been promised in terms of dates for things (like electrical connection, PuP etc) and I had quite a good email back. First of all he has said that the electric will be connected next week. Woo. He is also confident of the approval and says that I should be able to confidently start work about April, which is pretty much bang on the money when I wanted to; it will give me time to settle in, get the workmen together (with Bekir's help), order the materials and also just fence and prepare the property for the process of renovating it.

He also said that the plans which I sketched should be enough; I'm not sure what he means by this but I'll find out when I get there as I'm determined to arrange a face to face meeting with Lubo in the first week of arriving.

Julian has a clean bill of health

In other news Julian passed his MOT and I will be picking him up from the garage tomorrow. I'm to Blackpool again this weekend to collect him and take advantage of the fact that I have this extra weekend to give him a good clean inside. I also plan on (finally) doing the last bits to Sassy's travel hutch and also I'm going to velcro the collection vessel under the leaky hole in the roof.

The last bits have been ordered (apart from the snow chains for Julian; I am finding it really difficult to find any which will fit. This is a concern) and include chargers for the walky talkies, an in ear piece for my dad for the same (yes, I DO listen to you father :D) and a load more of those window mounted claw grip things to hold the walk talkies and other things easily to hand.

Some of the little plastic cable tidies which I glued into Thomas have broken so I'll need to fix these and I also have not yet done my cable tidying in Julian so this will have to be done.

My final plan for the weekend is to arrange the Laycorn boxes. I have had some time to think about this now and I am going to put camping gear (including tent, sleeping bags, air beds, pump, cooker etc) in the bottom two boxes and then arrange the emergency gear in the top two. I have those big chunks of foam which I am going to cut to shape and cut shapes out of so things stay and don't rattle.

Mmm Breakfast cooked in Julian

I am also writing my list of meals and what to buy; I'll enthrall you all with that probably after the weekend.

Two weeks today is my last day in the office and my diary is now completely and totally full. I'm looking forward to seeing as many of you as can make it to my leaving do on March 7th and I am REALLY looking forward to getting on the road.

Here goes.... last two weeks!

Grand Designs

I have just stepped away from the TV after having one of the most enjoyable evenings for a long time.

First of all I cooked a stunning steak and chips (with onions, butter fried mushrooms and peas) which was just the perfect meal for how both myself and J were feeling, and then I arranged for my best mate to travel with me for the first part of the drive and THEN I channel hopped until I saw that there were a couple of Grand Designs on.

The first one I kept muted as I was seriously turned off by the site of the people building the modernist monstrosity of a house (with a lovely double-retracting glass door to be fair) smiled as they chainsawed some lovely trees to "improve their view".

*shudder*

But then the next episode started and from the first I found myself transfixed. The couple in question had bought a complete wreck of a castle in Tuscany and started the process of renovating, only to find that their plans and progress was illegal and have to stop and wait for years to resolve everything.

I'll not go into detail as you can follow the link to youtube and watch it yourself but I felt such a buzz of excitement watching as these people took on a challenge that most would walk away from, with a dream and a vision and an energy which most people would look at and go "wow they're insane" and at the end of the day they ended up with the most beautiful of homes, fashioned in THEIR way and with THEIR ideas and THEIR hands.

Very very inspiring.

I would so highly recommend that you do go through and watch this; it is 48 minutes of your life that will be well spent which is exceptionally rare for anything you watch on TV really. You may also get to see in someone else just why I'm so excited about this, and why I don't really feel that worried or stressed.

These people have lived this dream and proven what can be achieved and they did not once take a backward step; every problem was over come and every challenge just presented a new opportunity; like the two years they were waiting for planning permission the man just got stuck in with a shovel and moved many many tonnes of rubble out of the castle and in doing so uncovered what would be their kitchen and dining room. With his bare hands.

Excellent.

Watch it!

Family meal and other bits

This weekend has been brilliant.

I have long had a family meal planned at my parents in Birmingham and this weekend this much looked forward to event took place. I went down there on Saturday morning and arrived in time to have a cup of tea, listen to some excellent music on my dads new sound system, and also find out that his pen drive with music on it DOES work in the radio in Thomas (which means he can bring all his music for the drive; this is a good thing).

(L->R) My Dad's sister, her husband, his brother and wife

After this we walked round the corner to the Flame Grill type pub that they had booked us into and as we were walking my Nan was driven past in my Uncle's car and they spotted us walking and stopped for directions. They recognised us because both me and my dad were wearing our hats (it was raining a little bit).

The pub was lovely; quite quiet and when I went up to order drinks it suffered from four beer pumps with zero on (though they kindly attached one and brought my pint over after about fifteen minutes) however this did not detract from the pleasure of catching up with members of my family who I haven't seen for a fair while.

(R->L) My nan, my cousin, her husband

This was my dad's side of the family so there was his sister and her husband, his brother and his wife, and his sister's daughter and HER husband and finally (but most importantly) his mother; my nan.

So we ordered food and I went with the recommendation of my father of a "super size rack of ribs" smothered in BBQ sauce and with onion rings, chips and coleslaw.

My dinner before I started on it....

Wow.

This was really tasty and from what others around the table said in general everyone was happy (apart from my dad who was short changed by one sausage in his order; Gary would NEVER do that, huh).

I was the only alcoholic to double up on his pint however I think this is acceptable as the meal was to celebrate me leaving the country.

After the meal some of us headed back to my parents house and I showed them lots of pictures of the school and the area around it on a huge projector screen; this was such an excellent thing to do as my nan had not seen any pictures at all and the main reason for me wanting this meal was to catch up with her and show her what I was doing. She seemed to really enjoy it and was fascinated by all the plans, and the pictures of the views.

And the remnants post-repast

All in all it was a lovely time and thanks to my aunt for the kind gift of the book to take with me to Bulgaria written by a Bulgarian about Bulgaria. I haven't got the book with me so I can't remember the name of it; I'll look it out for another blog.

The best part was every time my Nan needed to walk anywhere she claimed my left arm and we were able to talk and laugh all the time; it was so lovely :)

Other than this lovely weekend I did a couple of other things. I am pretty sure I understand why the battery kept on going flat; I think it was the fault that was stopping the alternator from charging it. I have worked this out because the battery in Julian was pretty much full still after two weeks of sitting there where before it would have flattened in that time. This is a really good thing.

I've also taken Julian in for his MOT, and asked the garage to source me some more spare wheels for the trailer (thanks to Ken for that advice). My extra 4m long ratchet straps have arrived, as has the heavy duty car jack.

I'm hoping to collect Julian this weekend and stop in Blackpool again to give him a good thorough clean as I have an unexpected free weekend.

Am I finally starting to feel stress?

For the most part, as I build up towards this massive change in my life, I've not really been feeling that concerned.

Stressssss

Mainly this is because I have been really super organised about everything, far more so than I normally am about anything in my life, and so the concerns and fears around "will I be prepared" really have not been relevant nor have they appeared in my head very much (other than those moments in the wee hours of the morning).

Lots of people ask me "aren't you stressed" or "wow you must feel really nervous" and I have to answer in the negative to all these questions as truly I haven't been feeling that at all.

I am sleepy

Today, however, I wonder whether it is finally sinking into my thick skull that yes, something really major is about to occur in my life and maybe it is time for me to react to this. My main reason for thinking about this is I have had a lovely family meal today (blog to follow another day) and have come back to my parents and basically passed out with exhaustion. There is no physical reason for me to be so tired so I am wondering if I am starting to build up that "stress" that everyone has been banging on about for so long.

Looking back over the last couple of weeks I can maybe recognise some other indications; I had a tremendous migraine which flattened me for 36 hours solid (though I do get these) and I also went to bed at 8pm a couple of nights last week and slept right through.

To be honest I'm not too worried about this as I think it would be unusual to not feel any pressure or stress at all about something as dramatic as this. I just find it interesting to try and note down and observe what may be happening.

Three weeks to go and finally it is sinking in.

pahahahaha

This is really happening.

REMOTE WORKING

Very short and very sweet update for today.

As people close to me will know I have been looking for a remote contract for a couple of days a week. My saving has gone well but as always, not quite as well as I hoped and I also want to have something intellectual as a challenge to combine with the physical involved in renovating the property.

DANCING DANCING DANCING CARLTON!

I've talked to a few people and companies about this, and I do have some other options still on the table however I have just signed and returned a contract for a couple of days a week remote working for my current company.

Yes, I'm bringing Carlton out again.

So I'll leave this update here, as I'm busy.

But here's Carlton again!

Everyone join in....

Rambo coming with

It is brilliant just how helpful people are and particularly heartwarming when it is people who you don't actually know in person who provide you with unexpected support.

Puppy Rambo and his handbag

As long-term readers of this blog will know there has been a bit of a saga around whether or not I would be able to take my lovely dog with me. First of all I looked into flying him and the cost was astronomical. Then the thought was that he would be able to come on the drive over and this has bubbled around for quite a while until finally, the weekend before last, it was put to bed as there is really not enough room to give him the space I would need to to be happy with driving him (and this is never mind all the other challenges with having such a large animal with us as we are going across Europe).

Are you gonna throw it, dad?

This left me researching who may be able to keep him for a little while until I may have been able to drive him over in comfort next year (as I am coming back a couple of times potentially in Thomas) however this was a sad decision to have to make.

Rambo on guard duty (watching a pigeon)

This sad decision has now been able to be changed, and changed in the best possible way. A regular reader (who is heading out to Bulgaria two weeks before me; I bet they are SO excited right now!) spotted my decision and mentioned in passing that they knew a person who ran a pet transport between the UK and Bulgaria and charged a very reasonable amount. I was put in touch with this chap and very quickly made my mind up to go for it.

Butter wouldn't melt

So Rambo is booked to leave the country sometime around April 6th and I will pick him up from Smolyan a couple of days later. This means that I have time to fence and prepare the land so he can run as free as possible, and have a little house. It also means that he will be coming over in two days, not seven, and will be with other dogs (I hope) who will give him company.

Happy walking on the sea front

I am really really pleased about this (as you can guess) and am very happy to provide this link to this fantastic company who are very reasonably priced, and friendly to deal with.

Think he'd just woken up

I am sure that Rambo will be super happy in his new home, just like I will be.

That's a HAPPY dog!