Weather

Has anyone had a look at the local 7-day weather forecast; there is a link to it from my blog? It looks absolutely charming - NOT!

Rain every single day for the next 7 days and only God knows how many thereafter. The only consolation is that it will remain fairly mild. No frosted up windscreens in the morning.

The funny thing is; I would rather have the frost and the snow than this miserable drizzle we constantly have here.

Twenty-nine days to Christmas

Can anybody believe it? I really haven't got in the right mood to think about Christmas yet. This year has flown by so quick that I can't keep up with it.

Since I'm currently having problems at home, as yet I haven't bought a single present or wrote any cards yet. I suppose I should find the time and motivation to get cracking with that.

I do feel ready for the Christmas break itself. Just to have a week or so off without a clock going off sounds quite blissful. No doubt that will fly by too and then i have no more holidays left until April.

EURO 2008

Well, it has taken me this time to recover from Wednesday's disaster. The Euro qualifying match between England and Croatia which ended up 2-3 and means that we did not qualify for the Euro next year.

Having eventually got over the disappointment, I have been thinking about all the spare time that millions of Britons will now have not having to spend weeks glued to the box. I have decided that I'm going to use that time being outside as much as the weather permits. In the long run, it will probably be better for me.

It still sad though :-(

Refurbishment

Thought it was time to refurbish my blog space, hope you like it

Wish I could do the same at home but everything is so upside down so I don't know where to start. At the moment both the winter clothes and the summer clothes are needed so neither of them can go up the loft and of course there is no room for them to be be put away anywhere else either.

It doesn't help that due to the mild weather, the grass is still growing; making the garden look untidy. Not to mention all the leaves lying around and the dirty, murky water in the pond. At the moment nothing can be done about the garden as the weather fluctuates between awful and just bad. The only thing we have to look forward to in that department is that it can only get worse. Great! No wonder I feel like I might be suffering from the winter blues. :-(

THAT time of the year again

Yes, Christmas is only fifty days away and judging by the rate that this year has sped past so far; those fifty days will go quicker than ever this year.

The horrible thought is that there are only two Pay days left before Christmas, so it is time to think about what to do about presents, etc

For the first time for a long time, I am going away for Christmas. I shall be staying in a cottage in the Peak District for a whole week and still be back for New Year.

It would be nice to hear what your plans are and if you have a wish list for presents. Let me know, thanks

Freak Weather!

Good grief, I was just coming to terms with the fact that we were going into autumn and then what happens? This morning there was a thick frost and fog which of course brought on the "weather related" hold-ups that you get on the roads. Forty minutes to do a 12 minute trip. Great, isn't it? I think 2007 is going to be remembered in history for the freak weather conditions.

Well, what do you think? After the disasterous results last night (Russia 2 - England 1), England football team may not be going to Euro 2008 after all. Apparently everyone else in our group has to do badly for us to scrape through. Thank goodness we still got the Rugby to look forward to.

We are in the World Cup Final, AGAIN!!!

Have you been watching the rugby world cup? Then you probably know that we managed to scrape through (somehow) and win the semi-final over the host country France.

Saturday's final is between us and South Africa but last time they beat us with something like 36-0 so we are still a long way away from winning the cup.

If by some miracle we do win; it would be a record breaking event as nobody has ever won the Rugby World Cup in two consequetive tournaments and (for those who might not know) we won it last time, in 2003.

I didn't see us winning it in 2003 but ofcourse I did hear a lot about it. Being more of a soccer fan; I never used to watch Rugby, but since I met my new friend, Helen, I have been watching every match.

What an exiciting day it will be on Saturday. Not only is it the England v RSA final but also it is a big derby match in football between Liverpool and Everton. Yes, come on you toffees!

Cat Sitting

This week I have been Cat sitting for Sioned and Anna whilst they are sunnying in Spain. They have two striped cats; Jake who is 4 and Dizzy who is 10 months.

Last night I got in from work and the cats were waiting for me as usual but little Dizzy had lost her collar. I fed her and she greedily finished the lot. A few minutes later Jake wanted to come in so I put "Dizzy" in the lounge and shut the door so that she wouldn't escape back out again.

I let Jake in and started to feed him, when I noticed in the corner of my eye that Dizzy also was hovering around. At first I was amazed that she had managed to escape out of the lounge but then I noticed that her collar was back on.

Yes, you guessed it! I had only gone and fed the wrong cat, Ooops!

Torquay

Wow, what a great time I had. The travel down was quick and troublefree. The weather was good for the time of year and got better as the week went on. The apartment was great; very clean and roomy and the was company was fantastic.

On Friday night we went for a fantastic meal at a fish restaurant. On Sunday we went to the local pub and bought a lottery ticket which won us a try in "play your cards right" game. I was lucky and got further than anyone else so I won £50 in vouchers to use either in the pub or in a couple of restaurants.

On Wednesday night we went for a meal in "Ella" and it was perfect. For starters I had a prawn cocktail, followed by a blue steak with salad and it was absolutely scrumptious. For dessert I had a banoffee cheescake with devonshire clotted cream. I really did feel like a cat that night, miouw.

The next day we went back again and had a cream tea in the afternoon followed by a few drinks and then we saw someone else eating scampi and decided that we wanted that too. Yet again it was delicious.

We did get the time to do some sight seeing as well and on the way back we stopped at Bristol and walked along the famous suspension bridge at Clifton.

It was very sad to come home, especially as it was the last holiday this season, sniff.

Last holiday this year, What happened to summer?

Well, it's nearly October and tomorrow I'm going on the last holiday this year. We have been deceived yet again as, the so called heatvawe never arrived. This has got to have been the worst 'summer' for a long time.

This week in particular, it has been very cold and last night it was almost frost. And the say we are suffering from global warming!!!

I feel a little guilty going away for a week as the office is inundated with work. We have an awful lot of new developments and voids at this moment and there is as much overtime available as anyone would want.

Anyway, I can't wait. I have never been to Torquay before so it will be nice regardless of the weather. Speak to you again in the middle of next month. Cherio.

Is this the end of summer?

Blackpool was fantastic as ever. We bought a fcouple of five-day tram tickets, so there was very little driving. We went all over the place on the trams and buses instead.

On the friday when the illuminations were due to start; there was a huge open air consert. David Tennent and the Daleks from Doctor Who lit the illuminations. It was a fabulous night.

Ever since we got back the weather has been going downbank. At one time we were promised that we were having a heatwave this month but so far there has been no sign of it. This week I had to put the heating back on (just for mornings) and that is disappointing for this time of year.

Trailer

Aren't we the luckiest people around? Over the years our demand for luxury camping has vastly increased the amount of camping accessories we take with us when we go away. It has got to the point where Chris' car is fully loaded inside, on the boot rack and also high on top of the roof rack and still we struggle.

Last month he had a towbar fitted and the intention was to get a trailer to make it easier to pack the heaviest of stuff. However, this isn't the ideal time of the year to buy a trailer as obviously now is the time that everyone wants one.

I really didn't want to go to Blackpool for the week without a trailer now that we got the facility tow one. Luckily Dave from work said we could borrow his trailer for this time and then get one before easter next year. That way we have all winter to buy one at the right price.

Dave didn't manage to get his trailer out of the garage but he asked his brother on our behalf to lend us his trailer which we picked up last weekend. It's not quite as big as the one we were planning to buy but it's ideal for trying out the towbar and electrics and ofcourse towing itself which Chris has never done yet.

We have got as far as buying a number plate for our own trailer so Chris has fastened that on to the borrowed trailer and is currently in progress of loading it up ready for Blackpool tomorrow.

Gosh it seems a long time since we went camping in June so it will be so nice to go away for over a week and in Blackpool of all places. The illuminations start on Friday so we will get the chance to see them as well as doing the usual things that we like about Britain's most popular seaside resort.

Exam Results returned.

I forgot to mention that on Friday when I returned from work there was this nice, big, long avaited for envelope with the words "DO NOT BEND" written accross the top left on the coffee table. This time Chris didn't bother to tell me that the exam results had arrived just in case something went wrong again. But ye, I did pass it for sure and now it's just a case of waiting for the results from the assignments to see if I have passed the NVQ.

Fish update

This morning there was yet another dead koi in the tank. This time it was Ghost who managed to survive the finrot so we have already had it for a while. For no apparent reason they keep dying so I thought that maybe they should not be in a tank all-be-it a large one. Because of this I decided to take out Bluey the remaining koi out of the tank and put him in the pond. I know that he is likely to get eaten by the pond fish but bearing in mind the survival rate in the tank; he would have slightly better chance in there. There are lots of nooks and crannies that he could hide in away from big teeth but it was possibly the last time we saw him.

Poor Fish

It has now gone a week since we bought the little baby koi. Sadly, Tango and Custard dind't make it. I couldn't actually see anything wrong with them but they still died. Tango went first and it made feel sad because it seemed a bit bigger than the others so I assumed it was quite strong, then a couple of days later Custard died too and since then I barely dare to look in the tank in case there are more. I am dreading getting fin rot again and lose them all. However, this morning, Bluey seemed fine. Fingers crossed that he makes it.

Portable Appliance Testing

I have been let out of the office, again. It is time for the annual PAT, which means I am to go around with an electrician to every property whilst he tests all the appliances. Some people think it's boring, but I love it, especially on a day like this. It is a fantastic summer's day again. Not too hot but very pleasant. All the tenants feel well so they are in a good mood, which makes the job easier. Three weeks of this I have ahead of me; lets hope the weather holds.

Long weekend cancelled!

Well, I'we just had an extra long weekend as I had Friday off as well as today. The plan was to go camping in Cheshire. The site was booked and everything but on Thursday morning we had some (fairly torrential) rain and the forecast wasn't good for the rest of the weekend. Chris got chickened out and decided that he didn't want to go, so that meant I couldn't either. The big tent is impossible to put up single-handedly.

The worst of it is, ever since Thursday afternoon the weather has been glorious. It has been a bit breezy but lovely, warm and sunny. perfect camping weather. Mrs Jarman, from the campsite, rang up on Saturday to find out why we hadn't turned up and I had to apologise on Chris' behalf. He claimed he couldn't ring and cancel the booking because he couldn't find the "big book" but when I looked, it was in the wooden box where it is supposed to be. Needless to say that someone was in the doghouse!

Anyway, the weekend didn't turn out to be too bad. We managed to get quite a few jobs out of the way and yesterday we went to Stapley and got a 3 more baby kois for the fish tank. They were named Tango, Bluey and Custard. Can anybody guess the colours??!

Fantastic news; it passed!

Yes, I did get the full traffic lights of forms but in the end; it was the green one that conts. The red one was only for the leaking CV boot, which I knew about from the summer health check. I had already bought a replacement which they fitted for me.

The amber form was for an oli leak from the filter. The mechanic said that it might only be what Chris didn't wipe off when he changed the oil and filter last weekend. We checked the oil and it hasn't gone down any and there is no evidence of any leaks neither on the drive nor at my parking space at work.

I feel a lot better about my trusty ol'Jap after all.

more Car problems!

Yesterday morning, just after seven, I got a text from Chris asking me to put his car on charge, using the camping lead. That sounded ominous as my car was parked behind it on the drive. I rushed up to have a look from the window. No his car wasn't on the drive but half-way up the street.

It appeared that he couldn't get it to start so he pushed it in order to jump start it but still no avail. Must have just dumped it there and taken the bike instead.

Muggins got the job of first searching through all the camping stuff to find the lead only to find it wasn't long enough. I started to push the car back towards the house with immense difficulty but one of our neighbours drove past and stopped to help me.

Eventually we got it close enough for the lead to reach the battery charger. By now the car was partly across the road as the back wheel had touched the kerb and refused to line up any better.

As you can imagine, by now I was fuming with the blooming thing. I had to go work so I left the keys with another neighbour who said he would push it into the drive later. That was very good of him. I am definitely ready to get shut of that thing now. No wonder I have always hated old bangers and this one doesn't behave any better.

Can't wait to see how mine will behave on Saturday; fingers crossed!

Cars

On Saturday we took both the cars in for a "Free summer health check". A year has passed by since my disastrous MOT last year, so I thought it might be a good idea to take advantage of this offer. We had to buy the local newspaper to collect tokens to get it and booked them in.

Whilst the cars were at the garage we walked around the surrounding are and came across a lovely Chinese supermarket which we didn't know existed. They sold all sorts of oriental food and a lot of stuff we had never seen before but it all looked very interesting. We bought a few bits and pieces but will definitely going back to buy more soon.

Went to collect the cars an hour later and got the verdicts. Mine has a CV boot leaking and needed an engine flush and oil + filter change.

Chris' car had all sorts of things wrong with it and at the bottom of the sheet of paper the mechanic had written "I think the driver of this vehicle should consider having it towed away". He had to sign a disclaimer form to be allowed to bring it home.

We proceeded to go to a different garage to book mine in for the MOT for next Saturday and ask them to fit the CV boot. Chris did the engine flush and changed the oil and filter himself despite of the horrible weather. I am now hoping that the car should be OK and I will get my green form.

Sunday afternoon we went to look at vans as one would be more useful and Chris' car is not worth spending any more money on. His nephew, who is a a mechanic, thinks that he ought to sell it whilst there is still some MOT left on it and use the money towards the deposit on a van.

There aren't that many places locally that sells vans but we came across some Vauxhall Combo diesels which we think would be just about perfect but Chris wasn't ready to commit himself yet.