Holiday at Last

 At long last its holiday time again.  It seems ages since our last one but it doesn't mean that we haven't been doing things.  We had a nice weekend over at the caravan with Ian and Sue one weekend and it stayed fairly dry for a BBQ.

 Sue said that when she went into the shed to put the washing on a wasp went in her hair but both Ian and Claire were too frightened to investigate so I had to leave the BBQ.

The Queen was still in it laying eggs when I knocked it off the inside of the roof but it landed on the hole so it couldn't get out.  Boy, it was cross and chased Ian and myself once it did get out.

I have been stocking up on spirits so we can make cocktails at the caravans.  Trouble is you get quite pissed before you even go out.

We had tickets for a tribute band, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner and Cher were on.

Sorry, did I say Cher?  I meant Claire.

One or two cocktails and she’s anybodies.  Even Rod Stewart can take her away from me.  There was no stopping Claire that night, trouble is now she’s seen the photos she wont want to go back to the club again.  Anyway I hope she does as we had a brilliant night.

 By the way, those photo’s weren't “Photoshopped”, they are real.  The Open University have finally persuaded me to take my degree ceremony this year and have been sending me post grad information, including an MSc at Cranfield University so I went to the Open day.

On the tour, they showed us that they have several jet engines.

Including the Jump Jet engine.

And the very first Jet engine ever built by Frank Whittle.

We also had the two groups of Morris dancers at the Nags Head again during our usual Wednesday night out.

Once they have finished dancing around outside, they all come in and play their musical instruments.  It always makes for a good night.

Sue did another charity event, this time at Stony Stratford for Marie Currie and Alzheimer's.  If you make at least £700 the government donate another £700 but they hoped to make at least double that so they could donate to two charities.

We had a raffle and of course Claire won a bottle of red wine.

It was actually a music festival and our friend Pat arranged all the musicians.  They could have recorded it for the BBC as it was fabulous.

My personal favourite, was the blind guy while a lady kept pulling faces at him.

He couldn’t work out why he kept getting a laugh.  This is a later band with Claire and Pat dancing.

Its a shame we couldn't have stayed for the evening music, but a certain couple couldn't stay the course.

I spotted this rotating glass summer house in John Lewis and it reminded me of uncle Willie’s home made one so couldn't resist taking a picture.  I think I prefer uncle Willies best.

I came home from work one night and spotted a spiders nest in a web up our stairs.  It consisted of hundreds of tiny spiders in a huddle.  The top 50 or so kept pulsing out from the rest and going back again.  I kept my eye on them over the next couple of days but they all disappeared after that really bad hail storm.

I went over to Loughborough to stop with Steve and go out with Melv and Steve’s son Ben.  Steve has bough a 3 bed detached house to renovate.  I really like it.

Its on a corner and has a huge back garden and a conservatory.  There is only one house within 50 yards or so.

Steve has been busy knocking walls down and filling other ones in.  Trouble is every wall in the palace is made from breeze blocks even the upstairs ones.

Just though I would catch you up with what has happened before we take Mum away next Sunday to Majorca for five days all inclusive.  Hope you can keep up with us Mum!  I will show you some more pictures when we get there.

A fairly quiet May

I have been reluctant to post a blog which is really not like me, but to be honest, we haven’t really been up to much so there hasn’t been much to blog about.  We rather wasted the las yt bank holiday weekend, there was talk about going to the caravan and I did suggest going to mum’s to do some jobs but it just didn’t happen.  Instead we stayed in the flat and watched a million episodes of Desperate Housewives.  We did get up off the sofa on the Sunday and walked to the city centre to have lunch at Waggamamas.  The walk took an hour each way and it was just nice to be out in the fresh air.

Harriet flew to Greece with some girlfriends a week last Tuesday.  I went over to her flat on the Wednesday to wait for the surveyor because Billy was on an early shift.  Our time slot was 9 until 1 pm.  I took my cleaning gear and managed to clean the flat plus weed the front garden before the surveyor eventually turned up at half eleven.  It seemed to go okay but we haven’t heard anything. 

I went to the fracture clinic at the hospital on the Thursday.  I had to wait an hour in a very packed clinic.  I eventually got to see the doctor who made me do a few exercises with my hand and then signed me off.  My hand is still a bit stiff but it’s much better than it was a few weeks ago.

On the Friday I went to Melton to see mum.  I was a little late leaving and didn’t get to Melton until half nine.  My job of the day was to paint the passageway in-between the kitchen and the garage.  It was a brush job and I was a little apprehensive with my hand but actually it was fine and it only took me half an hour.  We went to Morrisons for shopping and then had lunch and I drove the back way and met Phil at the caravan.  Phil had been busy; he’d made home made burgers and marinaded chicken ready for a BBQ.

Sue and Ian arrived at the caravan a little before 6pm, they had travelled from Southampton and the traffic was bad.  It wasn’t brilliant sunshine but we did manage to eat outside under the gazebo.  After dinner we went to the club house as we had tickets for a Rod Steward / Tina Turner tribute band.  They were good and it was a fun evening.  Just too much vino and a very late night.  Phil did sausages on the Barbie for breakfast.  Later in the afternoon we had a drive to the viaduct and stopped off at a country pub for a drink.  We had another BBQ for dinner and afterwards went to the clubhouse, but not for long, I think everyone was knackered from the night before.  We all packed up on the Sunday morning and then headed for home as Phil wanted to get back for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Phil was back to work last Tuesday (thank goodness).  It gave me a chance to catch up with housework, paperwork, washing and ironing which for some reason I can never do when Phil is home.  On Wednesday evening Sue drove and we met up with Jan at the Yam Tong at Great Holm.  The restaurant was packed out.   I wasn’t impressed with the service which I thought was rude and abrupt; the food was okay, although they got Jan’s food order wrong.

The weekend just gone was quite busy; Mike came round and we got a taxi over to York House in Stony Stratford for Yorkiefest where Sue and Ian were volunteering.  Yorkiefest is a musical festival in aid of Marie Curie and Alzheimer’s Association.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but it turned out quite good.  There was a bar and a barbeque, I hadn’t been before, we got there at 1pm and left at half eight. 

Yesterday we went to Melton to see mum.  We left at quarter past eight, the M1 was quiet and we got to Melton for half nine.  Mum was flustered when we got there; she was cooking a roast dinner and had invited Una, her friend as an afterthought.  She was worried that the joint wasn’t big enough and that she didn’t have enough veg but of course there was plenty to go round.  I had borrowed Sue’s new power jet washer to see if I could put right the blocked paving that the gypsies messed up.  I gave it my best shot but unfortunately it didn’t even touch it.  Mum had a whole list of jobs for Phil to do which he finished by lunchtime.  Lunch was nice although I’m not too sure I really fancied a full roast dinner on such a hot day.  After lunch we had tea in the conservatory and got back to MK just after 4pm.

I need to get focused this week, I have a whole list of things to do but really the priority this week has to be Harriet’s move.  As soon as 9 o clock comes, I need to phone the conveyancer to see whether exchange and completion will happen this week.  Personally I don’t think it is going to happen and in one way I am hoping that it doesn’t because it gives us the whole of next weekend to help Harriet and Billy move.   Harriet and Billy have nowhere to go to but Billy’s parents have freed up their dining room so officially they are not homeless.  It’s not ideal but we are taking mum away on the 1^st of June for 4 nights so Harriet can stay at the our flat.  She and Billy fly to Mexico on the 5^th of June for 2 weeks and then when they come back, we go away for 11 nights to again they can stay at the flat.  I have a feeling that it’s going to be a busy few weeks. 

Phil's First Quarter

I found these old pictures of our caravan site online.  Its just about time for our caravan season to get started.  We have had an incredibly mild winter; I only had to scrape the car windscreen once all winter.

The first flowers came up at the end of February and the blossoms and wasps at the end of April.  I cant remember having wasps this early on before as they normally arrive in July to August time.  Maybe we will get two crops of them this year?

We all know how much Claire loves wasps.  She first told me that she had seen lots of wasps coming and going into our shed in the garden so I investigated to find the start of a nest.  Nest removed and shed sprayed, Claire could go back into the shed again.  This was handy because we have been clearing all our stuff from Harriets attic ready for her move.

Oh, here is one from work in my “One size fits all” overall.  Good job Im a standard size!  I started back at Rexam last July so its not that far off a year now.  However, the work just dried up so I have a couple of weeks off.  They are expecting another big chunk upon my return.  The GVCat which I was first brought back to Rexam to sort out has been sorted but nobody seems interested any more.  Im just putting the final touches back to it so it can be used again.

I took this photo in pencil drawing mode, its a partial view of my desk.  I don't normally have to wear an overall but its nice now and then to get your hands dirty.  As you can see, I have a nice tidy desk.  Do you remember the saying, “A tidy desk, a tidy mind”?  Well I could make another one up about an empty desk!

I joined the "British Library" recently.  It is one of the few places that has the entire countries Birth, Death and Marriage records.  They also have a great collection of books.  I know that when I joined the Open University Library, I said that I could spend the rest of my life working my way through the books that they have their but Im already struggling to find new ones that I want to read.  It doesn't help that the OU haven't replenished their collection this Millennium.  If you are studying science, in particular Biology, an awful lot has happened in the last 15 years.  In fact most of the books at the OU library are from the 70’s and 80’s when it first opened.

Claire and I finally got around to renewing our Wills recently too.  Claire found an advert for free reciprocal Wills at “The Will Writing Company, near the i-centre, just past the new concrete cows.  Have you seen the new concrete cows in Newport opposite the rubbish tip?  Claire didn’t like the fellow that runs it but I quite liked him, he was certainly unusual.  You can meet normal people your entire life, but I have always been attracted to weird people and he certainly qualified.  He had a glass eye, a parrot and Tourette's.  He was about 48, wore a flash suit and almost had a Mohican hairstyle.  “Bollocks”!

Claire’s sister Julia came to stay for the night (on the settee) so Harriet popped in to say hello after work.  The photo’s seem to have gotten out of date order because this is when Claire broke her finger in two paces but the picture doesn't follow.

We also had a few parties all at once, like consecutively.  First it was Cameron’s Birthday; sorry we didn't get a bigger cake.

Then it was Pat’s first ever Birthday party.  I had to choose my photos carefully for this one, as most of them looked like scenes from, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

Claire had the first dance.

And Sue and Claire had the last.

And the second to last.

It was also time for my annual cancer check up.  Good news, i got the all clear again and the consultant said that if I have similar tests next year I wont have to see him any more and will be in the clear.

Ah, theres the photo, it turned up at last.  Claire broke her knuckle and a bone in her finger above her top knuckle.  They should have plastered it because Claire cant stop wiggling it around and it takes ages for bone to heal.

Here is the next party, it was Ed’s 30th.  Here is his Mum Maddy dancing to the Michael Bubble lookalike band.

Here is one of Ed dancing with his wife.  this party went wrong later on after Ed accused an old family friend of having an affair with his Mum and then physically threw him out.  We were fighting for taxis at the end.

Our next party was for Caroline’s 65th.  Here she is with her son and grandson.  They are moving house so this was the last party at their old house.

Claire and Sue were the first to dance again.  This party also went wrong at the end when Sue got a phone call in the taxi outside her house to say that Claire had taken someone else's coat with their keys in.  They had to turn the taxi around, drive back to ours to get the coat, then drive back to the party to swap it and drive all the way back to Newport again from Shenley.  £40 later her and Ian were home.  Claire and I had long been asleep.

Having had enough of parties, we went out with Jim and Shirley, harriet and Billy for Sunday lunch back at our old haunt, the Ship Ashore.  We stopped going there when they announced that they would only have one barman and not serve drinks at the dinning tables so you spent half your time in a queue.  It hasn't changed!

This rule was originally meant for weekdays but it has been so successful, they have extended it to the weekend.  We wont be going back.  The food has also gone down hill and the prices up.

Harriet and Billy have sold their place and have been looking for a house to buy together.  They put an offer in for an old house in Newport that had been renovated but dropped out when they saw the survey.  The garden needed some work anyway, but was a nice big one.

Although the guest room was a little small.  The buyers of their flat will be homeless by the 21st May but have been held up massively by the shareholder Guinness who are dragging their heels like you couldn't believe.  Its almost criminal what they can get away with.  Anyway, if they are homeless they always have the caravan and its the right time of year for it.  This Friday we have tickets for a tribute band doing Rod Stewart and Tina Turner - cant wait.

Sorry I have not been blogging much lately but we had quite a few mini breaks earlier in the year which I haven't covered again and next month we are on our cruise with Sue and Ian around the Med starting and finishing in Venice.  We then have to wait for our week in Sharm in October.  Unless I can spot a bargain in the mean time.  Claire will keep you up to date but I will put the photos on that she misses later.