Abandoned, upheaval ahead!

I was just getting ready to blog again and catch up with the weeks events when my mam phoned to drop a bombshell. She and my dad have decided to relocate back oooppp north. Gulp .. i've been abandoned. It is all happening in the next 2 months too. Eeekkk, even gulpier! The good news is that the new house is on the sea front, the bad news is that it is a couple of hundred miles away.

It is a strange feeling knowing that mam and dad won't be just around the corner anymore. Even when we leave town for extended periods in the motorhome, their house is still home. Now it won't be ... sob!

Logistically it is now going to be a busy 2 months for us. A lot of our belongings are stored in mam & dad's loft and shed, our vehicles are registered to their address, our washing is done in their laundry room ... wow, it is going to be like moving home ourselves all over again, a huge task ahead. I don't want to think about it tonight, I don't think i'll sleep!

What else do I have to report?

Well, shower's not fixed. We set aside sunday to do it and it hammered it down with rain on a regular basis. Not conducive to having a body half in and half out of the thetford opening trying to dismantle drain hoses. This is now on the urgent list ... our interim shower is also moving north. :(

I know I said it would be fixed at the weekend come rain or shine - well I lied!

We ran out of gas a few days ago, just after the MOT on the motorhome ran out. As we have Gaslow refillable cylinders we have to drive to a pump to refill which is really handy if you are on the road, not so if you van hasn't left the same property in a while and the MOT has expired. It is now booked in for MOT on friday with the gas refill to occur immediately afterwards.

So far we have managed with an electric oven, camping gas burner, deep fat fryer, toaster, electric steamer and disposable bbq's so believe me we haven't starved. It is a good job the shower is not working, no hot water needed there then! We have been boiling the electric kettle to wash up - but we also have a gas one too to use on the camping stove in case of power cuts! Do we sound prepared? ha ha.

Our portable satellite also stopped working at some point about 3 weeks ago. We also have an indoor digital TV ariel so it there was no urgency to get it fixed. (- are you seeing a pattern here?) But with the TV ariel you have to move it around for different channels which really became boring especially if one of the dogs knocked it when you were watching TV. Luckily my brother is an ex satellite engineer and came round to take a look. Turns out the LNB had slipped and was upside down - don't know how that happened. All works now and it was repaired for free too! :)

My London exploring is going well. Last week I walked from Kings Cross to a meeting at Pall Mall and only had 1blister. When will I learn not to wear heels for hiking? I saw lots of places that I had heard of but never seen and am beginning to get a better idea of how London is laid out. I only made one wrong turn on the whole walk and that I only went a couple of minutes past my turning. Christopher Columbus eat your heart out :)

One of the unusual (to me anyway) things I saw was a scientology centre - I didn't know they actually existed. I just thought they were a fad for the rich and famous!

We have spent some more time photographing all our bits and pieces that we have for sale. The motorbike is in one magazine and will be in another this week, the surfboard and psp will hit ebay this week. I suppose there will be lots more on soon when we get in the loft to empty it out. Watch this space.

Finally, we have been spending a bit of time on the computer lately what with looking for a new car and selling what we have. I think Reef got a bit bored!

Been busy .....

I feel quite tired, there has been a lot going on in the last week or so.









Firstly, the hen party in Cambridge. This was great. There was treasure hunt, followed by punting and pimms and then games ... what fun. I didn't stay on for the cocktail/vodka bar as although I would have loved it I didn't fancy travelling home on the train on my own after having a few drinks ... and in a vodka bar with 15 friend there was a sure chance I would have had a few drinks too many, I am so weak! The pictures are the Bridge of Sighs, the river Cam with punts, and our student punter :)












I also went to London again for another meeting. My London navigation above ground it getting better - ya boo sucks to the tube. I have made it walking from Pall Mall, through St James' Park, via Westminster to Millbank where our offices are without getting lost. I even took pictures this time which involved me looking like a complete tourist .... only for you do I make this sacrifice. The wee house surrounded by trees is in the middle of St James Park in London, wouldn't expect it would you?

We are getting on with selling our bits and bobs. So far we have had had a few enquiries about our moped that we have for sale despite not actually having placed an advert for it yet.



I have set up a google picasa albumn for this and our Kawasaki ZX 636 Ninja motorbike which will shortly be advertised. This is my first foray into online photo albums and linking them into blogs so if it doesn't work i'll try harder next time! Please be gentle :)



I think our BMW may actually be sold. We have had an offer that will probably go through at the end of the month. It finally feels like we are getting somewhere.

This afternoon I had to go to the rheumatology clinic at the hospital for continuing investigations into my spasming hand. I got as far as giving a specimen, getting weighed and measured (although I have no idea what this has to do with a suspect trapped nerve) and then found out that the doctor had just nearly feinted and could not see me. Great ... just love wasting time. Suppose it cannot be helped though and I would rather not be couped up in a room with a possible sick man though - he could have been contagious!

I ended up coming home early and relaxing outside. I asked Mr P to help drag a picnic bench through from the picnic area and I sat outside on the lap top, occcasionally throwing the ball for the pooches. I may have partaken in a tipple or too also. The weather is glorious at present, need to make the most of it :)

Birthday boy number 2 and a lazy few days

The end of last week and the beginning of this week were beautiful. Sunny, relaxed and work free for me. Bonus points on every front!

I took part of the week off as my sister in law (who doubles up as our dog sitter as we will not leave the dogs in the van in hot weather) was having work done on her house and didn't fancy the dogs sitting and eyeballing the workmen - as if! As it was so hot Bodie and Reef just didn't want to move anywhere during the day.

Even getting up to drink was an effort. This was good for me, I got to lay in the recliner with my feet up and catch up on some reading ... bliss!

Really I should have been looking at fixing the blooming shower again but the spanish just kept on flooding back as it does quite regularly on hot days ... manana, manana I thought ... as I slathered on more sun cream.

I seem to remember there was one wet day which was just after the grass was cut - happens every single time without fail. Grass gets cut, it rains, grass ends up all over the van. Does anyone else suffer with this or are we just victims? The flippin stuff gets everywhere and the whole episode lasts for a least 2 weeks - by which time the grass needs cutting again. Bummer.

Last sunday, it was Reef's birthday, he was 2. He had an excellent day, walked lots, ate lots (mainly chicken) and took quite a liking to the birthday glasses in which he went exploring. He actually found a cat laying in the long grass and didn't know what to do, i'm not sure who was more shocked, him or the cat. He reverted to type after the cat had moved though and pursued it like a professional. He only wanted to play, not sure the cat saw it like that though. it was probably wondering what the hell type of dog wore glasses.

Just in case you think we routinely humiliate our animals by dressing them up, I would like to assure you we don't, they just wouldn't stand for it and they have a full range of expressions to communicate this - ha ha.

On wednesday it was back to work for me and the start of Mr P's day's off. I had to go to London for a meeting again so I have now decided to treat each trip as a chance to explore - rather than a chore - to see if this affects my willingness to go there. Usually I hit London, jump on the tube and get to the venue as quickly as possible so I never see anything.

This time I decided to walk the length of Oxford Street to see why everyone raves about the shopping there, followed by a walk to the meeting venue. Note to self: don't ever do this in heels again. I was ok, much better than the tube and I did see some great buildings but I didn't want to get the camera out and look like a tourist! ha ha. I did manage one picture of the Mall, that is Buckingham Palace in the distance. It is taken from just behind the meeting venue so I could run and hide afterwards. :)

I'm off to Cambridge tomorrow for a hen do. Treasure hunt, punting, picnic and vodka bar ... sounds like a plan!

Getting happy clappy in London :(

I need to grumble.

I work for a company whose head office is in London. Twice a year they send out an employee survey and then hound you for a couple of months to fill it in. From the last survey they appear to have decided that we are an unsatisfied bunch and have 'invited' (not actually allowed to refuse the invite!) us to participate in a 'team building' exercise. The last one coincided with a change in bonus allocation - no wonder everyone was peeved.

At our Christmas do, a restaurant was hired in London, a seating plan was arranged so that no one actually sat with anyone they knew, liked, or would ever see again (except at enforced do's like this) - just to ensure you felt really comfortable. Nothing like eating a christmas dinner with 9 strangers whilst stone cold sober to start your christmas with a bang.

This new team building exercise involves all the regional staff travelling to a London venue (240 mile round trip from our office) to hang with the London staff, having lunch and then being forced to particpate in tasks for the remainer of the day - it is going to be painful.

When watching the London staff interact with each other it all appears rather 'stepford' ... strained happy faces and an odd sort of desperation in the air. Throw in the regional office staff who are altogether more laid back and completely pissed at having to travel so far for this and it just becomes plain horrendous.

I just can't wait to sing 'kum by ya' around the boardroom table with people I have absolutely no dealings with and who just happen to work for the same company.

To cap it off, today I found out that this part of the event does not finish till 5.30pm - great. Not only am I going against my will, I have to travel during rush hour and won't get home till 7.30pm which is well into my own time as I usually finish work at 4.30pm. If I want to stay for the optional part of the event (bowling) I will be lucky to be home by midnight - woo hoo - not.

Whatever happened to paintballing as a team exercise? At least you got to shoot people you didn't like.