No sooner had we published the February blog we were contacted by Carl who is going to do the serious structural work.  We can start next Monday!!!  Yes, oh yes, that’s serious progress at last.  We were excited and apprehensive as this was the start of living in a construction site with all the dust, noise and mess that goes with it.  Still, it’ll only be for a short while we thought………

You will all know by now why we thought wrong, and we won’t dwell on it here.  Suffice to say that we hope you are all keeping well and safe during these exceptional times.  Maybe some non Covid news will be a welcome escape.  Read on to see what we got up to in the most  extraordinary month we have experienced.

Before we could get the walls down we had to get the major plumbing work finished.  Matt arrived and swiftly removed the old boiler and that meant no heating and hot water for a week while the new boiler and radiators were fitted.  Of course we chose a really chilly week but managed well with the log burner in the study.  Our new boiler aka ‘big boy’ is great and the house is significantly warmer where the newer bigger radiators have been fitted.  We’re still a few short as these can’t be hung until the wall reconstruction is done.  Matt worked so hard and found the existing plumbing in the house something of a challenge.  Cheryl escaped to the Gym and after almost a week without a boiler Neil stayed in the shower for days! 

The garden is bursting into life and so is Phileas.  We spotted a hen perched on the fence and soon saw Phileas trying his best to impress her strutting his stuff and doing his sexy dance but unfortunately we don’t think he was successful as she hasn’t been seen since. 

The first weekend of March brings a major event to Seaton.  It’s Grizzly by name and Grizzly by nature. The 20 mile Grizzly and the 9 mile Cub races present tough challenges over a multi-terrain route including bogs, streams, pebble beaches, clifftops and ascents/descents up/down steep hills.  We took part in the fundraising quiz at the Gateway on the Friday, and our team won – yay! We’re not quite up to taking part but did our bit to support the runners by watching and cheering the start and finish on the esplanade.  Sadly, but not surprisingly, there were a number of casualties as the weather both before and during was horrid.

Progress at last

It didn’t take long to prepare for the builders.  We quickly moved what was left of the kitchen into the study, along with a small table & chairs and sofa.  It was a little cramped but a lot more space than we used to have in the caravan.  All furniture, apart from the sofas, was cleared from the living room and the carpet was carefully peeled back and placed over the top to cover them up.  The dining room was also cleared just leaving the glass top tables stacked in the corner.  Not having very much in the way of furniture and the usual household clutter was turning out to be a real bonus.

We were under no illusion about the potential dust & mess but the wonderful crew who arrived were incredibly conscientious about keeping the mess and noise to a minimum.  They put up plastic sheeting and gaffer taped the door frames leading to the hallway which was really effective.  The last day included the final removal of walls for double doors into the hallway so on that day we found ourselves sealed in with a taped door for a few hours.  We had one mishap when the guys sliced through a pipe hidden in the wall and our walls turned out to be a little more complicated than they had thought so the 3 to 4 day job turned into 6 and straddled a weekend.  We got used to living in our one room during the day with a good long walk along the beach to keep us from going stir crazy.  Looking back, it was good training for what was going to come.

Neil’s sister June and husband Roy had planned a visit to us for the weekend of 21^st March and we had booked tickets for a 60s & 70s band, The Zoots, at the Gateway.  The building work was starting to overrun and with no kitchen and the extent of the mess and dust we were starting to have second thoughts as to whether we should postpone.  People were starting to talk about what was happening in Italy and Spain and the news was filling up with cases of Corona Virus in the UK.  Normal life was still continuing and Cheryl met up with Diane for a film & picnic night at the Gateway to watch The Personal Life of David Copperfield on Friday 14^th March.  On Monday 16^th Boris Johnson advised against non-essential travel and suggested people should not go to pubs, theatres and restaurants.  There was also a suggestion that those over 70 would be asked to stay at home.

The builders finished work on Tuesday 17^th and we finally could see the full extent of the destruction.  The result was worth the dust and mess.  The space has been opened up, the light level in the kitchen has vastly improved and we can see the beautiful garden from every angle.  Wow – it’s still a long, long way from being finished with exposed brick and broken plaster and cables hanging out of the walls but to us it looked wonderful and we were so excited to get things started.

Next day the scaffold for fixing the leaky chimneys arrived and we soon had two large erections either side of the house (oooer missus!). 

To make the most of the cost of the scaffolding, which stays in place for a minimum of 4 weeks, we got a quote to drop a flue lining into the living room chimney for a log burner (to be installed next year) and to put in a flue for the existing burner in the study.   Ah, nearly forgot that the original fireplace had been bricked up and diverted when the previous owners shifted it. Just managed to get another builder lined up to deal with it and went ahead with the deposit for the flues so they could start work two weeks into the scaffold hire.  First of all the chimneys had to be cleaned, repointed and painted with ‘Storm Dry’ a freakishly expensive waterproof coating used on lighthouses and guaranteed for 25 years.  Work on that was starting on Monday 23^rd March.   Everything was starting to come together at a really good pace.

Wednesday 18^th March and the Gateway announced that the events planned for the weekend had been postponed.  We had a phone call with June & Roy and decided that we should postpone their visit until later in the year.  We realise now that was definitely the right thing to do.

Friday 20^th March Jules from Howdens came round to check measure the kitchen following the work to remove the dividing wall and lose the arch wall.  We talked about putting in some display units either side of the dining room double doors and checked lengths of worktop & upstand as these were being ordered from a separate source.  Just needed the kitchen fitter to confirm the depths required and all that could be ordered with a lead time of 10-14 days.  That left getting the walls finished off and we were good to go.

At 5pm that same day Boris Johnson ordered all bars and restaurants to close at midnight. Things were beginning to change but the enormity of what we were facing was still not sinking in.

First thing Monday morning Dacks & Sons turned up to start work on the chimneys and we tackled stripping wallpaper from what remained of the kitchen walls to get the finishing off underway.  The worktop order was placed and we thought about getting the Howdens order set up but decided to wait for the revised quote to include the additional units.

Monday 23^rd March at 8pm normal life in the UK came to an abrupt halt

Our house is in a mess but it doesn’t matter.  We were getting close to having a proper kitchen but that’s not going to happen in the foreseeable future.  The worktop factory has closed and Howdens has shut down.  However, we had the oven & hob delivered.  The chippy started work on constructing door frames and the electrician also arrived to do the first fix.  The builder lined up to remove the bricks from the fireplace called off.  The chimney repair is on hold as the company has decided to stop work.  The scaffold firm have suspended all work and have assured us the scaffold will stay in place as long as we need to complete the work.  We had just paid £1000 deposit for the chimney flues and were amazed when the stove company returned it immediately. We also think we are probably the last people in the country to have our phone line reactivated so we now have broadband which we think we are really going to need in the coming months.

The first week has been interesting.  It’s funny how you get used to things after a while.  The first days of not being able to go out unless it’s for food or exercise felt really strange.  People are getting better at social distancing and Tesco’s has calmed down a little.  We may moan about the hold up to our renovations but we are well aware that we are truly fortunate.  We are so lucky to live in a beautiful part of the country in a small town beside the sea.  We have plenty of space in our house, garden and in the town, especially the glorious expanse of beach and sea.  On top of that the sun has been shining for almost a week non-stop.  We realise life has not been easy for a lot of people and have nothing but admiration for all those working in the NHS and all key workers who are keeping things going for all of us.

Well what a month this has been.  We were really excited about posting this blog two weeks ago as we wanted to share the progress on the house.  Now as we write it all seems so unimportant and trivial in the midst of what we face now.  That said, we have seen a number of positives emerge as people seem to be communicating from afar with more frequency than before.

To cap it all Gary at The Hat is doing his best to stay afloat.  He’s offering a home delivery service of his finest beers and ciders.  Needless to say we are going to do our best to help him stay in business and to be there for us when this whole mess is finished.  We also vowed to have 2 takeaways a week to help the restaurants to get over the crisis.  Many started to offer but new restrictions and regulations mean that there are only one or two offering home delivery. 

So, the world is totally stuffed, we’re living in a building site and it’s all going to get worse before it gets better.  However, we’re counting our blessings.  So far our family is fit and well, we have a large beautiful house to live in, the garden is blossoming, our friends stuck overseas are so far OK, we’re not self-isolating in a tiny rented flat in a big city and this morning we noticed that Phileas had a new girl-friend. 

Life goes on – just not as we know it!  Stay safe.

Do any of you remember Saturday Night at The London Palladium?  They nearly always had a variety act who would impress the audience by keeping multiple plates spinning on cane sticks.  The more plates he could spin before they fell off the more the audience clapped.  Well, that’s how we feel, spinning plates replaced by managing plasterers, plumbers, builders, sparkies, chippys etc etc etc…..phew!

Talking of variety acts, we went to the Cinderella Panto in Seaton…..oh yes we did!  It was a delightful evening and featured all the things you expect – ugly sisters to boo and hiss at, obviously two men in drag, cheesy slapstick routines, lots of kids singing and dancing and some great performances from the enthusiastic local cast.  The show was hardly likely to make The West End but it was great to see average looking people, in all sorts of shapes and sizes plus lots of small children strutting their stuff.  To be fair, one or two were pretty damned good.

We also went up to Gloucester to have a lunch with Neil’s siblings.  As it was about 2hrs drive we multi tasked and hired a van so we could swing by Bradley Stoke and collect the remaining bits of furniture cleared out from Cheryl’s house and flat.  It was a long day but lovely to see June, Roy, Bill, Sue and Bob.  The M5 was kind to us and we managed to get back in time to unload the van and return it that afternoon.

We also had a visit from Leanne and ‘middle aged’ Neil.  Yup, they have a new friend who is now ‘young Neil’ meaning that Leanne’s Neil has been elevated to ‘middle aged Neil’. We knew they were arriving late on the Friday evening, which was the same day as our trip to Gloucester.  We started to worry when it got much later and they didn’t arrive. 

Oops! We had the phones switched to silent night time mode and managed not to hear them knocking at the front door.  They had instructions to let themselves in just in case we were late back from getting the furniture and found the key from the key box but couldn’t get it in the back door as our key was in from the other side.  When we finally thought about checking for messages we found they had gone to find a pub to wait in until we got back.  At least they did us a favour as the pub they found turned out to be a bit of a dud and saves us the bother of checking it out.

It was great to see them and to show them the ‘before’ house as well as some of our plans.  We also had a lovely night out starting with a drink in the Hat and followed by excellent tapas in The Wild Caper.

Phileas is still a regular visitor to the garden. There was quite a racket one day and we watched a turf war going on……luckily Phileas won! ……well we think it was Phileas as it’s quite difficult to tell them apart.

Getting plastered

Our bedroom had an unusual feature of narrow shelves hidden behind ‘secret’ doors which had been covered with wallpaper.  This explained why the previous occupants had placed two enormous wardrobes slap bang in the middle of the wall.  Regular readers will remember this was where we were left with wallpaper hanging off when they took the wardrobes away.

We thought about exposing the shelves and decided to strip off all the damaged wallpaper to see how we could make a feature of them.  We then discovered the house originally had picture rails which sadly were all stripped out.  The plaster on the wall wasn’t in great condition and we finally decided that the size and position of the alcoves was making it impossible to have a sensible layout of bedroom furniture.  They had to go, and we needed a plasterer to cover them up and re-plaster the wall. 

Quite some time passed with several attempts to get plasterers to turn up and quote.  In desperation we searched again and found Pawel the Plasterer who gave us a good price and was available – hurrah!

We had also lined up a guy who can spray paint rooms and decided to give this a try as it can be effective covering over existing wallpaper.  Every wall in the house is papered so if we can avoid the work involved in stripping and remove any risk of pulling off plaster in the process…..winner all around!   We had been prepared to do the decorating ourselves but if the spray man can get it done as fast as he says, and at £120/day, then it’s not worth us getting the rollers dirty.  We got him booked in the start the week after the plasterer and felt pretty pleased that at last we were finally getting somewhere.

Pawel did a great job with the wall and a few days later it had dried out to a pale pink.  We cleared everything out of the bedroom and moved into the spare bedroom.  The day before the painter was due Cheryl glanced up at the wall which had developed a strange dark patch at the top which looked a bit damp – bugger, yet another step backwards!

This was the weekend of Storm Dennis and whilst Seaton escaped the worst of the weather, the combination of wind and constant driving rain had resulted in water getting in around the chimney stack.  We looked carefully at the wall in the spare bedroom – and that too showed a damp patch which was less obvious on the wallpaper.

We cancelled the spray man and moved back into our bedroom.  We need to get scaffolding and work to repair the flashing and possibly repoint both chimneys – another potentially huge unforeseen expense.  Scaffolding will cost around £1500 and as I write we are still waiting for quotes for the repairs.  To say we were a bit pissed off is a massive understatement, especially as we felt that we were getting close to having one finished room.  It’s also another piece of work that will need to join the plate spinning as once the scaffold is up it stays for weeks and will block the driveway so no other workmen can get their vehicles in.

Always look on the bright side

On a more positive note, we have had some progress.  The engineer completed his calculations and sent us some complex drawings which we didn’t really understand.  We were advised by the building firm that although none of our alterations need planning permission, we would need to raise a building control notice as the local council will need to sign off any structural work.  A straightforward online process but an upfront cost of £470, and hopefully that will be enough to cover all the site visits we need.

A week later the head of the building firm returned to mark up walls and calculate final costs for steels and lintels.  He also suggested he may be able to carry out the work in a few weeks time – fingers crossed on that one.

With the possibility that work could start at any time we set about getting rid of the kitchen units we definitely wouldn’t be reusing in the workshop. We don’t like to put anything usable into landfill so thought we would have a go at giving them away but weren’t confident as although it’s a good quality John Lewis kitchen it is a bit dated. We needn’t have worried as just after placing a quick ad offering a range of old units ‘free to collector’ Cheryl’s phone didn’t stop buzzing. A few days later, and the units were gone.

We also took out the diagonal tiled false wall which was behind the AGA and discovered some interesting 1950’s wallpaper.  The kitchen is a bit of a mess but still functional for the time being.  We have to remove the remaining units and worktop on the big wall which is coming down but that will wait until just before the work starts.

The Heat is Off

A decision was finally made about the heating & water system following several changes of mind over whether to get a combi boiler or pressurized system.  We’ve gone for a combi storage boiler – a clever halfway house which should be sufficient to meet our everyday needs plus the few occasions when we have visitors. We don’t need an additional water tank which means we don’t have to give up space in the utility and the door into the greenhouse can stay.  All of which saves cost – just as well given the new found chimney problem. 

Even better we found Matt the plumber who was able to quote promptly and is available at the start of March. We can’t start the structural stuff until the plumbing is complete as it involves repositioning of some radiators so that’s a real bonus.  He also comes with another big bonus.  For the last few years he’s only worked 6 months of the year, preferring to spend 6 months travelling like we did.  So, in a nutshell, he’s not VAT registered……yay, 20% off!

The replacement of the boiler isn’t straightforward as Neil needs to rebuild part of the wall where it will hang.  The old boiler needs to go before this can happen so the installation work will take a few days and mean no heating and hot water until its done and it’s not that warm at the moment.  It’ll remind us both of when we were kids, waking up in the morning with ice on the insides of the windows because we didn’t have central heating.  Luckily the wood burner in the study works so we will have one cosy room even if we do start to pong a bit.

Maybe next month we will have some real progress to report……….

Our plan to return early was to be able to kick start the renovations to our new home, aka ‘Moneypit on Sea.’  However it’s difficult to plan things when you can’t do something until you’ve done something else, ‘chicken and egg’ comes to mind or ‘going round and round’ but not going anywhere. 

Before we got back we spent a few days catching up with Alex & Freddy in London and then spent Christmas with Neil’s sister June & family.  Boxing day included a chilly but enjoyable pony trek in The Forest of Dean followed by a family party back at June’s.  On our way to Devon we also met with Neil’s kids and number one grandson for lunch before driving South to finally arrive home.  

It’s the first festive season we’ve had with our family in more than 10 years so whilst the time was brief it was very special.  Thanks to all for taking us in over Christmas at such short notice.  It was great to watch the kids open their presents which is something we have really missed while being away.

Our lovely friends Glyn and Diane who have been keeping an eye on the house while we’ve been away, invited us to join them for dinner on New Year’s Eve in the local steakhouse.  We had a fabulous meal and then they surprised us by bringing a bottle of bubbly for us to crack open on the Esplanade while we watched the fireworks at midnight. For the last 10 years we’ve been on a beach, somewhere, for New Year so that’s a tradition which will continue albeit the fireworks here don’t come close to the zillions of pyrotechnics in Goa.

We spent New Year’s Day riding the Seaton Tramway.  Neil insisted we travelled on the open top deck in the drizzle to ‘enjoy’ the view.  It was lovely looking across the wetlands nature reserve but it was freezing cold so Cheryl insisted they sat inside on the return tram.  We followed that with helping Gary at The Hat use up the last of the beer in the barrel so that he could close down for his long holiday back home in South Africa in January.  It was a fun afternoon as various people popped in to have a beer and chat and after several drinks and snacks too many we meandered home.

Despite some extremely lively weather we’ve been out for a walk most days along the esplanade and up to the viewpoint past the harbour.  It’s a lovely walk and takes about an hour and a bit.  Each day brings a different aspect of the sea and the views depending on the weather. Early in January the rough sea conditions resulted in most of the pebble beach ending up on the esplanade. 

One of our concerns about moving to the coast was the possibility of a ghost town feeling in the winter.  We shouldn’t have worried as we’ve found that Seaton has a lot going on all year round.  There are several good restaurants, pubs and cafes.  Our local community venue, The Gateway, has regular film & picnic nights.  Seaton gets the big releases about a month after they’ve been on general release.  The hall has a stage and full sound system and flexible seating arrangements.  We’ve been to one film and a quiz night and have already booked for more as well as The Zoots for a live sixties & seventies music event in March.

Renovation update

Regular readers will recall that the purchase of the house in the summer dragged on and on, leaving us with about 3 weeks between moving in and setting off for Goa.  It was also back in September when it was a lot brighter and warmer.  We spent the first few days back in the house wondering why certain rooms didn’t seem to warm up and then discovered huge gaps here and there where the wind whistled through.  To be fair, it also had something to do with the fact that the boiler is 25-30 years old and is on our list to replace before it dies. Windows were taped, frames were siliconed, vents were sealed and Neil even used some spare carpet to cover the draughty letterbox. 

The previous owners sent us their annual energy consumption for gas and electricity during the sale process and we assumed the house was just expensive to heat because its old and big.  Turns out their bills were huge because they had no loft insulation, they ran a gas guzzling AGA and the house had more draughts than Wetherspoons.

Not only were the previous occupants happy to live in a cold draughty house we’ve also learnt that they were not well liked.  Several neighbours have had a run in with them over a number of things and we’ve even had a quote from somebody who also did work for them – ‘never again’ he said! I wonder what they are saying about us………..

We are making really slow progress on our plans for the house.  We keep going around in circles about kitchens, bedroom, carpets, knocking down walls and putting up walls.  We are waiting for quotes, drawings and calculations.  We also had to repair 30 metres of 4ft collapsed garden wall, 15m of 6ft wall to take down before it fell down and progress on replacing it with fencing has been delayed due to the constant high winds.  As I write this we have fencing halfway and the handyman has gone AWOL as he had other work booked in.  We think he will be back in two weeks to finish but stormy weather is set to continue.  So far this has been £3k not in the budget.

There have been some achievements.  Ten 80ft and potentially dangerous trees have been taken down.  This took 3 days to complete and was amazing to watch.  The guys abseiled up and down whilst taking the trees out section by section.  Not sure the locals enjoyed the restrictions on traffic along the lane, but near neighbours have all commented on their improved light levels.  Another £3k not in the budget!

We now have enormous piles……..of chopped logs stacked ready to be sawn and split.  This leaves us with another decision….which log burner to buy?.  That can wait until autumn as the wood will take at least a year to season in Neil’s new log store.  He thinks we now have enough wood to keep us going until they carry him out in his own wooden box!  We also have several large mounds of wood chips in the garden which have to fester for six months before we spread them.

As mentioned previously we inherited a gas AGA, and we’re not big AGA fans (sorry to those of you who love them).  Although people pay thousands for one of these beasts, the second hand sales market is really difficult as the only buyers seem to be companies who recondition them and sell on for a massive profit.  Eventually we secured a deal and it was finally gone.  It took nearly 4 hours for two men to disconnect, dismantle and remove it.

After several weeks, and a number of different options we have a kitchen design that works.  We also have a fitter we want to use.  However, we can’t start the kitchen until the structural walls are down which means we can’t schedule the very, very busy kitchen fitter until we have dates for the walls and we can’t do any of that until we select the builder.  We think we’re there but we are awaiting prices.  He comes very recommended but we know he’s not cheap so we have to wait for him to agree with the structural engineer about RSJ’s etc before he can price. 

We also need a new boiler as the existing one is probably older than Neil!  However, it sits in a narrow alcove which will need to be filled in before a new bigger one can be fitted. Can’t have a new boiler until we remove the old boiler, build the wall, let it go off, then fit the new boiler.  Don’t want to do that in February unless we can forecast 15C for a week or so. 

It’s been quite a frustrating month as we seem to be endlessly waiting for completed drawings, calculations for structural work and tradesmen to turn up and quote for jobs.  It’s all complicated by all the most recommended ones being busy with enough work for the next 3 months.  We were hoping to have an idea of when we could get started but that seems a long way off now.

Meanwhile, Neil is getting used to lugging, chopping and splitting and Cheryl is getting used to barrowing and stacking.  We’re using muscles we didn’t know we had.

One final thing, we have a new pet who is a regular visitor to the garden.

Finally, the big day came, September 19^th 2019.   The sun shone brightly and Mike (aka Man With Van, plus mate) came to load up with our few belongings and bits of furniture…..one single garage full!  We drove on ahead to Devon expecting to find the house empty as the vendors had told us the week previously that they would be out by the night before.  As we turned into the drive we were greeted by a number of removal men still loading the van, the vendors pottering around and their stressed cleaner losing the battle to clean up behind furniture which hadn’t been moved for over twenty years.  This was Thursday and they had been loading the van since Monday! They had managed to clear most things from the house, but the garage & sheds were still full.

The previous owners, who are in their late eighties, were very apologetic that they hadn’t moved out in time and sadly admitted that as they removed one of their massive wardrobes from the bedroom a large piece of wallpaper peeled itself off the wall.  It did look bad, but we saw the funny side as we didn’t like it anyway and it wasn’t too difficult to stick it back up again temporarily.

Neil asked their removal men to shift the Luton van they were using to shuttle stuff from the house to the much larger lorry parked in a wider street nearby so our men could move their Luton van in to unload.  ‘How many vans have you got?’ he asked and was totally bemused when Neil said ‘one!’  The guy must have repeated his question three times before he finally accepted that we did have just ‘one!’

Amongst the chaos we got a visit from Alistair, the estate agent who sold the house to us, and he came with a lovely hamper full of local produce……a very nice touch.   We finally got their men out.  Our men in & out in less than an hour including a stop for tea & biscuits.  Their men back in to finish clearing the outbuildings and we got the vendors to stop hovering over us and focus on their remaining packing.  Finally a few hours later we were alone in our new home to start our unpacking…..phew!

It wasn’t long before it was time to start the process of getting to know people.  We started with The Hat for a couple of beers.  It’s run by Gary, a South African, and it’s a quirky micropub located in an old butcher’s shop.  The original tiles are still on the wall and the seating is at shared high tables.  They serve local craft beers, ciders and a selection of gins.  They have a few snacks, and mobile phones should be on silent.  If you want to make a call you go outside.  Orders are taken at your table and you have a hand written tab.   We ended our first evening in of the two local Indian restaurants.  It wasn’t bad at all. We think we’re going to like this town but, hey, it’s TBL if we don’t!

The next few days were spent getting used to the new place and deciding where to put the few things we brought with us.  We knew the house was big, but without all the previous clutter we could see just how big it is, and what a contrast to the past ten years spending our summers living in a touring caravan.  The empty rooms looked sad with faded patches where pictures had hung for years and numerous wires hanging out where the wall lights had been taken out.

Our second evening was spent with Glyn & Diane who are heavily involved in the town Twinning Association.  We met in the sunshine for a few drinks outside The Vaults, a pub overlooking the Esplanade, followed by dinner in the Malthouse, an independent Pub in the town.  We saw them again at the Twinning Association Quiz night the following week.  We’ve joined and hope to participate in the next visit to Thury Harcourt in Normandy which should take place in Spring 2020.

We had our first visitors at the weekend. Neil’s brother Bill and his wife Sue travelled from London and brought us some beautiful glasses as a house warming present.  The weather cleared up enough for a short walk along the esplanade and cliff gardens to see the view across the bay. We headed into town for a few drinks in The Hat followed by dinner in The Caper which serves Tapas from around the World.

Towards the end of their visit we made more discoveries about the house.  Bill and Neil went up into the loft and came down with some very old mirrors which we think were the originals from the bathroom and bedrooms, maybe going back to the 1920’s and we’re going to try and restore them.  The second discovery was less welcome.  There was absolutely no loft insulation at all.  The previous owner had the wall cavities filled and part boarded the loft but bizarrely omitted the loft insulation!!  Luckily we found a great handyman and a few days later with a few trips to Homebase and a delivery from B&Q we were deboarded and fully insulated to the current recommended level of 270mm, which is pretty thick. Neil was absolutely knackered from all the trips up and down the stairs carrying bales of insulation up and sheets of flooring down.

Week two was focused on getting jobs done – gutters cleaned, dusk to dawn light switch fitted for porch and driveway lights, electrics safety check and LED bulbs installed.  Do the remaining changes of address which only allow you to do once you have moved.  Opening a joint bank account for the bills, signing up with utilities, council tax and setting up all the direct debits done.  Meeting the neighbours and discovering no one else is from Devon! Participating in Fiverfest where the local independent shops had great special offers for a fiver all over town to encourage every adult to spend a fiver a week.

We got to know the gardener, Mark, and decided to keep him on over the Winter to keep the garden under control while we are away.  We had the local building firm in to discuss options for remodeling & getting scale drawings done so we can decide exactly what is possible and we want to do.  We met a kitchen fitter and got some initial designs done so we can start planning & budgeting.  We managed to get some plumbers in to quote for replacing the 20+ year old boiler with a more efficient one.  Lastly, a couple of assessments from a tree surgeon as a few of the trees have become way too big and need to be cut back or taken out completely.  Fortunately, all were assessed as being OK to deal with when we get back in the Spring.

Glyn & Diane very kindly agreed to look in on the house while we are away and met us on Friday to have a look around and get a set of keys.  We went for an excellent meal in the local steakhouse, The Shed, followed by drinks in The Clarence which had pretty good live music.

Week three was a little calmer and gave us more time to get to know the house and think about how we would like to change it.  We do want it to have a more open plan feel and to tone down the décor whilst being sympathetic to the 1928 character of the building.  The vendors did leave an enticing bundle of original deeds and documents which we haven’t had time to look through and we’re looking forward to discovering its history and its previous owners. 

Alex & Freddy managed a quick visit during our last weekend.  We had a long walk around the town, along the esplanade to Axmouth Harbour and back ending with tea, cakes & a Vietnamese coffee in The Hideaway Café overlooking the beach. Drinks in The Hat followed by dinner in The Caper on Saturday night. We took the stunning coastal walk from Seaton to Beer on Sunday and enjoyed a cream tea in the late September sunshine on the beach.

Our last week and a surprise visit from John & Yvonne, friends we met in Goa.  They had booked a glass blowing course in Beer and suggested we meet up for dinner.  Another evening of drinks in The Hat followed by dinner in The Malthouse.  A great evening and a good chance to catch up before we meet again in Goa.

Our last evening in Seaton was spent with Glyn & Diane, starting with, yes you guessed it, drinks in The Hat.  We ate in the other Indian, Monsoon which is BYO, and had better food than the other one in town.  It felt really sad to say goodbye to Glyn & Diane. Thanks both for welcoming us to Seaton and helping us settle in.

Saturday morning and it was time to pack our bags & get the house ready for the winter.  Our three weeks went by in a flash and we didn’t want to leave.  Seaton is a lovely place, its sleepy and the pace of life is slow, but everyone seems friendly.  We’re looking forward to the usual fun in Goa, but we’re also looking forward to going back to the house and making it our home.

The journey to Goa always starts with saying goodbyes to friends and family.  We spent a couple of nights in Bristol with Paul, Miranda and number one grandson.  He’s pretty stable on his feet now and such a happy little soul.  We will miss him a lot while we are away and look forward to photos and videos from his proud parents while we are away.

Next stop Gloucester for two nights with Roy & June.  June is recovering from a knee replacement and gradually improved while we were staying.  We hope to see her running around by the time we get back!

On to London by train where we had dinner with Leanne & Neil on our first night.  We stayed with Alex & Freddy and on the Friday attended a very special ceremony in the Guildhall.  Alex was granted Freedom of the City of London and is now entitled to drive his sheep across London Bridge! He was invited to become a member of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists a couple of years ago and this was the formal ceremony to make him a Freeman. We had an interesting and informative  talk on the history of Freemen (and women) and were shown certificates and signatures of many previous and current holders.  Next stop was to the pub with friends to celebrate followed by excellent food in their local Italian restaurant. 

It was soon time to head to Heathrow for our flight to Goa via Mumbai.  We wonder if Benaulim has seen any changes this year?

Since the last posting we’ve been treading water to some extent.  Moving house for many people can be quite stressful as you don’t realise how much ‘stuff’ you’ve collected until you start to pack things.  As we haven’t had a formal home for 11 years for us it was easy.  We don’t have many personal possessions like clothes, nick-nacks and furniture……our world fits into a single garage with room to spare. 

In August we had a visit from Tony and Brenda which was great fun, hey, it always is when we get together.  They had never visited Bristol before, so it felt quite strange for us being tourists in our own town.  We caught the bus and wandered around the centre, listened to the choir practicing in Bristol Cathedral, visited Cheryl’s old school and Bristol Central Library where the little swot spent much of her time, walked over the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge and had a fine lunch in The Commercial Rooms on historic Corn Street.  Like a lot of people, we live on the outskirts of town and rarely explore the city centre these days so we discovered things in hometown Bristol that we didn’t know existed…………..and now we’re leaving!

We took another trip down to Seaton to visit the house again and get some instructions on how the heating works, how to operate the AGA and where various switches were.  We had great weather making this another BBQ trip, superb walking along the coastal path and enjoying the masses of blackberries that we have this year.  On the way home we dropped the caravan off at the new storage compound which will be its new home for the winter. It was meant to be a quick stop but the owner, a delightful old boy with a Devon accent as thick as clotted cream definitely wanted to chat so an hour and a half later we were on our way.

We had another ‘sibling lunch’ with Neil’s brothers and sisters and their partners.  Whilst the food was mediocre the company was superb.  We met in the historic Highwayman Inn that Neil frequented when he was in his late teens.  In those days if you wanted to impress a girl this was one of the country pubs you went to. 

It was also time to get all things medical done before we move.  We won’t have much time in Devon so getting eyes tested, an MOT at the doctors, flu and pneumonia jabs for the old pensioner (AKA Neil).  We’ve also started the process of changing our address on memberships and less important things.  Do you know how many things you have to change?  We have at least 50!!   If there is one good reason not to move house it’s the number of addresses you have to change.  To make it all worse, the financial institutions are particularly anal about the process and the timing of the changes.  ‘Jump through this hoop, skip through that hoop and provide your inside leg measurement’ before you can even start the process.  

The final planning for the packing concentrated our minds plus the general logistics of what goes where, when it goes there and the question of will everything fit into the removal van and the car.  They do say that to help stave off dementia keeping the mind alert helps, well moving to a new house certainly ticks that box. 

Just a day before the move we had a visit from our old friends from Sydney.  Chris and Viv were on their annual trip to the UK to visit friends and family.  It was a flying visit as this time Chris only had two weeks, so we really appreciate them fitting us in.  Neil has known Chris since the early 70’s but nothing much has changed other than a little bit less hair and a few extra inches on the waistline.  Weather was amazing, 20C and blazing sunshine which for mid September was quite unusual.  It has been a BBQ summer and who else to have one final al fresco meal with other than a couple of Aussies!  Of course, a few beers were sunk, the wine flowed and the reminiscing brought about lots of laughing. 

This is the final blog entry to bring chapter 11 to a close.  It’s been a different year for us with most of the time spent in the UK focused on finding our new home.  Chapter 12 will follow as soon as we have moved and settled in.  It’s definitely a new phase in our lives and we are looking forward to being in our home and settling into our new community.

You may remember that back in May we were spending our days walking in The Forest of Dean.  What we didn’t tell you is that we took a couple of days out to go shopping.

We’ve not lived a conventional life since we started that first six month trip back in 2008. Living a nomadic lifestyle split between long winter trips overseas and summer tours of the UK in our caravan has become normal for us.  However, over the last couple of years we’ve spent our time looking at various locations in the UK to buy our first home together.   We looked at coastal towns as we both love being by the sea, as well as various locations mainly in the South West.  We both had our own set of ‘must have requirements’ meaning that compromise was always going to happen. 

One day Cheryl showed Neil a house on Rightmove that took her fancy expecting him to say ‘no, absolutely not, it’s too expensive, it’s a money pit and hadn’t you noticed it’s way too big for two people?’.  He said all of the above but did agree to see it so we booked a viewing and then went again the next day to have another look. 

Well, it’s certainly more than we planned to spend, it probably is a money pit and it’s definitely much too big but we just fell in love with it even though it needs lots of remodelling and modernisation to satisfy our ‘must have requirements’. 

It wasn’t plain sailing through the sales process and several times we thought it was going to fall apart.  First the owners hadn’t found somewhere to move to, and that process took a month.  Then two months later when we went to visit them, they revealed that the first purchase wasn’t in the frame anymore but ‘not to worry, we’ve agreed a price on a house today’!  So, that’s three months gone already.  Then they revealed that the house was the subject of probate and we knew that process could take months.  Fortunately, they agreed to move into rented accommodation if needed.  Then there was another sticky moment when the drain survey revealed one or two potential problems.  Again, the sellers came up trumps and agreed to split the cost of the repairs. 

The house is in Seaton in Devon and it was built in 1928.  It’s a 5 minute walk to the beach, town, pubs, tennis courts, a proper butcher, The Purbeck Coastal Path, gym, theatre/cinema, Seaton Tramway, Jurassic Centre, Wetland Wildlife Trust, in fact, just about everything.  The garden is a whopping 0.75 of an acre with stunning specimen trees planted by the current owners who are nearing 90 years old.  It has several man caves, a garage, conservatory, loggia and a summer house. We also have a proper Croquet Lawn – now all we have to do is buy a croquet set and learn the rules. 

Ah, almost forgot.  It’ll also need furnishing and as we’ve not actually had a traditional home for the last 11 years our entire world fits into a single garage.  This means lots of shopping………. ‘deep joy’ said Neil.  Who cares, we’re excited about knocking down walls, changing the kitchen and installing some bathrooms, excited about putting down some roots, excited about living by the sea and just generally, as you might have worked out, very, very excited. 

We’ve just exchanged contracts and move in mid September.  We have several spare rooms if you want to come and visit, just let us know. 

No posts for a while as we’ve just been enjoying the better weather since the boat trip and lots of walking.  We’re around Bristol so we’ve also had some house things to do.

We took a couple of weeks out to go to the south Devon coast in the caravan and did lots and lots of walking.  The coastal path here is stunning as it’s along the famous Jurassic Coast.  The campsite was a short drive to the coast and we found a number of walks towards Beer, Seaton and a particularly long stretch from Seaton to Lyme Regis.  We even got our running shoes on and found a quiet route along country lanes and footpaths from the campsite.  The perfect weather made up for the lousy weather we had on the narrow boat, 10 nights, 10 BBQ’s and 10 sunsets from the wonderful west facing view across open countryside from our campsite.

Leaving Devon on the day before School Holidays started Neil decided we should set off early and, as we were headed North we should miss most of the traffic.  How wrong could he be?  He couldn’t predict the fuel spillage which shut the M5 Northbound just before Taunton.  Google maps helpfully showed us that the detour route on the A38 was solid and suggested a great cut through using country lanes.  Unfortunately, with a caravan on tow we accepted our fate and crawled along with the rest of the traffic.  We eventually made it back onto the M5 and looked for the nearest services for a much needed comfort break.  Unfortunately again, this was the plan for the rest of the delayed traffic and the slip road to the services was blocked with waiting vehicles.  It was the same at each of the services we reluctantly had to pass by.  In the end a less than 2 hour journey turned into over 4 tortuous hours with bladders bursting.

The next week we headed to June’s for a welcome party.  Neil’s niece, Lisa, arrived from Melbourne for 4 weeks visiting family and friends that she hadn’t seen for 5 years.  We stayed with her family in Australia 2 years ago but it was great to see her again surrounded by her mum and dad and 2 sisters.  It was a great evening with yet another BBQ on the hottest day of the year so far!

Then we headed up to Cheshire to visit Leanne and young Neil where, oooo surprise, we had a BBQ……this time in the p***ing down rain.  Thank you for the covered area outside the house.  Leanne announced that she had two wasps nests under the facia boards at the front of the house.  Neil realised that they could be reached from the bedroom windows so at dusk the two Neils sprayed the nests.  The following morning there were no wasps flying in and out.  When Leanne looked out through the downstairs window there was carnage!!  Out on the terrace there were two huge piles of dead wasps…….result.

Sunday arrived and Cheryl and Leanne headed off to Champneys Springs Health Spa for a celebratory girls session with Lisa.  11 ladies (Neil used that term lightly) armed with their body weight in Prosecco and snacks descended on the hotel for 2 days of pampering, exercise, eating, drinking and laughing.  They had a hoot.

Watch out for the next blog issue, we hope to have big news!

After our week in Scandinavia we arrived back in the UK to have 2 weeks on the narrow boat with Gail.  Starting from Gayton Marina in Northamptonshire we headed along the Grand Union and Oxford Canals towards Oxford.  We chose the first two weeks in June and have been used to having pretty good weather for our annual trip over the last few years but this year our luck ran out.  We did manage a BBQ on the first night but after that we endured day after day of a cold wind and driving rain and showers.  Midway through the second week Neil had set up the table and chairs for a second BBQ only for the cloud and rain to come from nowhere and bring us back indoors.  Neil wasn’t going to be beaten.  The wind was in the right direction so he closed the roof hatch but left the door into the cabin open, he dragged the BBQ to the entrance and cooked our dinner from the inside! 

On the way to Oxford we came across a teepee in the middle of nowhere which had a woodfired hot tub outside.  That looks perfect we thought.  On the return journey, during one of our coldest and wettest days Neil shouted to Cheryl and Gail to come out of the cabin, bring the camera and come and take a look.  Sitting in the steaming hot tub were a young couple drinking beer.  Neil gesticulated to them that he had respect for their decision to face the elements in the tub and they shouted back that they were ‘on honeymoon from Australia’!

Weather aside, the Oxford canal is quite lovely with open views of the countryside, farm animals and wildlife including kingfishers, foxes, deer, swans and kites.  Boaters generally are friendly people always passing the time of day.  The inclement weather seemed to encourage people to be more friendly and jokier about the persistent rain.  As he passed a woman waiting to take her boat into a lock Neil commented to her that he liked her woolly hat that had long sides that looked like long droopy ears.  She laughed and shouted back that ‘at least I didn’t have to do my hair this morning’.  Neil removed his woolly hat and shouted ‘I never have to do my hair’!  She laughed again.  There were lots of jokes that we were a week away from the midsummer solstice but despite the crappy weather we can’t wait for next year!

Boat trip over it was time to travel back to Bristol to move into Cheryl’s house, which is also up for sale, and set up home yet again. We had some time with our fast growing grandson who is now standing up and also to catch up on some paperwork.  Neil sold his last rental property making him a totally homeless person – he’s very grateful that Cheryl took him in.

We were only back in Bristol for a few days before it was time to travel to Gloucester to attend the annual family gathering.  Sadly, not everyone was there but then that would be almost impossible, but we managed to get 24 family members together. 

In complete contrast to the previous two weeks the weather was very kind to us, sunny and 21C and it lent itself to games with water guns.  It wasn’t long before some of the children had shed their wet clothes to just enjoy running around getting even wetter.  Roy performed a magic trick that isn’t really magic but his request for a gullible adult to assist him failed.  No fear, Maisie stepped forward to assist Roy only to get a thorough soaking.  She was a star, brave and stalwart despite the shock.  Neil did the BBQ and the day was fantastic.  Thank you to June and Roy for hosting the event and putting in so much work.

Back to Bristol to host Clive and Karen from Spain.  They were over on a whistle stop tour to do ‘family stuff’ with children and Karen’s mum.  We usually meet up on a camp site but with our 2 weeks on the boat and their family commitments we were only to have an afternoon.  Sunny weather, whoopee, meant we had a BBQ, chat, jokes and compared travel plans for the coming year.  Good to see you guys, let’s try not to leave it quite so long next time and definitely make it more than an afternoon!

We returned to Heaven and Hell in Delhi for lunch the day that we flew home to London.  We had some more fun with ‘Manuel’ over a late lunch.  A delicious veggie tandoori platter and a final cheese garlic nan with a couple of Kingfisher Strongs before having a snooze and then showering and heading to the airport. 

Our flight was at 2.00am, not ideal, but we managed to have enough time in the lounge to sample a few wines before boarding. Sadly, our Swissair flight home was nowhere near as good as the flight out.  The Maitre D’ was frostier than a January morning in the Arctic.  Sadly, this attitude reflected on most of the other cabin crew and hardly a smile was seen the entire journey.  The onward flight from Zurich to London was totally different, smiles all the way and an insistence from ‘the girls’ that it was almost mandatory to drink bubbly at 6.45am!!  Hey, rude not to.

We arrived in London on a grey cold day only to find, along with 5 other travelers from the Delhi flight, that our luggage had gone AWOL.  We weren’t surprised as the flight from Delhi was late leaving giving us just 30 minutes to sprint across the huge airport to catch the final leg into Heathrow.  Thankfully, we only had to wait 36hrs before our luggage was delivered to us in London. 

Despite not having much to wear in the way of smart clothes we had a surprise early morning outing for the opening of the London Stock Exchange.  Alex now works for Forbes and every year they hold awards to highlight the most outstanding young entrepreneurs, the Best 30 under 30.  The event was to be launched at the Stock Exchange with Alex officially opening the day’s trading.  As you can imagine, Cheryl was the proudest mum on the planet that day!

After a couple of days with Alex and Freddy we headed off to Gloucester to pick up the car from June and Roy’s and to endure some more very cold weather.  We had trips to Cirencester, Pershore and Evesham to see if we want to live there……definitely Cirencester and maybe, just maybe, the other two.  

Fortunately, the cold didn’t last too long and by the weekend we enjoyed a brisk walk across the Peak District from Leanne and Neil’s stunning new home followed by a delicious pub lunch.  Their house is a few miles from Macclesfield and sits alone overlooking Bosley Reservoir which is used to keep the nearby Macclesfield canal topped up.  The view from almost every window in the house is to the west over the reservoir…….it’s just the house we want but not quite so remote……we are very envious!

Then it was back to Bristol for some Toby time and to catch up with Miranda and Paul.  Trips to the doctors for a cholesterol test, some property jobs, sorting out the garage a little and a short trip to Wells so see if we want to live there……yes, maybe we do.  If you haven’t seen the film Hot Fuzz with Simon Pegg then you should.  The film was shot in Wells and we had lunch in the pub where the final crazy shootout took place.  It’s a mad, mad film and well worth 2hrs of your time.

Before we knew it we were on the rundown to leaving again so some more Toby time before heading back to Gloucester.  On the way we noticed several people standing on a bridge over the River Severn.  ‘Ah, it’s The Severn Bore’ Neil shouted as he quickly pulled over and parked the car.  Neil hadn’t seen it for 50 years and Cheryl had never seen it so the timing was perfect.  To be fair not many people have heard of it let alone seen it. 

So, what is the Severn Bore you ask?  Well, twice a day when the tide comes in the Severn estuary it creates a tidal flow that results in a wave that runs from the sea to the weir near where we were standing.  That’s around 14miles.  It can be several feet high, almost like a mini tsunami when the tides are high, but this time it was couple of feet….quite small.  However, people were still attempting to surf on it and if you’ve never seen it then it is an amazing phenomenon.       

Next was a lunch with Neil’s two brothers and sister.  Bill had booked the table for 8 people.  We were only 7 but he assured us that a mystery guest would be coming.  Time moved on and the spare seat was almost forgotten about.  Then, just after we had ordered our food, Neil’s nephew and Bob’s son, arrived direct from Heathrow and his flight in from Chicago.  Everyone was delighted especially those of us not in the know……a fabulous surprise! 

Then it was back to London to spend a lovely afternoon sitting outside a pub, yes, outside in February….18C……wow and people in shorts treating the day like it was mid-summer.  It’s been a busy 2 weeks, suffering cold weather, meeting family again, surprises and then enjoying unseasonal balmy weather before flying out to the US today.

Next stop……….New Orleans.

How do you like your humour?   Stand up, sketches, slapstick, characters, poems, magic, hypnosis or witty songs?  We had a week of varied experiences ranging in size from the huge tent for a BBC recording of ‘Just a Minute’ to being the only 2 in the audience for an intimate performance by Boris, a Russian themed magician.  We also think we went to pretty much every different type of comedy performance you could imagine as well as a couple that don’t fit in with any definition.

We needed a good laugh after the moody weather and scenery of The Lake District so we headed North to visit the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Our campsite was just a 20-minute walk to the nearest train station and the train took just 10 minutes into the centre of the city.

We chose to visit ‘free’ venues where there is no charge to get in but you are asked to donate some cash into a bucket when you leave.  The standard varied enormously but, in general, it was very good and we often left with tears rolling down our cheeks.

We are big fans of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Just a Minute’ hosted by Nicholas Parsons. He is now 93 years old and has been hosting the programme for 50 years.  The BBC tent was huge and felt like a theatre inside.  It housed many shows including the recording of two episodes of Just a Minute during the week when we were there.  We were lucky enough to get one of the few tickets held back from the online lottery for the day for the later recording.  It was hilarious and we were treated to an excellent performance from Paul Merton.  This show will be aired on Radio 4 on August 28th.

By contrast we had a show to ourselves when we went to see Vodka Spy hosted by Boris the ex KGB mind control agent….well that’s what he said!  The venue was off the main track and was a pretentious joint charging buckets of cash for a simple Magners Cider.  This might explain why we were the only 2 people in the audience which guaranteed us his total attention as he performed some obvious tricks and a few that were actually very clever.

We also discovered that Cheryl is not open to suggestions.  Earlier in the summer we laughed when the losing contestant on Ken Bruce’s Pop Master Competition on Radio 2 was asked if he wanted to say ‘hello’ to any friends and family.  The contestant was Ben Dali and he launched into a shameless bout of self publicity about his upcoming show at the Fringe.  His show was called ‘Take a Trance on Me’ and he asked for 10 volunteers to take part.  Neil was tempted but decided to watch the antics rather than be a guinea pig.  Cheryl was just as shameless as Ben Dali and rushed to be one of the first onto the stage………just another wannabee! 

What followed was just amazing.  Several of the volunteers were quite clearly hypnotised whilst some were possibly faking it.  They performed some really amusing antics which were ‘fun’ rather than being embarrassing.  However, Cheryl just didn’t go under and after laughing and signing to Neil that ‘nothing was happening’ she was the only volunteer who was asked by Ben to leave the stage like a naughty child and told to return to her seat next to Neil……….we just sat and giggled for ages.

Neil enjoyed poems, yes, you read that correctly…..poems!  Porky the Poet, AKA Phil Jupitus of Never Mind the Buzzcocks fame, gave a performance along with a couple of guest performers.  Neil’s not generally a of poetry lover but having given Attila the Stockbroker a try at Glastonbury a few years ago he decided to give Porky a go.  He was excellent with some very thought-provoking poetry as well as some very silly stuff.

We saw The Northern Power Blouse, an all girl sketch show featuring 3 very talented young women that had us rolling around.  We especially liked the inspired James Bond themes where they changed the lyrics to fit in with their role as cleaners with songs such as ‘Dysons are Forever’ and ‘Mop and let dry’ as they suggestively cleaned the stage…brilliant!

We had more audience participation as we were watching a solo stand up comedian in a very small room upstairs in a nightclub.  Part way through the performance an extension socket bar attached to the wall and used for a spotlight up in the rafters came adrift and nearly hit us.  Neil found himself re-attaching it to the wall with gaffer tape much to the amusement of everyone else.  It got more laughs than the comic and even more laughs when it fell off again and we decided to unplug it and leave him performing in twilight!

There are a few venues where several performers can showcase their main shows.  Highlights from these were a character comedian who performed as a Noel Coward type making sense of the modern world – watching Formula 1 racing will never be the same again.  Two other great shows were The First Annual All Black Comedy Showcase which included General Ojambo an African Leader who ranted and raved and had Neil gasping for breath between gags.  The LOL Word featured five lesbian stand-up comics and a 95% lesbian audience in a very small nightclub room, almost uncomfortably intimate, but  very, very funny!  Even if they hadn’t been funny we wouldn’t have been brave enough to heckle. 

We even went to shows where we had no idea what was on offer other than an interesting title.  Who could resist ‘My Dad Wrote a Porno – behind the scenes’? – especially when it was in the BBC tent! We’ve since discovered it’s a very successful and popular podcast – look it up.

Edinburgh is an extremely attractive city and venues for the Festival are scattered around the centre with the majority just off The Royal Mile.  It’s also on a lot of tourists’ tick lists so it’s usually packed in Summer and we lost count of the different languages that we could hear around us. Add to that the numerous buskers and street performers, the countless people handing out flyers to promote shows and people just stopping to look and generally getting in the way making it almost impossible to move around.     

Having fun was getting to be hard work.  We saw at least 4 shows a day and it would have been rude not to have a drink each time, plus there were breaks for brunch on some days or just plain lunch, and as we found a fantastic and quiet Wetherspoons in an old well-preserved cinema you get more drinks included.  To cap it all on 2 days we had to run for the train home catching them with less than a minute to spare……phew!

We’d earned a rest so after a week we headed to Crieff in Perthshire.  On arrival we set up the caravan and then went to lunch with Colin and Margaret who we know from Goa.  They live in Perth and came across to say hello.  Thanks go to them for paying for lunch – Colin’s way of showing that not all Scots are stereotypical!

The weather over the next few days was very Scottish – bloody wet.  However, we managed a couple of days walking around a couple of the zillions of Lochs.  It really was very beautiful and just sitting looking at the scenery whilst we had our picnic was just so relaxing.

We came to Crieff with purpose – it was to celebrate Neil’s 64th birthday at the oldest distillery in Scotland, Glenturret, which is part of the group that owns Famous Grouse.  We had an extremely good lunch in the restaurant before taking the 2.5hr Whisky Blending Course.  It started with a tour of the distillery, then to one of the bonded warehouses where we sampled 4 different varieties of single malt with one being 65% proof!  We were very surprised that the measures were good sized tots rather than just a drop in the bottom of the glass.  Having had a couple of drinks whilst we chose our food at lunchtime, plus a bottle of wine with the food, we were beginning to float.

Next stop was the blending room and back to the school science lab……..ha, if only the labs at school had been stocked like this!  First, we had 10 different smells in bottles that would tell us what sort of odours excited our noses.  These were related to the 6 different varieties of single malt that we were to use to make our own blend and we were to take home in our own small bottle.  This, of course, involved even more tasting as we went along, yippee!!  We now realised what a good idea it was to travel by taxi!!

After we had booked our trip to Crieff Neil remembered that an old friend of his from school and the scouts lived somewhere near.  Somewhere near was something of an understatement – he lived on the fringe (ha ha) of Crieff and his Forestry Company was located less than a mile from where we were staying.  Whilst we had lunch at the distillery Alan popped in for a beer and to tell us exactly where he lived.  Thursday night was to be drinks and dinner at his house where we met his wife Heather.  We had a few beers, reminisced and put the world to rights, had an excellent dinner and then lots more chat over an entire bottle of single malt…….oops!!  What a great evening and we’d liked to say a massive thank you to them both for a wonderful time although we’d also like to apologise for not waking up early enough as it was 2am before we got to bed.  This meant Alan was a tad late for work but, hey, he’s The Chairman so who’s going to argue?

We left Crieff for our final week in Scotland on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.  Our simple caravan site of just 5 caravans was magnificent.  We had a stunning view of the loch from the front window and the surrounding peaks at the side.  What’s great about our caravan is that we can open the blinds at the front and sit in bed having our early morning cuppa just gazing at the wonderful scenery.  It’s amazing just how the Scottish weather changes so dramatically and so quickly but we did have enough dry days to walk the banks of the Loch and The West Highland Way choosing a different location to start each day.  This included the walk up to the top of Conic Hill where we had a magnificent view of the Loch and our wee caravan way in the distance. 

To recover from the boat trip we spent two weeks in the Lake District to enjoy the spectacular landscape and a Blues Music Festival.  Apologies to our chums from ‘Oop North’ if any of our comments cause offence, but hey, sometimes we felt like Aliens observing life Jim, but not as we know it.

We’ve also experienced more traditional British summertime weather, wet, windy and cold.  We did get some walking in but the weather wasn’t good enough to make the effort to get to the top of Ska Fell Pike…….if we had gone up all we would have seen would have been low cloud!  We’ll have to leave that to another day and make do with lake walking and some lower level fell walks.  It is very beautiful here but this is the second year running that we’ve been disappointed with the weather.  We always compare the weather with Bristol and it’s invariably around 3Deg cooler up here in The Lakes and a whole lot wetter!  The weather might not have been great but we did see a red squirrel which was a first for Cheryl.  It was a fleeting glance but welcome all the same.  We’ve done a lot of walking over the years but we’ve never seen or eaten so many wild raspberries….they were so delicious!

Our weekend in Maryport was excellent and, as we did some homework via youtube on the performers, we enjoyed it even more than last year.   We really love the mix of main stage and pub venues through the town.  Standout performers this year were Aaron Keylock (watch out for this young man……we think he has a great future), Andy Fairweather Low (at 69 years he’s still rocking and had everybody leaving at 11.45pm singing his old songs), The Stumble (what a front man), Earl Thomas (wow, an American with an amazing voice and a great showman), Howlin’ Mat (a real blues man with his homemade cigar box guitar), The Jar Family (such energy and versatility from 6 guys of which 5 of them are singer/songwriters), Henrik Freischlader (fantastic German guitar player and Neil loved his tribute to Gary Moore), The Jack Kilner Band (great throaty voice), Crosscut Saw (gruff voice and interaction with the pub audience especially as it was midday after the long night before) and the final show on Sunday evening The Mersey Delta Blues Band (they produced a great atmosphere in The Sailor’s Return where we sat high up on a windowsill to get a better view). 

Much to our amusement life in this Northern town turned into a jungle on a Saturday night especially at Festival time.  The guys and the gals come out to party and, of course, the gals liked to put their glad rags on.  Sadly, for many of the 50+ gals the glad rags meant something that would have been questionable 5 years ago and generally worn by gals around 30 years younger. Unfortunately, the very worst examples also favoured the Tango orange tan which didn’t really compliment their time ravaged faces which were giving up the battle with gravity, slowly sliding southwards like melting wax.   There was a huge amount of dimpled and wobbly flesh on show as they were well hardened to the climate, thankfully some of it was covered up by tattoos of all shapes colours and sizes.  It really wasn’t pretty, sometimes we had to look the other way and they always seemed to travel in a trio with mouths wider than the Mersey Tunnel.  To be fair, they were just out for a good night out and they were determined to have one but many didn’t show respect to the performers or other Festival goers who actually  wanted to listen to the music……they just gossiped, loudly, without pausing to draw breath!  Also to be fair, when you looked at them and heard them it’s no wonder that all the men were in a different pub!

There was a very disappointing side to the Festival that seemed to be worse on Saturday night as lots of young folk descended on Maryport just to sit around the streets and chat, shout, eat snacks and, of course, drink.  When we left the main stage in the Marquee at close to midnight the streets were almost deserted as the cold and damp weather drove them into the pubs.  Devoid of people the extent of the carnage left behind in the streets was appalling despite their being lots of biffa bins for the rubbish.  It was shocking but by midday on Sunday morning it had all been removed.

Maryport Festival was fantastic but the organisation of the bar and food outlets at the main stage was so amateur.  Despite having a capacity of around 1000 people the bar couldn’t cope with demand.   Friday night was Andy Fairweather Low night and whilst at the bar Cheryl heard the bar staff tell a roadie that A F L was not going to get a red wine as they had run out.  Not sure if he is a Diva but I wouldn’t want to be the one to bring the bad news.  The worst thing was it wasn’t replenished all weekend! By Saturday the white wine had also gone leaving the sickly sweet Rose.  Cheryl took to bringing her own wine and as we planned an afternoon at the main stage on Sunday she went armed with wine and tonic water to at least be able to enjoy a G&T.  Of course by this time they had no ice.  Then the ice arrived, and then they realised there was no gin! Eventually, success and Cheryl had a couple of doubles with lots of ice in quick succession before they ran out again.

There was little in the way of choice for food…a separate van parked outside serving poor quality burgers, chips and hot dogs and on Sunday there wasn’t even that……all shut!  Cheryl realised she needed carbs to absorb the hastily quaffed gin and had to run back towards the nearest small snack shop where the only savoury snack was some awful XL cheese crisps.  She also had to run back to get away from one of the creepiest shopkeepers she has ever met.  ‘You’re a pretty lass’ he oozed, ‘you’re not from round here….are you?’ and worse still, ‘If you want something savoury you could lick my arm’  eeeew!

The whole food scene wasn’t a complete disaster.  We needed dinner on the Sunday and the pubs were just too busy and noisy to be able to sit down and enjoy a reasonable meal.  Neil kept talking about the Indian restaurant but we had always shied away from them having had so much of the real thing.  Cheryl wanted to go to The Golden Lion but it was packed and a burger was definitely not going to happen especially as it was shut!  So, the Indian it was and……..mmmmmmm……it was very, very good indeed!  We did pledge to go back but then decided that ‘you should never go back’ as it’s never the same.

The last week was spent recovering from the late nights of the Festival and taking as many walks as the dodgy weather would allow.  We soon realised why there were so many lakes – it rarely stops raining!  On the upside, it’s incredibly lush with more than fifty shades of green as well as the browns and purples of the peaks.  In fact, we think it looks better under the contrast of grey and moody skies.

Edinburgh and The Fringe next followed by a real treat for Neil on his upcoming birthday.

An outdoor wedding in the English Summertime – what could possibly go wrong?

With two weeks to go before the big day we still had serious shopping to do as Cheryl hadn’t been able to find that special outfit.  The event was to be held over a weekend on a farm with converted cottages, a large barn, wooded glade for ceremonies and a glamping field.  Dress code was informal, which made it harder to know what to wear, and if the weather turned out to be really bad the outfit would have to look good with wellies!!

We finally hit lucky with the outfit whilst staying near Ilminster in Somerset where we also visited Lyme Regis, Crewkerne, Beer and other pretty places, before moving on to Sussex in readiness for the event.  Cheryl took a couple of days out to head to London for the registry office legal bit at Islington Town Hall while Neil babysat the caravan.  Cheryl’s son Alex and his partner Freddy had always considered the wedding weekend at Hawthbush Farm as the main event and regarded the legals as a formality.  They were totally unprepared for how moving and emotional the short ceremony would be.  It was also one of the hottest June days on record so with 5 days to go before the wedding things were looking good. 

Friday arrived and it was time to head to the farm.  Our first job was to collect the wine from Freddy’s sister who lives in Eastbourne.  Then, having loaded the white and the bubbly into the fridge we set about helping Alex, Freddy, Lawrie and Jackie with the wedding venue.  Bunting was strung up, lights draped in the trees, table runners were cut, family photos stuck on walls, glasses arranged, and other helpers greeted.  Guests came from Osaka, Hong Kong, New York, Prague, Germany, Spain and, of course, all over the UK. 

Alex’s best man Lawrie is an events manager so he was able to keep us on schedule.  Mr Bouncy Castle arrived followed by Mrs Deckchairs.  Tables and chairs were set out in the barn, fairy lights strung to guide the glampers to the camping field and LED uplighters that change colour to light the trees near the hot tub.  Nothing was left to chance with blankets provided in case the evenings got cold, umbrellas in case it rained and plenty of wood for the campfire.  To keep the 100 guests amused over the weekend there were games including table tennis, croquet, a bouncy castle, inflatable instruments for air guitar/sax and microphone for the wedding party and a giant jenga.  For early risers and those that couldn’t sleep there was a yoga session early on Saturday morning in one of the fields.

The caterers arrived and for the Friday it was just the Illustrated Chef (he was heavily tattooed), Darren, with his helper, a tall bloke with a splendid beard that WG Grace would be proud of. They lit a huge BBQ before starting the slow cook of the whole lamb…….mmmmm…….it smelt so good.  The guests started to arrive and adopt their accommodation – cosy tepees with beds, swanky barn cottages and safari tents that slept 6, had a wood burner and kitchenette……very nice!  Of course, we had the caravan with our own private facilities but we also managed to have virtually private use of a steaming hot shower which, unlike the caravan, has endless amounts of water pumping through. 

The lamb continued to cook and a beer tasting was set up with beers from Gun Hill, the micro-brewery that’s run by the farm.  There was also a local English white wine which was very good and guests were given name badges to help break the ice.  A relaxed evening and a great start to the weekend.

We woke on Saturday morning to grey skies, which was OK as the forecast was cloudy, but soon after breakfast the rain started, light at first, but then it got heavier.  With 10 minutes to go, and no message that plans had changed, we decided to head for the glade.  It was a bit of a walk, and Neil decided he would drive Cheryl in her heels down the lane, along with the Japanese girls who were wearing kimonos.  The glade was beautiful despite the drizzle and the drips from the trees.  Guests assembled, put towels on the soggy benches and put up their white umbrellas.  

The grooms arrived and the ceremony started.  It was moving and emotional, especially as same sex marriage was only legalised 3 years ago.  As the celebrant said, this was a union of two people who love each other, and what can be wrong with that?

Alex & Freddy left the glade and instead of confetti all the guests were given bubbles to blow at them which looked wonderful.  Cheryl held it together well, but, when asked to lead the way after the happy couple, the floodgates opened as she walked past all the guests.  Thumbs up for Boots waterproof mascara – it really works! 

The rain stopped, it was still grey and chilly, but that really didn’t matter.  The Illustrated Chef, plus staff, did a wonderful job with the food.  The speeches were long, and there were a lot of them, but, they were moving and entertaining.  Instead of a traditional cake the boys opted for a ‘croquembouche’ which is a French desert consisting of choux pastry balls filled with flavoured cream piled into a cone and bound with threads of caramel.  You don’t ‘cut the cake’, you wallop the top off with a samurai sword!

The evening finished off with an all-girl band, more drinking, dancing, crowd surfing for Alex and Freddy, silly games, bouncing on the bouncy castle (only one minor injury), campfires with chubby bunnies competitions, chatting and hot tubs.  A fantastic day despite the great British Summertime weather and even Neil, who doesn’t ‘do’ weddings, had a great time.

Alex, Freddy, it was a wonderful day………Enjoy your hubbymoon in Koh Samui.

We have no news other than we made it home in luxury, visited family and friends, did a few property jobs and now were in glorious Somerset in the caravan enjoying country walks and seaside before heading to Sussex for the wedding of the year.

Firstly, this is a very long story so if you’re reading this and it’s morning put the kettle on or if it’s evening then open the wine now.

The year started with the death of Neil’s mum in January which, although sad, was a release for her. Then suddenly, during the summer, Tricia’s mum and dad died within the space of a few weeks of each other. After so many years together they were so fortunate that one was not left to face years of loneliness Finally, Neil’s sister-in-law lost her mother. Unlike Neil’s mum, she was lucky to remain independent to the end, living in the house that she had lived in for over 50 years and slipped away quietly in her sleep.

Before Neil’s mum died, the family agreed with her that after her death, some of her ashes would be spread next to dad adjacent to his favourite fishing spot at Witcombe Lakes. She also wanted to be returned to her native Belfast which she left during war time.

So, we agreed a date in September when all four children would fly into Belfast and spread mum’s ashes around the grave of her mother and father……”simple”? ha, we wish!

We were staying on a caravan site near to Bristol Airport and Neil’s brother Bob agreed to pick us up after picking up his sister June en route. We were on the 06.40 a.m. “red-eye” and we thought the directions for Bob and June to find us were perfect but, sadly not, and after a lot of chasing around, running through the lanes in the darkness we finally met. We headed to the airport, parked the car and raced into the terminal. We were already pushed for time and then disaster. The queue for security was out of security, all the way down the stairs and well into the check in area. We have no chance of catching this flight we thought.

We managed to “jump” some of the queue by taking the lift but Bob chose to stay in the main queue via the stairs. We needed him…..he had the ashes! Anyway, the three of us got to the security scan machine for the boarding cards that we had printed at home as directed by Ryanair. June went through and headed straight for the baggage x-ray, Neil went through but Cheryl’s would not scan. The very unhelpful man sent us back down stairs to the Ryanair desk to get another one. He reluctantly agreed that we could pass through the Priority Check In queue on our return.

The two of us shot down stairs to the desk and obtained a new boarding card for Cheryl from the totally humourless Ryanair lady. Ran back up the stairs and pushed to the front of the priority queue. Even after reminding him of our situation the equally unhelpful man running the queue sent us to the back, as ‘other people have to pay for this fast track’ which by now was almost as slow as the normal queue. Now we’re really stuffed!

We finally got to the front of the queue and Cheryl’s card scanned this time. Mr Happy commented that this was the wrong card and, just as Neil was about to add to the staff shortage and commit murder, he waived her through. Neil’s card, which had already been scanned, failed to scan! Mr Happy called on a few colleagues to try their scanners but it still didn’t work. Finally, just before Victor “Neil” Meldrew was about to scream “I don’t believe it” he called another lady over and eventually she waived Neil through.
Mrs Helpful pushed us to the front of the baggage x-ray and we were through. On the other side we somehow managed to bump into June, but Bob was nowhere to be seen.

OK, all we have to do now is find Gate 14, through the shops (why do they assume that all you want to do in an Airport is buy perfume, booze and expensive handbags??), round the corner and up the stairs. Then another “oh s**t” moment….Bristol Airport had clearly been extended since we were last here, and staring at the unending gleaming white shiny corridor stretching for miles before us, ‘the stairway to heaven’ gate 14 was clearly on the other side of the airport. With minutes to go before takeoff Neil legged it to try and get the flight held. Cheryl and June power walked as fast as possible and eventually, to gain warp drive, June took off her heels and ran in her bare feet. The three of us, somehow, made it and were astounded to find the lady at the gate was sympathetic to our plight and agreed to page Bob. Before she had time Bob arrived along with the urn…….result!!

The flight was uneventful, thank heavens, and gave us a chance to calm down, until the landing when we must have dropped the last 50 metres to the tarmac like a stone…..ka boom! Then we were hit with the Ryanair fanfare over the tannoy. “Ta Ta Ta Taaaaa… Congratulations, you have just landed on yet another on-time Ryanair flight”. Cheryl joked, ‘more like you’ve just crash landed on yet another on-time Ryanair flight”!

Coffees were in order whilst we waited for Neil’s other brother Bill who was flying in from Heathrow. Bill arrived on time and, after he joked about his very dull journey, we headed to the hire car. Bob plugged in his sat-nav and we headed for Aunty Helens house.

About 10 minutes later we arrived in the right street. “Number 59” said Bob, “I remember it being on the left” said June, “I agree” said Bob. Neil piped in, “well, if it’s 59 then it’s on the right”. We arrived at 59 and we all jumped out and stood at the door as Bob knocked.
The door opened and a startled lady stood in front of us. Cheryl thought “she doesn’t look overjoyed to see her nephews and niece after all this time ” Neil thought, “she’s changed a lot in the last 20 years..” Bob spoke to the lady and after agreeing that this was number 59 he checked his diary. “Ah, sorry, we want 56 not 59”. We all burst out laughing and Bob apologised to the very confused lady who must have thought we were dissident republicans come to knee cap her.

Aunty Helen and Uncle Alec at number 56 on the left were actually very pleased to see us and made us a much needed cuppa. We sat and chatted for ages before the five of us plus Aunty Helen set off to the grave yard to sprinkle the ashes. We arrived and Aunty Helen strode off down the hill giving the impression she knew exactly where she was going. Alas we soon found out this was not the case, so we split up to look for the grave. Now this was a seriously big grave yard, acres of graves and stones to check.

We know this story is long so we’ll cut this bit short. After a number of calls to the local council offices we were no wiser as the location of the grave. A call to Neil’s other Aunty “Big Maureen” gave us hope, ‘out of the gate, down the hill and on the right’…….we tried all gates, all hills and everything on the right. Maureen’s husband, Uncle Eddie, was the only one who knew exactly where it was but he was in hospital undergoing heart surgery. So, after almost 3 hours, and having run Plan A and given Plan B a go, we decided on Plan C…..give up, return to Aunty Helen’s for lunch and to leave Neil’s mums ashes with her until Uncle Eddie got better and he could point someone in the right direction.

After lunch, we bid Aunty Helen and Uncle Alec farewell and headed into central Belfast. We were catching a bus to Dublin as were going to stay with Hugh who we met in Malaysia last winter. We said our goodbyes to June, Bob and Bill, “see you in 2011” then we headed into the bus station.

Now, this all happened on September 21st 2010. Today is October 2nd and Bob has just emailed that sadly Uncle Eddie died in the night having never recovered from his surgery.

Neil’s mum is now back in Belfast, where she wanted her ashes to go. She hasn’t quite made it to her parents’ grave, so Plan C, Aunty Helen’s kitchen, will have to remain as far as she gets for now.

If anybody out there can make contact with Uncle Eddie……..please send us a sign.

This entry tells the story of our summer in the UK, and continues on from last year’s blog ‘It can be done!”.

It’s a bit of a cliché but it’s true – absence does make the heart grow fonder, and after spending seven months on our trip around SE Asia, we now truly appreciate this beautiful land which we are lucky to call home.

We finally got back to England in the middle of May after delays due to the infamous Ash Cloud. Green fields, bluebells, oak trees not palm trees, policemen without guns and joining an orderly queue at Heathrow immigration – it was good to be back.

It has been a great summer spent catching up with family and friends and exploring the UK in our caravan. Our tour this summer took us first to Yorkshire and The Peak District to visit Donna, Zoe and Matthew. Our regular readers will remember that the premature death of Steve, Donna’s husband, was part of the reason we took to travel. It was great to see them and so refreshing to hear them talk of him as though he was in the next room. Steve is gone but he clearly will never, ever, be forgotten. We spent around 3 weeks travelling over the Peak District enjoying long walks, National Trust and great weather.

After that it was down to Neil’s sister’s house in Gloucester for the formal opening of the “band stand” before heading off with June and Barbs to Glastonbury Music Festival. Wow, not a cloud in sight let alone a rain drop, and definitely no mud, just dust!. A fab weekend was had by all and we were glad of the bit of shade we managed to grab in the camper field. Major highlights? The Silent Disco, June’s face painting for her birthday, Pet Shop Boys, Scissor Sisters with a guest appearance by Kylie, and, of course, Rolf Harris.

Travels continued to Devizes and Marlborough where we tracked down the 8 White Horses of Wiltshire. Then into Sussex and a stay near Uckfield to enjoy more gorgeous countryside, National Trust places, walking and generally enjoying being a tourist in our home country.

Next stop took us to Surrey to catch up with Cheryl’s sister Chris and husband Andrew and girls Jenny and Fiona. Our initial campsite here was short lived as it was under the Gatwick flightpath……something the brochure just happen to omit! It was no problem, plenty of liquid anaesthetic which kicked in around 11.00 p.m. and wore off around 05.45 a.m. as the first flight took off. Needless to say, we moved on next morning to the tranquillity of a site near Horsham which also had entertainment…..a herd of cattle, mostly bulls that just made us laugh so much with their crazy antics.

Catching up with Cheryl’s family was great including a day out with the girls and, the highlight, Capel Music Festival (a tad smaller than Glasto) opened by “Love ‘n Licks”, Chris on guitar and Andrew on base……not bad for their first gig!

Back to Bristol for a catch up on post and family before heading to Brecon. Here we had a great week walking the Beacons, absolutely stunning, before catching up with Steve and Denise. Steve and Neil lived next door to each other when they were at school and got into a number of scrapes when they were kids.

We also had a great couple of days with Chris ‘n Viv who were over from Oz to celebrate Viv’s mum’s 80 birthday. This included taking the Heart of Wales Railway Line from Llandovery to Knighton, something that Chris had been promising himself for years and we finally got to share it with him. A great day out. After Brecon it was off to Pandy near Abergavenny. Once again, lovely scenery and great walking plus a visit to Hay on Wye where every other house is a second hand book store!

We left the caravan in Bristol to fly to Belfast for an eventful day (full details are in the next diary entry). From Belfast we bussed to Dublin to meet up with Hugh for a visit to the west coast village of Roundstone in Connemara where he has a lovely cottage on the harbour. We met Hugh on our last trip to SE Asia. He had been insistent that we visit him and take a look at the pics. It is absolutely superb with incredible views and a Guinness & Chowder lunch to die for in the local pub.

Finally Devon and Dartmoor for some more walking, wind, rain and lovely countryside.
It’s getting a bit cooler now and Autumn is here ……..so it’s time to head to Stanstead and a plane to the warmth!

Many thanks to all the friends and family for their hospitality during the summer – there are too many to mention all by name, but you know who you are. Also apologies to the ones we promised to visit again before we left – busy, busy, busy having great fun and sorry we ran out of time. Chapter 3 here we come.

Neil writes:

Our blog serves two purposes. First, to let people know what we’re up to, where we are and how things are going etc. The second reason is to have a copy on CD so that we can remember our life and travels when we can no longer get about and our memories are fading.

Sadly, some of the things that we write about are not just about having fun. Yesterday, January 10th 2010 my mother died. Of course I’m deeply upset but my sadness is smoothed by a sense of happiness. Ever since my dad died 12 years ago my mum has always wanted to be with him. They were devoted to each other and my father’s death left my mum deeply unhappy. Shortly after his death she had a bad stroke and, to cut a long story short, she’s been in need of constant care ever since.

For all these years she has had little dignity and whilst she has had excellent care, we really wouldn’’t allow our pets to suffer such an existence.

Yesterday, she had all the pain and suffering stopped and for that I am so grateful.

I’m very lucky to have had a mum and dad around to guide me in the formative years of my life. Many people don’t have that privilege so I count myself extremely fortunate. I’m also very lucky to have loved my parents and to have been loved by them, again something that some people don’t enjoy. My book of life now closes another chapter as we make arrangements to fly back to the UK.

So, the blog is on hold for a while but normal service will be resumed in the near future.

Carpe Diem, the name of our first travel blog, was inspired by the premature deaths of two people.

This entry explains the inspiration behind our new blog title, “It can be done”!

For those of you who followed Carpe Diem you will remember our stay on the Malaysian Island of Langkawi. Amongst many other Christmas and New Year revellers we met Mick and Karen from Chesterfield. Mick had worked for the same company since leaving school but he was made redundant on the closure of the factory.

Mick was a little younger than Neil and many at that age would feel that they had been dealt a hand from the bottom of the pack. However, unlike a lot of his former workmates, Mick and Karen thought they had been dealt a Royal Flush. He was given a modest pension, a lump sum to invest and they could rent out their house to provide additional income. This was the perfect opportunity to explore many parts of the world armed with a battered copy of Lonely Planet’s “South East Asia on a Shoestring”.

When we first spoke with them they were so excited by the prospect of travel. They were quite clearly on a very limited budget but when Mick said to us in his Derbyshire accent “we’re living like Kings us, living like Kings” we were just inspired by their enthusiasm for everything – life, travel, experiences no matter how small, you name it they just oozed a zest for life……nothing, absolutely nothing, deterred either of them.

A phrase that Mick used a lot was “it can be done”. Nothing for those two was impossible, nothing would faze them.

This mindset has helped us through a few things since we met them, when things didn’t go as planned or when things just got tough. You just need to believe that it’s in the mind and that “it can be done”!

During our summer in the mobile condo we visited lots of people to say “Hi, we’re back” and “Bye, we’™re off”. This entry is just to say thank you to some of them for their hospitality.

Our first hosts were Tricia and Paul when we were still suffering jet lag. We craved pizza and red wine and they both had the delight of watching Cheryl slowly slip into a 12 hour coma. We’™d like to thank Tricia for looking after the properties while we were away and to Paul for feeding the cat and not trashing the house.

Clive and Karen fed us the most gorgeous roast lamb dinner with bread and butter pudding to follow….mmmmmmm…..yum. These two are currently planning their trip of a lifetime and we wish them as much fun as we’ve had and still having.

Thanks to Mark, Paula and Mia for lunch, our turn next April. Rangeworthy Beer Festival. No thanks here, just a mention as it was a great night, excellent value, lots of local beers and huge slabs of cheese.

Leanne was difficult to catch this summer as she was so busy with Uni., job application and interviews. Well done to her for getting the first teaching job she applied for and well done to her for quitting after 2 months for accepting a better job offer!

Alex and Osian we’re equally hard to pin down. Thanks to both for the hospitality in your lovely new flat. Well done on an extremely successful first few months getting known to The BBC, Reuters and your P/T lecturing opportunity at South Bank Uni. Good luck with all the new business ventures.

Roy and June. Quiz and Curry Night. Prize winners…. for being last!!! …but it was a good curry. Great day on 16 Aug to catch up with the extended family and friends to celebrate Heidi’s christening and Neil’s birthday. Gail and Chris Quiz Night. Much better, not first but then not last. Plenty of fine ale and hearty laughter. Good luck to Dominik on his posting to Glasgow. Emma and Russell and family. Cheryl worked with Emma about 10 years ago. Emma and Russell also quit corporate life to run a busy shop in deepest Somerset. We tracked them down via the internet, thanks for supper and maybe, just maybe, see you next year if you need a locum.

Clive & Karen again, thanks again for good food and great company. Elaine and Steve, a long overdue catch up and one of the best Chinese takeaway ever. Sorry for the really late night and wow again at the size of the Mansion House!

Thanks to Mark, Sally and Phil for a great night out in Bath followed by comfortable bed with the best pies in the world and some of the best beers at The Raven. Gail and Chris – special thanks to Chris for his outstanding fish lasagne. The offer is still on to dog & duck sit next summer.

Roy & June – Extra special thanks to June for feeding us scrummy food and the best puddings in the world. Roy – have you finished the bandstand? Best wishes to you both on your venture as chalet hosts in France this season starting December 2nd.

Bob, Bill & Sue good to catch up over lunch. Bill have you started ‘training’ yet?

Mum special mention for Neil’s mum who looks like outliving all of us! Bob next time you visit please say hello! for me. If we have forgotten to mention anyone we are really sorry – tell us off via the message board.

Finally, it did occur to us after enjoying such great hospitality during the summer, especially in the run up to leaving, that we didn’t really need a house or even a condo on wheels to live in………….just about 183 different friends to visit over the course of a year!! There is one major drawback to this plan – you would need to purchase a new wardrobe one size bigger each month.

Part way through Carpe Diem we decided that we had no intention of resuming our former lives. The world recession clearly has lots of losers but, fortunately, there are some winners like us. With The Bank of England slashing interest rates we suddenly had an income from our properties which we hadn’t anticipated.

When Carpe Diem came to an end on our return to the UK in April 2009 we had just one dilemma – where to live? Neil’s son Paul and girlfriend Miranda had built a nice little nest in the house and we didn’t feel it was right to evict him. We didn’t need a base as we were not going to work so we moved into the caravan that we purchased just over a year ago.

The new plan was to use the caravan to travel the UK, see some old sights, visit some new ones and catch up with family and friends. We had a great summer despite some grotty weather, lots of walking, National Trust, BBQ’s and generally appreciating our own country. S E Asia is amazing but then so is the UK and don’t forget it!

We realised that around October the weather would begin to be a tad chilly, and Cheryl doesn’t do chilly, so part of the time during the summer was spent planning “It Can Be Done!”.

The picture shows our “little luxury condo on wheels” (actually not that little, fixed double bed, shower, microwave and all mod cons) which was home for the summer. It is amazing how, having stayed in some pretty small guesthouse rooms, you get the feeling of space in our caravan. Yes, you might say that 13 sqm is small but double that with your immediate outside area under the sun canopy, then add the several acres of caravan site and you have masses!

A funny story about Mike Richman. On a camp site in Somerset Neil noticed a guy in a caravan a few pitches away and said “I know you”. After an exchange of work locations it transpired that Neil used to play cricket with him for Southern Electric Head Office team in a local business league when he first started work in 1974! Well done Neil, not a bad memory since it’s around 35 years since you last saw him!!

Think about this…spend £100k on a condo and see the same view every day.  With a £11k “condo on wheels”, when you get bored with the view you just move on and find another one!