18th december Update- the development Continues

Well I have just realised that I have not put an update on the web for a little while so here goes.
The Dormer Flat roofs have been completed and the proper tiles roof is being laid now and should be ready by hopefully the end of this week.
They have started working on the partitions for the bedroom and bathroom etc and again this will be completed soon. The Electrician is also here starting to wire up the new 'Wing' and so we have about 8 people on site working today, one being away with the flu.

The 'Orangerie' finally turned up on Monday the 17th, many weeks late. It was also delayed for a further 10 days due to some bad painting I understand. Anyway they have the intention of trying to complete this and make it watertight by Christmas. Lets hope they can do it. There is a chance that the guys may work between Christmas and New Year, lets see what they finally decide. We were planning a Scotland trip over Christmas but what with the workers perhaps being here we may have to cancel. This is really not so bad as we are off to Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia for almost 3 months on the 15 th January on out Virgin Tickets which were a retirement present from the company.
The planning of the house and new garden layout's together with ordering showers etc whilst planning our far East trip was quite tiring but we have managed it. WE had planned to have the development finished by Christmas but this is out of the window and likely to be end of February when perhaps we can start laying carpets and floors etc. The next four weeks will be very busy then.

Getting there, slowly but surely

Well, we are getting there slowly but surely. After almost 18 weeks you can now see what this delevopment is all about. It seems to be raising quite an interest in passers by and a number have come in to ask questions etc, this is apart from general neighbour interest.
Unfortunatly, we have suffered delays from suppliers of the replacement windows, about 6 weeks late at the moment and we are stil not sure when they will arrive, and the Orangerie (post word for a conservatory) is also ruunning at about the same latenessbut we expect it at the end of next week. As for the Glass Link building which joins the old house to the new, well perhaps sometime after Christmas but before November 2008 I understand. This is frsutrating as unless the whole thing is watertight then they cannot do the plumbing and electric etc or even join the building together.
The Cedar cladding and shakes on the dormers makes the house look so much different. Jennifer and I spent all of last Sunday painting on the contraceptive varnish(or something like that) and that made the wood grain stand out and also makes the house less new.
We have tried to take good care of the workmen, with lots of tea, cakes and Noel even made them all bacon sandwiches last Monday as a treat.
The costs are of course not in line with budget, are they ever,but we are doing our best to keep them down hence Noel has been working outside as a labourer most of the time.
However, we have come a long way since the first hole in the ground and we still have to strip our main bedroom and also lounge once the conservatory is up to allow the rest of the work to continue. Like knocking down walls and the old fireplace and putting in new door frames etc. It will get worse before it gets better.
Luckily I still have my hair and have not aged to much, but then again we still have a long way to go.

The house development continues

Well it been quite busy just recently with the house being rebuilt around us. Its not going to plan however it is moving along. The glass atrium and also the glass orangery are running about 4 weeks late and the windows three weeks late. They should arrive at the end of November or early December and this delay means that other important elements cannot continue.

The cedar wood covering the lower part of the house is almost complete but we are now waiting for the upper floor cladding and insulation to be fitted. It is intended to use cedar wood shakes, or something like this, only there appears to be a delay on fixing these.
In the meantime, last Friday afternoon we packed our bags and disappeared over to a large shopping area South of Lille, where we visited Castorama, owned by Kingfisher who also own B & Q to look at sanitary ware, Loo's to you. The result was we purchased three loo's, three wash basins and the taps to match at a price 30 to 50 percent lower than from B & Q in UK. We have also looked at showers and again there is a huge difference in price and so we arrange to purchase those in France as well.
Well its Monday morning at 0945, the bricklayers are working, the guys doing the cedar work have not arrived and the delivery from Travis Perkins with sand for the bricklayers has failed to show since last Friday, so all is normal chaos here.
We have finalised our Australia and New Zealand trip planning and we leave mid January. We have hid to fix all the hotels in NZ as its the busy period there and this was a lot of fun working through this process but I must say that the New Zealand Tourist website is amazing, we were able to plan our trip, places to stay and locations to visit. Once its fully finished we will circulate tho interested parties..
Ken and Madelaine are due back this Wednesday morning and ken is starting to put the roof on the bedroom etc.
I have added a few pictures on this Blog but more are available on the Phanfare photo site.

Recent events

Well its been a very challenging and interesting year so far. So no real incentive to keep this blog up to date
The sad news is that Jennifer's father Cyril passed away early September after a long illness and therefore the last few weeks have all been about sorting out the estate.
However ,in the meantime , the redevelopment work started on the house in early August and will continue through to December, we hope to finish by Christmas but lets see. In the meantime Michael with his fiancee have moved house from the one bedroom flat in Aldershot to a three bedroom house in Rosneath, Scotland. About one hour North West of Glasgow. They have delightful views from their house over Gairloch, see picture.

With a view like this he will be able to see the rain quite clearly. Michael has joined the Scottish Ambulance Service whilst Celina is hoping to get a job in a beauty salon nearby in Helensburgh.

The van Michael ordered for his effects to Scotland was not big enough so a few days later we rented another van and drove to Scotland in the worst weather of the year. It took 12 hours to get there and 8 to get back. We stayed in a very nice Hotel on Loch Lomond. We did not tell Michael or Celina that we were coming and it was a great surprise when we phoned from outside their house to say we were there.
On Sunday 6Th of October we brought the caravan from its storage location in Walton-on-Thames back to Weybridge and spent many hours give it a good external clean and then took it back to storage and put a cover over it. It has been most unfortunate that we could not use the caravan this year apart from a few days because of illness of Jen's dad. Anyway it will be ready for next year when we hope to take off in late April or early May once we have returned from our trip to New Zealand and Australia which we have put back from last year.
The brick layers turned up this morning, a couple of weeks late!! so lets hope we can get back on track quickly, unfortunately the weather today is rain the whole day but the forecast for the rest of the week is better.
I will try to kjeep this Blog up to date in future now we hope that our life is getting back in shape again. Just to keep me more busy I have bought a large Casio Electronic Keyboard, I used to play the piano when younger and I hope to regain the knowledge which may mean I need some lessons, lets see.

Up, Up and Away

I have often said that I would like to experience a glider flight so for my Christmas present last year Noel arranged for me to go to Lasham airfield to do just that.
As the weather was so poor I did not get around to organising the trip until last month. So on a lovely sunny morning we set out for Lasham which is south of Basingstoke.
"So you are here for three gliding lessons" said Barry my gliding instructor. That was a bit of a surprise I was only expecting a joy ride.
After showing me around the glider and helping me into my parachute we climbed in and waited to be towed into the air by one of the small tug planes.
Up, up and away it was a bit bumpy then a loud klunk and we banked away to the right away from the tow rope and plane.
"Oh no I think I might be sick" Here I am 1500 feet up sitting in a fiberglass tray only about 8 inches wider than me with a plastic bubble over my head and an ex RAF pilot behind me.
He was busy talking about what there was to see how the stick and flaps work etc. Now he said hold the stick gently in your right hand, now push forward. Wow it was like being on a roller coaster with nothing in front of you.
And so it continued terrifying and fabulous at the same time.
By the time we landed for the first time I was beginning to relax. There were two more flights to go. Each flight he got me to take control a little more I will never make a pilot but it was a great experience soaring round and round on the thermals to gain height. We went up to 3500 feet so we had plenty of room to fall while I tried to control the glider. Thank goodness he was there.
Finally it was time to return. i was exhasted but it was worth it.

Back on the road again, well at least for 10 days

It's been a challenging year so far what with Jennifer's dad requiring considerable care and attention, however he has outlived the Doctor's expectations and keeps on going. However it's been tiring for both of us as we have also been arranging the Resident Party which took place on the 30th June.
The party was a great success but spoiled by the poor weather, rain and more rain .
We decided we needed a break and some sun. To tow the caravan to the sun, in the South of France, would take perhaps 3/4 days each way and only allow a few days on site and it would be difficult should we find it necessary to come home quickly. So after a very quick Board Meeting we decided to go to the Jebel Ali Hotel in Dubai for 10 days. We know that the weather will be hot and sunny but also that we can get back quickly if need be.

And so a quick trip on Virgin Atlantic was great, we got some good seats near the pilot on the way down, but near the wings on the way back. We spent most of the time, sunbathing, book reading and swimming. We also visited a couple of the very large and comfortable Malls for a small bit of shopping and also to give us a bit of time away from the heat. Neither of us wanted to burn and so we took precautions by slapping on the sun tan lotion. There were quite a few Brits at the Hotel who seemed to spend the complete day laying in the sun, not good at this location as it can start many skin problems later on. Oh well it keeps the NHS busy.
We also met with some of Noel's ex colleagues for dinner and lunches which was great, most enjoyable.
We did not take too many photos this time as we have visited this Hotel and Town several times before and there is no point in repeating.
Dubai has grown like crazy since we were last there in 2004, major building everywhere including construction of the tallest building in the world, number of stories not confirmed due to secrecy. The Emirates Mall, the largest outside North America, has a huge skiing area, yep that's right skiing and SNOW.

For a detailed report visit SKIDUBAI. To see the Arabs enjoying snow fights and skiing etc when it's 42 degrees outside whilst below 0 C inside was quite amazing .
We are back home now and hoping that we can start on our house development so that we can finish in time for Christmas.
Well that's the latest news from us and all the photos are on the photo BLOG

A few days in East Horsley Caravanning

Tuesday 8th May
We arrived at the Walton on Thames site to collect our Caravan. One hour later after checking everything we left for a long drive of about 8 miles to East Horsley where we arrived at about 13.30. The sun was shining and there were a few cloudy patches but we were given a great site overlooking the Lake. We spent about an hour getting the van level. The problem was that there was a depression in the ground which was not easily visible and this meant the van leant drunkenly to one side. Anyway we fixed this and continued setting up the water, loo and gas and then discovered that the 12 volt system which drives most things was not working - Damn!
After fiddling and reading all the books for about an hour we realized that there was something wrong which we could not fix. This is not an unknown issue and the caravan site had the business card of a company that they thought might be of help. We gave them a call and they will come tomorrow morning.
The rest of the evening we spent sorting out our things and making ourselves comfortable. This has taken longer than normal as we had almost emptied the van of all items. We then made a quick trip to raid the fridge at our house in Weybridge. Dinner was Lamb Navarine and rice, very nice.
And so off to bed.

Wednesday 9th May

It rained overnight and the weather for the rest of the week looks a bit damp. Anyway the engineer arrived and half an hour later after having found a loose connection in the fuse box, now we are running full speed and all systems are go..
We put up our gazebo as the weather at the moment is not too warm and to put up the full awning might be too time consuming when we won’t use it . Following lunch we walked in to East Horsley and did some shopping and came across the American owned butcher who naturally sells US Grade meat. We used to buy from this butcher several years ago. Anyway we purchased two good US Sirloin steaks. So tonight it’s steak and salad for dinner..
I will miss the Chelsea v Manchester United game on Sky TV tonight unless it’s on the radio? We shall see.
We like this place and so have extended our stay for another 8 nights, its £10.00 a night for everything and very good value. Will take some photos tomorrow and put on the website.

Thursday 10th May
Well the weather is not getting any better!!. It’s still raining and looks to continue for at least the next week. Great.
We went to the Gym this morning and the Cheslea- Man U match was being shown again, that got the heart pumping.
Had to go back home to meet with a Chimney specialist to discuss what is possible with regard to our lounge chimney and fireplace. As part of our house renovation we have thought of moving our fireplace about two feet to the right and this could mean moving or changing part of the chimney. So we met a knowledgeable technician who said it may be possible, perhaps not the full distance, but certainly at least part of the way. It is our intention to remove the coal fireplace and replace with a modern gas fire which can heat the room quickly.
Went back to caravan for dinner and the heavens opened some more, I can’t think there will be any water shortage in our area this year, we shall see. On the way back to the caravan we stopped off in Argos and bought a LCD/DVD TV for the caravan and so was able to catch up with the news and watched a very interesting re-enactment type documentary about Saddam Hussain’s daughters who were married to important members of Saddam government. It was well done but finished late.
And so off to bed.

Friday 11th May

Well blow me we woke up and it was still raining, thinking of trading in the caravan for a boat!! Anyway we had decided to take a cross country trip to another Caravan Site near Redhill. It was well organised but not so attractive as East Horsley. After that we headed back to Cobham for lunch. On the way we passed the Chelsea Football Training Ground, Oh what a hallowed place!!! There was even some fans outside waiting to get player signatures
We had a quick lunch and did some shopping and then went back to East Horsley.
When will this rain stop? Today is our daughter Joanne’s birthday and we are helping her tomorrow with a BBQ at her home for about 25 people. Should be a challenge cooking if this rain continues.
It will be an early start tomorrow as we need to go shopping for the BBQ food with Joanne.

You think traffic is bad on the M25-Look at this!

The Boeing 737 stuck in city road

By Monica Chadha BBC News, Mumbai

No-one is assuming responsibility for moving the plane

Residents of the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) are wondering how long it will take to remove a disused Boeing 737 that has been abandoned in a busy road.

The decommissioned aircraft was being driven through the city at the weekend when the driver got lost and then abandoned the plane.

The Boeing used to belong to the private company Air Sahara.

Some locals are angry that no action is being taken to move the plane. Others say it is a tourist attraction.

It appears that after taking a wrong turn, the driver found himself facing a flyover that was too low for him to take the plane under.

The driver has not been seen since and no-one is assuming responsibility for the 737.

Sunday surprise

Restaurant owner Ramji Thapar is one of the puzzled residents of the Chembur area of the city.

Pradeep Malhotra - 'My work is suffering'

He woke up Sunday morning to find the aircraft on a giant trailer abandoned on the road.

"Saturday night I shut shop and go home and everything is fine," he told the BBC news website.

"Sunday morning when I get here, this aircraft is here near my restaurant!"

The fuselage of the decommissioned aircraft, with the engine, wings and tail removed, was being taken by road to the capital Delhi late on Saturday night.

Reports say it was supposed to be used at a flight training academy.

The plane has become the centre of attraction with people coming from all over the city to take a look.

"I've been fascinated with planes and never seen one so closely," engineering student Vamsi Shastri said. "It's huge!"

His friend Ankur Rane said, "It's fascinating to see an airplane on the roads when one is only used to seeing cars and auto rickshaws."

No joke

However, for Pradeep Malhotra, who runs a catering service in the area, the plane has become a huge problem because it is parked right in front of his shop.

"My work is suffering because the food cannot be loaded in the big vehicles," he said.

"I have to load it in the smaller vans and then carry them to the bigger ones parked at the back.

"I don't know how they are going to take it out because you can't reverse it, its too big, and you can't go further down the road."

Some residents said they had not complained simply because they assumed that the authorities would be making it a priority to get the plane out of the city.

Five days on, it is still not clear who is responsible for the aircraft and its transfer to Delhi.

France Visit

Off to France we went.

This visit to France was quite important but we had such little time and so did things in a bit of a hurry. We left Portsmouth on the Brittany Ferries Sea Cat to Cherbourg, a fast but not necessarily comfortable boat, It travels at 45 knots and can make quite a splash when it hits the waves. Arriving in Cherbourg in the rain we headed off South to see my sister Madeleine and her husband for a few days. Ken, my brother in law, is helping us work on the development of Piplin House and this was the main reason to visit them in a little town called Kervalo which is quite a few miles West of Rennes but much closer to a very nice sea side town called Vannes.
Five hours later after a very pleasant country drive and avoiding motorways we arrived to a lovely glass of champagne. A very nice dinner followed with a few glasses of wine accompanied the meal plus some special wine tasting.
As a present we took them gifts to remind them of blighty, a nice bag which I now realise I did not photograph, of a selection of the best of England. Spam, Corned beef, mushy peas,baked beans,Newcastle Brown Ale, Pork pie and of course Salad Cream. It was all well received together with best newsprint we could find, The Daily Star and The Sun, complete with the busty page three beauties.
The following morning we worked on the plans for our house and then headed of to Vannes to visit the shops and look in Castorama, the French division of B&Q. Stuff is so much cheaper here than UK, up the 40 percent less so we may purchase our bathroom furniture here.

The next day we did a tour by the coast to Port De Navalo and also Port de Crousty, both extremely nice places with tons of boats. Here we had a nice lunch before heading of the see a beautiful Château which was under historic repair.

A lovely day and the weather was great and the country side was rolling and extremely nice
In the evening a few friends of Madeleine and Ken stopped by for an early drink. One of the couples we met were good friends with a Doctor friend we had known in our Hong Kong years. Small world isn't it

We left the following morning and took a quick look at the other house they have purchased which will require quite some work to make it habitable. Then to Courtenay via Rennes and Orleans and a journey of around 350 miles. A very nice day of travelling thro some great countryside before we arrived at our friends Gerard and Mirreille . We have stayed in their house before but know they have finished the building upstairs and added some new bedrooms and bathroom, Gerard did a lot of the work himself.
The next day we met Gerard and Mirreilles daughter and granddaughter. Marjorie who is 18 in August will stay with us for one month whilst undergoing work experience in Godalming.

Here's looking at you kid!!!

The next day we left early for Calais and the boat home. As the following day May 1st was a public holiday the roads around Paris were very quiet and we made good time and arrived in Calais for a 1.30 pm lunch. !20 bottles of wine later we headed to Dunkirk to connect with the Norfolk Line Ferry to Dover. We thought we would try them against P & O and Sea France. These are new ferries and very nice inside and very comfortable although it does take about half an hour longer on this route.
We arrived home at about 8.30 pm a cup of tea and of to bed.
A very useful and successful trip.

To see more photographs of our French trip please go to our Photo Blog on Phanfare. See link on side bar

We helped beat the World Record

We really really stomped on the Americans big time!!!!

At Trafalgar Square yesterday evening the English got there own back on the Americans and beating them 3-1 at the Guinness World Record Attempt to get the largest Coconut Orchestra to play Monty Python's 'Always look on the bright side of life' the famous song from their infamous film ' Life of Brian'. Over 5000 people turned up for this earth changing event. The previous record was for only 1600 Americans who turned up in New York City last year. When you consider that there are almost 300 million people in the USA and only 1600 people showed up indicates the poor state of the World. In England of course with a mere 45 millions people (sorry forgot about the immigrants) should be 60 million really, we could get 5000 people people to turn up. They actually ran out of coconuts and many people had to share.
After half -an-hour training on how to do a horses walk, canter and run and even jumping over hedges we were ready for the BIG ONE. To make it easier the set of instructions received with the coconuts helped enormously with one half of the nut marked with an 'L' and the other with an 'R' (see below)
.

Strict instruction were needed to be followed to ensure that we met the high standards set down by Guinness World of Records management because failure to comply would result in us being kicked out of the competition. This was really serious stuff indeed.
Ken Livingstone, together with the 'Python' Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones showed up and lead us to this world record. I have to say that it made Jennifer and I extremely proud and honoured to be part of this major UK event.

The BBC 10 o'clock news covered the event and it is even on the BBC website today which shows how significant the function was.

This guy was seen in the Square looking a bit lost and obviously missing an arm.

Straight out of Monty Pythons The search for the Holy Grail.

Following the World record attempt, they then showed the Holy Grail film in full.-Great.
Prior to the event we went to a little known Japanese restaurant in Chinatown and had some excellent food.

Tony Blair was noticeably absent from this event as he was writing his memoirs, four pages should be enough I would have thought. I already have the page headings
1- How I took UK to war against Iraq and failed.
2- I promise I didn't know about the Money for Honours scandal
3- How I let a Scottish idiot screw up the UK economy
4- How I ruined the Health service and the public schools system in one fell swoop.

Although a number of people thought Tony Blair was disguised as below and practising his begging capabilities. Can't see what he is holding though?


The following photo shows some of the crowds at this event. We sat next to some Americans who explained they were ashamed of their country effort





A great day out and fully enjoyed by all.

We are off to France on Wednesday to see my sister and her husband for a few days and then on Saturday we go to South of Paris to stay with some ex K+N business colleagues and also pick up some really good Champagne for our street party planned for end of June.

See the following from the newspaper!!!

Coconutters! Monty Python orchestra breaks world record

24.04.07

Add your view

The world's largest coconut orchestra, led by two Monty Python stars, has made it into the Guinness World Records book.

A total of 5,567 people converged on London's Trafalgar Square to break the previous record of 1,789 people gathered in one location playing coconuts. They were conducted by actors Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam and the cast of the Monty Python musical Spamalot.

More follows...

The crowds gather in their attempt to break the world record for the largest coconut orchestra

Jones told the crowd how the coconut orchestra originally came about while they were filming Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

"About halfway through filming we realised we couldn't afford horses and had to stick to coconuts," he said.

He and Gilliam demonstrated how two people could split and share the coconuts and play them together.

More follows...

London Mayor Ken Livingstone joined Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam for the coconut orchestra attempt

The members of the giant orchestra then demonstrated their skills with a rendition of the Python classic Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, "clip-clopping" their coconut shells in time.

The previous record was set in March last year outside the Shubert Theatre in New York, to celebrate the first year anniversary of the Broadway production of Spamalot.

Mayor Ken Livingstone said: "Yesterday's event not only broke a world record, it celebrated the unique English sense of humour, making it a great way to celebrate St George's Day."

The coconut orchestra was part of the St George's Day festivities held across the capital over the past three days, with the aim of celebrating English culture.

This year's focus was English comedy and included a free programme of film and television comedy, ending with a special screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail last night.

Spamalot, currently showing in the West End, is the brainchild of Python star Eric Idle.

The award-winning show is "lovingly ripped off" from the original film, and tells the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Piplin House Planning Permission received

Well today is a good day as we have received confirmaytion that our application to extend and improve Piplin House has been approved without any changes. I thought that Elmbridge may ask for the helicopter pad to be moved away from from new extension of the River Wey which will provide our own harbour view but it would appear to have been accepted.

In an endevour to save electricity we have ordered one of the large wind turbines, they are about 200 feet high and will generate enough power to keep Weybridge happy. The neighbours could object of course...Ha

Anyway, now the hard work starts....

It's here at last

The GrovesMobile has arrived at last!!

On Thursday last week we drove up to Dereham in Norfolk to collect our new bailey Senator Louisiana Caravan.
The hand-over took almost three hours as there quite a lot to learn about setting up all the equipment etc. As it was quite late after the hand-over and that we had booked the Caravan for a security system to be fitted the next morning approx 20 miles away we had decided to stay overnight at Barnham Broom Golf Club. A nice dinner to celebrate and early to bed.

The next morning we got up bright and early to collect the van only to find they had lost the keys, what a great start. However one hour later we left Dereham and very gingerly drove down some dual carriageway en-route to a place called Downham Market, a small but interesting little town. The security Company facility was not easy to get in to and as I was not yet fully experienced in backing this large monster back around a 90 degree bend we did cause a minor traffic jam, well minor to us living in Surrey. Anyway we got it back down the driveway and we left the van for three hours whilst they fitted the GPS tracking system. This works on the principal that if the van moves without us doing it, police, army and helicopters and parts of the European defence descend en-mass to stop them. Or so the say in the advertising booklet. let us see.

Then off to the Fakenham Camping Club site where we arrived at mid-afternoon and then we had to start working where all the plugs and pipes and bit's of metal go. We now have three security systems on the van, insurers require, and hopefully it should be safe.Three hours later after reading multiple handbooks and trying things out, we now had electricity, gas and water all up and running, but no food for dinner. So we went to the Club site restaurant for a hard earned meal and glass of wine. The bed is a little bit smaller than out king size at home but is very comfortable.

On Saturday morning we spent more time playing with our new toy and we need to buy a torque wrench to be able to check the caravan wheel nuts. No luck locally and after phoning our daughter at home to get on the Internet we went of to Halfords at Kings Lynn. We bought the appropriate equipment only to find when we got back that it did not fit. Will have to go to Halfords in Weybridge to sort this out. what a pain. Dinner in the Caravan Saturday night , a nice salad followed by a walk around Fakenham town.


Sunday morning saw us towing the van on the 160 mile drive from Fakenham to Chertsey Caravan Site where we are to stay for a few days before putting the caravan in to storage. (This is unfortunate as we had planned to go away for a few weeks in France but Jennifer's dad is not well and so we are grounded for the time being). This caravan is a twin axle type and the wheel security system requires that you get both wheels in exactly the same place so that you can thread through the security bolt only during driving ,the wheels are taking difference routes, and so we can only align one wheel. It would appear that we have to jack the van side up to ensure that they are both the same, not a great idea but at least it helps stop people stealing it. When we parked the van on the site which has its own electric hook-up, fresh water supply and and waste outlets it well organised/ The washing facilities at this site are really very good even though we do use our on board bathroom.
Early evening we headed back to our house in Weybridge, 10 minutes away to raid the fridge for food and booze as we had no time to shop. A nice evening checking over the instruction booklets before giving up and going to bed.

Well we have had a great time in the last few days, towing this monster was not that bad and the Land Cruiser is an ideal towing vehicle and just sits there and chugs away without any effort.

So what have we been up to!!

Sorry the Blog has been a bit quiet of late but we have been busy and affected by Jen's dad who is not well at the moment and hence no overseas travel for us. As a result of this we have been to the GYM almost every other day and long walks in the meantime.

We recently followed the River Wey (Canal) from Weybridge to Woking, a walk about 7/8 miles on a bright sunny morning. It's a very nice walk to do and as you get nearer to Woking there are some very nice houses on the River.

After a lot of thought and discussion, we have decided not to follow many of our friends by buying houses overseas, our first choice would be France but quite frankly as we like to move around a bit, we do not know where to buy. And if we did you can bet we would like to be somewhere else. SO, we have decided to leave our French and European travels to our Caravan which is now at the Dealers going through its PDI and we are adding a few extras, like wheels etc.

Piplin House development. We are now awaiting the outcome of our application to extend our current home. This can take quite some time and we originally applied in early January 2007 but the first application was lost in the post- a great start. However by early April we should know the outcome of the Elmbridge Council deliberations. Our plan is to pull down the current garage and utility room, then rebuild the garage with two bedrooms on top together with a new family room, utility room and further additional living area, currently called the space. At the opposite end of the house we will build a large 'atrium' which will be of a similar floor space to our existing lounge. Please see drawings below. If we get permission then we would hope to start the building work some time in May/June/July time subject to availability of people to do the work. We have a young French girl coming to stay will us in August for one month and we hope to be finished by then. We will also carry out some internal changes, by taking out some of the floor of the bedroom above the entrance hall to create a bigger feeling of space and lightness. There will be some other changes but the details are not fully finalised. There is still a long way to go on this and it will no doubt keep us quite busy.

Just to add to our workload, we are in the middle of planning the next Wey Road and Round Oak Road Residents Association Summer Party which is due to take place on the 30th June. This coincides with Wimbledon Tennis fortnight and so our party will have a Wimbledon flavour, strawberries and cream and we also expect to have a live band. This should be a good day as we are holding this on a plot of land owned by a neighbour and it fronts the River Wey. So we expect to have boat rides, tennis games for the kids and plenty of booze for the adults.

Blair is finally on the way out leaving a legacy of a mess in the UK as well as in Iraq. The similarity of problems in Iraq does to a degree mirror the past problems in Northern Ireland by having the army trying to do a policing and PR job which no one wants them to do. Enough of that however. Apart from mispricing the Dome, which cost a few billions pounds, they seem to have done it again with the Olympics for 2012. With an original budget of 2.3 billion suddenly becoming 9.7 billion in less than a year does not auger well. It will probably increase to about 15 billion at this rate.

Boy, we can't wait to get in our caravan in France and keep the radio off!

A weekend in Norfolk

We decided to take a long weekend in Norfolk as the Company that we have purchased our caravan from was having an open weekend. Why we decided to buy our Caravan in Norfolk approx 150 miles away when the local Bailey caravan dealer is only 30 miles away is a long story and not for here.
So we headed off on Saturday morning to Dereham where the Caravan Retailer is based and spend a pleasant couple of hours browsing and eating bacon sandwiches. After this we headed off to Cromer and looked around the town and pier which has been restored. Were surprised at the artist appearing in Cromer, see some of the pictures on the PHOTO BLOG, including Joe Brown and 'The Bruvvers' and Marty Wilde. I though they were dead!
We then headed back to the Hotel we had found on the web. This was called the Barnham Broom Golf and Country Club which is outside of Norwich and surrounded by rolling hills and two golf courses. This was a great find, they Hotel was very nice and also quite cheap, Bed, Breakfast and 3 course evening meal for £105.00 for two people. The food was excellent and so was the Hotel and we will return.
On Sunday we went to Wroxham and a few miles we parked and did a long walk through the country before heading to the coast and have a quick bite of lunch. The weather was not to bad, a bit breezy and some sun every now and again but we enjoyed our walk and the views. This area is very quiet in January compared to the height of the season when it is packed with holiday makers.
Back to the Hotel for Dinner, which was again really excellent. Monday saw us doing a four mile walk around the Hotel and Golf Course and then down to the local villages. A very pleasant walk indeed in very nice countryside. At about 1130 we left to visit the home of The Essex Pig at
Jimmy's Farm, for those who watched the BBC TV series it was about a East End London boy who decided to run a farm and revive the 'Essex Pig'. So we visited the farm and bought some meat for later use. Then we headed to the dreaded M25 early to try and avoid the traffic which we were successful in doing.
A very pleasant weekend indeed and one that we will repeat.

The Hillier Gardens in Hampshire

The weather today was bright, although on the chilly side, and after many days of rain and wind and more rain and wind it was time to get out of the house and do something.

We had previously stumbled upon this large garden whilst driving in Hampshire a couple of years ago and so it seemed like a good idea to re-visit and spend some time there. We arrived after a slow drive in the countryside and immediately hit the restaurant for a cup of tea but changed our minds when we found that bangers and mash were on the menu.

Afterwards we looked around the estate of about 180 acres and although is was mid January there were winter daffodils already out and also the camellias were starting to show.
This garden would be great to visit later in the spring when everything is growing and this we shall certainly do.

Noel took a few photos which can be seen on the Photo Blog if you are interested.

The web site for the garden is http://www.hilliergardens.org.uk/ this place is well worth a visit and the Bangers and Mash are great to.

A pleasant drive home through the River Test Valley where there are some beautiful homes.

New Year's Day London Parade 21st Birthday

What a beautiful morning after a very good night at our friends Gerry and Toni Wensley. Together with some other neighbours and friends we celebrated New Year's Eve in a fine way.
We decided to visit the London New Year's Day Parade again as we had missed it last year as we were in Florida. So we caught an 'earlyish' train up to Waterloo Station and headed across Westminster Bridge to join the massive crowds.
We found a good spot near the start and the sun was shining down although it was low in the sky which did cause me a few photo problems. Anyway enough of that.
Around 10,000 people took part in the parade with at least 1,500 visiting from the United States of America. There were cheerleaders as well as many marching bands. Some of the bands carried out great choreography whilst delivering their music, a fantastic sight to behold and much appreciated by the growing audience.
Apart from the many bands, there were floats from many of the London borough councils.
Of course the pearly Kings and Queens were there.
The Parade started with the Choir from Walker Valley High School in Tennessee singing the British National anthem followed immediately by the Honda Goldwing Club of Great Britain. The parade lasted almost 2.5 hours without a break and some of the floats were truly great whilst some of the Chinese dancers were terrific.

The colourful outfits worn by many of the participants are seen on our Photo Blog site.
It was a really great way to spend the first day of the year and the weather stayed bright and blue for most of the day.