Well its been to long since last entry-so here we go

 Well its been a long while since I wrote an update and mainly due to the fact we have been very busy plus a brief wasted visit to the caravan in Somerset. Unfortunately we did have a lot of problems with the house which took some while to resolve and after engaging with the top management of Octagon developments we were able to finally resolve them all pretty much apart from a couple of things.

There has been a lot to learn about controlling the underfloor heating, air ventilating system, new kitchen and utility equipment and so there have been  few mistake as well. There re t least 14 different thermostats controlling bathroom floors and room temperatures and when we moved in they were all on different settings, with incorrect dates and timing and other values and after some investigation we have installed a wireless system to control them all, it could not have been done before due to lack of internet. The site mistakenly covered the Virgin Media (pit) they call it with four inches of tarmac and steel plate and so there was a big problem but with a lot of shouting and stamping feet we got it resolved.

Our near neighbours are very nice and only 9 houses have been occupied for the moment with others coming on stream during the next few months and the good thing is that slowly but surely the delivery companies re beginning to find us without difficulty thus avoiding the challenges we experienced in the first few weeks of moving in. In early December they were able to move the side fencing and carry out some extra paving for us and so we have gained a good storage area and now waiting for help to put up the new storage units we have purchased. Needless to say COVID19 has had a big part to play to making our lives difficult so we cannot do what we want. In early December we paid a brief visit to the caravan with the intention of adding extra awning support rods which were due to arrive upon our arrival, but they did not arrive until we had left the site and now we are unable to visit to get them fixed up and so hoping there will not be to much snow.

The Utility Companies that the developers had signed up with were not our choice  and to change should be simple but the British Gas Company were so disorganised that eventually I had to go to the ombudsman to get the matter resolved so that I can switch to my preferred supplier, two months of hassle with Brutish Gas was an absolute nightmare.

In the interim we have has the garden sorted with lots of new plants and its looking quite good if only it would stop raining as the ground is soaking wet and we hope that it does not damage the plants, we shall see.

The house now has vertical blinds pretty much everywhere for privacy and Jennifer is starting to make curtains but we are also waiting for some new built in furniture to arrive mid January and also new beds and so once this is all complete then we can finalise which curtains will go where.

We have had to cancel our trip to Florida until further notice as the state of Florida is suffering very badly with the virus whilst our travel insurance company would not cover us with all the problems and so we will have to wait till later in the year and then decide what to do. On 31 May 2021 will be our 50th Wedding Anniversary and so we have booked to go on an Eastern Mediterranean cruise starting from Istanbul and ending up in Venice, but will have a few extra days in advance of the cruise to enjoy some extra days around Istanbul, which should be great.

Well its now just after Christmas and unfortunately due to the COVID bug again our plans to have all the family stay with us could not happen but not knowing that the Government would change the lockdown rules we had ordered  turkey large enough to cater for ten people plus extra with all the other stuff you buy at Christmas which is all now residing in the freezer. Oh well will eat it sometime. New Years eve was usually with friends but its most unlikely that will happen and together with Chelsea current poor performance its not been the best of Christmas. But better to stay fit and well rather than risk catching the bug… Oh well its 2021 in  a few days and just hope that is better.

Where have you been they cried aloud!!!

Oh boy where has the month gone since the last blog. After leaving the caravan for West Byfleet and staying in the Hilton for a few night whilst we moved in to the new house which became almost solid with boxes, yes much to much stuff. There was still some furniture we wanted to donate to a charity, any charity, but nobody was able to take due COVID reasons but finally our removal people Luxfords came to the rescue as they were the suppliers of storage space to a local charity and so when unloading the containers we were able to pick out the stuff we did not need and put it back on the van for them to take it away.

Just about every room was full of boxes and so it took nearly three weeks to go thro them all and sort out what we need and don’t need, one of the problems is that in our last house we had loads of ornaments and photos everywhere but this house the window sill are not wide enough to support anything so what to do, we shall probably have to sell on some stuff and Noel has been in touch with a local Auston company who seemed a bit interested.

Although the Octagon development has an excellent reputation it has not really rubbed of on this place and we have almost a catalogue of faults and error and some being of crass stupidity, wires dangling dangerously from electric towel rails where two out of three don’t work to a loo roll holder that was fixed so close to the sink vanity unit it is impossible to put on or take off the paper roll. We have had issues with the electric lighting which initially it had a mind of its own when to turn on and off, to equipment in the plant room not working and so I have been very busy trying to resolve but hindered by two main events.

1- The house is located on a new road on a new estate and so because it not on google or sat navs delivery drivers even with detailed instructions did not bother to try and find

2-  Virgin Media systems did not monitor the completion of the houses also it will take about a month from when we moved in until we get hi-speed internet and still working from our slow MiFi

So trying to chase delivery or organise the office many companies do not recognise the address and make up an alternate address.

But we soldier on and slowly but surely we will get there and the house is beginning to take shape, still lots of sorting and stuff to buy but hopefully by Christmas we might be where we want to be ad ready for the new year.

Oh well lets see what happens over the next few weeks

Not long now to our move

Well after nearly 3.5 months in our Caravan in Waterrow, Somerset we are getting closer to moving to our new house in West Byfleet. Earlier this week we paid a flying visit to WB and then was able to spend approx 2.5 hours roaming the property, not so much to find faults, but just to check on how matter were progressing.

We had hope to find a fully completed house inside but when we arrived the carpet layers had been running late and had not finished and so there were bits and pieces and other work tools around the place. On an earlier visit amount one month ago we discovered that the walls had been painted the wrong colour, which has now been corrected, so this time to check to see if anything was missing. We have been trying to work out where all our furniture will go as we believe we have to much which is always a problem when downsizing. When we got back to the Hotel that we both awoke overnight with the same though and ended up having a cup of tea at 3.30 am and working on layouts, phew not the best thing to do.

Its now getting so close that we should consider ordering certain new equipment that we need such as washing machine, dryers, lawnmowers etc etc and also lots of racking to the garage and also for the storage area on the top floor. There will be a lot more stuff we need but cannot order until we are in situ but at least we can prepare for the event. At the moment full legal completion should be on Friday 2nd October and we plan to leave the caravan on Sunday 4th October and arranged for the keys handover at 1000 on Monday 5th and so we can make final judgements on furniture positioning, or not as the case may be.

Most people when they downsize at our age tend to go for a bungalow but of course we are little different and go for a smaller house with double the amount of stairs which might be challenging to the male member of the family.

The house in on what was the Broadoaks Park Estate and country house which is currently being renovated as are three other historic buildings on the site and it is a private estate and so we should not have the parking issues that Wey and Round Oak Roads are currently experiencing.  The garden is a lot smaller that the last house and should be easy to maintain, we hope although we may call in some gardening design people to see what they suggest.

Anyway the next few months will be quite interesting and perhaps even challenging.

Three nights at the Tortworth Park Hotel- Wotten Under Edge

We tend not to take photos of bedrooms as they often looks a bit messy but we took photos around the hotel grounds which are extensive and they are on a our photo website. On the first night Noel had to go of the special menu and and asked for a steak medium status but it arrived nearly well done which I pointed out to Jennifer and it was obvious that the waiter noticed and came to apologise but as I was not to bothered, but rather hungry had started to eat it, but we discussed the matter and he suggested a new steak and I said it wasn't necessary but five minutes later a brand new steak turned up after I had already eaten about 2/3rd’s of the other one so needless to say started all over again. Food was excellent but the menu was limited due to COVID and as I did not want the same thing again the next two days we decided to explore nearby where we found a nice pub serving Sunday lunch we we duly enjoyed. The weather at this time was really superb and warm and nice to sit in the garden under the umbrella passing the time of day listening to music etc.

Following a very nice three nights in Cotswold Water park we moved on to stay at another deVere Hotel Property near Wooten under Edge in Gloucestershire and this Hotel was a a beautiful old house that has been very nicely restored and could be just like a nice club house with rooms.

On the last day we went for dinner at another pub with not quite the same ambience but the food was also good and of course a lot cheaper than the hotel. Finally after three nights we had our breakfast, must wear your masks whilst attending the buffet and all around the Hotel, not really good, but must be done and then we left for our drive back home ie the Caravan in Wiviliscombe and went via the Costco shop in Bristol where we stocked up on beer, wine, steaks and sausages etd before getting back at around 1500hrs

It was nice to have the break as we were getting a bit itchy waiting for the house to be finished. Anyway Noel is off to Lanhydrock in Cornwall tomorrow for two nights with friends to play golf, should be fun…

 

Three nights at the De Vere Cotswold Water Parks Hotel

Well we had a great three nights at this Hotel as we felt we needed a break away from the caravan and the chance of a proper double bed and somebody else to do the cooking and no need to empty the chemical loo, heaven!.

Our journey from Waterrow took just over two and a half hours and we were able to check in right away in to our Studio Apartment which was quite large but a view over the garden and car park rather than the lake, oh well, better luck another time. We spent quite a lot of time on the first and second day in the room with walks to dinner and as breakfast was being delivered on a daily basis although not suitable for Noel which required a walk to reception to collect some bacon and scrambled egg buns. On Friday we went for a longish drive going via some of the lovely Cotswolds Villages and also some shopping in Waitrose Cirencester which was a big ship and with the café newly opened we tested out a cup of tea and a cake before heading back to the Hotel. In the evening we went to the Boathouse restaurant but the choice of food at the Hotel is limited by the amount of chefs they can have working in the kitchens which is such a shame.

In the evening we watched a bit of BBC Tv and I can honestly  say its quite rubbish and I am am not sure what type of audience it catering to, certainly not us and so I doubt I well re-sign up for a BBC licence when most of the time we watch streaming stuff.

After a nice nights sleep on Saturday morning we headed off to our next hotel…..

A day trip to Penzance by train

Well after several weeks living in the caravan and not being able to go away overseas as we normally would we decided to get out and about a bit more but leave Somerset for a few days and so for the first day out we have booked a train journey from Taunton down to the end of the line in Penzance.

And so an early morning for us getting up around 0730 and we left the site just before 0830 en-route to Taunton station, we went a little early as we have no idea how busy the parking is and just to be safe and eve though we got stuck behind school buses and road works we arrived in plenty of time to find that the train was running about 20 minutes late. Oh well!!!. We had booked first class tickets to ensure we would not be in a crowded train and the arrival board showed that the first class carriages were at the front of the train so down the station we went and board the the first coach only to find afterwards that the first class was at the back of the train and so off we went to claim our correct seats.

The train journey took about four hours and passed thro some nice country and then along the coast line in one place we could see about three large cruise ships parked and we eventually arrived in Penzance in the bright sun and it was really lovely and the place was buzzing. We walked along the coast line in the direction of the restaurant we had chosen and it was very nice and we both had the largest scallops I think we have ever had and then Jen had the fish pie and me a large steak and we saw this off with a bottle of wine. The food was lovely but the service was extremely slow and by the time we had finished we had to go back to the station for our train which noel thought was 16.15 but on arriving we checked out tickets and it was actually 16.50 although Jennifer discovered that actually there was no 16.50 train and so we had to rush to connect with the 16.15 which got us back to Taunton around 20.00 hrs. Of course you had to wear your mask on the train at all times and also there was no buffet service so you could not get a cup of tea.

It was a most enjoyable day out but were were both rather tired by the time we got back to the caravan. Tomorrow we have booked to stay away for six nights with three in the Cotswolds and another three nights in a interesting hotel in Wotten-under-edge in Gloucestershire.

A very busy last week getting the caravan ready for winter

As we have not really ever caravanned in the winter we recognise that we have some things to prepare so as not to have a frozen water system either in or outside the caravan.

So with a trip in to Taunton we purchased some very thick insulation to wrap around the pipes and then this took a couple of hours to fix and also in the recent storm the carbon pipes moved quite a bit we followed our neighbours advice and purchased some jubilee clips to hold all the pipes in place. We also changed the water outlet to two rather than the one to ensure there would not be any risk of one pipe freezing and blocking the other and so over the few days it took to purchase and complete allowing for the poor weather all is complete. The weather was so bad at one point that the wind was so strong that it blew over over our gas BBQ.

Finally as part of the clearing up process we stripped the contents of the awning and laid down new plastic to protect the rubber matting and then moved the refrigerator to the far end of the van and so inside the awning it looks so much nicer and much tidier.

We are also changing the control panel in the van as the current one is old and getting quite difficult to read and so the during the annual service on Saturday 12th the engineer will hopefully fit it. The site has been quite full in September and according to Jamie the site owner they are pretty much booked up fully for September and also October which is great for them. The demand for caravans and motorhomes this year has been enormous and it has been quite difficult this year to purchase a new van as the manufacturers were closed and the only stock second hand or what the dealer had on the forecourt which was immediatly sold out. Sites have been overwhelmed with bookings and one small thing I discovered was that there was a big shortage of chemical toilet stuff and so I have had to stock up big time to cover us thro the next couple of months.

Anyway we plan to have a few days away from the caravan not because we are bored but we do like to travel around and so we are in the process of fixing up a few days away and also it helps if the days go by faster that we can get to house move quicker, we shall see what happens.

 

Where has the time gone??

Well time seems to have flown by in the last few weeks with us enjoying time with the family plus a trip back to West Byfleet to see how the new house is coming along.

So starting with the house visit a couple of weeks ago the journey up was appalling with with heavy rain all the way but when we got to to Weybridge we were unable to visit the Cafe One which has been a regular haunt and ended up in a new place for a a bacon sandwich for lunch followed by Noel getting a haircut for the first time in a few months. We stayed the night in the Hilton Cobham, good rates and near West Byfleet, and then we went to building site and found that our house was being painted, which is great, but the wrong colour which was not so great. Because they were painting we could net see anything really as all the kitchen and bathroom furniture was covered so not really a good visit but they have in the meantime repainted the house as required.

We found that on the Wednesday night when we were there that all restaurants were fully booked due to the Government assistance and so we had difficulty finding somewhere but e chanced upon a Fish and Chip restaurant in West Byfleet which had a special room upstairs, called Jane upstairs, where we could enjoy table service Fish and Chips from down stairs plus a bottle of wine and its walking distance from the new house.  Following that we did a quick visit to Waitrose across the road and it at least twice the size of the one in Weybridge and we are really hoping they have as good a fish counter as the Waitrose in Wellington, Somerset, time will tell.

Last weekend it was Noels birthday on the 22nd of August and it was great that our son and daughter and connected families were all together in Taunton and we could enjoy their company and have lunch together in the local farm shop café which was really nice. It was fun to watch the kids demolish ice cream sundaes.

We have experienced very strong winds and rain during the past week and the awning was taking a battering and the locks on the legs not holding and then the neighbours suggested putting jubilee clips on and so on last Monday we went to Wickes in Taunton and got some jubilee clips and also some pipe insulation for later this year to stop all the water pipe freezing up. We fitted the jubilee clips on Tuesday and that required a complete tightening of all poles and this resulted in a much tighter and stronger awning.

Well this is being written on yet another wet day, in fact very wet and it has not stopped all since we woke up. We did have ideas of going to the seaside and eat fish and chips in the car but changed our minds as its so bad weather wise and opted for a steak and salad in the van and then a pleasant afternoon nap. We also recd a photo of the repainted front entrance and downstairs corridor from the site including a photo of the guys preparing the front pathways, looking good.

This Covid thing keeps on going and is ruining daily life for millions of people but I suspect as some time we will just have to accept just like the flu and hopefully they can find and antidote soon as the number of deaths is working its way to one million which is not good at all. Oh well lets see what happens.

Various comments on life

Hi. Have just watched the full footage of the arrest and killing allegedly of George Floyd which has caused riots all over the world as this was classed as a racist attack. The Washing Post that rubbish newspaper printed a report as they were the only newspaper allowed to see the complete tape which clearly indicated that the police were very much at fault, but when you watch the video from start to finish things are not what they seem. Why they did not publish the video earlier I do not not know but in the meantime the BLM were calling for the death penalty or at least being charged and jailed for murder but once you see the full video, there is perhaps no charge to answer for. The guy was drugged up to to the eyeballs and already complaining he could not breath even before the police touched him, take a look .

Anyway this single event has caused the riots all over USA and Europe and all were incorrect. A well known Black American has said that Black Lives only matter when there is a white man involved but in the majority of cases its black man killing black man which nobody seems to care about in the daily press? you work it out.

A  bit quieter week last week after quite busy few days in the pervious week. We have decided to buy a new television for the caravan as the current is is a bit small and when you watch a film with subtitles its a bit difficult to read. This TV has been excellent but we had a small one as we were using it on our touring holidays and it needed to be packed away each time we moved location and a bigger TV would have given us a storage problem but now being fixed in ne location we have jumped for a 18 inch to a 28 inch smart tv which is really great. We were planning a lunch out with our daughter but the usual places were packed out due to the current government incentive on Monday to Wednesday inclusive and so we visited Waitrose in Wellington and bought salad stuff which we ate inside as the weather had turned rather wet.

Lexus seem to have buggered up the installation of the Wi-Fi hotspot in the car by allowing the dealer to put in a part which was not fully supported. This problems has resulted in endless phone calls and three visits to Exeter over the past three weeks but know they seem hopeful t may be finalised next week, we shall see as I have told them if it does not work by the end of next week then money back please.

We resorted the layout in the awning and its much better with lots more room and all it took was ten minutes and a bottle of wine!!! Ha not true but now its easy to use the table in the awning for eating rather than having to fight our way past relaxer chairs.

The caravan site is still quite full and is apparently so for the rest of August and in to September which is really good for the site owner as they had a tough start to the year. COVID 19 has impacted everybody's life during this year and there still some stupid people out there not following the rules of social distancing and its appears its is mostly the younger generation and the Asians who all live in large families and close together and as one Mayor said that many of the people in Leicester who cam from Bangladesh did not understand either written or verbal English and totally ignored the requirements of social distancing.

Moving on lets hope somebody sorts out the every growing amount of people crossing the English Channel in Boats is its dangerous enough and its the French Authorities are supporting it seems with the   government taking no action, send in the submarines….that's what I say.

Finally Chelsea lost, as expected, in Germany yesterday with only half a full team, lets hope that Frank can sort it out.

Quite a busy week really

As the weather was nice ths last week we decided now that we have pretty much sorted the paperwork and the caravan that a few days out would be nice so as Noel was committed to a Video Conference on Monday lunchtime for an hour or so we planned to take a trip out on Tuesday and Wednesday as follows. So on Tuesday we drove over to the old town of Dulverton for lunch at the Copper Kettle which we have visited before and had a very good lunch indeed although the service was a little on the slow side but they had tables well spaced and and the staff wearing either masks or facemasks.

On Wednesday we took a trip down to the Clatworthy Reservoir and walked around there for a while and then headed of to Wimbleball Lake which was quite busy with a lot of campers and people on the lake fishing and sailing and so we stopped and had a cup of tea and a cake before heading back via all the small country lanes to the caravan for a quiet evening watching TV and packing for the trip up to the smoke, as they say.

On Thursday we drove back to Weybridge area for both of us to meet u with friends at two different locations but then we ended up together and finally left to check in to the Hotel just before 9.30 PM but a lovely day with friends whilst Jennifer's group celebrated her up coming birthday. On Friday Jennifer had a dental appointment then Noel had the car seen to at the Polish car wash before Jennifer met with a group of lady friends in out old road whilst Noel did the same and had lunch in the steak house in Ottershaw followed by a few glasses of plonk in the beautiful garden by the River Wey whilst watching the boats and canoes etc go by.

We had enjoyed two nights in the Cobham Hilton Hotel and although we had been offered beds by friends we do like to have our on space and not be beholding ,as they say. We then headed to see our son and daughter-in-law and grandchild for a light snack sandwich lunch before we headed to the dreaded A 303 which we new woud be slow and in the end we diverted via Salisbury to miss the usual huge delays at Stonehenge where peope seem to stop driving normally and look at this pile of stones whilst slowing down the traffic and having accidents causing even more delays.

We finally made it back to caravan with a trip that was about 45 minutes longer than usual but in time to see Chelsea to get beaten in the FA Cup Final, shame as they started of well then followed by two serious injuries and an incorrect sending off, so bit of a disaster really.

Oh well we have a much quieter week next week apart from a planned trip to Exeter and Salcombe.

A few interesting days

As reported in the last Blog we planned a trip to Highbridge near Burnham on see to a caravan dealer to look at other awning flooring but frankly after about 15 minutes it became clear that the good stuff from Isabella was really expensive whilst we already had some of the cheaper stuff and so we left after buying loo chemicals, so not exiting visit. From there we went to Burnham on sea which was quite crowded and we had intended to visit a little beachside café for a snack but it looked crowded with long queues and with little car parking space we agreed that this was a waste of time and so went shopping in Wellington Waitrose then home for a fish dinner. The fish counter in this shop is the best we have seen of all supermarkets either in Weybridge or near us now.

Last week prior to visiting the West Byfleet new house we visited Lexus in Exeter to have a Wifi Hot spot fitted  similar to that in the Land Cruiser, or previous vehicle, this was due to take an hour and bit but took three hours and since then it has not worked. After lots of phone calls and email complaints it now appears that instead of fitting the requested unit where I have to supply my own SIM card they fitted a brand new system to Lexus, the trouble is it doesn't work yet. Apparently Lexus are introducing this new system on all new cars in the UK starting soon but as those cars were not in the UK they have not finished the set up and so here I am holding the baby having paid lots of dough for a superior system which does not work and they are unable to also advise what the running costs are as it is not set up yet. This is rather annoying but lets see what happens.

On Wednesday we had lunch with our daughter and grandchildren and then Thursday paid a visit to a bed retailer and eventually ordered some new mattresses for the caravan as the existing ones are quite old , nearly 9 years, and we both seem to be waking with back problems. They are of course not standard size and have to be made to measure which always puts the cost up but now we are waiting to find out what the delivery time will be.

We have pretty much got really organised know with the van having a been completely sanitised  from end to end and so know we can relax a little more knowing there is not much to do except the odd day out and shopping.

The caravan site is quite busy as you would expect after everybody being locked up for so long but when speaking to my brother in law about visiting Salcombe he said it is a nightmare there at the moment with so much traffic chaos and although we were panning a visit as in the previous week both of us had attended either a dentist or other crowded places we decided it would be wise to stay away rather than risk either catching or passing on Covid to the family.

Just seen the news about the three travellers who were charged with manslaughter rather than murder after dragging a policeman to his death. a disgusting decision!! what has happened to real Law and Order.

I am also a bit pissed off with the BLM protest, its rubbish as proven by the fact there are so many black people who have been successful either in sport or other professions it just goes to show what you can do if you work hard. And as for the BLM movement in America I understand there is a movement to try and close down the Democratic party as they had actively encouraged Black slavery for many years, although they have tried to deny this, and with the intention of closing down the Dem party, sounds good to me.

Oh well its fish for dinner tonight and some TV..

Well its been a busy couple of weeks

Well following the announcement that caravan sites can open we urgently chased the opportunity to move to the caravan ad so we did on the 6th of July via a night stop in the the White Hart Hotel in Wiviliscombe.

It takes a littlw while to set up a caravan for a long term stay as there many things you suddenly need which you do not need for short terms holidays but after two weeks being here we are are now well organised, well nearly. We had to purchase a few things to aid creature comfort but now beginning to feel we are in our other home for a while. During the past couple of weeks Noel got his health results back and they were good which is pleasing but then on about 8 days ago broke a back tooth and so we decided to take a look at the new house and see how it was coming along and therefore we had a quick trip back to Surrey and stayed the night in the Cobham Hilton Hotel which was nearly deserted and no restaurants but not a bad price for such a good Hotel.

The visit to the new house was good and we have approx. completion date of 2nd October but this all depends on no more COVID outbreaks and the work catching up on site whilst they appear to be selling or at least reserving a lot more so we will not be the only people in the state it seems. The kitchen units are part way fitted as is the ovens and fridge freezer but still a lot to do throughout the building but the quality is good. The garden being being fenced off and looks bigger that they that had advised but will measure in due course.

The weather in Somerset has been really good and in the last few days we could actually do some sunbathing, well at least sit in the shade as neither of us like lying in the sun and trying to look like an African.

We had a nice visit to see all our grandchildren in Somerset when Michael and Becky came with Ethan to stay with Joanne and Tim and family and so was able to get some nice candid shots of the kids, much better that the formal ones.

We are on a nice site which is quite large right at the end of the caravan park and mostly surrounded by other seasonal pitch people who only appear for weekends mostly and so it fairly quiet. We decided to get yo know our neighbours and invite them round for drinks and nibbles on Saturday night but they all brought their own drinks  and so the effort to get some good wine and beer was wasted except no doubt we shall just have to drink it ourselves.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip up to a caravan retailer to look at awning carpet followed by lunch and then a tour along the coast back to home and if the weather stays as nice as it is now it should be a pleasant day out as we think we deserve it.

So here is a photo of our home for a while..

Nearly there

Well finally they announced that Caravan sites will open on 4th of July and so we can go to our once the existing caravan can be moved which is due to happen today and so we are planning to travel down to Wiviiscombe via our daughters house in Taunton then pen the night in Wivi and collect our baggage trailer from the Storage Container with the view to getting the awning up and the caravan ready for occupation the same day. We had originally planned to leave the apartment on Monday and then via Taunton to Wivi and that would take about four hours out of our day and we need the time to set up the caravan whilst recovering from the journey as we are not getting any younger.

During the past week we have seen friends in Reading and Weybridge and over the next couple of days need to reorganise the post box to forward our mail to the caravan site in Waterrow. We had a visit from Michael and Ethan yesterday which was lovely and great to see such a beautiful growing boy who is almost potty trained and less than two years old. We have decided to help Michael purchase a new car as his existing Volvo is very old but now has done 145000 miles and not reliable which is the last thing to have when you are travelling with a young child and dog and of course a very important wife.

We will be reaching our 50th Wedding Anniversary next May on 31st 2021 and have been considering how to celebrate and have finally decided on a cruise in the Eastern Med and so late May we fly to Istanbul and then take a Seabourn Ships cruise around the Greek Islands and finishing in Venice, but we also plan to have a few extra days around Istanbul and perhaps other places in Turkey but we have to work an an itinerary.

Noel has had his 5 year cancer check up with a blood test and CT Scan earlier this week with the result being advised next week, its a little slow at the moment as all resources are busy due to COVID but hoping for a good result. Also had a biopsy on my leg where there is a wound which will not heal and so waiting for the NHS to report back and if there is any delay then will go private as my insurance will cover this.

Have been watching the shenanigans with China over Hong Kong where the UK has offered a special citizenship to nearly three million people, where we will put them I don't know but then again a lot may be living in the Uk currently, we shall see what happens but the Hong Kong Chinese are very industrious people and very hard working and if they come to the Uk they will add something unlike other nationalities currently residing here.

The death toll due COVID is very bad but difficult to compare to other countries as the stats are produced in a different way by each country so we will have to wait but the problems in the USA and Latin America is very bad as is further break outs in Australia and Germany so we shall have to be careful.

Finally on BREXIT the EU still does not seem to understand that we do not wan their rules and regulations because if we do accept then they can still rule what we can a cannot do and it looks like our chief negotiator is doing an exvellent job as he is really pissing off the Mr Barnier and his colleagues in crime.

Well we have left our home of 40 years in Weybridge

As some of you may know we have decided to downsize our house to something a little smaller, not a lot smaller, but just a little smaller and we have just exchanged contracts on our new property in West Byfleet built by Octagon Builders who have a very good reputation.

Following Noels health issues in 2015 it made us think what would happen if there was just one of us to live in this rather big Piplin House and then the need o move would be more important and any moving is challenging. So in early 2019 we put the house on the market with a local agent at the time that the country was in strife with poor Government and everybody debating BREXIT and so the umber of viewings was very small and so we knew we would have to wait a bit. At the end of January after quite a few viewings had taken place as now we had a stable Government and Brexit would take place the market picked up and we received an offer on Piplin which after some haggling we accepted.

So where to go, over the previous year we had visited a number of areas but not really looking at specific houses but to look at the area and the house price within but really did not see what we would like and meet our criteria for the future. We had visited a new building site in West Byfleet and decided the concept was nice and after thinking about it overnight decided , lets go fo it only to find the house had been sold later that afternoon, damn.

Over the next few weeks in Florida were were offered several others on site and then finally one that was Ok was offered as somebody had to withdraw and down went the £1K deposit and over the next few weeks in Florida we had to do quite a lot.

Moving forward a few months we have moved out from Piplin with some cash in a safe place and now waiting for September for the house to be finished as all this COVID19 stuff slowed down the build. In the meantime we are in a rented apartment in Wraysbury near Staines waiting for the caravan sites to open so we can move in there.

So now time to kill and try to relax and plan the stuff for the house which we hope to see for only the second time next week as they should have put the stairs in, we hope.

These two anchors should be left in the sea

Well when you have two very vicious middle-aged women fighting to see who can become more well known than the prime minister than you automatically think of Laura Ginsberg and Emily Maitlis of the BBC ( the Biased Broadcasting Catastrophe) . Watching these two supposed intelligent females is like watching hyenas snapping at each other each trying to get the dead meat on the desert floor. The BBC has really gone down hill and entered the level of other broadcasters by reporting both fake news and some they have just twisted to suit their own ends.

They should be left on the bottom of the ocean along with all the other rubbish.

Its about time that Government broke this pile of rubbish up and hived of the so called news programme which nowadays is the ‘OUR BIASED OPINION CHANNEL’ and sell the other off to the highest bidder and close down all the enormous salaries being paid for by the the British Public.

What a load of old rubbish!!!!!

I fully agree with Alan Sugar

Finally the numbers are improving- but should it have happened?

Well finally the number of deaths around the world sees to be dropping and many countries are now trying to re-open and allowing people to return to work.

As usual there still to many newspaper and TV journalists all trying to point a finger at the Government for handling the pandemic badly but as previously expressed its hard to handle what you don't know about as just every country of the world has discovered. If we had experienced with great pain the SARS bug then we would have been prepared a bit more to handle this thing which hangs around for a couple of weeks and then pounces when you least expect it. One good thing it appears to leave children alone but on the bad side it is hitting hard at the elderly and frail and those with other health challenges and they appear to be in the majority of those people dying. Non whites are also badly affected and there is a current study in to why this is and it will very interesting to find out why.

We were hoping to spend some time in Europe this year and also our caravan which is based about 25 minutes from Taunton in Somerset but all caravan sites were closed in mid march and so now its nearly four months since I changed the battery and so I hope its holding up until we can get down there, perhaps after 1 June there are some indication there will be more relaxation of the rules.

On a Political note, labour have a new head chef and bottle washer who makes a good appearance then discovers that not doing you homework can creates a problem when quoting government stats. Thank heavens Boris is OK after his bout of Covid as he is the driving force behind the Conservative Government and of course whilst he was away the press loved to say ‘Rudderless Government ‘  and ‘Out of Control’ what a lot of bullshit, if up pardon my French. Also the press like to adapt the truth and then ask questions back to the originator and hope they agree with adaption. Its a shame that the British Government does not bite back to the Press as Trump people do which is good to watch.

On the US front it looks like that the Obama regime were up to some naughty stuff as ‘OBAMAGATE’ has now appears to be a hot topic and what with the famous Mt Biden being unable to remember his name!!! really he is not electable and they desperately need to find somebody else as Trump will surely win again, but then what do I know.

The weather is improving a bit and the leaves are out on the trees and the grass is growing at last spring is here. lets see what the next two weeks brings.

As my Dad used to say!

As my Dad used to say, there is a lot more people dying now than used too. Well I do not underplay the current COVOID19 issues that are reeking havoc around the world and it will no doubt continue for quite some time to come. The daily death count is morbid and fascinating at the time as statistics never tell the complete story. For every death in the family many other people suffer for  a long time after having lost a loved one and often the breadwinner so the death not only causes grief and loss but could put that person in financial difficulty as well.
I have been watching the daily figures issued by the UK and other Governments around the world and beginning to think that nobody dies of of the usual things any more end so I did a quick investigation to discover what the figures would like over the past few years
In 2017 the number of registered deaths in the UK was 607K or 11.6K per week whilst in 2018 the number of deaths was 616K or 11.8K per week. The number of daily deaths report for COVID19 is misleading and it is the day the death is registered rather than the day of death. See following chart for 8th April 2020 for reported deaths where the total is 818, however these also include deaths from March as well as other days in April
Table of the date of COVID19 828 deaths reported for the 8th April.
Date
Number of Deaths
07-April 2020     135
06-April 2020     306
05-April 2020     162
04-April 2020       93
03-April 2020      63
02- April 2020    23
01-April 2020     17
31-March 2020   1
04-March 2020   1
Total
828
The population of the UK is estimated to be 67 million people out of 7.8 Billion worldwide. The UK death count for COVID19 is as of 12 April 2020 10.5 K since commencement and recognition of the disease which started being noticed I think in early March and so since the first registered death in March it is now approximately  six weeks since that event and based on the usual death rate nearly 70000 people would have died anyway based on normal statistics. So on top, or is it, that another 10.5 K people have died so we have start worrying are the figures being misrepresented by people having the Covid19 virus but died actually died of the flu. In the winter of 2017/2018 over 50000 people died from flu, but did we close down the country?
In the USA there is a chance that figures are being manipulated by hospitals for purely financial reasons. It is alleged that MEDICARE would pay a hospital US$ 13K to deal with a case of FLU but call it it COVID19 and let them sit next to a ventilator the cost would be US$ 39 K and so there is a view that perhaps the figures are not entirely accurate. Already questions are being raised as to the professionalism of the Dr Fauci the senior specialist for the USA Government seeking for alleged political reasons to grow the matter , who knows whether this is true or not. Governments are known to control the country by using the ‘fear factor’ as was the conspiracy theories for the 9/11 attacks, scare the people and they will do what you say. An American Doctor reported on TV that it was alleged that a person knocked over by a bus with bad chest injuries and when arriving at the hospital was found to have the COVID bug was classed as a COVID death and not due to the accident, ow often does this happen.
We should take a close look at the German COVID reporting figures as they seem low by comparison to other countries worldwide, surely it cannot be just down to testing? there is a chance they are not the usual deaths from FLU.
So we have stayed at home and following the strict guidelines issued by the UK Government with neighbours attending to our shopping needs but also this is having an affect on our intended house sale and potential move with Solicitors furloughing staff and most working from home and so lets seen what happens this week as we hope to be informed of the Contract exchange dates although its most difficult to agree a Completion date with the the current UK Lock-down. Ah well lets hope this is just a distant memory next year at this time and also wish that the world economy pull through, we shall see.

Its so much easier to criticize than actually do something useful

Over the last few weeks since we returned home we have spent some time looking at all the reports coming in from around the world and appalled at what this Virus is doing to our world. YES the virus appears to have started in China but that is no reason to blame the Chinese as they did not DO IT ON PURPOSE as it has also killed many people in their own Country. China many tears ago when we first lived in Hong was seen from a hill overlooking the border to a small town called Shenzhen where locals risked great danger in reaching the safety of Hong Kong. Apart from the army patrolling the border there were numerous sharks patrolling along the shores looking for swimmers and many Chinese lost their lives this way. And when they did finally ‘touch base’ in Hong Kong they lived in the most appalling conditions on hillsides with shelter from the elements only being tarpaulins or bit of plastic but they were glad to get away from the so called secretive Society. My early business travels to China were also very interesting as we were always warned be careful what you say and do as you are being watched.
In the 2004 Jennifer and I did a two week tour of the most interesting parts of China on a tour organised by The China Travel Company and the tour leaders were very careful to ensure that our holiday was being monitored. On one occasion we wanted to avoid yet another nice garden but just go for a walk and they looked at very suspiciously and made us promise to be back in 30 minutes or else. On two other occasions on this trip we left the tour group to go with some of my ex business colleagues to visit other interesting important tourist sites and again the tour leaders panicked as we were leaving???
Today you can fly to Beijing then rent a car and drive just about anywhere and do just about anything and Shenzhen has changed from random old wooden sheds in to an amazing metropolis of skyscrapers and on the outskirts factories producing the stuff we all buy in shops all over the world. Of course China does have some secrets just like any other country but what I do not like is the blame being attached to a secretive China that told no one about the growing problem of a virus, they did tell everybody once they had established it was a growing problem. This virus perhaps could have started anywhere that bats live?? as the early speculation is that is started with people easting bats in China, that does not appeal to Western tastes but the Chine population have always so. When we lived in Hong Kong their was a saying that people from Chine mainland “ would eat anything with legs, except a desk or eat anything that flies, except and aeroplane”.
Other significant viruses have come from other parts of the world than China and we do not go round beating people up for starting ,say, the Black death or FLU . Another thing that gets me is always the EX… The ex Minister for Health, the Ex Prime Minister the ex this and the ex that, and then you have the so called experts who only complain and never do positive or take action themselves. In the UK they are blaming Boris for everything related like they are blaming Mr Trump, to my knowledge neither Mr Johnson or Mr Trump have a medical degree and so are called upon to listen to experts and you can bet if you put six medical experts in one  room they would all disagree with each other in the way forward in solving the COVID19 problem. If you want to blame anybody about the UK response then blame the previous Prime Minister and ex Minister for health and even the ex Chancellor of the exchequer as they all new the results of the test carried out by the NHS to see what would happen in a major virus outbreak and the final report apparently was so bad that it was put in the safe for nobody to see. Had they reacted to this report then the UK may have been better prepared for the current virus handling. Spending money on Aircraft carriers where don't have even the aircraft capable to land on them plus many other military financial mistake has cost this country a fortune over the years, many hospitals could have been built, many more Doctors, Consultants, Nurses et can have been employed for the cost of just one of the aircraft carriers. Quite frankly with so many atomic bombs around the world which people are afraid to use in case somebody tries to answer back with another atomic bomb is also another pointless exercise.
One finals point yet again directed at our famous bogus press is the publishing of reports by EXPERTS who are mostly not named and yet have strong views on how they would resolve the matter or would have handled it differently which is always very easy after the event.
remember
STAY AT HOME- PROTECT THE NHS-SAVE LIVES

A busy few days since we arrived home

So having made the rather difficult decision to leave our Florida home about 15 days early we are now faced with some rather cold weather for the first few days but then eventually it improved for about a week with bright sun and temperature in the mid 15C and started the difficult task of adjusting to the new time zone. In the meantime our buyers were having some challenges with their legal people but hopefully now resolved.

With regard to the current Corona Virus 19 epidemic which is sweeping the world , although when writing this today about half a million people have been affected with just over 30000 people dead which is really not good. However what worries me is the statistics which show some misleading information with countries using obviously different methods to record the infected and deaths and some countries have an alarming death rate per hundred infected compared to others, this is odd. Also most people seem to be dying from CV19 rather than the plain old FLU which affected many people in the UK in recent years, in fact there are figures showing that in the 2017/2018 period over 17000 deaths were recorded in the UK, so is there confusing in these stats, who knows and only if you do a post mortem can you really understand if they died as a direct result of the CV19 disease or were they just suffering from it whilst dying from FLU, perhaps we will never know.

In the UK there are many complaints the the Government did not handle this correctly and yet if you look around the world the same applies to all other Government’s as well it seems, certainly in Europe where the death rate is very high in Italy and Spain don't tell me they were prepared as no government or health service can ever be prepared to handle this type of event. So why is this??? Well when just about all Governments around the World spend absolute fortunes on purchasing Military Arms just in case we need to attack somebody or to defend ourselves from another power but if we did not spend this money we would have enough money to invest in healthcare to the extent required. Can you just imagine how many Hospitals and Staff we could have now if that money had been spent this way.The last major wars involving Western Powers were the Mid East in Iraq etc etc which have now pretty much finished as all involved parties have had enough unnecessary bloodshed with nobody ever being a winner. In fact there are many losers if you around the world today with the amount of people leaving many Mid East and African Countries for a better life elsewhere and taking major risks in doing so. perhaps less on arms deals and more spent on feeding and housing those people affected by the wars. NATO and UN really do sort this out because the heads appointed to these organisation mostly come from little known countries, one wonders if they are put there for that reason in that they wont get involved when USA takes on somebody, who knows.

It is also impossible for a Country to run with only 60% capacity all the time, France can do this in places but the cost is enormous and people always want lower taxes and more free services which is incompatible

Coming back to CV19 even the EU could not coordinate the response, and the so called Schengen Agreement allowing free travel is dead and buried, at least for now. There were lots stories floating around about and American Scientist who was working with the Chinese to help make this virus but this is mostly untrue, however who can you trust nowadays?, you cannot trust Governments and you cannot trust the Global Press who just love a sensationalist story and if they cannot find one they make it up by using that famous word COULD  or even AN EXPERT SAID  News papers are a nightmare.  Having watched the recent Government updates from Number 10 with reporters all asking very stupid questions when the same question is asked every day by a different reporter is surprising that the Government spokesman don't lose their temper and often asking inflammatory questions and/ or twisting the words of the speaker!!!! I don not trust the press anymore as its impossible to tell fact from fiction.

here endeth’ todays lesson

THE WORLD HAS GONE Completely MAD!!!

Please see the following chart which gives an excellent overview of the Corona virus 19 around the world, you can also access it everyday at the following link
VIRUS REPORT

So at the moment you have approx 150 thousand people affected and 70 K recovered which quite a good rate and is growing better every day.,. but somehow we have this really urgent need to empty the shops of toilet paper and anything else we might need as though  there was about to be a World War.
People have stopped travelling and now wearing masks which make no difference whatsoever unless you carry the virus and then should be at home and keeping away from people. 
We are still Florida with our originally planned scheduled to return on the  the 31 st March, but now all hell has loose with people stopped flying and Airlines grounding thousands of aircraft and laying off staff, its really quite ridiculous. So now we have rebooked our flight nearly 2.5 weeks earlier than planned as if we wait any longer then flights to the UK may also stop.  We now return to cold wet weather and no swimming pool at 33 C and  BBQ dinner outside in the evening listening to the birds. There are 37.2 billion people in this world and if 20% off them were affected I would accept the conditions imposed by countries about travel
Some weeks ago we saw some wild boar's accross from us having fun, see photo

There are many people who do not like the US President and perhaps he is not the best of speakers, but sometimes if you are good at your job its really not important ow you present. I do get fed up with the smarmy politicians with lovely smiles and great teeth and brilliant at presenting but most of them were pretty rubbish at doing the job, this applies to pretty much every Western government, as fas as I can see. I do remember a very good guy in my ex company who was an excellent computer technician and he new everything there was a to know. In small group discussions he was excellent but put him in front of a group of people to explain how the systems operate and how they should be used was a complete disaster.

This morning we visited another house in Rotondo West which we have booked for next year, its not yet complete but we could see what it would be like going forward and its enormous, its amazing what you get for £ 400K here. There is a huge deck area  eclosed in the lanai with a really good swimming pool and nice views over the wider part of the canal. Also it much nicer fitted out in the kitchen and bathrooms than other houses we have stayed in so looking forward, providing the virus problem has been resolved, to staying there next year.
Oh well back to the pool.

The PRESS is an ASS

Here we go again, the press have nothing accurate to report and so they make up headlines to try and shock people. Can you imagine why they should ask Juergen Klopp the Manager of Liverpool what he thinks of the Corona Virus and his reply to the various reporters during the past week has been classic intelligence. He says he is just a football manager and no expert on medical matters. You might as well ask the UK Chief Medical Officer  should Liverpool play a 4-3-3 and should they rest Salah. They also  tried to ask both Piers Morgan and also Mr Brexit himself Mr Nigel Farage and they both distanced themselves from the subject and they are not medical experts.
Have also seen this morning that Prince Harry was made to look a ‘charlie’ with a pretend phone call from Swedish ECO Activist Greta Thunberg, this apparently was on two occasions. What makes people do this???. Harmless jokes can be OK as once in my early years we had rather a silly guy on our booking office that when approached by the London Zoo a certain Mr Wolf, that they had a large snake to ship out he asked what size was it and they answered laid flat out out or rolled up?? NO harm but just a bit of fun, but this stuff with Harry is a bit much. Perhaps they should contact the Grand Old Duke of York and pretend to be his ex girlfriend whom he allegedly met in the Caribbean on several occasions? now that would be an interesting phone call.
Have just seen the budget basic information, looks like a man with no arms chucking money about. Good to see the large investment in Weybridge at the Government Research Centre which actually is in Addlestone, but Weybridge sounds so much nicer..
Life carries on pretty much the same each day with time spent swimming, blogging, reading and swimming with the occasional shopping. Food prices here are quite low although eating out can get expensive as they put recommended tipping amounts on the bill of 17.5%-20%-22.5% which compared the miserly approx. 10% in London. Quite frankly we don't care if we do not eat out as we can easily enjoy good quality home cooked food following our various Costco raids. We bought four huge steaks in Costco Sarasota a couple of weeks ago and each steak would and does feed three people and the pack of four was US$ 38.00.
Having watched Chelsea whip Liverpool and Everton recently and then see Tottenham play like they had no interest in winning was quite poor.
The Noel Groves biography is coming along quite slowly and I try to spend about an hour a day on it but as you go along you keep remembering bits that you did not include or that you might have even forgotten. I am up to 1985 now and about 60 pages, I am beginning to think its going to take until the end of this year to finish.
Most airlines are reducing the number of flights and even Virgin was reportedly flying empty rather than lose their airport slots, how silly is this?. We are due to fly out on the evening of the 31st March back to London Gatwick and are expecting to here at some time in the near future about possible flight changes. Lets hope our airline does not go bust in the meantime.
Well that's it for today the pool beckons'.

Rotondo West Holiday Home

This is our third year at Rotondo West, Florida after being given information from a friend who stayed here some years and said it was nice. Its very easy to find somewhere to stay in Florida providing you book early enough and I don’t mean weeks I mean a year or more. Each year the SNOWBIRDS as they are referred to come down from the North American States and also Canada to escape the harsh winters. They either fly down and rent a car and stay in similar places to us, or others with a RV ( recreational vehicle) often the size of a huge bus make their way down and park in one of the many RV Sites which are all over Florida, some a really excellent places with swimming pools and restaurants whilst other a bit more out in the sticks often look rundown. Did you know that 1 in 10 of the US population live on what they call Trailer sites, some of which are pretty horrible and its a big sign of poverty in a country which seems to haver it all, but does not.
In our past years of travel in various places in USA we have been appalled in condition some people live and its not unusual to see a couple of really beautiful houses next to run down old houses with the yard filled with old cars, cars which have outlived there day but they could not afford to pay for the return for recycling and so they buy another car every few years and when it dies they just dump it in the yard and get another one.
Anyway back to Rotondo West. This is a huge site of about 35000 acres and it has had a chequered history. The original idea was to be on the East Coast of Florida in the Palm Beach area but although some of the ground was obtained it crashed financially soon after. Then some years later somebody thought the concept was great and purchased some old farmland which was subject to flooding, a bit like the rest of low lying Florida, and started a huge sales campaign in the North of the Country and people started putting down money for their dream home and each month they would get a status report, such as the outer wall are up, or the electrical work has started , the kitchen is being fitted whilst customer were still sending money but actually nothing was being built and it was huge con.

The owners were found out and so another entrepreneur came along and actually started to build houses but of such poor quality that owners started to complain. This last owner was funnelling money to his Gambling Companies in Atlantic City and finally it was again taken over by a new investment company and banks who were also owed loads of money and together with the residents it has become a great place to live. There are still quite a few plots for sale and you can buy a plot and build a three bedroom house with pool for about £ 250K and for £ 350K you could two lots and a huge 8000 sq ft house.
The residents activities are huge from gold, to to tennis from flower arranging to mah-jong, you name it somebody has a course for it. There are currently about 4000 houses with a population of around 9500. One of the original ideas of this site was to have business enterprises in the centre of the site with people living around but after a while and the history of the site this finally never happened. It is also a deed restricted site and so compliance is important, you can park an RV or a boat on the driveway permanently and so an area has been set aside where you can park them away from the housing. Englewood is the local town and Port Charlotte is not that far away and in these two areas everything is available from shopping to restaurants, cinemas, hospitals. Hospitals in this next of the wood advertise their services and if providing A & E services near the hospital on a main road you will see a signboard giving the average waiting time to be seen. The longest I have seen of the many signs is about 18 minutes.
We seem to have a different house each year and this one we are in is the nicest and not overlooked although the swimming pool is a bit to shallow one end but the temperature up and till today has been good but now it looks like the heather has broken and so let hope they can fix it quickly.We have already booked for next year Feb/March 2021 , we could not get this one as already fully booked but the one are renting next year is pretty much just across the road and in the process of construction. It might be ready before we leave here and so we can take a look.
Its a little cooler, yesterday and today and down to about 24 Centigrade yesterday and up to 25 today and then back for the rest of next week to 27/28 C, Unfortunately the pool heater seems to have stopped and so we have asked them to repair as soon as possible.
Time for a coffee!!!!

To put Corona-Virus in a true perspective

This is what 100,000 people look like

This photo is of Kyle Field Stadium in the United States of America. It hold just over 100,000 people which is the total amount of people known to have contracted the Corona –Virus. Within this stadium you will see one smallish section which seats 3000  people, which roughly equates to the same number of people who have died from the Virus. The number of people in the world today is not fully known but in 2017 it was 7.2 billion and expected to be 7.7 billion by the end of 2019 and so looking at pure numbers its a very small amount indeed.
By comparison, whilst not underplaying the risk see following figures.

Road Accidents.
On average their are 50 million people affected by road accidents with 1.35 million deaths
Smoking and drugs
around 20 million people die each year from drugs and smoking
From Cancer
Nearly 10 million people year DIE from cancer apart from the millions who are cancer sufferers.

Again I am not downplaying the subject but highlighting how the press has got it totally wrong. Yesterday their was a photo of a store in UK where all the toilet paper had been taken, what it did not show you was the next day that all the shelves were stocked again. Today whilst shopping in the local PUBLIX Supermarket (very much like Waitrose) there at check out was the National Enquirer Magazine, that pillar of honesty, with the headlines 100 million American with catch the Corona Virus and at least three and half million will die. I would presume they based this  on another set of  USA figures that show that there about 100 known cases of people infected with about 6 deaths so far recorded and most of the deaths were due to people having other challenges. People who smoke or take drugs or have high blood pressure and Diabetes and are over 70 are more likely to than a six year old kid that doesn't smoke or have any other illness. Also please remember the population of the USA is roughly 330 million and so with 14 people dead as of today and perhaps 120 affected. If you are good at percentages you can work it out.
On UK TV just recently they interviewed a woman who had bought enough stocks of food and toilet paper to last out a long war and she had obtained over 150 cans of food plus a lot else and then she had the audacity to blame the Government  for the problem of shortages and price rises. If she was an intelligent woman which clearly she wasn't she did not understand that by overstocking and causing others to do the same, aided by the stupid newspapers and TV Companies, that it would create an artificial shortage which has the effect of raising prices to which she was again blaming on the Government quote ‘Who Cannot be trusted’ , actually the quote should really refer to her.
Creating food shortages is always a worry but who will  be the most affected, perhaps your granny who is in a care home and  even another family member in hospital for an unrelated illness could suffer as food supply has been totally disrupted by these stupid people.

OH Well back to the swimming pool

An interesting but frustrating few days

Well I am not sure if I have mentioned before in this Blog but we are in the process of selling the house and generally downsizing. This is a result of the cancer issues I experienced recently  and now, for the moment, considered free, but you never know. So in discussion with Jennifer we decided that having a really large and car moving forward does not really make sense as neither of us would like to live in the present house which so beautiful but rather large.
In November the fantastic Toyota Land Cruiser was sold and a a much smaller vehicle from Lexus purchased and also its a hybrid so we are joining the partly electric brigade. The thought should just one of us be living in Piplin was to much and the work involved in selling and moving is also tough perhaps when recovering from the loss of a loved one was to difficult to consider and hence the house on the market. Three days before we left the UK we agreed a sale price and matter passed to Solicitors and sometimes no news is good news but suddenly not in case as the buyer has started hesitating for reasons to be fully  established anyway lets wait see what happens over the next few days.
So what do we do when in Florida, we are no good supporters of restaurants as we can as a good a dinner at home as out and at less cost but most importantly for Noel we know exactly what's in it. In our earlier visits to Florida we have been out for dinner and I enjoyed the fried coconut prawns and not knowing that Coconut and deep fried food is not good for me caused me many concerns on the way home in the car, I don't want to repeat that. Similarly Pizza seems to upset me and again after a pizza I really need to look for a loo pretty fast, not a way to enjoy an evening out and so if we do go I choose boring if not repetitive to avoid unnecessary anxiety. Talking about anxiety I read today that in a documentary about Bill Clinton and his relationship with Monica was quote ‘To overcome some of his anxiety’. Not sure Jennifer would fall for that line.
So in addition to not going out much we do shopping, go to the local market and general read, swim , eat with the occasional glass of wine. However this year I remembered that in early 2015 and on a cruise from Southampton via the West Indies and Panama Canal to San Francisco  with some days with not much to do I had started to write a brief history or biography about me and eventually Jennifer as I often think that it would be really nice to discuss with my Mum and Dad and also their parents about their lives and growing up in France and during the war and what it was like having babies during this time, etc etc. And then it occurred to me that perhaps our children and their children might be asking the same question at some stage in the future and so I started writing a biography which |I thought would take not long to do. Upon returning from the cruise I planned to finish it but somehow never got around to it and then in June 2015 the BIG C arrived and I totally forgot it.
Well this year I thought I would start on it again and have finished in a couple of days but somehow as you start writing it all starts to flood back about painting my uncles car to a big accident in France to moving to Hong Kong and suddenly I am to 60 pages and only at 1978 with a lot more to go so this will take some to complete but eventually I hope to pass on to family members to read or use as toilet paper if they have not be restocked the shops  after the Corona Virus outbreak.
The Corona Virus is certainly a worry but in terms of comparing to the amount of people dying from car crashes or drug overdoses and many diseases the amount of deaths and people affected is minimal and yet the Newspapers are in panic mode driving the fear so that shops are emptied of home essentials and  using anything they can get their hand to cover their face although it does not make a blind bit of difference. Having lived in Asia for many years and understand that the locals wear a face mask when they are ill, Ie if they have a cold or fly they ear a mask but you don't wear a mask if you are fit and well and so you can tell who to be near or not.

With the crazy things people are now wearing such as face mask, plastic bags and boxes and anything else they think will work is quite stupid as its generally known that hand washing and not touching your face is the best way forward. Flights are being cancelled by the thousand, shops are being emptied of stock thereby creating an unnecessary shortages, the world has gone mad and supported by the media and social networks.

Lets hope they don't cancel our flight home on the 31 st of March as we will be stuck in the hot sunny weather for a while longer..could be worse though!!!