The Caravan - Collection Date

On Saturday we collected the caravan from the dealers.  After a very long lecture about how to use a caravan, plus a demonstration on moving it, hitching it to the car, and unhitching it from the car, we had a turn at trying to remember how to carry out the demonstration. As I am not one to pay close attention to instructions, I probably failed the actual test.   Luckily I had Walter and Steve paying extra attention to detail.

Then we were off, with Walter driving and Steve and I paying close attention to his driving methods and to the traffic around us.    And there was plenty of that on the M25.   But we managed to get through the tolls, and around a few corners, without any mishap.   Finally we drove down the narrow and long entry road into the area where we stored the motorhome, and now the place for our caravan.

Today I started unpacking our belongings, retrieved from the motorhome last week.   Where to start?

Our mattress cover fits, thank goodness, except on the cutaway end, where Walter's foot should be resting, when he is in the bed.

Now this will be a head hazard.   The television cupboard hangs over the end of the bed, where I will have to clamber out during the night.   I hit my head twice while making up the bed.   No doubt I will learn.

What is this?   A carpet.   That will be going, definitely,

and replaced by a plastic mat, washable of course.    Much more hygenic.  The toilet bowl swings around, just to reassure people who may wonder where one puts their legs and feet, when sitting on the toilet.   There is a shower curtain which circles the shower tray.    All very compact.  The handbasin is outside the bathroom.

So I have everything more or less ship shape, or in this case, caravan shape.   Still a few items to come from the motorhome, and then sort the storage area under the bed.  

Next week we will spend time practising hitching the caravan to the car, and then unhitching it again.    And making sure that we turn off the caravan mover, and disengage the mover wheel from the caravan wheels.   We were warned about how expensive this could be if we forget.  

By the way, the coffee machine, sits on the television turnstile in the television cupboard.   It is now possible to turn the coffee machine around to get at the water container.   Coffee is more important to us than television.    Must get one's priorities right.

Sunshine. Hurray.

After a very frosty start this morning, there is now sunshine.  Weak sunshine, of course, but so much better than dark grey clouds and gloom.  Such a welcome sight.  Really lifts the spirit.

And Walter, after three days recovering from his BAHA surgery, was keen to face the world.  So we both went out and tackled a few jobs outside.  

Walter took four bags of tree cuttings to the recycling depot.  I had been collecting them during the past two weeks as I cleaned up the garden and cut a few shrubs back, a never ending job in the garden.

Then he scooped up all the excess soil from the area at the front where we put our bins on collection day, and managed to half fill one of the large potholes in the road.

Then I wiped all the windowsills down, which had turned green with all the damp warm air.  And finally I put compost on the rhubarb area.  Two stalks of rhubarb were starting to poke through the soil.  Not time yet, even though the weather has been mild.  

So now we are lounging in the conservatory, in a little bit of watery sunshine.  Much, much better.

Rain, rain and more rain

We were woken up at 5am this morning by the sound of the car alarm.  No not a car thief, thank goodness.  The cause we think was the very heavy rain falling onto the bonnet.

And it is still raining heavily, and will continue to do so for the remainder of the day.  And for this coming week as well.  In fact the weather has been fairly wet for a few weeks now, and gradually getting darker during the day too.

And we are going to be here for the whole winter, no escape to the sunny summer climates of Australia and New Zealand for us either.  We will have to stay put in the northern hemisphere.

So what to do.  I could clean, repair and paint the cornices in the study.  Or have a good clean out of the books in there.  Or dust under the desks.  Or read all my photography books thoroughly so that I can use my camera more effectively.  Or read the novels stacked up on the dresser.  The list is endless.

But right at this moment I need some sunshine. Just a little bit.  Now I could go to Bluewater, the shopping centre where there is permanent artificial sunlight and plenty of sparkling lights.  But that is not real sunshine.  

I will just have to listen to the sound of heavy rain on the conservatory roof.   And be thankful that at least I do not have to be in a school anymore, with children getting ratty because they cannot go out to play.

Red Wine - Oh No.

This is wine, honestly.  Knocked off the side table.  With my elbow.  And no I was not drunk, far from it.  I had only taken my first sip.  

It went everywhere, as red one does when it is knocked over.   It looked impressive, bright red against the cream carpet.

The glass did not break, by the way.  Due to landing on nice soft carpet.

 After I recovered from the shock, I grabbed the salt container and sprinkled it over the bright red splotches.  A panic response really.  I remembered the salt trick from  the Australian dinner parties of the 1980s.

The salt brings the wine to the surface and diffuses it somewhat.  Well this is what I hoped would happen.  

I left it for two hours.  Oh my, our beautiful carpet, ruined, either by the wine or the salt.

I swept up the salt, mostly bright red by now, and underneath the salt the colour was more pronounced, but it appeared to be on the carpet surface.

A rummage through the cupboard and hey presto, some liquid left in the 1001 Stain Remover container.  Good for getting out stains, including wine, from the carpet.

So I promptly sponged the area using stain remover and a little water, and within minutes the stain had gone.  There does appear to be a shadow in this photograph, but not noticable, when looking at the floor.  Could be just the pile of the carpet.

I breathed a sigh of relief.  The first accident, to our new cream carpet.  And quite a drastic one.  Red wine.

So today I went to the supermarket and stocked up on all sorts of remedies for spillages on the carpet; 1001 Stain Remover, white vinegar, baking soda, washing soda.  Apparently pouring white wine onto the red wine neautralises it.  A bit of a waste of white wine, but desperate measures call for anythimg at hand.

I am now all prepared!

BAHA

Walter arrived home from hospital tonight, with his head bandaged, and looking as if he had been injured in an accident.

But no accident, thank goodness.  He had been fitted with a BAHA, a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid.  This is a titanium implant placed in the bone behind the ear and a removable sound processor attached to it.   It works through bone conduction, where the bone acts as a pathway for sound to travel to the inner ear without involving the ear canal.

Of course Walter does not have the removable sound processor attached to it yet.  This will happen in a few weeks time, when the wound heals.  A fantastic piece of equipment for those people who suffer extreme hearing loss.

We are also very impressed with the service by the staff at the Medway NHS Foundation Trust hospital in Gillingham.

A Moan

I must get this moan out of my system.  And the best way is to put pen to paper.

During the past few weeks we have experienced frustration, distrust, amazement and disbelief.

We went through a period of blaming the country, the politicians, British attitudes and the downturn in the economy.

But in reality we were hit by three organisations that gave us the runaround, and were not very honest about their actions.

The first organisation, the local Skoda dealers, who did not have anyone in their service department, who could locate a new ECU for our Skoda.  They had an out of date catalogue and when they typed in the model number of our Skoda, the answer came back as 'this model does not contain an ECU'.  So instead of contacting Skoda.co.uk, they gave us answers such as  'It has been ordered', 'It will be here on Friday'.  'It has not arrived yet'.  And of course it had not been ordered at all.  What liars. Their most recent excuse was, 'We were short staffed'.  Go on, pull another leg.

The second organisation, the motorhome repairers, have have had our motorhome for five months and it is still there.  Initially they blamed the delays on the length of time it took to get quotes and parts from Italy, then their excuse was they were having difficulty locating a roof panel. But five months!   Does it take that long?  A definite case of inefficiency, I think.

And finally the telephone company.   I know the problem regarding the telephone was my fault, as I tried to get it unlocked before a trip to Australia. And the phone was only two months old and locked to a network called o2.   I had not been told it was locked to the network as part of the contract and if I tried to get it unlocked it would invalidate the warranty and permanently lock the phone.  So when I changed networks, guess what, I could not use the telephone with another network, even though my contract had finished with o2.   But honesty in the matter.  No.  Everytime I rang I was told someone senior was dealing with it.  Finally a brave person informed me that the phone was permanently locked to o2.  Maybe I was naive when I entered into the contract, but at no time was I told about the 'locked phones policy'. Nor about the conseqences.

Moan over.   I need to move on.  

And I have a new phone, paid up front, and no contract.  And it is unlocked.  I made sure of that this time.

And the motorhome should be finished and ready to be collected, next week.  Let's wait and see!

A look inside our caravan

Walter found a link, which shows the inside of a caravan that is the same model and design as our caravan.

http://youtu.be/AhxsXK-2LPY

Finally - a caravan

Yes, we have finally done it.  After finding a caravan on the first day of looking, and losing it because someone else got in first, we have found another one.  A little older than we wanted, but in superb order due to it belonging to a very fussy owner for ten years.  It is a 2004 Ace Award North Star caravan, fixed bed and bathroom in the back, fully equipped kitchen in the centre and comfortable lounge in the front.

A lovely side picture of the caravan, but not of me, due to talking at the same time as the photo was taken, no doubt.

The front view, with the 'sold' sign. I am hugging an old towel and a foam kneeling pad.  I had the task of crawling under the caravan in order to check that all was well.   No spiders either.  Not yet anyway.

The door.  On the English side.  After two motorhomes and two caravans we finally have an English van, with left hand side door, oven, grill and three windows at the front.

And soon to be paired up with our Skoda Superb Elegance. Should go well together.  Once we learn all about the intricacies of driving a car with a caravan behind it.

And our lovely motor home.  For sale now.   Passed over in favour of a big car and a caravan.

Ever onwards, towards our next adventure.

Dog Sitting

No, not baby sitting, or children sitting, but dog sitting.   During the day, for a whole week.  Now Donna was here also, but she worked during the day, so we had Poppy all to ourselves.  Lots of walks and cuddles.  Poppy loves cuddles.

Of course Donna, got plenty of Poppy cuddles when she got home from work.  Poppy's favourite position is sitting in a most unladylike position on Donna's lap.   Such a spoilt dog.

Poppy waiting for her walk.   Looking very keen.

Most of all she loved walking in the woods.   And luckily it was still quite dry there, otherwise we would have had to wash her down after every walk.

There were plenty of new smells to discover.

 Poppy standing very obediently beside Donna.   A well trained dog mostly, until she saw another dog to play with, and then she was off.

But we had a lovely week, and it was sad to see Poppy return to her home.  

We also enjoyed having Donna stay with us for the week too, by the way.  Plenty of catch up time, and a bit of Christmas shopping time as well.   Brilliant.

Internet and Mobiles and expanding knowledge!

After 30 years of focussing on the narrow confines of education,  it is fantastic to have the time to gain a wider knowledge of the world.  The time to read newspapers thoroughly, to subscribe to magazines, to discuss world events and politics and to undertake courses.

Of course, much of the acquiring of this wider knowledge is made possible through access to the internet, sitting in the comfort of my home, and mostly free too.

The courses that I have undertaken through www.coursera.og have been fantastic, quite demanding in their assessments, but so interesting.  The most recent course, which I am about to finish this week, is titled 'Understanding media by understanding Google'.  It has involved weekly readings, lectures, a quiz, a piece of writing, and peer assessment of the previous weeks writing.

As I used the internet so much, and had previously completed a course on internet history and technology, I was immediately keen to continue learning in this area.  And Google is such a fascinating subject, being that it dominates our internet lives, especially those of us that have gone down the Android route.

So far we have covered the impact on media, Google news, Google books, advertising, Youtube,  mobiles and this week it will be social media and privacy.  Fascinating.  So much has happened in the last fifteen years.  It is difficult to imagine life without the Web, smart phones, tablets, Youtube, and for most of us, Facebook.

And on the final note, it has changed the way we read, and learn.  All that skimming, scanning, browsing has meant indepth reading and studying is much more difficult.  It is good to know that the reason why I find sustained reading difficult is due to my mobile and internet use and not due to advancing age.

An interesting video to watch on Youtube - Joe Kraus "Slow Tech" (TED Talk)

Car Problems? What an understatement!

Skoda sceptics will nod their heads, and say 'Typical'. 

Our new, beautiful red Skoda Superb Elegance, 2 Litre, 170 BHP, 4x4, sat on the road in front of our house for a mere five nights. Then the dashboard came alive with orange lights; the diesel particulate filter light, the emission warning light and the engine light.   And the car went into 'limp' mode.  So it went back to the Toyota dealers, where we bought the car, 

So for the last three weeks and five days we have been driving this teeny, tiny, city car.  A new car, great, and a Toyota, but a very basic model.   Not in the same league.   Has a great turning circle though, and Jackson added that there would be no problems with carsickness, as the back seats were almost in the front seats.   No sway there.   

The Toyota dealers sent our Skoda to the Skoda dealers to have the Diesel Particulate Unit, which lowers emissions, replaced.   Not a great problem really, as these units are compulsory in all new cars, and due to the low milleage in our Skoda, the previous owner obviously did not take the car on long enough journeys to burn off the emissions in the unit.

While at the Skoda dealers, the ECU (Electronic Control Unit), the brain of the car, started playing up and giving out strange signals.  So they decided to replace the unit.  Fair enough.  Expensive, but the car was under warranty.

And from that point there began a story of lies, poor customer service, and incompetency.  The Skoda dealers had an old catalogue and could not locate the correct ECU for the car, so instead of getting advice from Skoda.co.uk they made up stories, which they told Walter and the Toyota dealers.   Stories such as 'the unit had become lost in transit', 'would arrive tomorrow', 'arrive on Monday', 'need to order another unit', etc, etc.   They complained to the Toyota dealers that Walter was constantly ringing them and annoying them.  

All we wanted was our Skoda Superb Elegance back.  And there were days when we thought it was never never going to happen.  Anxious moments.

In the end Walter contacted Skoda.co.uk who investigated the problem.   And then Walter was told the real story.   The unit had never been ordered because the local Skoda dealers did not know the type of unit to be ordered (every car's computer is slightly different) so they put the 'problem' in the 'too hard basket', and made up stories instead.   Such a show of incompentency and dishonesty.

Consequently the new ECU was ordered immediately, with a delivery time of seven to ten days. It has now been fitted.

So tomorrow morning we collect our beautiful Skoda Superb Elegance from the Toyota dealers, who no doubt will be pleased to get their little Toyota city car back again.

And all will be well.   We hope.

Madame Tussauds, and other experiences too.

Half term holidays are over, and children and teachers are back to school.  Parents are back at work.   And all is quiet again.

Last Monday, Jackson, Isabel and I set off to visit Madame Tussauds, a place that I have always wanted to visit.  Not cheap, which is why it has taken twenty two years to finally set foot in the door.   Jackson and Isabel had Merlin Passes, so I only needed to purchase a ticket for me.  £30 and booked online.   Forget the price reductions that are promised on their web site, it does not happen.   I have tried to get these reductions on many occasions. 

  We set off reasonably early, on a brilliantly warm day, and caught the train to Victoria Station, and then the Circle Line to Baker Street.  We could have cut across London on two other tubes, three stops altogether, which probably would have been quicker.   But we were intent on travelling on the Circle Line. and completing the 'circle'.  

First stop, the statue of Sherlock Holmes, oversized, and surrounded by people.   But we found a short gap in the crowds to take this photograph.

After queueing for half an hour or more, we finally entered the building, and were ushered into the lifts which took us to the beginning of the exhibits.   Of course after a long trip, a visit to the toilets plus a cup of coffee for me, was certainly needed.   No, this did not happen.   The small toilet area meant a very long queue for females.  We gave up.   No cafe until the exit of Madame Tussauds.  What?   I was quite taken aback by this piece of information.    No seats along the way either.   These people mean business, keep the customers moving:  in, through and out the other end.

So off we went, with hordes of other people, and tried to get some photographs and see all the wax works.   Quite a feat.   The wax models were very realistic looking, and we did apologise to one or two, when we bumped into them.   One had to be very pushy, and jump in, in order to get a photograph with a model.

Jackson with one of his 'stars'.

Jackson and Isabel with another popular model.

Now I recognise this one.    Shrek.

A brilliant display of popular athletes.   A legacy of the Olympic Games.   It was as if Mo Farah was with us in person in the room.

Henry VIII, of course.

A line up of royals.   It cost money to pose with these lovely models.

A line up from the past.

Jackson was impressed with Churchill and Hitler.   I wonder if they ever thought they would be standing side by side in a waxworks museum.

Another display which costs money, in order to have a chance to sit at the desk, with Barak Obama standing tall next to it.

Lunch, was partly eaten as we queued, and walked around the exhibits.  Indigestion.

I had a quick look at the horror section downstairs, but too, too crowded, so escaped back up the stairs.   Jackson and Isabel were not keen on this part of the museum.

We entered the 'ride' section, where we boarded a train made out of the backs of black taxis, for a trip around scenes starting from about the 14th Century to continuing to recent times.   This was very impressive.

Then we went up some stairs to the 'superheroes' area.   Jackson and Isabel tried out the spider man pose.

Isabel posing as a super person.

After a long wait we were ushered into the cinema, where we watched a short 4D movie, where all the superheroes saved London from the nasties.  This was a spectacular experience, with associated seat movements and water spray at significant moments.  Wow.

And all too quickly we were at the exit and out into the street, without a visit to the toilet or a cup of coffee, although both of these were available at the end of the museum.   But we wanted to escape the crowds at this point and find a quiet cafe, with toilets, drinks for Jackson and Isabel and good coffee for me.   And luckily we did find one, where we relaxed and talked about our experiences at Madame Tussauds.

We looked back at Madame Tussauds, in the afternoon sunshine, with the crowds of people surrounding it, before we headed back down to the Circle Line, and more crowds of people.  Always an interesting experience, riding on the underground trains.

Next stop, Tower Tube Station, and out into the fresh air.   After a bit of manoeuvring we managed to find a spot where we could view the porcelain red poppies, spread out around the moat of the Tower of London.   What a breathtaking sight.  Quite emotional.

And who is this?   An archer keeping watch on the proceedings below?

We boarded the Circle Line again for the final part of our journey, back to Victoria Station.

We had a really enjoyable day, with many different experiences, and plenty of time to chatter as well.