317 January to April 2020

 
January 2020

We decided that having used the van to go to Harlow for a few days that it just was not big enough for us and the dog. This becoming a very expensive dog. We surfed the net wanting something between the van that we still had and the monolith that we had some years ago.  We eventually came across the motorhome below (these are the edvert pictures) but it was in Bolton, about 250 miles away. Fortunately, our local branch of the same company shipped it down to Ipswich for us to look at. 

On viewing the MH we fell in love with it. It only had 18000 miles on it despite being 12 years old. Layout wise, it had everything we needed but had no extras whatsoever. We got it home and I started making it for us. I installed a huge solar panel and a satellite dome and TV.  I also put in an extra battery and put a refillable gas tank in so we could fill it up whilst in Europe. We also put on a towbar for the bikes or a trailer.

 

This is what we were loookig for, a U shaped lounge.

For some unknown reason, the front seats swivelled and they are practically useless.

22nd February 2020

Skiing again. This time back to our old favourite of Livigno. We flew into Innsbruck in Austria and then were bussed to Livigno. 

As is normal with these trips, there is a lot of drining mixed in with the skiing and to be honest, the drinking is taking a larger and larger slice of the holidays as we get older. Oh dear, never mind !!!

Gotta start as you mean to go on......

There are some downsides to the funny coloured drinks....

This is the other downside- ish ;-) - drunken ladies dancing on the tables.

Top fuel price for deisel equates to about 76p per litre. This what it would cost in the UK if there were no tax on it. Only 2 cents dearer than it was in 2011 !!

There is no hope....

The bad news had just hit us....  read below.

On the Wednesday of ther trip, Karen had a 'Facetime' call from her brother John. John, knowing where we were,  asked asked how we were dealing with the virus. Somewhat confused, we asked what he meant. His answer was mindblowing. The county/region that we were skiing had just been on the news in the UK as having been hit by a new virus from China, now called the Corona Virus. There were apparently hundreds going down with it and the hospitals were already overflowing and some were already dying of it. We had no clue. We contacted the holiday rep and she told us that she had also just found out and the bars were going to close at 6pm. She also told us that the Austrians had closed the border to all persons coming in from Italy. Doh!!! We were suddenly wondering if we were going to be stuck in Italy but the closure was soo lifted so we were able to go home at the normal time.
 
 

29th February 2020

We arrived back in the UK on the Saturday evening to a world that had suddenly changed drammaticaly from the one we had left only a week ago.

5th March 2020

Our new motorhome had it's first outing. We drove to Mums in Scotland in it, to celebrate her 80th birthday the following day, the 6th. There were a lot of guests due to stay at Mums house so we took the motorhome to use it for sleeping in.

6th March 2020

Happy 80th Birthday Mum. 

7th March 2020 

Party time for Mums birthday. Karen arranged a familiy meal at a restaurant called Casa Mia in Dumfries.

Derek, Judy, Mum and Ewan.

Phillipa, Mum and Ben.

Karen, Mu and Ray.

Cake time.

John giving a small speach.

 All in all it was a very good night and we all had a lot of fun. It was good to catch up with the family and the timing could not have been more critical. It was to be the last time we saw Mum in a long time.

The UK was going into meltdown as the virus was spreading throughout the world and as there was no manual to refer to it took the country some time to decide what to do.

The virus appeared to be spreading by people flying from country to counrtry so virtually all flights were cancelled. This was handy as we were due to fly to Iceland for a mini break on the 25th March. 

23rd March 2020

We were walking Meg on the beach near Scratby and decided to have a beer in the California Tavern. Whilst there, the 6 O'clock news came on the pub TV and told us that all pubs would be shutting from tonight onward for an indefinite period. Bugger!

We decided to go home, dump the car and go to our local pub to make the best of our last free pub time. It was a hazy night !

24th March 2020

From today, the country is in lockdown. We are only allowed out for 30 miunutes excercise and in groups of no more than 2 people. 

7th Apri 2020

With the pubs all shut we decided to set up our own pub in the garden....

Meg clearly does not like the cards she has been dealt.

Due to the restrictions I walked Meg on the farm tracks to the South of our house anf this came to an abrupt end when the ignoramus of a farmer decided to throw me of his land. I had no problem leaving, I was just not overly impressed at being called "Oi". Oh well. such is life.

20th April 2020

We decided to take Meg to the beach instead. It is only a 5 minute drive and she loves the surf.  She is turning into something very special.

 

 

 

316 July to December 2019

I (Ray) was still working on Bobs new house during the week so not much on note happened for the next few months aside from Karen spending a lot of time up in Scotland helping her Mum, Margo, get over a knee operation.

10th October 2019

I decided that we need to make out old bike trailer smaller and lighter to make it easier to move in and out of the rear garden. So I took a grinder to it and managed to loose 20kg off the weight and remodeled it to take the boat and bikes as opposed to the motorcycle. I now have a choice of what toys to take away.

Pushbikes (Hah Ha - they are electric) and the boat loaded up.

....and back to a motorcycle trailer.

27th October 2019

On the 15th of August  (2 months ago) a Police officer, namely PC Andrew Harper took a late call to a burglary in progress at a farm where a quad bike was in the process of being stolen by 3 'travellers'. 

Whilst trying to deal with the problem, the 3 drove off at speed and the tow rope that they were using to steal the quad bike got tangled around the officers leg.

The burglars, drove for over a mile along country lanes dragging the officer behind them. By the time they stopped the officer was naked and deceaced.

Today, as a show of solidarity to his wife and all other officers throughout the country, a mass bike rideout was arranged near where he worked in Oxfordshire.

With the permission and assistance of the RAF, the thousands of bikes assembled at RAF Benson airfield where we were welcomed by his widow.

The turnout was something to behold.

There were so many bikes that they had to leave in batches to save upsetting the locals going their business. As it was this was not a problem as the streets were deserted and all the locals were lining the streets and cheering us on. It was very emotional.

This is Nick Wooller, my brother in law. He is also a police officer and he is a great guy and it was good to catch up after many years.

Yours truly in the grey jacket. Flying 'Thin Blue Line' union jacks.

25th October 2019

On Facebook, I managed to find a group of guys from my old Army, Sapper unit that I served in the Falklands war with. The have a reunion every year and I was invited to join in. I was introduced by a guy named Stuart Burnham, AKA 'Titch'. He is about 6 years younger than me and when the Falklands war started, he had just passed his motorcycle driving test and the pair of us were given bikes to take there and work as despatch riders. I was asked to teach him how to change tyres and do general maintenace.

This was one of the bikes we were given.

Titch....

And sadly, as is normal for me, I cannot remember these guys names.

29th October 2019

Recent photos of Meg at play and up to no good.

Bad photo but even badder dog !!!

Looking skinny after bog trotting.

Later in the pub. She cleans herself up so easily and quickly.

5th November 2019

We decided to take a week in Lanzarote at short notice. Sadly, Meg had to find new friends at the local kennels.

The hotel was pretty standard but adequate and we no complaints - we did however get out when the pool areobics started.

We managed to book a trip on a submarine - now I know we are real tourists - It was however facsinating. We are both divers so the scenery was nothing new but it was a great experience being able to see all the wildlife without getting wet or lugging all that diving gear about.

The sub went to quite a depth. 35 meters is  a long way down.

 

We cruised along the side of an old ship wreck now inhabited by fishes.

 

 We took another tourist trip up to the recent volcanic area.  It was a bit wierd having someone else in charge of your every move considering that we usually do our own thing but the advantage of being a sheep with a shepherd is that you do get to see the good bits, albeit along with coachloads of others.

The above is a chef cooking over an open volcanic hot spot. A look inside (along with a load of chicken fat) shows a semi glowing, dark red, volcanic mass. Eerie !!

 The landscape was raw, torchured and pretty barren. But as is my wierd side, I thought it was beautiful.

 

One area that they have modded for tourists is a volcanic tunnel where once molten lava flowed through. I has a sump that is flooded and contains tiny (about 1" long) white crabs. They are white as these is no light down there and hence no need for colour.

Fortunately, aside from the road through it, no-one is allowed in the area and consequently it remains undisturbed and is very haunting.

 

Little fat boy settling in to being a tourist.

Once back home it was back to working on Bob and Liz's house.

19th December 2019

Another day out at a nother concert. This time it was Rod Stewart. It was fantastic, even I was impressed which is rare for me (Ray) at anything musical.

Rod was real relaxed star talking about his family between records and he made you feel like you were in his living room having a chat.  

For christmas we had a quiet time at home after a quick trip down to Harlow to see my ankle biters.

315 Apr to June 2019

10th of April 2019

We quickly realised that were were not too prepared for Meg and had to geta hatchback car real quick. We swapped the red Mazda 6 in for a Silver Mazda CX5. It is a Sports Utiliy Vehicle and to be honest is a lot easier for us to get in and out of. On top of that is is a lot shorter (and easier to park) than the Mazda 6 and has a huge boot for meg. 

 

 

19th April 2019

In the last year or so some soldiers that were involved in the 'Bloody Sunday' and other riots back in January 1972 and 1974 in Northern Ireland have been arrested for murder again, despite having already tried and investigated several times already and been found not guilty. They are to be tried again this year. I personally have a big problem with this as the guy that tried to murder me was released under the Good Friday Agreemet. In short, the IRA have been let off for their crimes and the Army are now being tried again for their mistakes (I say mistakes as they did not intend to murder anyone when they got out of bed that morning ).

As a result I joined hundreds of other soldiers, mainly ex Paratroopers, in a demonstration in central London against the persecution of our soldiers for something that happened 45 years ago. The main soldier, called 'Soldier F' in previous trials, is 79 years old and is dying of renal failure and has to undergo dailysis sevel times per week. 

 

Initial rally at the Duke of Yorks steps.

Ray with a couple of old buddies outside Buckingham Palace where we sang God Save the Queen,

And then on down Whitehall for a salute as we passed the Cenotaph.

 

20th April 2019

The little monster that we have decided to call Meg is a pedigree Border collie with a long pedigree and without her knowledge, she has been registered as a sheep dog with the Sheep Dog Society. We have no intention of using her as anything other than a pet so we need to socialise her with dogs and people as much as possible. 

So we took her to the beach with our friends Kevin and Sally-Anne. They have 2 dogs, a black ladrador cum spaniel and a small red (brown ?) border collie. They have also recently been presented with a granddaughter, Esme, from their daughter Gabby that came olong too. 

 

 

Meg.... "What is going on ?"

Gabby and Esme

Meg: "So when do we get to play in the sea ?"

We got things to do before the sea side!

 

We discovered that Meg is facinated by the sea surf.

 

Geez, this tastes grim.

Give me a minute....it's my first day.

I'll just watch for a bit !

 

Fot the past couple of months I have been helping Bob and Liz (our old friends from Ongar) to covert that barn that we had used as a home for our caravan prior to going to the USA in 2013. Bob had managed to get permission to convert a barn that was only 12 years old. Sadly the architect had made several cock ups, one of them very serious and Bob was getting very stressed about it. He asked me to come down and help him sort the problems out and I ended up staying during the week for several months to help him build it.

This is how it started out

With cladding stripped off, only 6 upright beams would remain.

The foundations had to be improved somewhat.

Not much remaining - for a conversion !!!

Metalwork almost done. The extra deep beams in the centre were the architects biggest cock up. He designed the roof at the wrong angle. This was only discovered after the steelwork was finished and had to be modified.

Walls going up.

Roof going on.

2 good chippies, Tony and Bill.

My biggest job. The floor, underfloor plumbing and insulation.

Getting ready for the concrete floor to be poured.

6th June 2019

Meg is starting to find her feet in the family now and has become acustomed to bullying us to take her out. She is becoming a truly wonderful and well socialised dog.

Come on Dad, get up and take me out....

So I like getting wet....  what's the problem ?

Tired now..  sleep time

Realy tired now.... knackered in fact

14th June 2019

We set off for a fortnights camping holiday with our friends, Kevin and Sally in the Cotswolds. Unfortunately, a breakdown in communication caused a long pre planned trip for us to London to see the Eagles pop group right in the middle of it. DOH!

We started out in a posh campsite at a large village called Broadway. It ws beautiful and only a 10 minute walk into the village. sadly, we learned that Meg, has a big problem with moving cars and the 10 mimnute walk to more like 20. As cars were passing, she was boing beserk. 

We spent a few days there touring the pubs and generally enjoying the old world picturesque village. We did a lot of walking whilst there and visited Broadway Tower at the top of a very long hill. 

It was a long way up !

A welcome break on the way back down to the pub.

20th June 2019

We moved to a smaller much more basic and cheaper site near a place called Broad Campden, (near Chipping Campden). The place was a working farm with 2 Border collies, one of which was a working dog. Meg had hours of fun with the pet one named Fly. Meg figured out that if the squeezed a squeeky toy, Fly would run around us in circles for a minute or so for no obvious reason.

 

En route with the pub dog to a pub in Paxford, a village nearby.

 

Managed to capture a Red Kite en-route.

We popped in the van and drove to Moreton in the Marsh.

They were having some sort of festival there. The local groups were pretty good.

23rd June 2019

My birthday is the tomorrow and Karen bought 'me !!!' a birthday present, a trip to see the Eagles pop group at Wembley.  Between Kevin, Sally and us two, we had managed to double book this day so we had to take a day out of our holiday and catch a train to London. Doh!

It is difficult to get good pictures in a dark arena when binoculars are more useful but I did manage to get a couple of reasonable ones.

 After a night in a seedy suburban hotel we got the train back to the Cotswolds and resumed our holiday.

Sadly, it then started to rain in biblical proportions and did not let up so we abandoned the holiday a couple of days early just in case we got stuck on the site.