318 May to October 2020

 25th May 2020

Took Meg for a long walk around Hickling Broad today. The wild life was everywhere.

Not sure but I think this is the British Yellow Darter dragonfly.

 

This beauty is the British Swallowtail. It is only found in Norfolk and is the UK's largest butterfly with a 9cm wingspan.

A very common (in Norfolk) Chinese water deer.

A very naughty dog about to be thrown in the river for jumping in a bog.

 

 20th June 2020

An old mate, Stuart Burnham rung up and we decided to have a biker meet up, with wives, at Hunstanton. It was a bit of a trot but it was worth it. The weather was glorious and it was good for Karen to meet Stuarts wife, Teresa. Stuart is a guy I taught to do motorcycle mechanics and to map read prior to the Falkland War. We were both issued with bikes as dispatch riders. Sadly Stuart has recently developed Parkinsons disease but he is working round it for now. 

Looks like "Little and Large".  Old Sapper comrades.

21st July 2020

Time to get the boat out for a mini booze cruize. We sailed over Hickling Broad to the Pleasureboat Pub. It was good to finally get out after COVID lockdown rules had been eased. The lines are for 'Social Distancing' - a phrase elevated to hated status for 2020.

Finally, out for a lonely beer.

 

Topping up on the way back with the boss at the tiller.

 

 5th September 2020

In anticifation of a trip to the Cumbrian Lake District, we decided to buy a lager canoe that we could fit Meg into. So Far so good...

Cumbria

Now, Meg: Pick up the paddle and ...left...   right....  left

 

9th September 2020

Having packed up and overloaded the Motorhome, we set off for Bristol to Vist Karen's Uncle Richie and aunt Anne.

En-route, we stopped off at a pub stop (like a campsite but free if you use the bar) at a village called Turweston, just outside Brackley. We took a stroll into Brackley and saw this on the way there. 

 

Good to see this so early in the rembrance season.

Further along the walk, we made the mistake of letting Meg off the lead. As is her want, she jumped straight into a bog !!!!!

 

 

She absolutely stank and we were going to do some shopping.

                   

We could not take her shopping like this and as we were about to abandon the trip, Karen said we could wash her in the river. Now, when she says we, she means me........

Fish in the river Nene have never been so scared. A fat boy in his underpants washing a very smelly dog.

This the pub that provided the accommodation. First class place.

10th September 2020

 

Then it was off to Bristol.

Ritchie and Anne live overlooking the Severn Bridge in a beautiful country setting. Sadly Anne has dementia and needs constant care. Richie trains sheep dogs and took us out for a little display on his land with a couple of sheep that he keeps for the purpose. We rounded out the evening with a lovely portion of fish and chips. It was great to catch up with them after a break of about 4 years. We spent the night in the motorhome and parted company in the morning. We then set off for Telford to meet up with Karen's neice, Phillipa, Pip for short.

 

11th September 2020

 

We arrived at Pip's fairly early and booked into a local campsite. We did not pitchup but soon left to visit Pip, Ben, Thomas and Nancy. Nancy was only a couple of months old at this point and she was just so cute. We had a chinse supper and again, it was good to catch up on family issues. We left around 10 and went back to our campsite for the night.

 

12th September 2020

 

We drove to another campsite in a small village called Appletreewick. It had two pubs and was only a 20 minute walk from the campsite. It was great little village and the pubs were buzzing, probably as most people had been locked up for so long. The one way systems and social distanceing were a pain in the butt but it was still good to get out and socialise even if at a distance.

13th Septenber 2020

On to Cumbria. We drove to a campsite on the side of lake Conniston. The narrow road leading to it was a bit scary having stone walls either side and lorries in both directions. Still, as we were only about 4 miles from the campsite, we saw Kevin and Sally cycling in the opposite direction !

 

We met up with them a couple of  hours later. They were doing a cicuit of the lake !! We all made a bee line for the lake for the dogs to play. And play they did....

We did a lot of drinking and walking for 5 days and had a thoroughly great time with Keving, Sally and the dogs.

Out for a beer in Torver. Due to the COVID restrictions, the toilets were the portable plascic ones outside. Kevin and Sally decided to go to the loo together. When they came out the were in stitches of laughter. ... As were we... I videoed it !!!

Meg in normal mode. For some reason she just likes sitting in the water while she waits for us to throw the ball.

100% psychotic concentration.

 17th September 2020

Now it was off to Scotland to visit Mum. Due to the lockdown, we have not seen her since her 80th Birthday in early March. She lives alone and has also had to isolate so it cannot have been easy for her. Fortunately, we 'Facetime' her a lot so at least  we get to see her sort of, face to face.

29th September 2020

The long 340 mile trip back home. As normal, I drove most of the way home and was not completely happy with the way the motorhome was handling. I suspected it may be overloaded so made a mental note to get it weighed before we unloaded it the next morning.

30th September 2020

I took the motorhome to a local weigh bridge and bloody hell - it was 380kg overweight on the rear axle and 340kg overweight overall - without us in it  !!!! To quote a weel known phrase....'Houston, we have a problem' .....

We unloaded absolutely everything out of the Motorhome and on the 3rd of October took it back and it weighed half a ton (500kg) less at 3240kg. If we added us and the dog on to that we were just about on target at 3500kg. This was OK provided we had no water, clothes, food or anything else for that matter in it.

I did some reserach and ascertained that I could increase the payload to 3850kg by uprating the suspension and getting larger rear tyres. Not a difficult job with the parts costing £570 and the certification costing £312, total £882. I also noted that the water tank was overhanging the rear axle and saw a large space that it could occupy right in the centre between the wheels. I had to purchace a slightly smaller tank at a further £120 but the difference it will make to the rear axle load is around 55kg. 

The upgrade is a fairly simple big rubber baloon on each side.

The baloons are pumped up from inside the cab and can even be used to level it. All good and no leaks.

 As I write we are still waiting for the DVLA to uprate the Log Book.  

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.