Friday 29 June 2018

A fluffy blog

Brian with Angus dog
Time for a fluffy blog, well everything else is covered in fluff, so why not the blog? Oscar is a fluffy cat, but he has been to the groomers and is loving his pared down look. Hector is a ‘normal’ cat and doesn’t know what all the fuss is about. Angus is a very fluffy dog who really feels the heat, which we are having just now. Last weekend was walks in the woods to keep in the shade, but was very pleasant, we may make it to the beach if it rains!

So operation ‘dog brush’ is in process, I sit on the rug upstairs, brush in hand and he comes to me, sits on my knee, enjoys the fuss and wanders off when he’s had enough. It seems to be working well, though I am covered in fur, the new trousers I bought today were covered in fur before the dog even came home, I’ve got fur up my nose, and food seems to come with an added helping of fur. He is looking beautiful, cooler and if only I could spin I could knit a new puppy!
Hector cat
Big Oscar about to 'bounce' Hector

Hector is a cool cat, last in, but is not at the bottom of the pecking order by any means. He and Oscar seem to tolerate each other and we’ve seen each one ‘bounce’ the other at various times. I did happen to catch them, one morning at 05.00 (don’t ask), hunting together in the hedge, a formidable team and I don’t hold much hope for whatever it was they were after. It was lovely to see them working together though. 





Hectors daytime hidey hole, in the corner behind the sofa
He has his own little quirks, spending much of the day behind the sofa - no one can sneak up on him there, popping out for cuddles and food before going out to do cat things overnight. Despite being quite shy he doesn’t hate me even after I got B to come and help me hold him while I removed a tick (evil little things) and then put the flea/tick spot on on him. He’s also a master of escapology, the catflap is locked when we go to bed so they can come in only, however, he’s come in, said hello (yes, it’s lovely to see you, even if it is 03.00) had a snack and then gone back outside. Obviously I cursed Brian for ‘locking’ the catflap after I had locked it, so unlocking it, but no, it was still locked, he must have learnt how to pull it towards himself and wiggle under. I mentioned this to Louise and she confirmed she thought it had happened too, nice to know I’m not going mad!
Oscar cat and Angus dog on the evening walk together

Oscar is still huge, as shown in the photo in the last blog, and weighs a ton. He is still a ninja though, just today leaving us with two birds outside the van as van warming presents. I’ve told him it’s very sweet, but enough is enough. He is quite taken with the van, has given it a good looking over, the only place he hasn’t been so far is on the overcab bed, but there is still plenty of time for that! He does have a bit of an identity problem, thinking he is at least half dog, joining Angus for his bedtime walk. It’s lovely to see them walking together, though Oscar was practicing his jujitsu kicks last night, perfectly positioned to never make contact!
Arbroath smokies for dinner one night - yummy!
Toby's partner (forgotten her name), Jackie, Jane and Toby on our walk

So apart from fussing furries, tinkering with ‘snail’, taking my bike into the ‘hospital’ we’ve done little of note, except yesterday he decided, on the hottest day of the year, we should go and do a couple of Munros . He did them last time we were here, but I’d avoided them then. It was the most convivial walk in a long time, meeting a trio, a ‘husband and wife’ and his sister, originally from the UK but now living in San Diego (the couple) so they were well used to hiking in the heat. B did make the mistake of trying to walk and talk at the pace Toby set which was faster than the norm and actually caused him problems for the rest of the walk, that’ll be the testosterone kicking in then.... There was also a local, ex-copper as he described himself who we had a good chat with on both summits, not to mention the other brief chats we had in passing.
On the way up Mayar (Munro), looking back down to Glen Doll
On the summit of Dreish. Taken by Phil the retired cop

It was lovely to finish though, get into the car and put on the aircon to fight off the 29 degree heat. It was even lovelier to get back, for a beer on the patio, and to be joined by all three furries, after Angus had forgiven us for not being here when he got home and making him worry by not leaving him a note!

Today, the whole of the UK is in red on the weather chart, except for a tiny piece of eastern Scotland, where it is lightly drizzling on the washing!
Angus checking out our van
Having a look in the cab
Oscar checking out our van
Having a look in the shower
And the bathroom
And the seats (excuse the mess on the top of the overcab bed)
He thinks this corner cupboard in our bedroom is pretty good
And the view out of the window is OK too
Not sure whether he was watching this young buzzard stretching his wings in the tree


Wednesday 27 June 2018

Things you learn not to do in a motorhome

Jackie carrying big Oscar cat in (toothbrush in mouth!)
We're housesitting in Arbroath, Scotland for three weeks so, after spending just four nights in our motorhome, we're now living in luxury in Colin and Louise's house for three weeks looking after Angus dog, Oscar cat and Hector cat, while they all holiday in Arizona. It's the second time we've housesat for them, the last time two years ago. The bed is so big we need the internet connection in order to communicate from one side to the other and, with glorious sunny weather and views over open countryside or the golf course, in which the house stands, we're feeling pretty lucky and spoiled.

Angus dog and Oscar cat on the bed. No problem, plenty of room for us as well
We managed to squeeze the motorhome (no name for it yet, snail? Ayup? we don't know) along the narrow access road, up on to their drive, turn it round on the drive and reverse it into a space beside the garage, all with Jackie, Colin and Louise watching and guiding. There we decided it should stay for the three weeks as they have insured me to drive one of their cars in order to take Angus dog out for beach/wood walks and for us to drive to the shops and other things. Breathe a sigh of relief, bring the huge wad of manuals into the house in order to read up how everything works and plan our onward trip through Scotland. We've opened the motorhome up each day to air it and do various jobs and, while open Oscar cat and Angus dog have been in it checking everything out and its all been quite nice and homely.

Entrance to the drive, offending wall on the right
The only slight problem we had was the air conditioning wasn't working so, as it has a six month warranty from Webbs where we bought it, I phoned them to ask if we could take it somewhere to have it repaired while here in Arbroath under the warranty. Got his agreement so scanned the internet (yell.com) and found a fabulous garage, Checkpoint Garage in Arbroath with enough height to get our motorhome in. Very professional, the engineer explained what he would do when we called in via the car to check it out so we arranged to take it in for repair on Tuesday. I told Jackie I could take it on my own as they reckoned it would take about 40 minutes if just needing a regas, but if something else was wrong I put my bike on board so I could cycle home if required and return when its fixed.

Scratched motorhome with dislodged rear bumper
Driving out was easy as I'd reversed it in so, after shuffling their two cars across the drive, I manoeuvred out of the drive, back along their narrow access road and out to Arbroath, following Doris the sat navs directions to the garage. Handed over the keys and relaxed in their reception chatting to the lady there about touring Scotland in a motorhome, something she has done and fully recommends. 40 minutes later its ready and all ready for me to drive it back home and only £70 regas charge.

During repairs, bumper being supported
Phoned Jackie to say I was on my way and, our plan was that I would drive the motorhome back onto the drive, move the two cars further down the drive out of the way, then manoeuvre the motorhome round on the drive to reverse it back into it's space by the garage. Arrived back feeling quite cold as the aircon is now working, Jackie came out, I moved the two cars down the drive and then got ready to move the motorhome. I had just reversed the motorhome back to the start of the drive ready for the manoeuvre when big Oscar cat came out weaving between cars and motorhome in a playful way. Jackie scooped him up to carry him inside while I drove forward onto the drive keeping close to the left to give myself plenty of room to swing hard right across the drive in order to turn it around. Deciding there was enough space in front to turn in front of the garage I eased forward on full lock moving forward. I had moved forward only about a meter as Jackie came out of the front door yelling me to stop. What can possibly be the problem I thought, there's nothing in front, it's completely clear, but....glancing into the nearside door mirror I saw was she was shouting about.

Looking inside the bumper showing the repair to the alarm sensor
It's a long vehicle and there is quite a big overhang beyond the rear wheels to the back, must be around 2 meters. When turning, the front wheels pull the vehicle and the body turns over the rear wheels, anything beyond swings outwards. On a normal car this isn't a problem as there's not much behind the rear wheels but, with around two meters behind out wheels there is significant swing out on turning. So I had started close to the garden wall, turned on full lock, the back swung out left and contacted the garden wall. Now, before I get loads of comments, yes, I know all this, it's all pretty obvious, but in the heat of executing a tight manoeuvre and with so many things to think about did I forget it? Yes I did. Do I regret it? Yes I do. Do I feel a complete burke? Yes I do. Please just sympathise with me, the damage to my ego and confidence is more than enough!

Repaired, as good as new!
So what was the damage? Well, at first sight it looked pretty severe. A deep scratch on the bottom left hand side, but the worst was that the edge of the wall had caught the rear bumper and pulled it right off. It was about 300mm clear of the body on the nearside but still attached on the offside. The rear lights are in the bumper along with an alarm sensor. One of the lights had popped out (unbroken) and the wire to the alarm sensor was broken. The wall is built of large stone blocks cemented in and about four of them had become dislodged out of place. How can so much damage be done at probably 1 mile per hour? Unbelievable. Even more surprising was that I felt and heard nothing when driving. I'd heard of large lorries being involved in accidents and the drivers not realising before and this really confirmed it to me, I just didn't know and if Jackie hadn't come out screaming I would have carried on quite a bit more, probably taking the bumper completely off and breaking all wires to the rear lights, so it could have been a lot worse.

Apart from the scratches. We'll paint those later
So I gingerly manoeuvred the vehicle off the wall, completed the turning round and reverse back into it's space, returned the two cars to the drive and, fighting back the tears, assessed the damage. Could we fix it, well, yes we think so, Jackie then gave me a big hug and we discussed what we were going to do. It took most of the rest of the day but we did it. Re soldering the wires to the alarm sensor was the most difficult, but fortunately I had put in Jackies BBC tool kit and, in that was her soldering iron. The bumper is fixed on by long screws through the back of the light fittings and those had been pulled out of the body so, we redrilled some new holes and refitted it. I went out to but some silicone sealant, used it to provide additional fixing as well as the screws (as previous) and sealed round everything as before. At the end it looked as good as new, apart from the deep scratch in the body at the bottom. The bumper was undamaged so, on first sight it looks all ok. We'll probably get hold of some match pots and try to paint the scratches next week.

And so to the wall, loose stones removed
So I wrote to Colin and Louise telling them what I'd done and asking if they wanted to get a man in to rebuild the wall, or would they be happy for me to do it. They were happy for me to have a go so that was todays job. Off to B&Q in Arbroath to but a bag of premixed mortar and a trowel and I set to, taking off 7 of the large stone blocks that were loose, chipping off the old mortar and then rebuilding and pointing. What a good job the weather is so good! After about 3 hours the job was complete and I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the results. On taking the blocks off I notice some pieces of a red reflector in amongst it, not off our motorhome, so it appears we are not the first to hit it. It probably means the wall is in a lot better condition now than it was before.

Looking happy - actually quite enjoyed a bit of building
So that's my sorry story, I'm still feeling a bit depressed about it, but at least things are virtually sorted now. Jackie's still talking to me and seems very understanding, which is fabulous. We're going out for a hike up a mountain tomorrow, think we need it!











Putting the finishing touches, brushing the semi set mortar
The finished job, quite pleased with it
Evidence that we're not the first people to make contact with the wall. These bits of reflector are not from our motorhome


Friday 22 June 2018

Motorhome life - Warminster to Arbroath

First meal in our motorhome
We’ve settled in at the Housesit in Arbroath, with Angus, Oscar and new cat on the block Hector, but what a lot has happened in the last five days....

A lovely evening out at the Chinese with Abi, on Sunday night was followed by a bad nights sleep and a relatively early start to head to Webb’s of Warminster (location: 51 12 '49.2N, 11' 36.1W). Despite it being an easy journey we were all peckish so lunch at 11.30 and unload the car, dumping everything into the garage, so Abi could drive home and we could start the induction into the motorhome fraternity. 
First night in Longleat
Tom handed us over to Dan who had been warned that we were complete novices, so not only did we need the intricacies of our specific van explaining but also basic things like toilet emptying ...... Three hours later our heads were spinning, and Dan was hoarse and hungry. We went into the shop to buy the last few things, though the most important one, a hosepipe, had been crossed off the list as there was an integral one fitted, just as well we’d found hosepipes too difficult then!
Longleat Caravan Park

As part of our negotiations to buy we’d included a night at a nearby campsite, so they’d booked us into the caravan and motorhome club site at Longleat (location: 51 11' 28.7N, 0 16' 35.4W). With full gas, empty grey and black waste and half full fresh water off we went. Having only driven on the bypass, even turning out of the showroom was a first!



Longleat house
We followed the satnav, specifically programmed with our height, length, width and weight, on a long route to the campsite, but better safe than sorry, arrived at reception, third in the check in queue, and suddenly we were both back in NZ, the friendly welcome and offers of help should we need it brought back one of the reasons why we’d both enjoyed the mobile life.
Wallabies and goats at Longleat

From then on, for the next hour or so, we wondered what on earth we’d done. The mains hook up didn’t work, have we bought a duff cable? We’ll move so we can try our short cable. Before we managed to do that, and more importantly we couldn’t get the 12v working. It did work briefly, I heard the ignition click as we tried turning the fridge on, only the fridge didn’t light. Check the gas, nothing on the hob, perhaps it’s off? Yes it was, ok, that’s easy. Right back to the 12v. Press that, and it says 12v off, Press again, panel lights up, but nothing says 12v on, and my test of listening for ignition clicks on the fridge was silent. Can you ring Webbs? No, no cell, so off he wondered to reception, returning with a very willing and helpful, but not necessarily knowledgeable man. 
The children's area at Longleat
He sorted out the mains problem you have to turn the blue plug to engage, ok, that was easy. Back to the 12v, see, the fridge still isn’t igniting, “but why do you want it to? You are plugged into the mains?” 17.15 B back to reception to use their phone to ring Webb’s before they all went home. He spoke to Dan, who said press the panel twice, but not much more! By the time B got back I’d prodded around in the fuse board, was that one slightly out? Maybe. Turned the fridge off and on, and with the panel just on, tried lighting the fridge, hurrah, so although it doesn’t say 12v on, because it doesn’t say 12v off...... loads of stress, but actually no real problems!
Its OK, it's not real!

Ok, back to testing everything, or our memories anyway. Cook dinner, using the one electric ring, and one of the three gas rings, good, that’s all ok. Open the fizz we need to celebrate! 

Once fed and watered we could both have gone to sleep, but it was only 20.30 so we’d better go for a little walk around the site. We met a lovely couple, with a sweet dog, that didn’t mind me taking some calming stroke therapy from it. Have you been into the park? They said, didn’t know we could, so off we went. It did sort of say no entry, to dogs, but it was only a little car barrier so in we walked, saying hello to wallabies, ostrich and donkeys! We avoided going too close to the house as our ‘friends’ had said you may get warned off through a loudspeaker if they see you on the cctv! Somebody saw us though, as we were walking out through the car park a vehicle swooped down on me (he was behind, taking his picture of the house) “what are you doing?” “Just having a little look around, we’ve walked in from the campsite.....” I apologised for having taken him away from the football and off we went! Not as good as being evicted from the tip, Abi, but still a claim to fame!
Behind the wheel

I expected to sleep well, but sadly not to be, particularly with B climbing over me to go to the toilet, ho hum, just as well he doesn’t do that often. Shower, breakfast, washing up, packing up, and water dump (not necessary, but just to practice) and back to Webb’s to get a cheque for our nights accommodation, I drove, so some wiggly lanes for me too. We also had to put some water in as our super attached hose didn’t have the right attachment for the campsite tap! Up the motorway to mum’s, stopping en route to collect the mountain bikes from where they have been stored for the last six years, yep, we’ve got to get them in the garage, as well as the mountain of stuff waiting for us.
Night number 2 at Hill Farm, Alvechurch. Nice view!

Five hours of carrying stuff downstairs and trying to decide where to put it later we headed off to a local small site, a CL, certified location, of the caravan and motorhome club, £10.00 for up to 5 vans with electric hook up (EHU) and a toilet, no flash facilities here, but all we needed (location: 52 20' 39.62N, 0 54' 38.4W). I had planned to cook, but the chippy spoke as we drove passed, so, as we were expecting guests in an hour and a half, sense prevailed.
Misty the cat

Our first campsite cat, Misty, an old boy with funny teeth came to visit, hurrah, and then our real guests, The Monday Club boys Tim, Bill and Mark (and Fiona). I know it was Tuesday, but they’d made an exception! They said all the right things, looked in every locker, asked lots of questions, and proved that we can seat 5 comfortably. The sixth was a little less so, but I don’t suppose that’ll happen often!







Campsite number 3 at Cumbernauld
A better nights sleep and we set off for Scotland, what is that banging? I checked every cupboard, jamming things together. “It doesn’t sound like anything breaking” he said carrying onto the motorway. There it goes again, at which point I yell stop. One of the outside lockers, the one with the mains cable in, is flapping wide in the wind! He doesn’t want to stop on the hard shoulder, so off and round the roundabout, into the services. “What should be in that locker?” Fortunately everything that should be there is there. He’d carefully locked the lock but without actually turning it shut first! Won’t do that again! Anyway lots of roadworks and 5 hours became 6. In the future it will be more as the fuel economy was rubbish, though it was very windy too which won’t have helped (19.7mpg average - yikes!!)


Jackie setting up the outdoor bbq
Another CL, just off the motorway, just passed Glasgow (location: 55 55' 41.4N, 0 4' 28.9W), three people here already, but we have booked. Can’t raise the farmer so we’ll just park up. I was expecting to open the wine and crisps, but he wanted a cup of tea first. The man opposite made the mistake of coming over and saying “If a wee cat comes in throw it out.” To which I obviously replied “No chance!” I had to go and have a chat, they were in a caravan with three dogs and two cats. The dogs are on leads but the cats just do their own thing. Amazing, the little one was under two and a real pocket rocket, it got a bird and a mouse to my certain knowledge, came in and checked out the van, before dashing off to do more cat things! Didn’t expect cats on every camp site, long may it last!
Cooking mackerel while stroking Indie cat

First dump of the toilet cassette, and grey water again, so we arrive at the Housesit empty, and on our way, filling up with fuel. Pay at the pump, he thought would be quicker £99 maximum, wasn’t enough! Ouch! Another £25 on top! A gentle two hours with the van saying the fuel economy was better and we arrived at the golf course where the house is situated (approx location: 56 35' 58N, 0 36' 22W). We’d arranged to park up before walking to the house to assess the route in and wait for the three cars to move off the drive. We’d been dreading this bit, there is a perfect space beside the house, but is the drive big enough to turn the van round, or will we have to reverse the 160m down the last lane? Turned out, easy peasy, but still glad we won’t have to do it often as we have the use of a car while we are here, we have to get Angus to the beach and woods for his walks.....!
A photo of Jackie taking a photo of Indie cat in our van

Lovely to be back, Colin was much more relaxed than the last time, Anders and Anneka are so grown up. Angus and Oscar are just the same, though Oscar has just been professionally trimmed so I won’t have to chase him around with a pair of scissors, and just as I write, Hector has finally come out from behind the sofa, and straight to my lap for a cuddle. We are going to have a lovely time!

Here's her photo
Saying 'hello' to the cows at the Cumbernauld campsite
At Colin & Louise's house in Arbroath where we are housesitting two cats and a dog for three weeks
Hector cat decides Jackie can stroke him


Sunday 17 June 2018

Slightly windy Wales then back to Brum

Giant badger at the Welsh wildlife centre
Thursday dawned windy and slightly damp, so heading away from the coast seemed to make sense. We hadn’t been north either, so up to the Welsh wildlife centre in Cardigan we went (Welsh wildlife centre). Lots of interesting walks in a variety of habitats, with the opportunity to see many birds, otters and water buffalo! As it was, we did see lots of birds, some we could identify, some not, but no kingfisher and no otter (but that’s not really a surprise!), except as carved wood. Water buffalo we did see, which was a bit unusual, apparently they had been imported as they will eat pretty much everything, so are not as picky as horses and cows, and they are used to rice paddy fields so don’t get foot rot. It would appear they are doing a grand job of maintaining the plant variety, despite not being ‘local’!
View from the Mallard Hide. Don't look much like ducks
Ron. This was actually in the Heron Hide 

We had a lie in on Friday as we had to ring about the boat trip at 11.00, sadly it was still too windy, so puffins were off, a real shame, but no one really wanted to be out if it was too rough! Newport Beach then, a little more of the coastal path where we saved the life of a toad, it was being writhed about by a snake which slithered off as we tried and failed to get phones out to take pictures! Lunch on the rocks watching surfing/life saving lessons for a class of school kids, P.E. Was never like that when I was at school, before walking on the beach, the tide was finally out enough, but it was still windy, my ears can confirm....
In the Bara Brith cafe for tea and...bara brith

Tea and cake at the cafe/art gallery recommended to us on day one. Very pleasant, and the first proper stop for tea and cake all week, surprisingly! Last night, and I was allowed a night off as the club house at the cottage was open. It was good to pop in and see the locals, have a pint of local beer and an unpretentious dinner! With that it was all over, we’d walked miles with amazing views, eaten well, drunk a few glasses of wine, done a jigsaw, played scrabble and completed a few crosswords. What mores is holidaying about?
Walking on Newport beach

The journey home wasn’t as good as the journey there, apart from anything else it was raining, reminding us how luck we’d been, a week in Wales and only rain on one overnight?!

Today we have spent ‘sorting’! What to take to the mobilehome for the first night, this all has to go in the car, to Abi’s, into her car and down to Warminster. So not too much, but we do want to put the van through its paces, cooking, showering, etc, so testing the quality of the handover, and the quality of our memories! Tomorrow is going to be a very steep learning curve, with general stuff like emptying the toilet to specific stuff about power supplied from the solar panel! That’s not to mention actually driving and manoeuvring it!

We will then drive back to mothers to try to fit everything else we want in on Tuesday, staying locally, before heading up to Scotland on Wednesday.

It’s all very exciting!
The toad we rescued after the attacking snake slithered off. There's a bit of blood by his front right foot
Dinas Head is the rising land to the right, our first walk last Monday. That ominous looking cloud didn't bring any rain, but it looked like it might
That little lump of rock in the sea was marked on the map as 'Cat Rock'. We made a special walk along the coastal path to see it. Doesn't look much like a cat to us, the wind had picked up, is was fairly cold and late afternoon, time for tea and cake!
Art! It was an old slate quarry on one of the walks in the Welsh wildlife park