Countdown to South America

Sunday Tea Club. A good photo of everyone but me! LtoR: Pete, Crystal, Manu, Paul (he was new to us - Pete's friend), Helen, Ian, Brian, Jackie & Rueben

The back to normal life has been full on, as expected. Two weeks to get everything together before going away, so buying walking shoes, warm fleece lined trousers, sandals , day sack, amongst other things… We also popped into Waterstones in Redditch to buy a new South America guide book, they politely asked, “when are you going?” Expecting something vague they were most surprised at 6 days time! After a long chat we left them with the blog address, so if you are reading “Hello!” We’ve done quite a lot of planning and bits and pieces here and there have been booked for the first couple of months of the trip.

In the little Chinese restaurant in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham where we can only go with Crystal as she speaks and orders in Mandarin and, magically, beautiful dishes appear that we can all share. It's nothing like we would eat at a Chinese takeaway, proper Chinese food here and all washed down with Chinese tea (hence the Tea Club in the name). That's apart from the beer we drink in pubs before and after of course 

We’ve probably caught up with everyone, including the financial advisor, who I have left a cheque with, how terribly quaint is that? All in preparation for the sale of Latimer Road to go through (fingers crossed everyone that it goes through before the budget), so the funds can be invested. I do feel very virtuous as we also took him a Christmas shoebox, before he has even announced they are collecting this year! We finally got the questions from the buyers solicitor, so we whipped through them and sent them back to our solicitor, just mentioning that we would only be available on the phone till we left Spain. “Would you like to come and sign the contract and land registry forms then? I’m in all day!” Last year when we sold Birmingham Road we did that online, so hadn’t even thought about it! That could have been a disaster!

Out for a local walk with Brian's sister Denise and Paul on a sunny but cold day

We’ve seen Jonathan and Lucy in Bury St Edmunds when we went to support my Godmother, Margaret, at the funeral of her husband of 49 years, Ron. It was expected, but it’s still hard.

After walk meal and wine - of course!

We had a lovely Sunday Tea club, they are always lovely, but this one even more so as we weren’t sure we were going to be able to fit one in.

She forgot to mention the Aurora Borealis that appeared over Alvechurch and  much of the UK on 8th October. We were alerted to it after our friend Tim posted a photo on our WhatsApp group. On with the coats and out we went. This was a photo over the local field at about 8:30pm, which we thought was fabulous. Not long after this it seemed to fade away and we thought that was it, but....

We’ve had a short walk, and long lunch with Denise and Paul, they were not quite feeling up to par after their trip to Spain, but whatever it was we didn’t catch it so that’s fine.

This was about 10:30pm from our front door step looking across the roofs of the houses opposite. We even knocked the neighbours to get them out to see it. We had a proper party out there snapping photos. Apparently the best show was around 12:30am, according to other people, but we'd gone to bed by then, very happy with what we'd seen

We had a good walk with John, Brian and Giles. The walk from Kings Sutton to Banbury that we did with John and Keith in the Summer. Brian obviously felt a bit miffed that he had only done it when the canal and river were overflowing in to each other, so wanted to try again. Strangely after all the rain we’ve had, the canal and river were overflowing into each other and we all got wet feet! Great day as ever though with much laughter and silliness, including Brian sending Tim a picture of a locomotive, with its number asking him “where are we?” He’s normally quick with this with his train info sites, this time he was very quick, see if you can see why?! The photo is a few photos below...

Out with Brian (another Brian), John and Giles for a Tuesday walk (and pub crawl!)

We had Alex and Rob over for a meal and are thrilled that they are going to be coming to stay while work is going on in their house. It’s good for us and the house, and it’s good for them, to be able to leave tools out and to be dust free is so much better at the end of a day working on the house!

It was a very pleasant (and non rainy) day, but a bit boggy in places along the canal. This was one of the worst bits

We saw Abi and had lots of chat, as ever, and although it’s not good for her that her car is poorly, at least we can offer her our car rather than leave it sitting it on the drive. She’s coming to collect it today , and will then come and then back tomorrow to take us to the airport!

Kings Sutton to Banbury and here we are at the famous Banbury Cross

We had Monday Club last night, the usual curry at Diwans. The tone for the night was set by Tim showing everyone the “where am I” message from last Tuesday! Obviously we’ve been packing today, not walking with John and Brian, we received a similar “where am I” photo from them however. I guess this will run and run!

Followed by a few beers at the historic Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn, selling the most amazing pint of Hooky beer. It was so good we had to keep trying it to make sure the quality was as good right through the barrel! Apparently Oliver Cromwell had visited this building in his day (1645?) and there's an original room in here you can visit

We spent the weekend with Helen, Ian and Monty dog. Friday was spent catching up on Tony and Nicky who we spent lockdown with. Tony has had a brain bleed which obviously is never good, we were pleased to hear that they could see a visible improvement between their arrival on Saturday and their leaving on Thursday. Saturday we were very lucky with the weather, it was really quite nice once it had stopped throwing it down, so after joining the street litter pick and a light lunch to soak up the remainder of Friday’s alcohol we walked into Birmingham, via the Old Moseley Arms, the Craven Arms and the Shakespeare for a pint in each. Back to the house to take Monty for a walk (ok, a pint and game of pool in the allotment bar) before going out to eat. Fabulous. Home on Sunday in time to chill, catch up on Strictly and up the Pub for Sunday Club.

Here it is, The Globe Room at the back of the pub. The notice says it dates back to 1570

I’m really sorry if we’ve missed anyone, we’ll see you in the New Year xx

This is the photo I sent to Tim. He's such a train buff and this is an old diesel class 66 that I was sure he'd be interested in and would know where we are from the train number. So when I asked him 'where are we?' can you spot my mistake. It was only when he replied within a minute 'Banbury' that I had another look at the photo and saw my error. He thought it must be a trick question!

But the day wasn't finished, time for another beer at the Good Intent in Birmingham in between changing trains to get home

It seems as though all we've done just recently is drink beer and last weekend was no exception. We spent the weekend at Ian and Helen's and, on Saturday after a morning's litter pick volunteer in their local area we walked through Cannon Hill Park in Moseley on a bright and sunny day to Birmingham City Centre, stopping at a few pubs on the way (there's a trend here!)

This was our second stop (the first being the Old Moseley Arms), at the Craven Arms a fabulous Black Country Ale pub serving great hand pulled beer in an amazing original listed building. It's as wonderful inside as outside

Walking into the centre and this is overlooking Gas Street basin a particularly nice area around the renovated canal system with fabulous pubs and eating establishments now very popular

Our third pub there below the rainbow. It's the Shakespeare, the black fronted lower part of the building on the left, another traditional pub

And here I did take a photo inside of the beautiful, historic building 

Back to Ian and Helen's house to take Monty dog out over the park...

Which involved a visit to the Pavillion, their local (and members only) allotment pub. They seemed to know everyone in there, it's run by volunteers and full of very friendly locals. A great atmosphere except Jackie and I lost to Ian and Helen at pool! It did get to the last ball though, Ian just had a lucky final shot!

We had Sunday breakfast at Ian and Helen's then came back to Alvechurch. However, the drinking didn't stop as we had to have a final night with Sunday Club (not to be confused with Sunday Tea Club which is an entirely different group of people!). Here we are in our local Weighbridge Inn LtoR: Keith, Posh, Jackie, Paul, Brian and John (yes, the same Brian and  John we were out drinking with on Tuesday!)

And look, on the way home, Brian, not only a train buff but also an astronomy buff pointed out the planet Jupiter just below the full moon

And here is a screenshot of that same night sky from a new app I've downloaded on my phone that Brian recommended I have for when we go to the Atacama desert in Chile next month. It's called Stellarium and you point your camera at the sky and it shows you all the stars, their names and the constellations. How fabulous is that! 

Here's a final photo from last nights Monday Club meeting. Yes, another club, we even have a Wednesday club, but that's another story. We'd already been to the Old Moseley Inn (us for the second time this week) and now we're in Diwan Balti restaurant, our favourite Indian restaurant. Peoples faces are a bit strange as everyone had mouths full of food, but LtoR: Bill, Fiona, Jackie, Tim, Mark and Brian. Tim is the one I'd sent the Banbury photo with the Class 66 train on last Tuesday asking him where I was. 

Housesitting and planning our next adventure

With Donna and Keith at Ounce in Bishampton. The chateaubriand was amazing, as usual

We didn’t make it to the pub on Sunday, partly as most of the boys seemed to be away but also as we got only home at 9:00am on Sunday morning  after an overnight flight from Nairobi, so keeping eyes open was a challenge. Monday was thrillingly spent changing our address from John’s. Very boring but necessary I suppose. We did then make it out for a Monday Club pint which was very enjoyable. We even had a bit of a night safari. As Mark and I opened the pub door there were two foxes almost on the doorstep. One ran off immediately but the other was quite happy to be photographed.

Our UK wildlife experience. One of two foxes waiting just outside the pub door as we left

Tuesday we came down to our Housesit for the beautiful Max and Otto. They live in an amazing house, lovely to visit, but not one either of us would want to own, a 1640’s money pit! It is big, three staircases, one just going to our suite where the floor is so up and down it’s unbelievable. The skirting board probably varies between 8cm and 18cm and you almost feel like you are at sea walking across it.

Our housesit for this week at a huge, amazing and very old house set in immense grounds with two fabulous cats to look after. Easy to get lost here both inside the house with its three staircases and outside in the extensive grounds

The grounds are also extensive, I did just under 1000 steps yesterday looking for the gardener and then taking her a cup of tea! It’s the boys however who we are here for, they are Egyptian Mau cats and so beautiful. Otto loves fuss and attention, though Max isn’t far behind, we had both of them for cuddles with a movie last night, and on the bed this morning. Heaven.

Look at these two fabulous cats we're looking after, Otto and Max. Very hard to tell them apart, they are near identical, but we think we may have got it sorted now

Yesterday we went to Bishampton to have lunch with Donna and Keith at Ounce for the Thursday Chateau Briand special. As good as ever. We had a lovely time catching up with D&K and making a fuss of Cookie and Cracker. We got the usual uproarious welcome from the boys which I’m sure everyone gets, but is still a pleasure.

Jackie giving Cookie and Cracker their treats yesterday while we were at Donna and Keiths

Apart from that we’ve been out for a couple of short walks, trying not to get too muddy and gone slightly square eyed looking at screens trying to plan the Bolivian salt flat and the Atacama desert. Home tomorrow though and back to normal life.

Another view of one of the gardens at this lovely house

Look at this part of the house, there's not a straight edge to be seen. The window top right is amusing, specially made to fit the opening

Off on one of the two short walks we've done while here

Snuggled up together on us both last night while we watched TV

We think this is Otto as the fur on the top of his head has a slight O shape. However Max has a slight O there too but he is slightly smaller than Otto. He could be Max, but I think he's Otto

Look at their coats, they are amazing. Reminds me a bit of the Serval cat we saw in Kenya. Serval's are bigger (have sharp teeth and are wild) but a similar spotted coat. Lets see if I can find a photo of the one we saw in Kenya for comparison...

Here's the one we saw. Vague likeness I suppose, now I've seen them side by side

And now |I've got a pussy cat on my lap demanding lap space, making it very difficult to write this. Which one is he? Otto I think, but he clearly thinks he is more important than this blog!

House, done. (For this year!)

Party at John's on Wednesday night (there he is on the right) with Sunday Club (they all meet at the local pub in the village on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday nights and we join them when we're around)

All the finishing touches have been done in the kitchen, (except the bespoke display unit which will be made next year). The splashback looks fab, as does the clock, my triumph I think. Much more in keeping than a standard big clock Brian had been eyeing up. It was just the first thing that came up when I searched for clocks. Lots of designs, 15 colours any of which can be your primary, secondary or tertiary selection, all get sent to you with a template to stick them to the wall. The rug was a little more expensive than we were hoping but we didn’t realise that rugs only come in standard sizes, so when I finally found one about the right size and perfect colour way, that was it! Brian has found a fire surround for the fireplace so all we need now is a salt lamp to go in there. We might find one tomorrow when we go out to collect Brian’s new glasses, if we are lucky. Brian’s absolute triumph though is the new door between the kitchen and the utility. The frame is a strange size, not square, and he wanted the door to open the other way. What he thought he wanted to cut off was only just within tolerance, where the handle needed to go was where they said don’t put it, and as for the banana shape…. He’d talked about it, built it up in his head, and fretted about it. He had the window guys to bounce ideas off, and approached it slowly and steadily, taming his inner bull in a china shop! He’s done a stunning job.

The splashback that matches the dining wall 

The dining wall and wild coloured rug

There's Jackie's wild clock that matches the other wild colours. The fireplace is now complete with grate and Himalayan salt lamp, the arch on the left is scheduled to have a bespoke oak cabinet made next year (always something to do!)

The garden is also looking good, once the window men left on Friday I could finally get the cleaning solution I’d bought to remove the brown stains on the patio left by the brick cleaner that Darren had used to remove cement that turned the grey slabs brown! I was not happy. This stuff however is magic and our slabs are grey once again. The acer we had spent all summer looking for we finally found in Bristol, so that’s in, along with the grasses in my ‘spring art’ bed. We have even managed to sit out a couple of evenings. This leads to its own amusement as Luna cat from next door, who will finally say hello, comes down, says hello and then marches into the house like she owns it. She is such a little madam, but we are very happy to entertain her.

Brian working on the new internal door from kitchen to rear lobby

Saturday we had Denise and Paul round for a nose, just as Anthony had arrived to trim the two end panels that came off so the floor could be laid. He didn’t take long though and we went out for a walk. Train to Barnt Green 7km under very threatening skies, with no view from the top of the Lickey Hills, but still a lovely walk. We finished at the Barnt Green Inn for a meal and a good catch up. Train back to village, waved them off and the heavens opened. We were very lucky! Have a look at our short Relive video with photos of our walk: click here

The fields near Bittel Reservoir with Denise and Paul

Drink and beer  in the Barnt Green Inn after our walk

Sunday after patio cleaning was Sunday Tea Club. The original six, Manu and Crystal, Helen and Ian and us. A couple of pints followed by a really tasty meal, fab.

I have to apologise to everyone in this photo as I caught everyone at a bad moment! Unfortunately I only took one photo rather than 3 or 4 to pick the best. I was keen to get back to the food - that'll teach me! Anyway this is our Sunday Tea Club group, Manu, Chrystal, Ian and Helen (rather than Sunday Club - an entirely different group of people)

Monday, also social, our first dinner guests. Alex and Rob came over to inspect their ‘holiday home’ ready for when we are on holiday and they are in the middle of destroying their back room so it works for us all to have them to come and stay. Apart from the trauma of deciding what to cook, another lovely evening.

Next doors cat Luna feeling at home in our garden while we enjoy the last of the summer wine

Tuesday Abi had asked if we could hang a couple of radiators for her so Tariq could plumb them in. Tariq is quite capable of hanging radiators but after his heart attack earlier this year, probably shouldn’t be. We did the heavy stuff, so he can plumb, and decorate. We also met Bradford, one half of a couple who also used to Housesit for her and Sooty. She’d roped him in to painting gloss in the spare and box rooms. It was good to meet him after hearing so much about him and we were all spoiled by a meal at the Murg Al Azam, the very nice Indian, just round the corner in what used to be a church. This was most unexpected, but we weren’t arguing.

Another photo from our walk in Barnt Green with Denise and Paul. A perfect reflection in the lake

Wednesday Brian had to create in the morning. He was making a tiramisu to take to John’s in the evening for a meal for Sunday club and wives, and a couple of extras. Another brilliant evening, we were all wrapped up but sitting outside under the event shelter eating, drinking and talking rubbish led to a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Today we’ve packed for Kenya (we're off there for two weeks on Sunday - see our plan and map top right) and then made Thai curry with all the vegetables from the bottom of the fridge that haven’t got eaten as we kept going out. We also blanched and froze the beans that Denise brought us that I just haven’t had chance to cook with. Hopefully we’ll have time to eat them between Kenya and South America when we want to turn the freezer off!

This is Denise's photo of the same view, I think hers is probably better than my effort (although I'd accept reassurance that mine's better!)

Bristol and parties

Family birthday party in Solihull. Me with sister Denise and eldest granddaughter Abbie (she was 26 a few days before)

Quiet on the DIY front last week as we went to Bristol, for a quick overnight catch up with Bev and Iain before they went away. We stayed for a week to look after Millie and Tinsel, mostly because as Millie has aged, she’s gone deaf and seems to have dementia so just sits and yowls until she can see someone. We’ve done this before, love them all, the house, and Bristol and needed some time away from our house to concentrate on our next trip. 

Temporary staff looking after very shouty Millie cat. Deaf and with dementia she's a lovable cat

We have Kenya coming up in 10 days, but for the winter we are planning on South America to do some of the bits that we missed last time. I had applied for the only Housesit I have seen for Christmas, which we were lucky enough to get, so we have a month near Cuenca, in Ecuador for three dogs for some lovely sounding people. Better at least book some flights to the continent then. That’s done, via Spain for family visiting, as are our first few nights in Arequipa and an Amazon trip just before the sit. Just the 5 weeks in the middle to plan then, and the time after Christmas!

Half blind and neurotic Tinsel cat, she likes a bit of fuss on her terms and shouts very loudly on others. We like her one white whisker

It was Brian’s birthday while we were away, so we did have one day out, with a lovely lunch, in Bristol. New binoculars bought ready for Kenya, so all good

August for Brian's family has lots of birthdays so the Happy Birthday song had many verses. Here's Steph blowing out the candles for hers. For us it was bad planning. We knew the party was on this date, but forgot and agreed to Bev and Iains housesit in Bristol later. It meant driving up from Bristol and back in a day, going past our house on the way! 

Family have pretty much all been seen, slightly bad planning as we drove back to Dickens Heath on the Sunday for Brian’s family’s huge number of birthdays, fortunately all hosted by Steph and Sam, for her 40th. A lovely day, well worth the journey. 

More of Brian's family. LtoR: Matty, Steph, Jackie, Fiona, Sam & Paul

We did get back from Bristol to a speeding fine. Obviously your heart sinks when you open something like that, then you realise it was from Derbyshire constabulary on the Monday we were in Bristol, and then you realise it was the car before last. The one that blew up in Ashbourne, 5 years ago, that we left on the forecourt of a garage who gave us £200 for cash! They did include a note saying we think you may have sold it recently, so they had got our slip from the V5 and we had an acknowledgment of its receipt. The new owner however had not filed the other part of the V5 and we hadn’t chased after 4 weeks as the acknowledgment says we should do! We hope they are just clutching at straws and that my letter will make this go away! Keep everything crossed!

Birthday lunch in 'Muse' in Bristol. We only had one bottle of wine and not all those on the shelf! Look at the vertical carrots on my plate! They even bought me a small birthday cake with candle and sang to me once they knew it was my birthday

The following Saturday after our return was Charles 22nd birthday, so a trip down to them. Gave us the opportunity to meet the lovely Phoebe and to catch up with Martyn and Annabel who we haven’t seen since Charles’s 21st, and obviously Jonathan, Lucy and Caroline. Again, a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Happy 22nd birthday Charles, there he is at the far end next to his dad. LtoR: Annabel, Caroline, Jackie, Martyn, Charles, Jonathan, Ron, Veronica & Lucy

And in the middle is Charles' girlfriend Phoebe. You know the others from the photo above, with the addition of that handsome chap on the left!

Friday we had popped over to H&I to borrow the sack truck to move the fridge freezer and a circular saw for door fitting, so rude not to go out for a curry! Sunday we spent the morning clearing the kitchen floor, and taking up, and tipping the carpet and gripper. Brian then decided running a cable under the floor to the fireplace, just in case, made sense, which it did, though it nearly needed Lunacat from next door to run under the floorboards! Then down to Pershore to meet the cats and owners of a short sit we are doing on our Kenya return. Beautiful cats, and lovely house and people. That will be something to look forward to. Finally made it to Sunday club, though I did let the side down, drinking a G&T as beer after the red wine at dinner in the Red Lion would have been a mistake! Monday was another curry with the Monday Club boys, so although I’ve got a new kitchen I’ve barely used it.

Out for a beer and curry with the Monday club boys. LtoR: Mark, Jackie, Bill & Tim. They found it quite amusing that we have on WhatsApp groups called Monday Club, Sunday Club (which doubles up as Wednesday Club too and we occasionally join Friday Club), Sunday Tea Club (Chinese dinner and tea with an entirely different set of people) and Tuesday walking club. That's what happens when you retire we told Mark

This week my excuse is that apart from the new flooring going down on Monday, the guys arrived to start replacing all the windows. They are doing a good job, but it’s disruption everywhere!

The upstairs window going in. Phil had handed it up to Pete who stood holding it while Phil dashed upstairs to help him in with it

One of the Sunday club boys had taken a picture outside one of the others houses as a joke. I saw what was being left out for the scrapman and wanted it. Keith obviously thought I was mad, but it was mine for the taking. It’s the spring out of a retractable garden house, and I’m so happy with my bit of salvage. We spent yesterday in the garden which we are now very happy with, it’s taken the summer, but well worth the effort. Yesterday the new cooker hood extractor arrived, we only wanted one section of chimney cowl, but they can’t send that, so we now have £500 worth of extractor we need to find a new home for! The splashback for the kitchen is due today, all we are then waiting for is our ‘way out’ clock. It’s finally all coming together.

Phil poses for a photo during kitchen window fitting. You know that nice new sparkling kitchen we had fitted and all the walls skimmed and neatly painted? They've managed to make it look 20 years old covered in grit and dust. We've got a right old cleaning job to do when they are done, not just in the kitchen but every room in the house as all windows have been changed to high security frames and energy efficient glazing

We have a new fridge and there's two of us trying to feed the plug through to the socket to connect up. We thought fridge buying would be easy, but no. 550mm wide fridges are only nominally 550mm, some are much bigger than that and we only have a 560mm gap, but also the standard depth is too deep to fit under our units (with skirting board on). We can accommodate 560mm depth up to the skirting board without it protruding beyond the work surface and most 550mm wide fridges were 580 or 590mm. About to give up Jackie found this Kenwood one, exactly 550mm wide and 560mm deep. Perfect! Did you know, Kenwood is named after the original owner? His name was Ken Wood 

So Jackie saw this photo on our Sunday Club WhatsApp group of Keith having put this lot on his front drive for collection by the frequently passing scrap man, Jackie decided she wanted the metal coil (not the bed springs!) so we had to hurry down in the car, untangle it from the bed springs and load it into the car. I didn't really understand this, but she seemed convinced it was going to be art in the back garden... 

And here's her creation with it, which I do agree looks pretty cool and a great lesson in recycling

And here's the garden so far from the newly fitted upstairs window. The acer tree is planted as are the grasses around the spring sculpture. I've put the solar lights up and over the arch and in amongst the rustic fence on the left with the solar panel at the junction of the arch and rustic fence (you might just be able to see them). I just have to attach the metal robin to the rustic fence that Jackie bought me for my birthday. Can't get a decent photo yet with all those windows. That's the kitchen window you can see there ready to go in. The delivery driver has just delivered the multi coloured splashback (that matches the dining room wall) to go up behind the hob in the kitchen, so I need to go and fit that. Photo of that in the next blog! Until then....