As promised, I will do at least one entry a month into Claire’s blog; and maybe far more if we ever get away on holiday again. We would normally have disappeared in December, not to return until the weather breaks in March or April.
We ended last year with a trip to La Manga in Spain for a few days which was busy, organized but pleasant. We managed to surprise Claire’s step Dad by arriving with Sue who they picked up from the airport.
Our log cabin was overlooking the strip across the Mar Menor. The other side of the strip is the Mediterranean sea. If we ever go back again, we will take the car or even a van so as to take advantage of their great wine priced at €1.20 a liter and its 15% proof and delicious.
I also managed to get over to Loughborough in December staying with Steve and we got out to see Mel and his wife Inch. I haven't seen them for about 15 years or more. Mel has had lots of troubles and has become disabled and drives one of those mobility scooters around; well, to the pub and back. I also caught up with Steve’s oldest son Ben who I haven't seen since he was a teenager. I really must make more of an effort to go over to Loughborough; I really enjoyed the night, and Loughborough has changed so much since I used to live there around 25 to 30 years ago.
As you know, we sold our house last October and bought a caravan at Overstone lakes as a temporary stop gap before buying another house as a renovation project. We still haven't managed to buy another property yet but we love it in the caravan so it doesn’t matter. I love walking around the pretty lake.
It was sad to take my last walk through the woods before the site closed on the 15th January.
We also had our last drink at the club house before the shut down. We had a quick drink with Paul, the manager, and his wife Jo who runs the restaurant. They are off to Goa for the entire 2 month shut down period. I’m not jealous! If you work at the Park your wages are spread over the entire year so you still get a pay check during the shut down months.
Sue kindly offered to take us in to her large 4 bedroom house during the shut down period; or at least until we could get away on holiday after my Mum and Dad have moved into their bungalow. Of course, Claire now has a drinking partner but Sue sometimes struggles to keep up with her.
The New Year also saw changes at our normal Wednesday night venue at the Ship Ashore. The gay barman has left for finer pastures at Brighton so the waitress service has disappeared. Surprisingly, this also coincided with a price increase and poorer quality food. Another move was necessary. We have temporarily took up residence at the Barge.
Steve, our newest Wednesday night recruit has been in-between contracts for the last few months of 2011, as have I, but the New Year has seen an upturn in the job market with Steve starting his new contract in Coventry on 23rd January.
Even more surprisingly, I received a phone call and started back to work at Cerulean on Thursday 19th January. Its only for a month but the money is very welcome and I suspect that a few months work a year here might suit me and Cerulean. I don’t want full time work and they don’t want to pay for it; otherwise they would get a full time worker. I was pleasantly surprised to see an old colleague of mine called Dave Clark. I haven’t seen him for about 12 years until I started back to work. He has been living in the Check Republic teaching English. He also managed to re-marry whilst over there and has brought his young wife back along with their two children of 2 and 5. What a nightmare; starting a family so late in life. Dave is now 57 so I guess that he will be working for some time to come.
Another change at Cerulean is their new prototype machine, a 3D printer. They had just bought one when I left last year but it was a bit cheap and nasty. This new one is marvelous but looks a little like a coffee machine. It can make really intricate parts that could not be manufactured in any other way. I think it cost around £35,000 but they will soon get their money back by producing their own prototypes before production.
I am still cracking on with my book but have hardly laid pen to paper in January because we have been too busy doing other things. I have still managed to find time for research reading though and I am slowly making my way through the Open University Library. Ive been through the astronomy section followed by the physics, chemistry and geology sections and I am now starting the biology section. There is so much to learn; I love it!
My Mum and Dad exchanged contracts and complete on 30th January so they have a huge amount of packing and sorting to do. Unfortunately, my Dad has been poorly for the whole of January and is not able to help in any way. He cant even drive the short distance into town for shopping or the doctors at the moment, so we have to keep going back there to help with domestics. Mum is also suffering, especially with all the extra work she has been doing in relation to the move. Now that I am back to work we are having to help them at the weekends. We are here for the entire weekend this stopping for their move day on Monday. I cant stay long as I need to go back to work. Also we have a move out in one of our flats on 30th January so as we cant make the check out, Harriet has kindly offered to be present for it. We are a bit worried as the Polish tenants wanted to finish the contract early but the agent didn’t let them without paying in full. We think that they went back to Poland and sub-let to some out of work Poles that didn’t pay the rent. The agent has evicted them but we are not sure if they will play game but Claire will update you about that when we get back to MK.
We had a quick start, up with the lark at 6am doing the final packing; the removals turned up on time at 8.30am and were completely finished and off back to the depot by 11am. Unfortunately, the solicitors dragged their heels and we didn’t get the keys until after 3.30pm. We had the BT man that had arrived at 12.30 go off doing other jobs and sitting outside waiting to do his, now, last job of the day. We had the removals van sitting outside and we had me and dad sitting outside. We had already given keys for the people to move in an hour before so had nowhere to go. If we had known we would have saved a couple of chairs back cause poor old mum and dad had to sit on the stairs for 4 and a half hours. Also, we had no water for the entire time as the washing machine tap had broken and I had to turn off the mains water to disconnect it. We eventually got home at just after 9pm but Claire will fill you in with the rest.
Well, almost January out of the way; lets hope we manage to get away during February. The places that look favorite at the moment are, Goa, Canary Islands or Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. It looks like we will only get chance for around 3 weeks though. Never mind; its like being on holiday at the caravan, and it shouldn’t be too long until the sun comes out and the heated pool opens. My job at Cerulean has gone quite smooth and I expect to finish the job early and be out of there by 17th February so we should be able to go away after that all being well. I don’t think that this 3 weeks work will pay for our getaway but it should just about cover last years tax bill that we just got. See you at the end of next month; maybe sooner if we do manage to get away. Happy February!
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