What are you all up to

Well storm Cairan not as bad as expected for us, torrential rain and strong winds my home hardstanding was flooded but caravan ok, no structural damage just lots of water. Dont know how you cope when you see the roof to your house take off as some have done in the channel islands. Have not ventured out as yet so not sure what our beach area will look like, we sand bagged the beach house but we normally do that anyway for the winter months.

Today it is very calm. blue skies and sunshine must get out on my bike not been over the threashold  for 3 days 

couple of photies of my sisters place in Low Hutton, just outside York, she said the A64 was closed yesterday due to accident/flooding so not only had she to contend with a constant flow of mud/slurry running off the field she had hgv's and coaches speeding thru the village

Nellie

I would be interested in the CL at Settle. Next April we're going to Victoria Hall at Settle on two censecutive nights ("Decades" by Oysterband) - and are thinking of taking the caravan instead of travelling twice. I've seen two that look OK, but I'm not booking just yet.

Goldie, we stayed at Brigholme Farm, Giggleswick, a few years ago. It was fine. Pitches are a little closer than normal and access needs a bit of care but ideal for Settle, 2 minutes up the road in a car.

Trying to find a decent price for Home Insurance. Tried all the usual comparison websites plus a few direct such as NFU. Our premium this year has increased by a whopping 70% despite no claims and no change in circumstances. At the moment I'm struggling to find a significant saving anywhere. Very frustrating. I can save less than 7.5% for like for like cover and about 25% for significant reductions in cover. 

Reading Martin Lewis I see that I can expect the same sort of increase when motor insurance due. Who said inflation was reducing from c8%?

Otherwise, it's back to normality, food shopping, clothes washing etc. Now have date for second funeral, a week after first one.

We were largely untroubled by Ciaran, just rained all day yesterday. Not much wind. Dare say we were lucky. Hope no-one suffered too much.

Arrived safely back home from Cumbria - can't believe I did the 150 miles in not much over three hours.  And - before anyone says anything, I've just checked the tracker log and I didn't exceed the speed limits anywhere!  Don't know how I did it - but just had a clear run through - no hold ups - nothing.  No rain - just glorious sunshine all the way. What a difference a day makes

Wherenext wrote: Reading Martin Lewis I see that I can expect the same sort of increase when motor insurance due. Who said inflation was reducing from c8%?

WN, our car insurance is due towards the end of this month - it's gone up an eye-watering 82% no claims, same car, no changes.  Neither of us have crossed over a "significant" threshold in age either.  According to the insurer, last year insurers paid out more in claims than they got in premiums

So we're in the same boat as you at the moment, trying other quotes etc.  Current insurer has brought it down (but not by as musch as we'd like!) by "tweaking" a few things, so we'll see.........

We found similar at our recent renewal for the cars, up about 50%, but OH shopped around and found a few less expensive quotes then rang our current insurer.    They offered a reduction on both  cars, plus we took SIL off the insurance as he has not driven one of our cars, and now we have the new car there will be no need for him to drive it either, so total saving £165.

House renewal is end of the year, so we  still have that battle to come.  It was massively up last year, but by tweaking the cover slightly we managed to get it down a fair bit.

 Now on day 4 of the new car and very pleased with it.   Handover on Tuesday was excellent, lots of information on the controls and the "fancy stuff", far more of that than we had expected.  Will take a while to get to grips with it all!

OH drove the car to DD's while I went to pick  up  Nathan from  nursery, then later drove it home.  We also got the Touareg back later that day, so back to normal now.

DD purchased new seat protecters for us as the new car has cloth upholstery, so good to keep little feet off of it, and she took the one we had to have 2 in her car too.  The heavy child seats do tend to mark the upholstery.

Down at DD's yesterday doing more stuff for her, a  new door for a cupboard, a d back there again today to start installing an extra socket for her for charging her Shark vacuum cleaner.  

Will go back tomorrow  to finish it as it means going under the floor to connect it into the ring circuit, not looking forward to that!   OH has an order to pick up at Waitrose, so will follow later.

We are away in the van just at one of our local sites so easy drive down this afternoon not windy but very cold. Had dinner from the local chippy tonight which was nice. Not much planned tonight just sit in the van and have a few drinks.

Hope everyone else has a nice weekend 

In recent years we have realised that the heating levels in our dining room and the kitchen/utility could do with improving! Don't know if its because we are getting older neither area really get warm? The kitchen is fine when we are cooking but we are not doing that all the time.  About a month ago Simon and I changed the dining room radiator for a double of the same overall size and we could use the existing fittings and that does seem to have improved things. The utility was not as straightforward as it would mean changing the pipework so I thought it better that we got a plumber in to do it. Simon had suggested a plumber which he had used and they came today to install the larger radiator. Obviously wasn't cheap, about £325 including the radiator and thermostatically controlled valve. That is about half of what BG quoted me for doing a similar job albeit on a large radiator.

David

Hi Goldie, we are on Layhead Farm at Rathmell. It is a bit further out of Settle than that mentioned by WN, but we are pleased with it. It is H/S grael through which grass has grown, but even after all the rain the pitches are nice and solid. It is at the end of a 1/4 lane past the Catholics cottages, but well away from them and well sheltered but with views too. The road off the A65 is fine and was quiet when we drove it this lunchtime. We would certainly use it again. The holiday cottages might be an option for you if you don't choose to bring your caravan

Hope this helps, and here is the link to it.

https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/certificated-locations/england/north-yorkshire/settle/layhead-farm/