What are you all up to

"Yippee, first day for 14 months that I've been able to get back on my bike"

well done, dont know what i would  do without my bikes, i have 2, one is what is called a Compact Road (Giant), and the other is a folding off roader which i always take away in the caravan. Since having both knees replaced, walking is not great for me no more than 2 hours whereas i could cycle forever.

I cycle almost every day, maybe 10 miles per trip, we are very lucky as the area is fairly flat and we have super cycle lanes stretching from Stubbington to the Gosport ferry and you can either take your bike on the ferry across to Portsmouth harbour or leave it secured at the ferry terminal, but not today, it is gushing it down, all our surrounding roads are flooded, fortunately i got out before breakfast whilst that thing in the sky which we have seen precious little of lately was shining.  

Well done on the bike ride,  & hope MIL's test results are all okay.

We've had a couple of reasonable days, even a bit of sunshine, we've had quite a bit of flooding in town, including our Arts Centre, the flood defence hasn't been able to cope with the amount of rain, but hopefully the river levels have now peaked.

Caravan now emptied just needs a bit of a clean inside but I am back at work so it will have to wait until the weekend, it can then go back into storage  until later in the month, when hopefully it's a stay in the Cotswold's.

Been surprisingly busy at work, its usually quiet after Christmas/ NY break. 

Glad you made it to your next site safety Nellie. 

That's great news WN, so pleased to hear. Hope MIL's tests are OK and she's back to her normal self soon. 

Dry day and fairly mild. Had to go into town this pm for my shingles jab, 2nd one in 8 weeks time. 

We are getting visitors this weekend for a few days. GKids are due back at school on Tuesday so their dad is bringing them up on Saturday then he's driving back down again on Sunday. Both our son and his wife are back to work on Monday, so the kids are staying with us for a few days, then we will take them back to school. Be nice to have them to ourselves awhile. 

Good to read that you have managed a ride on your bike, WN, well done. Pleased that your MIL was able to get to see her doctor this morning, and hopefully her medication will cure her problem.

It will be nice for you having the grandchildren staying for a few days, TG. I only had a single injection for Shingles, so things must be different in Scotland compared to England.Hope you have no after effects.

Thanks Helen, I hope the next tow goes as well, on Monday. Hope the weather is fine for you at the weekend and you can complete the cleaning of your caravan.

At last we have had a fine, sunny day, but it was a bit cooler. Paid a visit to Cheshire Oaks and I came away with another pair of boots....well one can't miss a bargain can one!! Although it seemed quite quiet when we arrived the car parks were nearly fu!l when we left. One wouldn't think that we are supposed to be in a period of deep austerity, seeing the numbers out shopping.

It must depend on which vaccine they are using nellie, we only had one when we got ours.

Having more Touareg problems, this time with the battery.  I was planning to order  up a new one as this one is now 7 years old and becoming reluctant to start the car, went to get  something from the car yesterday evening, but could not open the doors with the fob.  Tried the emergency key, but that did not work either.

The tailgate did however unlock so I was able to climb in that way, the rear seats were down so  managed to get into the driving seat.  Doors would not open using internal handles, bonnet cannot be opened unless driver's door is open, so could not charge battery, which is actually under the driving  seat.

However, there was enough left in the battery to turn on the ignition, and that then allowed me to open the doors, thankfully!!

Left the tailgate not fully closed and  managed to lock the doors with the fob, tried to open them again, but that did not work...... very strange!

This morning I had to climb back in via the tailgate, press the ignition, and then open the doors from inside, open bonnet, and connect up battery charger.  Later even managed to start engine and open the doors using the fob.

Left it charging while I went for my kidney scan, and on my way home  fetched some sealant for DD, procured a new battery, and went to DD's  house to leave her stuff and collect my boxes of turned items now that she has selected a few things to advertise on-line.

Will be Saturday before I will have enough time to fit the new battery......the driving seat has to be unbolted and tipped out of the way to access the  battery position, so not a quick job!    ☹️

Kj - That's got me thinking now!  My Treg is coming up to eight years old and I've been thinking recently that the battery is going to need changing soon - although, touch wood, I've not had any problems yet. I've never had a car this long before but it's been so reliable and such a good tow car that I'm reluctant to part with it - especially as it's 'only' done 60k miles.  Plus, it's the off-road Escape version which they stopped making years ago - so I would lose that aspect of it if I changed for another.

I think I will be talking to our garage when it goes in for service in March and get it changed.  Thanks for sharing that.

" I only had a single injection for Shingles, so things must be different in Scotland compared to England.”

It does seem a bit strange having 2 Shingles jabs Tammygirl.  We have only had one.  My sister lives near Dunfermline and she has been invited for hers on the 28th January but only for one jab also.  

So glad the rain seems to have stopped at last, the river here is almost as high as we’ve seen it.  Very glad we live up a hill as I feel so sorry for the flooded people in other areas,  it must be heartbreaking to see your home destroyed like that.  

I had my Shingles jab just before Christmas. The nurse said that the NHS ( definitely England at least) have recently changed to a new 2 jab vaccine as it is much more effective than the old single jab. The 2nd jab has to be taken at least 6 months after the first one.

 NHS Website:

There are 2 types of shingles vaccine given in the UK. You can check the ingredients in the patient leaflets:

Shingrix vaccine patient leaflet (Electronic Medicines Compendium website; PDF only, 136kb) – given as 2 doses
Zostavax vaccine patient leaflet (Electronic Medicines Compendium website) – given as 1 dose

I wondered that Mikey, a change in protocols I suppose.  Good that it’s more effective hopefully as (Milliehull will know) it’s a nasty virus.