What are you all up to

TG

It happened a couple of days before I took the van in for service and MOT. When we are not using the van I try and take it out for a 10/15 mile run every four weeks, the last time was in January and it was fine. Lots going on at home at the moment with appointments etc so I decided to not bother with another run as I knew the service was near. A couple of days before we were due to drive up to Wellingborough I decided I should start the vehicle just to check everything was OK. It started immediately, without hesitation but I suddenly got the flashing air bag light and an error message on the dash. BTW ours is a Peugeot. I have a solar panel on the roof and the mains is plugged in for several hours a day and we have a Battery Master so coupled with the fact that it started very easily I sort ruled out that it was caused by a low battery unless they are super sensitive? The van is now five years old so don't know if its an age thing? You read a lot about this happening on forums and Facebook Groups so it does seem quite common (have you seen my post in the motorhome section?) We had to bite the bullet and have an OEM module fitted which was very expensive as we didn't have the luxury of time to sort it out. I am hoping they have kept the old unit so I could perhaps see if I can get that sorted as spare. I did ask them to keep it but it was a while after they fitted the new one so it might have disappeared!

The insurance is due this month so just waiting to see how much that has gone up!

David

Feeling a bit "down" at the moment due to trying to sort a trip to Norway for all the family.  Nothing go do with my health....I am feeling great.

My sister will be 80 in May, but has arranged a party for the family in early July in the school holidays.  She has hired a venue for the party where she lives, but places to sleep are the problem.  She has 2 spare rooms so we hope we and DD+children can stay with her.   Hopefully DS and family can stay with my oldest nephew, who now owns my former family home.

I think my sister does not understand the anxiety not knowing where you will sleep generates!   She is way too much "laid back" for our liking, and both OH and DD are getting  very anxious about it all!

I spoke with her yesterday and she told me that she had booked 2 rooms with a neighbour, but that anyone staying there could not have use of their bathroom.  This seems very odd, and practically not feasable.

Then there is the transport problem, she lives a long way from the town and the airport we will fly to.      We will have to depend on my sister transporting us around, which is fine, but she also needs to organise for DD to borrow a car from a family member as hiring a car is extremely expensive in  Norway (£1200 for 2 weeks) and outside their budget.  This also involves having suitable child seats for a 3 year old and a 6 year old.

The  info at present is that a  car  should be available, plus possibly child seats, but no detail or certainty.

So, OH has been looking at air fares, looks like about £1000 in total  for the 2 of us by the time we check in luggage, more of course for DD and family.    

I would ideally like to drive with caravan, but looking at ferries , fuel, sites etc, this would cost £2500, so OH has ruled this out as not sensible financially.    Insurance would also be a problem.

Oh dear!!   We do need to decide very soon what to do.

l

Kj

This is a special occasion so perhaps the boat needs to be pushed out? Rather than hiring a car have you thought about a motorhome as that could kill several birds with one stone by providing transport and sleeping accommodation, at least for some of the party?  Another idea which may or may not be acceptable would be to move the whole celebration to a town with a hotel where everything could be catered for under one roof? That is what we tend to do for family get togethers as neither of us are keen on staying with relatives, so we retain our own space but are available when needed!

David

Just catching up with the news from the last 4 days, as we have my had any Wi-Fi signal for 3 of them and there were many posts that needed sorting yesterday. Apart from no signal, Wi-Fi or phone, the CS we were on near Abington is definitely one we would use again. Now we are on site at Beecraigs CP, which we have used in the past, and taking advantage of their low season mid week discount, 4 nights for the price of 3. 

Grand news about MIL WN.  Lovely to hear of how your granddaughter is doing, Debs. Belated birthday greeting, tda. Hope you are able to sort out a site for your trip up to Newcastle for the game. R&R well done in getting the roof of the van cleaned. I clean our caravan all over after each trip about 4 or 5 times a year on the first reasonably fine day after getting home from a trip, and try and polish it once a year too. Glad that the operation went well Kjell. Hope that you are able to get your trip to Norway sorted soon. Enjoy your time with your grandchildren, heddlo, fingers crossed that there are no problems when their parents are on their holiday.

Sorry if I have omitted others who have done interesting things, I will just have to go get the previous week's posts together complete picture of what all have been doing.

It does sound a bit of a logistic nightmare for a party KJ. Staying somewhere without the use of a bathroom isn’t, as you say, practical. We don’t like staying with relatives, however kind, preferring our own space, especially difficult if children included as well. As long as you and your wife are there to celebrate with your sister maybe she could accept that it’s just too difficult for other members of your family at present. Just out of hospital try not to stress over it too much.

Unfortunately, my sister lives a long way from the nearest town, about 80km, so moving the party there is not an option, plus the cost would be huge for that many (about 40) people.   Norway is very expensive!

I would think hiring a MH would be similarly very expensive.

My other sister has a caravan....presume they will be bringing it.....as does a niece, so they will be able to house some people, and  birthday sister has also hired another 2 rooms in some other place,  so 4 rooms in total, but  we have no idea what they are like, or the facilities.  There are no hotels where she lives.  There is a campsite, and she has a large garden, we have parked our caravan in her garden before.

The place where one will not have the use of the bathroom, I would think using the toilet would be OK, just not the shower.   Not being allowed  to use the toilet would just be ridiculous!

I expect it will all sort itself out in the end, but OH and DD are worriers.

A sunny morning with a keen easterly wind but as I was on care duty whilst OH went into town for a haircut I wasn't able to do a great deal  with it until the physio arrived at 10.30. So as she was with MiL for the next 90 minutes I set foot in the jungle outside.

There's a privet that's on its last legs so that needed pruning down to the low base before we extract it. Our brown collection starts again this Friday and we've already got 2 full ones as OH arrived back (no haircut due to hairdresser having to rush off to hospital as her son was taken ill) and she took out the dead leaves etc from a Hellebore and a now dead White Lavender plant. Sad to see that one go as it was beautiful and the bees loved it. Have to replace it. Only got about 50% of the privet done. Good to make a start on the gardening at last. The grass is still too wet to walk on never mind cut.

Must say we're really pleased with the physios and the amount of time they spend on each call. Usually a hour but we've had, like today, longer spells. There are 2 different young ladies who call on alternating days. 4 times this week. Could have been 5 but we felt MiL needed a day off. She's no Spring chicken.

Yesterday I was another day older but still scrabbling around looking for wiser.  Lovely sunny day here so spent this afternoon in the garden including giving the lawn its first cut of the season.

Really looking forward to our first trip away on Friday albeit it’s only 3 days

We had to go into CMK this morning for something unusual. Margaret has three rings on her ring finger which won't come off because the joint above is too swollen. As its next hand  "to be done" for CTS the hospital won't operate unless the rings are removed. We have a jewellers in CMK could F Hinds which I think have branches elsewhere as well. We contacted them to se if they could remove rings and they could. Fortunately all three rings removed without too much bother although the wedding ring was the most difficult and hurt a bit. Best part about it was there was no charge which surprised us. Once the operation is done, no date yet, Margaret will have to decide whether to have the rings rebuilt, perfectly possible apparently, or whether new ones are the order of the day! The former would no doubt suit my bank balance better

David

Belated birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉  greetings Oneputt. Why you want to be wiser? If you knew more you'd worry more.

Literally just landed back indoors from lovely week in Teesdale. Not been since son finished uni that way. Good journey back. Hold up on A1 for roadworks not too bad apart from stupid drivers who are in a hurry for a wooden overcoat. Hazards on down the hard shoulder to get in front.

Daffs are out, grasses long. Lovely smell of mown grass so someone's was dry enough.....

KjellNN I hope you get Norwary sorted. Time to splash the cash regardless 😉. Family time's important who knows how much longer you'll get the chance? Health as much as wealth.