What are you all up to

Was that for one of your sons Helen? . I found a half finished school jumper when I cleared out the cupboard under our stairs last year. It was supposed to be for our son who is now 40!!

Was that for one of your sons Helen? I found a half finished school jumper when I cleared out the cupboard under our stairs last year. It was supposed to be for our son who is now 40.

Enjoy your NI trip Millie. We got back home late afternoon after enjoying a short New Year break, Dulverton is a nice place to visit. The wardens offered everyone a glass of wine and a mince pie before they closed up shop for the night. At midnight about three fireworks went off....my kind of place. 

Looks like a cold night ahead, it's distinctly chilly outside, brrr.

Thanks brue.  Glad you enjoyed your New Year break. We had a week at the Dulverton site a few years ago and thought it was a great site in a lovely little town. Beautiful area as well. Loved it.

Bought the floor tiles for the kitchen today at Homebase.

We've seen some wall tiles at B&Q so I applied for a Diamond Club card (10%off on Wednesdays)......so there is some benefit to getting older.

Wednesdays are the busiest day at our local B&Q.

Welcome to the grey economy Ian.

It's surprising how many younger shoppers take their parents/grandparents shopping to B&Q on Wednesdays.

Enjoy your NI trip Millie, have a safe journey.

Visited VW dealer and had a test drive today, I think we will be buying the Touareg.  Getting a price for a towbar from them tomorrow and will also get a price from a local towing specialist.  As expected, we knew more about towbars than the salesman!

Trade-in price on the XC90 was decidedly unimpressive, managed to push it up by £250, just as well the VW is such a good price.

We will source mats and other essentials elsewhere, but will add a service plan.

OH has spent the evening checking insurance costs......will be almost double what the XC90 was it seems, so there goes the VED saving!

Present insurance runs till end of February so I think we will pay the admin fee and extra amount to transfer it, then look at alternatives on renewal.  Just needed to check first that we would not be buying a vehicle we could not afford to insure!

When we left the showroom at 2pm there were 2 blue and 1 grey ones available, so just hoping they are not all sold before tomorrow morning...it could happen.

We'll be keeping our decorations up for the time being. There's not a lot to take down. Just a small Christmas tree with the coloured lights on. The evenings are still too dark and it would be depressing without the Christmas lights. New Years Day may have come and gone but it's not the twelfth night yet. Last year, I couldn't help noticing that some people were breaking with tradition and keeping their lights going well past the twelfth night!

Thinking about taking our decorations down tomorrow.  Now that New Year is here we feel as we want to get back to normal - whatever that is!!

David 

I've just finished breakfast. I had a bigger breakfast than usual this morning. I had cereal to start with and then I cooked scrambled eggs and pigs in blankets. The pigs in blankets took half an hour to cook in the oven, cooked from frozen. The scrambled eggs took two minutes in the microwave accompanied by two slices of granary bread toasted using the electric toaster. So everything cooked on the electric as usual.

I never use gas anymore for two reasons. Firstly, the cost of nearly £25 for a six kg propane cylinder and secondly the hassle of having to change ove the cylinders everytime the gas runs out. Of course, when you are on the move, you've got no choice. However, when we have EHU, that is the preferred option.