Wonderful weekend............

apart from the heat.

We had a Samuel weekend and spent most of it entertaining and feeding him. He certainly had a lot of fun this time, lots of football and 'Lazy Town' and a trip to Tesco where he was bought a Sporticus outfit. He was also able to play in janis on both days whilst I was working. We are beginning to get some real affection from him now, something that was missing for a long time when we didn't see him regularly. He has also reached the age of constant chatter. He is talking away to us and demanding answers all the time now. I know I would say it anyway but he really is a very bright young boy.

Come together..................

in August.

We saw Paul yesterday and were bowled over by the standard of his work. We were so impressed, in fact, that we bought the furniture. In the chill light of morning I am a bit thoughtful about how long it will take us to pay off the extra money we have committed to but it's still not a kings ransom - quite. I figure on us still being able to pay the whole thing off by Christmas even though we have just spent £1400.00. That brings the total cost of the exercise, so far, to nearly £8,000.00 which is almost £800.00 more than we originally planned for. We have spent the money on a better bed and better habitation though so at least it went on the areas we will benefit most from.

Who's got paint on her bum then?

Hazel went mad yesterday and painted anything that didn't move, and a few things that did as well. Tich is looking a bit spotty and Fluff won't go near the attic at present. I have just about finished the last bits of filling and helped out with painting the high areas by our bedroom.

We are off to Dawlish this evening to see Paul the chippie about the custom furniture for janis and I, for one, am looking forward to it. This will be the final piece of the jigsaw we need to get her re registered as a motor home.

Pull my finger..........

Not yet, but soon I think. Hazels swollen and poorly digit seems to be improving at long last. Most of the green bits have gone and the fiery pink has died down too. The finger is now nearly the same size as its opposite number and much less painful.

Had an email from Todd, he may be able to bring Cole over for the wedding, this is cool.

And the beat goes on.......

We spent yesterday evening filling and painting and generally tarting the house up. It is beginning, at long last, to look like a finished article. The new attic room is very nearly ready for the carpet and the stair well is now more white than mucky plaster colour. Another couple of days and we may be ready to do the final clean up and buy the carpet.

We will have to take time on Thursday to drive to Dawlish to see a man about a camper. We go to interview and get a quote from Paul who is a specialist in this field and, equally important, has a gap in his schedule for making and fitting our furniture.

Another couple of hours work on the filling and painting completed this evening, we really are very close to finishing now. Hazel is making noises about buying the carpet on Friday / Saturday.

Busy, busy, busy!

Well, the weekend has come and gone and only a small amount of work on janis to show for it. The electrics are much better but no angle cut for the curtains yet. I did manage a bit more filling in the attic and bedroom, however. We took Ian and Lulu up to Goodrington on Saturday, left them with Paul and the girls overnight and then took Sal up on the Sunday. RM is looking very teenager voluptuous at the moment, like a young BB. Not unpleasant but a bit scary in a 13 year old. She is still being very offhand and rude to her dad, not a pleasant sight.

I managed a chat with Russ on Saturday via the Skype phone but it's hard work compared to a video link on the PC. We are both still having problems after that disastrous Microsoft upgrade, but he is at least working on his problem whilst I am having to do so many other things as well.

Oh, the humanity.......!

Major shock, horror. The welding is done but has cost me £184.00.

They looked at the heater and decided not to touch it. This was actually a good move as I had a brainwave and rang the local agent, spoke to their service dept and was given all the instruction needed to safely remove the little beauty.

Hazel is in to see the doctor about her bad finger this afternoon so Viglen Dave has offered to drop me off at the Merc dealer to pick up janis. The curtain rail and bits haven't arrived as yet but I will do the final measurements and then cut the angle bracket anyway now.

Hazel gets a phone.

Sounds a bit like an updated Enid Blyton story. However, it's true. Hazel has got a mobile phone all of her own. Orange are doing a special deal for old fogeys like us and for less than a fiver a month you get 50 minutes and 200 texts. Even this is more than Hazel will ever use so it's not a bad deal. She also gets a Nokia 1208 phone, tiny and simple but it should suit her.

janis will go to the agents today for the welding to be done tomorrow. I have also asked if they will attempt to remove the Eberspacher heater at the same time as it's really getting in the way and still not working.

Just had a call from Sal, she needs money as her usual card has expired whilst on holiday. Said "OK fine", and when I checked our account, we were broke as well..............

Biding my time.

And doing a lot of thinking. Hazel wants to book the ferry for our holiday, I have no problem with that in principal but I wonder whether we could save money by driving up to Dover on chip oil. Probably not but it's still a thought. I have decided, to at least try, to run janis on chip oil for a while. If it feels OK then I will try the half and half option and maybe go for the twin tank later on. The Eberspacher heater must go, it's in the wrong place and doesn't even work at the moment. It certainly won't run on chip oil and according to Ernest, they smell even on white diesel.

I ordered the curtain track and gubbins today, sixty quid! And I still need to buy some wood and then fit it all. And even then, I will have to buy the curtains to run on it. I don't see much change from £150.00 in all.

Now you see it...............

Spent most of yesterday working in the attic and janis. Almost all the paint is now done in the attic and the simple shelf is back up again.

Had a chat with Russ on the EeeTop I was testing and,in general, it was very good.

Went out with Samuel this afternoon and we had a darn good time playing footy and eating ice ceam and ham sandwiches.

Oh Lord won't you buy me.........

a Mercedes Benz.

Took janis into the dealer this morning, a well hidden entrance! We shall soon see what, if anything, is wrong with the brakes and gear button. After a strained day, went to pick her up.

Cost less than I expected, although still quite a price. Thebrakes are fine, that's just the way they are apparently. The gear stick is in need of a weld to hold it firmly and that should cure that problem.

Fat lunchtime.

Another poor night for Hazel, she is in so much pain all the time. I dropped her in to work this morning and then went to the doctor for my blood tests. The phlebotomist told me that a lot of people had gone down with the bug I had last week so that made me feel a bit happier about the possibilities of what it was.

The PC workstation rebooted overnight and is now in a no boot situation...............oh lawdy!

As a result of last evenings cookathon, I have more lunch than you could shake a stick at - yummy!

Got home from work to find a strong police presence in Laira Place, looked like a raid on one of the houses there. When we saw Ian, he told us he had actually seen the police arrive as he was coming home from work. He saw them taking computers away..................Is this anything to do with the current 'Little Ted' case?

Tried to get workstation up and running again but no luck. I will have to install a new OS on the spare drive and copy such data as there is over later. Good job most files are on the NAS boxes.

The adventure begins...........

oooooooer missus, I've never tried to keep a proper diary before so this should be interesting.

The day began badly, if you count it as beginning from midnight that is. Hazel and I were woken from sleep at around 00.30 by a phone call. This has happened a few times recently but, the other times, there has been no speech on the other end. Today there was. Mostly unintelligible but speech nonetheless. Hazel thought she heard "Sally" and we both wondered about "Ian". The voice was very strangled and far away and, to both of us, sounded oriental. From then on, we both had problems sleeping. Hazel also had a lot of pain from her knee and moved around a lot. She ended up lying corner to corner and nearly pushing me out of bed by 05.00. She also did a lot of loud moaning. I was later able to phone both Ian and Sal and they were both OK and hadn't called us.

The new sink and hob unit for janis arrived today so I must check it out this evening even though it won't be possible to fit it yet. I also went into the city centre this lunchtime and bought the extra wire I need to fit up the new goodies and the extra fuse box. I also visited Maplin and found the box needed to hold it all. Sadly, they don't carry it in the shop and it had to be ordered from the web store. Still, it should be here by the end of the week.

Whilst I was out, Ian rang to say he wouldn't be in with Samuel this afternoon after all, no reason given. Later explained about lack of time and having to see Kean as well.

Got home to find the freezer switched off and a lot of food needing to be cooked or thrown.....we cooked. Our evening meal was filling!

I also checked out the sink / hob and it's a terrific piece of kit.

Also collected the extra measurements needed for the attic and did the preliminary measurements for the furniture in janis.