December 2009

This week we went to Birmingham and our daughter took us to the German Christmas Market. We walked through the Bull Ring shopping centre and into the market area. It was just like the markets we used to visit in Germany and we enjoyed a Bratwurst and mug of Gluwien for lunch. Much of the stuff on sale was really expensive and we did not buy anything at all other than lunch.

When we returned home our downstairs electric toilet was not working and I had to take the toilet out and disconnect everything. I took the maserator outside and levered the top off it. It was jam full of paper inside and I washed it all out with the hosepipe, very messy! After I put it all back together with the toilet everything worked normally again. So I managed to save the cost of a new maserator!

At the weekend I got our Christmas Tree out of the loft and put it together in the lounge. We have had this for a few years now and it has more than paid for itself. We always used to buy a real tree but when you buy a six foot high tree we would find that the top two feet would be just one stalk. The artificial tree looks like what you expect a tree to look like with branches all the way up to the top! The tree is now bedecked with lots of coloured lights and baubles. I am surprised they don't sell boxes of plastic pine needle to sprinkle on the floor around it!

Sunday we put up the rest of the decorations and lights in the lounge and they really brighten up the dark winter evenings.

November 2009

Finished our holidays now until 2010! We have been doing jobs around the house and garden.
Our son has his experience with the Tsunami wriiten up and just published in the December issue of 'Yachting Monthly'. He has now safely reached New Zealand.

My inkjet printer stopped working last week, I think the counter for the waste ink pad reached it's limit and I have not been able to find a program to reset it (Epson D78). I found another the same on Ebay as a 'catalogue return' so I ordered that. It was brand new unused and the ink cartridges ran out on the first day after printing about 20 A4 sheets. I fitted my continuous ink system from the old printer and off it went. I should be OK now for another three years!

I have spent a lot of time editing our holiday videos from France, Spain, Cotswolds and Mallorca. I bought the lhe latest version of Video Studeo 12 which is said to handle HD video just produced very poor quality rendered films. I have spent lots of time rendering films at different settings but always the results were jumpt with pixels breaking up. Finally I downloaded a trial version of Magix Movie editor and although tis is not so easy to use it does produce nice smooth films and I intend to buy a copy of this when I can.

October 09

Our son Andy has just survived the Tsunami in the Pacific. He was anchored at Niutoputapu ( New potatoes!) when they were preparing to leave and they felt vibrations as they hauled up the anchor. 10 minutes later the 50 ft high Tsunami wave rushed into the lagoon and they just had time to motor into it and ride over the top and then out to sea as the back wash brought loads of stuff off the land.

They managed to get out into open water Ok but could do nothing for the Islanders ashore. Another yacht with a satallite phone did not get out so stayed to send messages for rescue.

Whilst this was happening we were on holiday in Magaluf, Mallorca. It was my birthday and we go there every year. We were able to meet up with lots of old friends who also go at this time of year. Alisha was singing in the Britannia Pub, the usual group in the Plaza with Bobby Alexander singing after 1.0 a.m. In Bobby's Tavern our favourites, 'The Raggle Taggle Gypsies' played every night and we were able to pratice our own version of Irish dancing! In MrsDoyles 'Mick the Fiddler' continued as ever with his , always fresh, Irish and other music.

Although it was hot we had quite a few thunderstorms but these soon passed by and we were still able to walk out at night without getting wet.

We met lots of new people and hope to see them again next year.

September 2009

We are back home now after six super weeks in France and Spain. With the Pound/Euro exchange rate and increase in cost of living this time France was even more expensive than usual. We bought only food and wine! Most gift shops and places had their goods priced so as not to sell! However the weather was great and it was 'mad hot'

Since then we have been for nine days in the British Cotswolds where the weather was not so good until the last day. We enjoyed visiting the local pubs in Tewkesbury and Morton in Marsh.

Now we are catching up with jobs in the house and garden before our last holiday of the year.

June 1

I shall be away offline until the middle of August

May 2

Just returned from two weeks in Yorkshire. I think it rained almost every day! In York we made a visit to the National Railway Museumwhich was very good. The Duchess of Hamilton loco was in the paint shop being resprayed after new streamline parts had been fitted and was not on show until after we left.

Yorkshire is very good for old pubs where you can meet people and have a good beer and converstaion without having to have a meal.

May 1

Had a busy May Day weekend. My little Minilor Lathe was broken and I had to repair it to demonstrate for a prospective buyer.

Will be offline now for two weeks.

April

Spent a lot of time working in the garden this month.

We had our Camper van Moted OK and our Polo serviced.

Just pblished a new page on my website with some printed card model Kits.

Holiday in Gran Canaria

March

We are now home from two great weeks in Gran Canaria. We stayed at the Corona Blanca Apartments in Playa del Ingles which is a great location both for the beach and the bars & nightlfe in the Kasbah and Plaza centres.

We met up with our Spanish friend who had sold his share in his restaurant and opened three catering stalls in the Holiday World fairground. He brought his new girlfriend and all went out for a Tappas Meal.

We met up with our other friends in some of the many bars and managed to dance almost every night. The bar 'Dunes & Tunes' by the beach had a good guitar player on every afternoon and in the evenings. Besides the afternoons we went there several evenings and it was filled with a team of amateur Swiss footballers who made some great party nights.

'Fantasy Island' is another of our favourite bars together with 'The Garage and 'Sugar Blue Moon'. Sugar played Beatles and Rock & Roll music specially for us and it was our last call on many nights.

Unfortunately the creeping cancer of the 'all inclusive' holiady is getting there which means that a lot of people do not go out at night but stay in their hotels. Eventually they will cause many bars and cafes to close down and lots of local people to be out of work.

February

The sun has been out a few days recently and it has been good to be able to get out into the garden. We had a Yucca plant which was getting too large for it's pot so I decided to plant it in the ground by our patio. At the moment sciatica is preventing me from digging so I use a link handled hoe to make a hole without too much bending and straining! I was able to roll the Yucca to the edge and drop it in.



In the fish pond a reed plant which seemed only small when planted a few years ago had now grown out of control and it must have wieghed 50kgms. I use some planks as big levers to get it out and dispose of it on the compaost. I took a small piece of it and planted it in the ground at the side of the pond. The fish have not shown themselves since, I hope they are hibernationg in the mud at the bottom of the pond.



This weekend we are going on holiday to Gran Canaria for two weeks and it is proving very difficult to pack when we can only take 20kg each.