Concerts, Gas and other stuff!

 We stayed at Elaine's Dad's house in Macclesfield on Tuesday night as we had an appointment in Manchester on Wednesday and we were going to be there the whole day.  Elaine's dad was looking after the doggies with walking duties being carried out by Elaine's brother, Trevor.

I was up very early on Wednesday (06.00) as I wanted to walk the dogs before we left. It was very cold at -3 degs but the sky and the frost were stunning,  Christ Church in Macclesfield looked superb in the morning sun and frost.  I love this old brick church, there is just something about it.  It is quite special inside as well, it was used in some scenes for the superb TV series, Peaky Blinders ...

Another big event coming up in the church is a concert by Peter Hook of Joy Division/New Order fame. The concert is being held in the church as Macclesfield is the birthplace of Ian Curtis the lead singer of Joy Division.  May will also be the 35th anniversary of Ian Curtis' tragic suicide ... he hanged himself in a house just around the corner from the church.   

There is a very good film about Joy Division and Ian Curtis called Control, which is well worth seeing if you were into Joy Division.

The tickets for the gig were going on sale on Wednesday morning so I took the laptop to Manchester with us so I could buy a couple.  The tickets went on sale at 09.00 so I was online shortly after.....all Sold Out!  Bummer!

As we missed out on those tickets Elaine came up with an idea....why don't we get tickets for Cropredy instead!  It is a three day event in August and we can go in the motorhome, plus dogs are allowed so it is a win win situation.  We always fancied going when we had the boat but never got around to it.  This time we were successful with tickets......woohoo!  (We tried to get tickets too late last year when we had the other motorhome, so we were very pleased to get them this time!)

I would still have loved to have got tickets for the Christ Church event ...

On Thursday we had visitors ... Dot and Gordon (NB Ewn Ha Cul) were moored up on the aqueduct so they dropped in for a visit.  We also managed a couple of drinks across the pub.

The boys were very relaxed around their old mate Gordon ...

Today I went down to the van as the gas bottles had arrived and I wanted to fit them in as well as the remote filler.  It all went well, all I have to do now is find a LPG station and go there to fill them up and check for leaks etc.  Interestingly, you don't need a gas licence to fit and play with the LPG ...

I also fitted the remainder of the LED replacement bulbs.  Another little job was to clean all the water traps on the sinks and clean out the gauze filters on the taps.

We also bought a pretty cheap anti theft device.  It  won't stop a determined thief but he would have to make a bit of a noise getting it off.  As  the van is parked right outside the farm house it would  certainly alert the farmer or his dogs ...

This Made Me Laugh a Lot :-)

Clean Up And Check Over Day

Today was tidy up Britain day, so as we went on our morning walk with the dogs Elaine easily filled a large bag with discarded crap.

We are constantly amazed at the discarded litter that blights the UK, you don't see it in Australia ... I just don't get it.

A quick story..... I was filling my car up with petrol back in Oz, where a cop was doing the same thing.  A young scrote pulled into the filling station, chucking a fag butt out of the window as he drove on the forecourt.  The cop spotted him and told him to go and find it and put it in the bin.  Scrote reckoned he couldn't find it so the cop said 'no probs, I will fine you for littering'.  The scrote looked a a bit harder and found it! 

That's the way to do it!

Angry of Mayfair

Amazingly, Elaine picked up loads of dogshit bags containing the said dogshit, just left on the pavement ... shoot the bastards!! 

After walking the dogs and brekkie we went up to the van to check it over with a fine tooth comb.  All I found was a small screw missing off of a shower roller.  Elaine started packing away bits and pieces and lining the draws and cupboards with non slip rubber.

I had to have a play with the self seeking satellite as well!  It works a treat, just turn it on and away it goes ...

.

It looks like bloody Jodrell Bank on the roof ...

We also stashed away the continental touring maps along with the special fluffy pen location marker ...

Here it is in action last year ...

The New Home is Home

Today was motorhome pick up day.

We stayed at Elaine's Dad's house in Macc over night as we had an early start!

We were up at 'sparrows' and on the first train at 08.00!  A short hop to Stockport, then a change or train to Doncaster, after another short stop it was onto the final train to Newark, arriving at 10.30, the sort of time we are usually just getting up!

Whilst waiting for the train at Doncaster I managed to get a quick pic of the eclipse ...

We had a lengthy wait as a chap picking up a motorhome before us arrived late so we had to hang around whilst the handover guy showed him the ropes.  Not to worry though, we were in no hurry and just sat around in the lovely warm sunshine ...

After the handover they presented Elaine with a very nice hamper stuffed full of goodies ...

Then we were off driving back to Bolly, the boys quickly assumed their positions ...

The van drove beautifully. It is a few years old but has very low k's and is immaculate.   The previous owner has kept it under cover since new, plus has had it serviced by the Merc dealer so touchwood, we should have no problems. It does come with a warranty but I am very sceptical about dealer warranties, hopefully we won't need it.

Bombo woke up for a quick bit of navigating ...

But not for too long ...

After a few hours we were safely back at the farm where she will be stored before we take off for a big trip.

We will do a few small trips in the next few weeks, to check everything works as should be ...

A Fair Old Hike

It was such a lovely sunny and slightly warm day today so we thought we would take a walk up to the White Nancy monument above Bolly village.

It's quite hard for us old buggers when you walk straight up the hill ...

Half way up we met some wildebeest ... 

Bombo was slowing Elaine down otherwise she would have been up there like a rat up a drain pipe! 

We normally go straight back down the way we came, but as it was such a superb day we just carried on into the unknown ... 

We never use maps or navigation aids when walking, we much prefer to get lost use my superb inbuilt navigation and homing system ... 

We walked along the ridge for a few miles ... 

It's at times like this that England shines ... 

How much further he asks? 

We cut down the hill passing some very impressive houses that are so far back off the road we never realised that they were there. You have to love the public footpaths where you can meander through people's properties ... there is no chance of that back in Oz, it is all private, keep out etc. 

Still downwards we went ... 

Passing a pretty crappy house with a lovely garden ... 

Another public driveway ... 

The photos don't do the views justice, but it was quite hazy ... 

Back to ground level and a quick chat with Mr Ed ... 

We ended up by the canal, but the towpath was blocked by the Adelphi Mill (Bollington).  Luckily there was an alternative route down another path but by now we were fair cream crackered! 

A quick pitstop and chat to a couple of boaters and their doggies ...

And then we got back to base, where Sammie quickly assumed the position! 

6.30 am start tomorrow - we are off to pick up our new home....woohoo!!!

By the way, Happy (partial) Solar Eclipse for tomorrow :)

Spring is In The Air

Fortunately this particular 'spring' wasn't in the air, it was caught in its catcher ...

The mighty C3 has recently developed a fair old knock from the front end, so I had a poke around and discovered that one of the front springs had broken!!  I had never heard of a spring breaking before, but after googling it I was amazed at what a common problem it is ... and not only Citroen but Pugs, VWs, Fords to name a few!

I also noticed on t'internet that there had been a recall on the C3 in 2003 as some of the front springs had broken and punctured front tyres with a couple of fatal results!   So, to fix the problem they fitted spring catchers to catch the broken bits rather than make a decent f'kin spring!  The spring catcher had worked on ours.

The car was also due for an MOT so she went into hospital on Monday morning.  It made sense to replace both front springs while she was there.  The garage also reported that she had a worn bottom suspension arm, so that was to be replaced as well!

Last week I also replaced both the rear tyres, so this month's budget is well and truly blown ... oh, I forgot, I don't do a budget so no point in worrying is there?!!

Unfortunately, because of the suspension arm she had to stay in ICU for a couple of days, which was a bit of a bugger because we were going to Stone to join the winter boaters on the-nearly-the- final-before-the-maybe-the-last-which-is-before-the-absolute-last drink before they scatter all over the UK.

Never mind, we made do with watching Arsenal vs Monaco whilst scoffing a very tasty Indian takeaway.  (Well, we both did the takeaway bit, but the football always seems to make El fall asleep!)

We picked up the motor today.  She feels a lot smoother, although it wasn't too bad before.  One very noticeable difference is that the front end has risen by a couple of inches!  It was always very low and it was always scraping the front spoiler on any slight bump.

Other happenings ...

The front room is filling up nicely with goodies ordered in for the motorhome - which we pick up this Friday.  Even getting there is going to be fun ... train from Macclesfield to Stockport, then change for a train to Doncaster, then finally a train to Newark.  

There she is waiting for us ...

Manchester, A Place. In The Sun!

This morning we headed off to the 'A Place in The Sun' Expo which was being held in at the Manchester Central convention centre.

This is the third time we have attended a 'A Place in The Sun' Expo ... it's not that we intend buying a property abroad in the near future, but it is a handy show to get info on the legalities etc. of such a move and it is, well, just nice to walk around, look and imagine !

It was a pretty small show in comparison to others we have attended but we did get to spy Johhny Irwin before he disappeared for his lunch.  Jasmine (Harman) is not appearing til tomorrow so we didn't get any pics this time!

After a yummy lunch at Pizza Express we took a walk across the road to Castlefield Basin which was one our favourite mooring stopovers on board the good ship Caxton.

There were a lot of empty spots today ...

- unlike when we were last there two years ago ...

In this old pic we have Ray and Diane (NB Ferndale) cruising past Caxton on their way to Liverpool (it was sunny then too) ...

We had a chat with a boater there, who was selling incense sticks.  He was looking forward to moving off soon when the breach at Dutton is fixed.

It is a lovely spot, and great for exploring Manchester ,,,

There are lots of examples of the old and the new, side by side ...

We did a bit of a circuit and walked up the canal for a bit, remembering our trip down there!  Unfortunately, there is still the same amount of rubbish floating around the locks - shame :(

The boys were very happy to see us when we arrived home, so we treated them to a walk around Bolly, finishing up at the Spinners for a pint.  They are naughty boys ... they won't let us go past the door of that pub!

After that it was 20 paces across the road back to home.  As our friend said the other day 'we now have an ensuite pub'!

A Walk In The Park

We took Bombo to the dog groomer yesterday.  We took him to a salon in Bollington called Clip, Snip and Trim. 

Here are his before and after shots ...

The new, improved Bombo ... 

and here is his, happy to be home again ...  

 She did a great job and he is almost looking back to his old self again after his 'schnauzer cut' in Spain!  He is now ready for the blazing British sun ...

So, back to today, our plan was to head off by train to Stone as the winter boaters where having their "farewell to the marina we are off cruising party".  Unfortunately Elaine didn't feel up to it so we stayed in Bolly.

By the early afternoon we were getting a bit of cabin fever so decided we would walk up to Lyme Park from Higher Poynton.

For some reason there were a lot of very friendly robins around the Higher Poynton carpark ...

We headed to Lyme Park via the 'back passage' so to speak.  To get there you walk over the canal next to the Bruce and Sheila clubhouse (Braidbar Boats) and the follow the winding track up the hill.

The track passes a few remote  properties and as you can see the locals are very welcoming!

Unfortunately as we reached the gates of the park it started to persist down as forecast, so we headed back down the hill ...

Elaine suddenly announced that 'she couldn't stand it any more' and then produced a garbage bag from her pocket!  So on the way back she picked up bits of random rubbish but also quite a lot of full dog shit bags on the way back to the canal!

Here she is showing off her goodies before she chucks it into the canal bin ...

The rain had eased off so we went for a stroll along the towpath for about a mile, passing a moggie van and a Austin A30 ...

We then cut across to the Middlewood way to return to the car, once again it started to rain but this time we got soaked!

The boys were going nuts at a wooden carving.  Sammie finally jumped across the stream and weed on it ... that showed it!

We headed back to base to dry off, warm up, put our feet up and watch the rain pour down some more!