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 :)

Our New Home And a BIG Problem With Shippers!

We have now moved into our little cottage in Bollington.  We hired a van on Friday and with the help of Elaine's brother, Trevor, did a few trips to the local charity shops to pick up our bargains.  It only took about 5 hours and it was all done.  Today we went out and bought some new stuff as in a TV, electric blanket, kettle, toaster and all sorts of  other kitchen and bathroom gear.  Tomorrow we will do a big food shop and that should be it - we will be sorted!

Our friend, Jane had lent us loads of Xmas decorations and lights, so we have even 'Christmas-ed' it all up too!

We have already met  few of the locals, shop-keepers and immediate neighbours and I am pleased to say they are very friendly!!  Last night we went to the local pub across the road with our friends, Jane and Andy. It was was going off big time, but once again a very friendly bunch.

I will take some indoor pics of the cottage as soon as we have it in a presentable condition ... nearly there!

Before we left on our shopping trip this morning I took the dogs for a walk around the village.  I am slowly getting my bearings.

Firstly past the butchers ... 

Down one of the many cobbled streets ... 

There are so many lovely little cottages, and they are little! 

The river Dean passes through the centre, just at the rear of our house ... 

The new houses on the right are still built in stone ... 

It is a top spot. I think we have made a good choice.

Looking across the rooftops to White Nancy ... 

The village green ... 

And finally back home - this is the pub opposite our house ... 

Bombo has settled in well ... his favourite spot is in the side window, where El has made him up a little bed! 

Now to the Ba****d shippers!  I won't name names yet until we get it sorted!

Back in September we arranged for the same Aussie shippers that sent our stuff to the UK to pick up all our belongings for our impending return to Oz.  They picked up all the goods in September and agreed to hold them in storage in Manchester until we decided on our return date back to Oz.  We paid an up front fee of $1745 roughly £900, which was door to door Macclesfield to Sydney (but which they agreed to reimburse if we did not return to Oz - so that we would just pay removal and storage costs).

As we have now decided not to return to Oz for the foreseeable future Elaine emailed the Aussie company the other night to ask for the goods to be returned to Macc.  No problem they said ... that would be $1500 (about £780!!)   But this on top of the money we had already paid!!  So that is $3245, or £1680, for a few boxes to be picked up from Macc, taken to Manchester (30 mins drive), stored for 3 months and returned to Macc.  We emailed them again and said there must be a mistake ... she said there wasn't and said that that was the costs of their UK partner!!!!

We had an absolute crap sleep worrying about it the other night.  On Friday morning I found out the name of the UK shippers that the Oz shippers are in bed with,.  I spoke to the Manageress and she assured me that they would only charge me for the storage and pick up.  She said I could pick up the boxes from their depot if I liked, which we will.  She hinted that the Aussie company was taking the piss, but I have to go through them because that's who we have the contract with.  She also said that we shouldn't worry as she said she would call them and get it sorted.

We should get an answer from the Aussie company early next week, we are still in shock!!

Catching Up and Moving On ...

In the last post we were looking for a boat to live on ... well that quickly changed!  Details later in this post.

Since I started blogging a few years ago I take the camera with me every time I go out as you never know when something may come along to tickle my reader's fancy!

This tickled mine whilst walking the boys the other morning......

Dog shit tied to the back of a mini....why?!!

Last Sunday was the Aston Marina boaters' Xmas Party.  The do was on the Sunday, so we decided to make a weekend of it and stay at the Stonehouse hotel Saturday and Sunday night.

After checking into the hotel Saturday arvo we went for a walk to Aston Marina ...

We have very fond memories of this place and made some really great lifetime friends who became known as the Aston Marina 'Hardcore'.  Why hardcore?  Well, because we were all there for each other and we always made it to the pub no matter how foul the weather!

A good example of the hardcore team spirit, is that on Saturday night Elaine and I were sitting in the hotel bar contemplating our navels when Ray and Diane rang.  They were heading back to their boat in a hire car and wondered if they could pop in and say hello.  No probs we said.  Then they rang Andy, Sue, Gordon and Dot who were moored up on the marina and within the hour we were all drinking and eating in the hotel bar having a fantastic catch up!  No excuses from anyone, just drop everything and let's go!  They are great people and we love them dearly.  

On Sunday we went looking at boats at Great Heywood marina, but as I will explain later we were just  tyre hull kicking!

Sunday afternoon was the main event ... we were meeting at the local Spoons at 15.00 for pre dinner drinks, so we dropped the dogs off at Dot and Gordon's boat where they would be nice and warm for the night.

As expected, it was a great night with a lot of catching up to do with a lot more of our boater friends.

Dot and Gordon were in full Silly hat mood ...

Actually everyone was in silly hat mood ..

Roly had his best Texan gear on...which coincidently matched Diane's recent purchased Texan boots!

We had a good turnout of 17 people ...

Me and the world famous Isle of Man TT rider, Andy ...

Sue suggested that I looked a right nob in my Xmas hat and jumper ...

Marry Xmas!

Unfortunately Di passed wind, but Sue and Lynne thought it funny ...

Once we had finished at the Spoons Team Hardcore headed off to their clubhouse, also known as The Royal Exchange.  We had picked up the doggies from the boat, so they also joined us at the pub ...

Sammie was in his element, jumping from lap to lap of his old boatie family!

It was a brilliant weekend with some top notch people.

Back to the previous blog post where we were thinking of buying a boat!  The main reason for this turnaround was because we were becoming so pissed off with trying to find somewhere to rent ... what with the dogs and us not working, no UK income and no previous rental references was making things very difficult.  Luckily we had registered with a couple of really good agents  'Belvoir' and 'Harvey Scott' ... we took the dogs into the agents with us to show them what perfect little chaps they are.  One agent in Bollington 'Michael Hart', treated us with total  contempt, explaining that they had very high standards and would likely have nothing available for us now or in the future!

As we were leaving for Stone on Saturday we had messages from both of the good agents that a couple of suitable places had come up. We had just left Macc so took a quick detour to Bollington to check out one of the places.  It looked good so we arranged to meet up with the agent the following Monday.

Meet up we did on our return on Monday and we loved it.  It is a little cottage, right in the centre of Bolly, close to shops, opposite a bakery, cafe and a pub, with the inside of the house being very nice and tidy.

It is a typical Bolly stone cottage, but very un-typically it has parking for two cars!

We applied for the cottage and got it, but we had to pay six months rent up front, which was the easieast option, so no probs there.

The cottage is un urnished apart from white goods so for the last few days we have been scouring the charity shops for furnishings etc.  A major help has been that Elaine's brother Trevor volunteers for one of the local charities and has guided us to some brilliant pieces of furniture.

We have had such fun buying all sorts of of amazing stuff ... it is going to be a very eclectic cottage!!

The only new thing we have bought new is a mattress and some pots and pans. We have virtually fitted out the cottage for a few hundred pounds ... just to think that our contents insurance back in Oz was just about $100,000!!

We have hired a van to pick up all the gear, so we move in Friday.

A new adventure in a English village begins, although I think Bolly is classed as a small town really. 

The blog will still have a tenuous canal link, as the Macclesfield canal passes right through the centre of the town and I am sure we will be meeting lots of boats as they pass through town!