We’re on day 2 of the trip away and already…

we’ve changed our plans.

We didn’t go to Shepreth yesterday, we just went straight to Stamford. We had an early night which meant I was out of sleep by 4.20am. Today we’re going to Tropical Birdworld. I hope it’s going to be good. I’ll let you know the verdict later. Ciao

The plan of events when we go away

We’re off to a wildlife park the 1st afternoon away. Then a day in Stamford, Oakham and/or Rutland Water. The next day, hospital check-up, then to B’ham to watch U2:3D on Imax. I hope we have a great time. Ciao.

The weather is now meant to be…

pretty pooey for the rest of the week.

I just hope it gets better next week. Em and I are off for a few days next week as an early anniversary present to ourselves. It’s our 10th one! A milestone in modern times. We’re going to Lincolnshire for 2 days. Around Stamford, Oakham and Rutland Water. All our old haunts. We love these places. Not much else to report at the mo. Ciao

Things coming up (or that have been) that are exciting me.

After you see the list, you’ll see I’m VERY easy to please 🙂

Firstly, I purchased myself a “new” used mobile phone on eBay. When I was in Oz, my niece had a Samsung D520, I thought it was a nice looking phone and had the things I wanted to upgrade my phone for – mp3 playing and ringtones, video play and record and Bluetooth. I knew it was a Samsung, but had to check with her what model it was. After getting her reply, I looked on eBay (before that I’d be chasing a Nokia 5200 but wasn’t having much luck getting one for the £40 mark) and someone was selling a used D520 for £30. I thought great price for a well specified phone, so jumped at it. Now I am EAGERLY awaiting its arrival in the post.

Samsung D520

The other thing that is exciting me is the sight of two baby goldfinches in the garden. They arrived yesterday with the regular pair, who I can only assume are mum and dad of these babies.

Last but not least, the prospect of being able to get out and about next week as we might be hiring a car for several days so Em can help out a mate of hers with his computer stuff. Somehow getting around the UK on public transport is just not very appealing. I’ll give you an example why.

We live around 35 miles (around 56 kms) from Cambridge. When we had a car, we might visit Cambridge 2-3 times a year. Needless to say we’ve not been there since being without a car. That journey to Cambridge by car would take around 45 minutes.  That same journey via public transport would take at least an extra hour and cost £40 (around $95 Australian) for two people!! We could hire a car for the day and be able to buy the fuel to get us to and from Cambridge for the same amount of money! It’s obscene!  That’s why we “don’t do” public transport in Britain. Not because we don’t want to, but because it’s a total waste of time and money.

It’s been a LONG time.

Hello Everyone,

I have been away for just over 4 months. I went to Australia and had all intention of writing about my travels in another blog I created called “Return 2 Oz”, but I ended up with the most DISMAL Internet connection in Oz. Let me tell you now, if you are planning to stay in Oz for an extended period, and are looking to use an ISP while there, on my recommendation, do NOT use Brown Bear Internet. I thought it was a good deal. It was $9.90 a month for 160mb of use, then something like 5 cents a MB for exceeding that, capped at $16.95. I thought I wouldn’t go over the monthly usage and I didn’t in the end because it was almost unusable! I would have to dial in several times as I continued to be disconnected after around 3 minutes. And the connection…although I know it’s dial-up and I expected it to be slow…MY LORD, was it SSSLLLLOOOOWWW!! As a consequence I didn’t spend any real time on the Internet when I was there as the experience was just beyond infuriating.

I think I only made one blog entry while I was Oz. Not exactly productive.

As a result, there is much to catch up on. I will get to it over the next coupe of weeks. Not much to report really. I spent most of my time at my mums house just wasting the days away.

The death march tolls…

for the car.

The cars problems have continued. After the last post I left re: the car, Colin tried to sort out the MOT failure points. Namely a hole in the exhaust. Other than that, the car seemed like it was running fine. It seemed fixed. So, he did the repairs needed to the exhaust. We had a chance to re-test within 10 days of the original test, for half the cost. Em took the car to the garage on Monday. The car started really rough, and didn’t want to move and kept trying to cut out. The garage is only 1/2 of a mile down the road – luckily, because it only just made it! It PASSED its re-test, but Em only just managed to get it back to her parents house. So now we are in the position of having a fully MOT’ed car, but still can’t tax it because now the engine of the car has seized. There is no point taxing a car we can’t use. We are not going to have a car for some time to come.

I gave Barbara another lesson yesterday. She is getting pretty good. She’s not scared to explore the PC which is great, because the worst thing you can be when you want to learn to use PC’s is a procrastinator.

My birthday ended up a very low-key affair. Didn’t really do much at all. In fact, I stayed home all day. Mum gave me a quick call, just to say happy birthday. I got cards from my sister Cheryl and my niece Bec, and photos of my great-nephew, Landon (Bec’s son). And I got cards from mum (which arrived about 10 days before my birthday, she likes to give herself plenty of time), Mozzy and Em.

In a few days it’ll be bonfire night, so I’m looking forward to going to Borehamwood for the fireworks there. We’ve gone there for the last few years. It’s a good little display. I say little, but it’s a decent size, and better to get to than Luton’s own fireworks. It’ll be on the night of the 5th.