January

I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks now....just been too busy. 

Let me see.

30 Dec we went down to Lyme Regis to meet up with my Mother, brother and his family and my sister. My sister left in the evening and my brother and his family left after dinner but we stayed the night with my mother. 

31 Dec we came home via Sainsbury's in Farlington and a quick visit to the Indian restaurant for a takeaway meal. We then spent a couple of hours getting the food ready for tomorrow. Our neighbours Mark and Sharon came round for drinks at about 10 pm. The lads up the street set off fireworks at midnight, so we all went outside to watch both their display and the ones around us.

1 Jan we had Maria's parents, sister, niece and sister's boyfriend to visit for lunch and tea. We served them Chili con Carne.

2 Jan we spent at home

3 Jan Caroline and Tom went to football again

4 Jan we took the kids to the airport using two cars. The queues were terrible to get into the car parks, we got separated of course and Maria and Caroline went in via "Arrivals" rather than "Departures". The kids made the flight though. Then we dropped off the hire car and drove home. On the way we hit a spot of black ice on the roundabout where the A331 meets the M3. The car span round 180 degrees but didn't hit anything! I rang the council to report it, they said they already knew about it but it was too cold for them to grit the road!

5 Jan Maria went back to work and I had to "sign on". I spoke to my other sister about Mum's birthday present. We decided on a photo frame. I have also been organising the accommodation for the guests.

6 Jan Some pictures arrived for scanning from Ann. The frame should arrive by the end of the week. Found a B&B but Maria is worried about the fact that it is home to 10 cats!

Halloween, Car, etc

On the 27th October we sent off for Maria's new driving licence - to get it updated with her new nam and add a new photo.

We picked up the wedding photo album from Coole Media on 29th October. It looks great. Nigel has done a great job on it.

After getting the album we went down to Lyme to stay with mum, unfortunately we had a small car accident shortly after Ringwood. The car in front of us (a BMW) was "tail-gating" the van in front if it. In short, the van stopped abruptly, the BMW in front of us stopped, released his brakes and then stopped again. Our car went into the back of the BMW. The BMW driver apologised, he said that his brakes "locked" but despite that it was "our fault" as we went into the back of his car. Not much damage to his car though. We were able to keep going to visit Mum, but called the insurers from the McDonalds at Dorchester. We then arranged to swap over the courtesy car on Saturday morning between 10 and 12.

After visiting Mum for a couple of days we went to Wells for Halloween.

We had fun going out with Rosie, Henry and Mary. We walked around Wells in the afternoon, then made "scary" biscuits with Rosie and Henry.

The kids dressed up (as a ghost, a skeleton and a little witch) and we went trick or treating. Rosie made Maria dress up as a witch too!

We left early the next morning to get home to swap the car. We got home at 9:45. The driver arived at 10:00. He'd arrived early but had gone off for a cup of tea while waiting for us. The loan car is a Mitsubishi Colt. Slight panic as Maria's driving licence hadn't come back from the DVLA yet, but they accepted the driver number only. Luckily the DVLA's form told us to keep a record of it.

Lyme Regis

Went down to Lyme on Saturday after fun and games with the car. It stalled on Friday night when Maria was on her way to orchestra. It had also done this on Tuesday, Wednesday and a few times easier in the month. Now the 'service' light stayed on so she drove it for 30 miles in "emergency mode" which meant it loses power and performs like a very sick animal. So I took it to the dealer on Saturday morning who fixed it. I was stunned. You normally have to wait 3 weeks for an appointment but he told me to bring it straight down. Had to pay £122 of course for the parts and fitting. It was a faulty sensor that was shutting off the engine.
Nice meal at Mum's - roast lamb. We walked down to town and bought some fudge before dinner. Then we tried some 'sex on the beach' before we went back - a type of fudge!