Lancashire Part 3

6th August 08 – Weds Our early morning cockerels woke us at a very unsociable hour! It didn’t rain in the night. Mal called at the farm shop for some freshly laid eggs & we enjoyed scrambled eggs for breakfast. We packed up & decided to visit the Lakeland shop, then head down to stay at P & Chris’s. The weather was not good. Mal paid our fees for the 2 nights £11.20 in total, what a bargain! The drive down the country lanes to a main road were a little hairy in my opinion, although I feel sure Mal will disagree. Anyway we arrived back just after lunch & Mal proceeded to sort out the problem with the underside. We both paid my Mum a visit later in the afternoon. Tea was late tonight, but we had a welcome visit from P with some chocolate. 7th August 08 – Thurs We woke very early 5.30am but stayed in bed trying to get back to sleep. Mal had too much on his mind with the van being damaged & had to get up. Anyway by the time I got up he had it all worked out. I went off to see the consultant about my car accident – I must say I felt deflated afterwards & thought it was money for old rope, but perhaps I am too cynical! After lunch we headed off to Ormskirk to collect more of our belongings with P at the wheel. We came back via Manchester where we collected a generator which Mal had bought on e bay. With Mal settled back at home complete with new toy, I set about cooking up a curry for tea. We spent the evening checking e mails, watched some T.V & did some reading. How did we ever find time to work? 8th August 08 – Frid Had a good nights sleep, the first one in a while! I cleared the garage out & got stuff ready for storage, then off to Mum’s to do her hair. The Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing was on T.V. Mal & I went to put additional stuff into storage, then to buy more…. Stuff for the MH. We went to Mum’s for Chinese food for tea – it was really lovely. Mal did lots of brilliant jobs on the MH today he fitted a safe, repaired the underside amongst other things. 9th August 08 – Sat Off food shopping this morning with my Mum& P. Then a big clean of the MH & did some more sorting out. The tubs we bought for storage do not fit the intended space. Boy we have tubs coming out of our ears! With a few minor adjustments we got them to fit & I packed them full with books & games. Hol & Phil are coming over tonight for tea. We bought some leads & extra memory for Michael’s laptop. Then off to Mum’s to sort out the above, which took Mal quite a while. Arrived back just prior to Hol & Phil’s arrival - Wow the days just fly by. We had a great evening plying cards & drinking copious amounts of alcohol, finally went to bed at 2am! 10th August 08 – Sun Arose at 10am everyone still a tad tired, had breakfast followed by a movie - the weather is awful. Hol & Phil left around 1pm, we discovered we had a puncture on the Yaris. Once we had tidied around we headed off to get the tyre fixed, we had to buy a new tyre! Had a lazy afternoon, Mal cooked a lovely fish pie for tea. Then we settled in for an early night. 11th August 08 – Mon Had a great nights sleep, still feels very luxurious not to have to go to work on Monday mornings! Pottered around with general household chores, then I had some work to do for A4e……wow!! Work!! Whilst I worked for the next 6 ½ hrs Mal read, watched the Olympics & cooked. I asked if he minded me working? But he was quite happy & said I could work more if I liked! Think he is after being a kept man! 12th August 08 – Tues Woken by yet another rainy day! The weather is truly awful at the moment. Well we took the MH to Leisure Tech in Clitheroe for the satellite/internet, alarm & solar panel fitting – fingers crossed they do a good job. Quite odd leaving our new baby with strangers! Next job was to clear the garage at Mal’s Mums & sort out the estate agents. After which we had a nice relaxing bath (not had one in a while) as we only have a shower in the MH, then an earlyish night. Sleeping at Mal’s Mums tonight. Mal’s birthday tomorrow! 13th August 08 – Weds “Happy Birthday Mal”. What a busy day – didn’t have time to write. Started off with a tidying spree at Mal’s Mums prior to a visit from a potential new estate agent, who stayed for 2hrs. We decided to go with them & gave notice to the other guys. We then headed off to storage to unload another car full – once completed next stop P’s, we dropped more stuff off here. I went shopping for a birthday cake for Mal & some stuff for tea, as P was cooking a birthday tea for Mal. After shopping we went to collect the MH at 7pm. The guy (Phil) talked us through all the teckie stuff. Next was our first disaster…….. when pulling up at P’s Mal clipped Chris’s car! This scratched our bumper & broke the rear light, it also scratched Chris’s bumper. Chris was absolutely cool about it & said don’t worry it would be easy to fix. So, more stuff to sort out! As we have broken a seatbelt in the Yaris too! Mal was absolutely gutted & it took a lot of cajoling to entice him to let it go. P made a lovely meal, we had good wine & a chocolate birthday cake! 14th August 08 – Thurs Mal was up very early playing with his new toys (satellite & internet). He vey kindly woke me too as he was changing stuff on the satellite & it kept moving the dish around on the roof (which is a little noisy when you are sleeping). But I am getting used to the lack of sleep now – unfortunately people tell me I look tired most of the time! Oh dear! Mal’s not happy the internet won’t work this morning…..could just be the signal? Next hassle one of the kitchen drawers was stuck & wouldn’t open properly. Looks like the guys yesterday have had it out. So, it took about ½ hr for us to fix it – a right hassle with so little space, but at least we know how the drawers are put together now! Mal has spoken to Hymer & the back light is all one unit & will cost about £180! I wonder if we will ever get on the road at this rate – we seem to have to spend money on things we don’t want to. Oh one last thing the screen for the reversing camera keeps coming unstuck! Went to Mum’s for tea, Michael had made a lovely Birthday curry, chicken tikka the works! We enjoyed a few glasses of wine & shared various tales between us. Margaret regaled us with a number of both funny & interesting stories. 15th August 08 – Frid Finally got a lie in until 8am – well done Mal! Spent the day getting shopping supplies for our trip, a new pair of glasses for me. Then collected the new part from Hymer, which Mal fitted upon our return. We headed off to Helen & Neil’s for tea & an evening of Rugby Wigan v Wakefield (Wigan won). Helen gave us a box from DD & Jmel, Helen, Neil, Sam & Chris – it contains lots of gifts which we can open on our travels if we are missing home. It was a lovely gesture & I almost cried. The reality of going is growing ever closer! 16th, 17th, 18th August 08 – Saturday we went over to stay with Holly (Mal’s daughter) & Phil (Holly’s boyfriend) – we finally got to meet up with Rob (Mal’s son) after his trip to Brazil, it’s 2 months since we last saw him! He was looking good, tanned & not as thin as I thought he may be. Holly cooked a wonderful meal, we didn’t have one of our usual late nights! Sunday we breakfasted with the kids, then headed home for Sunday lunch. Getting our final bits sorted ready for our departure. Monday Paula & Mal went to pick up Rob from Skipton whilst I finalised our admin prior to departure.(Mal’s driving licence has gone AWOL with DVLA) so we can’t go anywhere without that! Rob is staying with us for a few days prior to us leaving. We thought we may go off travelling somewhere in the UK, but may be due to living off crackers in Brazil for a couple of days). 19th August 08 – Tues Another ‘final’ trip to Ormskirk to get the rest of our stuff for storage – but a quiet day overall. We are still pondering an the idea of buying a ‘buy to let’ property. If we do then this may delay the start of our trip ‘cos it needs work doing on it – but we will know more when we go to view it again tomorrow. Whilst I was off on a late night visit to our neighbours ‘The accident’ happened! I left Mal & Rob setting up to watch some stand up comedy off the laptop. Guess what??? The external hard drive dropped out of the overhead cupboard onto the laptop & smashed the screen!! How many more things can go wrong?? I could have cried…..but I remained positive. 20th August 08 – Weds An early start! Booked the house viewing for 11.15am, whilst Mal set about sorting out the laptop. We went to view the potential rental property with Michael & Rob. But subsequently decided not to put an offer in as we had an uneasy feeling there was some underhand dealing going on (it was a repossession). I spent the afternoon completing paperwork in relation to my car accident, which I must say was perplexing & took a long time. I also did some work for A4e – guess it will pay towards the laptop being fixed! We don’t have too much to do now so hopefully we will be off soon!!! If nothing else gets broken….. 21st, 22nd, 23rd & 24th August 08 – The next few days were spent, finalising jobs. Showing potential buyers around Mal’s Mums house, having dinner with friends, fixing the tent (pleased to say the tent was one thing we didn’t break). Rob went home on Saturday, he has decided not to come to France with us, as he needs to prepare for his return to Uni. We are just waiting for DVLA to sort out Mal’s licence…..then we can go. It’s a bank holiday weekend so we can’t speak to them until Tuesday!! Mal has slowly driven Rob & I insane with his early mornings so I am thoroughly knackered. Mal is learning how to use his new gadgets. With the T.V dream box I think I will be fluent in Dutch & German by next weekend!! 25th & 26th August 08 – Mal the electrician spent some time putting up light fittings for P – which she loved & was immensely grateful. We headed off to Hol & Phil’s for tea & a few bevies in Colne at the 19th Blues Festival. Mal gave us a rendition of ‘don’t you want me – Human League’ on the laptop karaoke eagerly followed by me! We had a scary moment when Fred (the cat) on the roof was sliding down the glass of the velux window….at speed…..Hol shouting get him in it’s treacherous out there! The next day was spent sorting out our ‘final job list’ which is mainly admin jobs, but they seem to be taking forever! The wait for Mal’s driving licence continues – they promise it will be here by Thursday. But we have been waiting for 4 weeks now!! Spent some quality time with P walking the dogs – just the 2 of us. As the departure day looms she gets sadder & sadder. But we are trying to reassure her it will open up lots of visiting opportunities for her – I do hope she will be ok. 27th August 08 – Weds Mal & P took my Mum for a hospital appointment this morning, whilst I tried to do some work. Mum had lunch with us In the MH, kindly supplied by P. We went to leisure village to buy a bike cover in the afternoon, then to the Solicitors to write our wills. (Something we should have done a long time ago)! P did all the driving & did a super job. P joined us for an evening of scrabble closely followed by monopoly (Mal won both games) but P was hot on his heels at the monopoly. I went bankrupt – hope that’s not a sign of things to come! We thoroughly enjoyed our evening, the driving licence should arrive tomorrow, so looks like we will head south on Friday afternoon. Much to P’s dismay – she is concocting plans to delay us leaving! 28th, 29th, 30th & 31st August 08 – Mal’s driving licence arrived on Thursday. We still had a number of things to finalise & I wanted to see a few old friends prior to departure – so I got Mal to agree to stay until Mon/Tues. I also had some work to complete & wanted to box that off too. I arranged to meet up with friends on Friday night in Preston, we had a few bevies & caught up on old times as well as their future plans – not a late night. We also played monopoly with P again – so I set up a tournament for Saturday night, I won in spectacular style! On Sunday we had tea with Helen & Neil then did our emotional goodbyes……hopefully we will see them at Christmas.

1st Sept 08 – Mon Busy busy day getting all our last bits done ready for the off. Mal had to collect a new water cap from Hymer as ours had broken for the second time!! The quality is not great for such an expensive vehicle. He also had to fix the front grill as they hadn’t repaired it correctly last time! We had tea at Mum’s, then after a very emotional goodbye we headed to P’s for my last bath – it was pure luxury! We also visited my Aunt & Uncle to say goodbye and we had a visit from my other Aunty. I gave P & Mal a paraffin wax treatment as P’s hands are very sore.