Holidays End

We’ve had a few more days rest from the garden to end our holiday, mostly due to the weather, we’ve got loads done though and it’s just going to be a case of doing a bit at a time now until all the tree branches are gone, then we can get on with building the new raised patio.

Later on Wednesday we got a phone call to say our new cameras were ready which was a surprise, we thought we’d be waiting at least a week.

On Thursday we went over to see Debbie’s Sister and did a bit of bargain shopping and a tasty pub lunch. It made a nice change not to be down on the farm which is where we usually end up.

We spent Friday afternoon at Derwent valley in the peaks trying out the new cameras. We got some good shots and we were out snapping again at Cannon Hall on Saturday.

The new cooker arrived on Saturday morning as promised, even though they brought the wrong one we are going to keep it as its even more nicer than the faulty one!

I love the Nikon D50 but it’s not at all what Debbie wants with changing the lens and not being able to take a picture using the LCD screen. Lugging a heavy SLR camera around is not Debbie’s idea of fun so we’ve been back to the shop and they’ve agreed to take her camera back, we should get that sorted out on Tuesday. I’ll be keeping mine, I really want to get into taking photos with the manual settings while Debbie just wants to point, click and move along!

Debbie’s currently deciding whether to go for something else or stick with her little Nikon Coolpix 3200 which still takes fantastic pictures but a bigger zoom would come in handy for those visits to the zoo and safari parks.

Here are a few of the shots we got over the last couple of days…

Paul

More Work!!!

All we have been doing since the last post is more gardening, early this year we cut down a massive pine tree it stood at 50 foot tall and each branch coming off it was about 15ft long, but it had to be done, we did manage to put all the branches etc behind the greenhouse........

Big mistake, with the greenhouse coming down we could no longer put the job off of shredding all the small branches and cutting up the rest on the very large ones, someone with a wood burning stove or something like it would love all this pine burning away, the smell is lovely.

Today, we have had a day off from gardening and waited for our new Stove cooker to arrive, which it did first thing this morning, I clean our old cooker with that new Cif oven cleaner and boy its well recommended as Paul intends to sell it, we unpacked the new cooker and Paulie opened the oven door and I could not believe me eyes as the glass fell out!!!

Like a flash of lighting, Paulie was on the phone to Argos and the best they could come up with is a new one will be with us on Saturday at the earliest, good job Paulie did not arrange for the old one to be taken away today.....

So, we decided to get the bedroom all spik and span, all clean washing piled high on two units had to be put away and also a good clean out was due, Im ashamed to say i have filled 5 bin bags with unwanted clothes and i think Paulie did his fare share as well, I find it propper hard keeping on top of this task when I work full time.....

Just as we had finished, the phone rings to let us know that the new cameras as now in stock, so meadowhell here we come....

Debbie

Amazing Vanishing Greenhouse

A few shots of the greenhouse over the last couple days…

Paul

Paulie !!!

Well since monday, Paulie has redeemed himself, bless him, he is sooooo cute and I do love him to bits :-))

Monday was crap moving day, it was all piled up in the front garden waiting for the skip to arrive on thursday, boy no wonder i was down in the dumps it was propper hard work.

On tuesday, the man from Sky came and sorted out the box, its only two months old and is knackered already! then we got all the glass out of the green house after ten pieces and 4 cut fingers and a pain of glass falling out and hitting me on the head, Paulie sent me into the house to get plasters and chill out before I did myself a propper injury......

Wednesday Paulie started early and got the wreched green house frame down, now that was hard work it was so thick and covered in about 200 years worth of paint on paint on paint, next came the brick wall which I could tell he was enjoying with a hugh slege hammer...lol... while he hammered away I decided to cut down a huge tree thingie and also a gooseberry bush that was full of fawns, mega ouch!! all in all a good day.....

Today the skip came and it all hands to the pump! we managed to get all the rubbish in it within two hours, while Paulie finished off a few bits, I tidied up the front garden and managed to brake the strimmer, within ten mins and the strimmer being pulled to bits and put back together again we was up and strimming away.

Paulies dad arrived to give a helping hand and managed to fit loads of brick in the already overflowing skip and make a start on the foundations of the new raised patio, next the heaven opened and after a hour of thunder, lightening and heavy rain we decided to call it a day!

Next job was to sort out Bt broadband with this new hub thingie, we have been trying since last night to get the bloody thing online and admitted failure, after 1 hour and 45 mins on the phone to the Bt helpdesk we have finally made it....yippee.....

Feeling much much better today and Paulie is allowed out of the dog house!!

Paulie will post some piccies of what he has been doing over the last few days.......

Debbie

Down in the Dumps

Boy, Im so down in the drumps its untrue - if I could wave magic wand and be wisked off to a deserted island, I would go like a shot!!

We are doing some much work to the house and yet it still seems like a bloody nightmare, a neighbour invited me to see her garden and pond today, it was lovely and then took me on a tour of her nice lovely home, not a thing out of place - it could have been labelled a SHOW HOUSE!!

I get home to ours and its still got everything everywhere and no sign of being moved, like Paulie has just dumped all his tripods in one corner with all his work stuff that he does not need for the next two weeks! and then still lying in the dinning room are his workbence and assortment of tools for doing the stairs, which are now finished, I just dont get it, we have an outhouse that is home for the tumble dryer and as today was raining again and of course clothes need to dry it was a mamoth task to get into the bloody place, everything that Paulie has been using is dumped in there and I would not mind but at the top of the garden we have two brand new sheds with nowt in them.........

We are on holiday for the next two weeks and of course various appointments have been made as we dont normally get time off work to sort them out, but all he is bothered about is going to a bloody bird fair and going to the coast and other places, plus his new obsession is a new camera, he is walking round clutching the bloody magazine like someone is going to steel it, would not mind but it cost a fortune and my husband thinks money grows on trees or something like that, Im trying really hard not to lose it completly at the moment.....

Not to mention my bloody job and all the hours and stress I get there, I could jump through hoops of fire and it still would not be good enough!!

Plus why is it, when ever there is something wrong in the family, every body walks round with their head in the sand, esp when you are married to a Yorkshire man, where I come from and esp with my family, you say it as it is and its out in the air and over and done with, over here it festers and festers till bloody war breaks out and then you end up going round and round in circles and its still aint resolved.

Anyways enough of me moaning, will wake up tomorrow and hopefully it will be a nicer day.

Debbie

Horsing Around On Sunday

On Sunday we went over to see Debbie's Sister and spent much of the afternoon watching her Daughter riding Duke over the fences.

Debbie went for a little trot round too but I opted out of that one through fear of jumping the wrong fences and without the horse!

Paul

Cayton Bay on Saturday

Here's a few snaps from our day out at Cayton Bay on Saturday.....

....... well worth the six and a half hours we spent in the car!


Paul.

Our New Big-Small Car

Last month the tax renewal form came through for our car and we both had to sit down when we saw the price! After forking out a small fortune for the tax, the service was due and that set us back a pretty penny as well. With that and the fuel bills being on the high side, we decided our Toyota Corolla T-Spot mean black sexy machine had to go. We've hardly been anywhere this summer because the cost of fuel to get anywhere near the coast would have been astronomical.

While the car was in for it's service, we looked into the possibility of swapping it for the all new Toyota Yaris D-4D. We didn't get everything sorted out initially, the shock of car depreciation took it's toll on us both and we went back the following day after checking out the facts and figures.

We finally did the deal and are now nipping about in a shiny new black Toyota Yaris. We've had a Yaris twice before but this one is a completely different car, it's bigger but looks more compact even though there is more room inside. It's lighter and more nimble to drive, parking is a dream now, the turning definitely circle seems to have been improved. It's diesel so the fuel economy is ace, we've only done very short journeys so far and we're already getting 40+ mpg, we were struggling to 20 mpg out of the old car.

I'm finding it a real boon to drive because I love small light cars that you can turn on a sixpence, Debbie's not so sure just yet but I remember when we first got a Yaris, it wasn't love at first drive. Once we've been on a few longer journeys and worked out how to handle a diesel engine, we'll be cool and Mrs Nigel Mansell will be back!

Paul.

Better The Devil You Know

It's taken some time and probably over a hundred attempts at getting anywhere with Talk Talk but yesterday we actually got our MAC code and were free leg it as fast as humanly possible!

We've had a few problems along the way with Talk Talk but the biggest problem has always been that you just cannot get through to speak to anyone at all which is unbelievably frustrating. Watching Susie on Big Brother doing battle with the phone system in the diary room the other day was a little bit like dejavu! Charlie boy at Talk Talk HQ can't have been too happy about it, given that they're the sponsor's of the show .... roflmfao!

Anyway, having managed to abandon a very overcrowded and listing ship, we've decided to set sail with BT Broadband once again, attracted by their new wireless home hub. It wasn't until we got right to the end of the order that we found out that they wanted more money for a wireless gadget to enable the PC to connect to the thing and yet more money for a phone to use the broadband telephone thingy. So long as it all works when it arrives in a couple of weeks, it'll be money well spent, if doesn't, we're going back to two plastic cups and a ball of string!

Paul.