What are you all up to
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Got up about 0700 Thursday in New Zealand, quite chilly with autumnal feel but lovely sunny warm 21c day and warm evening thankfully. Packed and said our goodbyes and headed off to drop off hire car and catch plane.
Boarding time on tickets at check in 0045, 10 minutes before our departure time 0055 so knew we were delayed before we started. Finally started to board 0130 so later still. About 11 hour flight. Slept from sheer exhaustion and came too to hear one of passengers behind being quizzed about wifes health during previous day. All OK but OH said he'd heard someone ask steward for something and received a reply 'dealing with an emergency here but as soon as we can' 😲. Continued to loose myself. No hot drinks, seat belt sign rarely off. I hate flying and turbulence but I only felt couple of bumpy bits.
Arrive Kuala Lumpur where we should have 3 hour stopover, naturally it wasn't! I wanted toilet to freshen up, usual 2nd lot closed so quite a trek. Checked boards to find our boarding gate open so no walk or cuppa. Thorough security no fountain to fill water bottle, could go and fill but had to drink before going back to boarding lounge.
Boarding swift, new A350 Dreamliner, families and folks needing assistance. Very soon we all invited to board (no seat numbers all in together) very easy and very little being in the way of others despite almost full plane. 3 sets of 3 seats and ours was just us 2 so a little extra room. Very nice plane, very comfortable slightly more space each than A380, very quiet and smooth.
Arrived Heathrow 1535 Friday, 0435 NZ, our body time. Passed over home town (it was labelled so not a guess 😂) 3 times in the stack but they didn't let us off ! I got through e-passport, no queues there at all, OH rejected again. He always is 😂😂 even with new passport. So he had to go through manned gate for EU, just one desk open, but no more than 10 minutes. At least they seem to have finally sorted out EU queues, can't comment on non EU lines as separated quietly early on. Simple baggage reclaim of both cases this time. Out and driver waiting by 1630. Indoors by 1830 despite very heavy slow moving M25.
Heating up, gas fire lit kettle on comfy seat. Both in bed by 2100 Friday, 1000 Saturday NZ time. Awoke 0445 had a cuppa in bed, wet snow. Didn' go back to sleep so up 0600 roofs and garden covered in snow 😲😲😲.
Post sorted, some accounting done. OH unpacked one case. Walked to local Lidl for fresh veg for dinner tonight and tomorrow BITTERLY cold and wet snow but no worse on the ground. Car has flat battery so home start called out. OH took it to Halfords for battery and fitting. They couldn't do it reckon not insured as battery under passenger seat. He told them to keep the battery and came home 😲😲😲. Not like him, jetlag?? Have to sort tomorrow or Monday. OH fitted last one himself so we'll see.
Now snowing hard and settling on the patio more than an inch now, with icicles on the shed roof. Looks pretty from indoors!
Huge change in temperature, we have legs and arms on for first time in almost 3 months!
Lots of folks coughing on both flights and nasty cough immediately behind us on second leg 😲😤 so expecting to get a dose of something 😭😤😭😤.
Stay safe and warm folks.
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Thanks ABM and Brue.We are well known for buying funny (or naughty) birthday cards for the family and each other. This time I have bought a more serious card, hope she likes it.
PS
Welcome back B2
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Campsites we were on in NZ charges $5 (roughly £2.50) a night extra for folks with electric vehicles. Any queries are replied to along the lines we don't give free petrol/diesel to other campers, we have no way of knowing if you charge it or not when it's parked n your pitch. I don't know if folks have opted to park in a carpark to avoid the additional charge.
Personally I think that's fair enough 😉
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Thanks brue. A 36 hour day, literally on return. And a jump of 13 hours extra on way out. Find return hardest one as we have a day to do first before 36 hour day. Weird 11 flight an hour and a half, actual, stopover, 13 hour flight, 2 hour car journey and still 5.5 hours until midnight 😲😂😆. Going out morning flight arriving NZ very late evening of following day and straight to hotel.
Nice and cosy with gas fire in the lounge 😉😆
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Welcome back Bakers2. What an epic journey!! Hopefully the weather here will improve soon and spring will arrive. Keep warm.
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All the best from me too, Nevers. Hope you both have a super day tomorrow and on Tuesday too.
Welcome home, B2. You'll need a rest now after your holiday!!
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Thanks milliehull. Yes EPIC journey. Our daughter got an unconditional place at Christchurch Canterbury University but didn't go on the grounds it was too far away. She accepted the place but bottled it once results out, got a course at Essex uni and lived at home. Went to NZ with her now husband, who she met whilst he was doing his overseas experience, weeks after graduating. Make of that what you will 😂
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We stocked up with food, propane and diesel yesterday, having listened to the weather forecast, and glad that we did. We've had intermittent heavy snow showers on a very chilly wind. We did get out for a couple of walks along the river track but we needed to be well wrapped up for them. Spent the rest of the afternoon watching the rugby in the van. The ground outside is now covered in snow so our last walk should be interesting!!
There are a few caravans stored on the site and it would appear that some of them were broken into one night this week. Nothing was taken from them apart from a few tins of food so it would seem that it must have been some homeless person rather than a burglar. Two of the owners came and and fitted external security door handles and a third took the van off to clean it out, can't blame them for that.
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Gosh how hungry must you be to risk that? I feel sorry for both parties in that instance.
Where are you currently? I hope you had a nice lunch with your daughter.
'Enjoy' your last walk this evening 😉. Stay safe.
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It was a grand meal in a "new" restaurant, the Mussel & Crab at Tuxford. It was good to catch up with her as we've not seen her for a few months, with her being away with work and over in Florida for a holiday. She brought us a nice bag of goodies form around Europe, chocs, biscuits etc from Poland, Belgium and the Baltic states.
We're staying on Diamond House CL at Fiskerton, Lincoln.
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Other motorhomes park there all the year round. We have an onboard water tank in the caravan, so no need to put the Aquaroll outside. The solar panel should keep the 12 volt system going. We would only need to park there for the one or two nights over the Easter weekend when the site is fully booked and it would be free of charge, so we would save money in site fees but yes, there would be some inconvenience to us. However, my wife is very clever at managing these kind of situations. She just needs me to keep working to get the money whilst she works out the solutions for our domestic life. Like she keeps reminding me, don't worry, that's my job! They've increased my hours at work recently. The last two weeks have been 21 hours a week, so over £150 a week in wages on top of my pension.
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Hope you're ok this morning, we've had snow through the night and still snowing now. Looks like we'll have to cancel our lunch out, it is going to last longer than expected, I hear Lincolnshire has similar weather.
Sorry to hear about the vans, sounds much like you say if just food was taken.
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It's highly likely I'll be on duty for the Easter weekend RJLJ. If we have to park outside the site, the Shogun will stay hooked up to the caravan and my wife will stay with the caravan at all times. I'll have the Smart car for work. With the inclement weather and people off work for the Easter weekend, the orders are likely to increase. I'll get my rota for the Easter weekend this Sunday and I'm hoping for the opportunity to make extra money by working the Bank Holiday weekend peak season!
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There's a very small car park at the back of the Pizza Hut shop. It can only fit 3 cars!
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Blizzard conditions here at Chapel Lane and as far as I can see no better all the way to Cirencester. Much more snow than forecast for this area has fallen, and it is now expected to continue. So I think it's an extra night here at least and given the steep hills that have to be negotiated on the way to Cirencester, probably two. Tuesday looks a lot warmer so we may opt to cancel two at Cirencester and have another two here.
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We'll be paying an extra £2 per night for parking two cars on our pitch.
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Snow in Somerset, anniversary lunch cancelled...
My poor old camellia is taking a second blast of cold weather but has kept on flowering!0 -
We still have to pay £2 a night extra for the extra car. The neighbours at the house address are making too much fuss about our parking too many cars there as my cousins car is parked there too. So now we are keeping both cars on the site with us. It's worth the extra £2 to keep the peace and the added convenience of not having to go to the house address everytime we need to swap cars. Having said that, we are legally entitled to park on the side of the road there because there are no parking restrictions i.e. no yellow lines and the car is taxed and insured to park on the side of a public road.
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Thanks brue, sorry your missing your lunch. Even if it was straight and level I would think at least twice about venturing out with the van today. Birdlip hill, or going the otherway the hills at stow and fossebridge will be treacherous. One stuck vehicle and everything will grind to a halt.
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That's love bakers2
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Luckily my 2 camellias are in pots so we brought them into the conservatory during the last lot of bad weather. I nearly put them out again this week. I am jolly glad I didn't. I hope yours will be OK brue.
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The warden said that they just need 3 days of dry weather to get the tractor on to cut the grass, Deleted User User. They are expecting this over the next few days. They reckon we could be on to our seasonal pitch by Thursday, all being well. So it might be best to just bear with them and see how things go. Yesterday, the warden was very apologetic about all the hassle and promised to do the best they can.
They said that as soon as they can get us on to our seasonal pitch, they will refund the full site fees paid for the nights that we no longer need the hardstanding pitch. By paying the full fee for the hardstanding, at least we are secure for the next 10 days, whatever happens. Also I have the advantage of being able to get to work without the wheels spinning in the mud and having to call Mayday to get my car off the pitch, thereby getting to work late to the annoyance of the manager and loss of pay for me.
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Woken up to a couple of inches of snow this morning, and still snowing, everywhere looks very pretty on site.
What are we up to? Well............ not sure today.
Welcome back Bakers and Happy Anniversary to Neveramsure,enjoy your day.
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Bitterly cold wind blowing up the valley when walking with Rosa this morning and the footpaths were a sheet of ice after yesterdays snow,fields well covered with snow but not frozen
It was OHs son 50th yesterday so we were all out last night at an Italian eating place country roads from here and back a bit "hairy" especially the return as the wind had drifted the snow from the open fields
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