What are you all up to

+1

A cold frosty sunny start to the day. A strange time of year for silaging, but it's the first dry spell for about 6 weeks. We're not cutting some fields - dangerouly steep with thawing frost - so we should be finished by tonight. And very short days! Usually we would carry on much later in the evening.

While it is more difficult to get a non urgent appointment, our doctors are very good if you really do need to speak and/or see someone on the day. And the follow up is just as good. 

We've got our flu and covid jabs this coming Saturday. I had to reschedule them as I had a steroid injection in my shoulder last week. 

Another cold, but at least relatively sunny day here.  Frost overnight and fog early on.

I spent Sunday shredding garden stuff, and on Monday cut our neighbour's hedge, so more shredding.  3 full garden bins emptied today, so I can start filling them up again.

Smart car is still at the garage, the sump plug is leaking and needs to be replaced, but is an odd size, so has had to be ordered.  They also suspect that the threads have been stripped at some point, so just fitting a new plug may not cure the leak.  Sounds expensive!  ☹️

Just a pity our new car did not make it here before the MOT.  Sounds like it could be tomorrow before the Smart is ready.

Insurance on both cars is due on the 19th, and has shot up since last year, so after some research OH rang to see if  the present insurers could match some lower prices.  They did give some reduction, and by also removing SIL  from the insurance we have saved £165.  He has never driven the VW, and since the new car will have a back seat, DD will be able to borrow that if necessary rather than her husbands car, so no need to have SIL on the insurance.    She is still insured on both cars.

No doubt the insurance will go up once we get the new car, but at least we have the £165 to go towards that.

My age is now affecting the number of quotes we could get, LV refused to quote at all.

"Frustrating afternoon. Long story short we wrote to Kia as our headlights differ from manual. Need to know how to alter them for France next week. Referred us to local dealer who didn't know how to do it!surprised Technician ended up "googling" for answer which he didn't find. They recommended we go to one of their competitors! about 15 miles further from home. Think not. Not impressed."

we have a Kia Sorento 2013 and our headlights adjust automatically so that they are suitable for left and right hand driving, did not believe the customer service people but that is what it says in the manual, no idea how they achieve this, but it seems to work, have done lots of driving over there and no problems.

Ours unfortunately don't adjust automatically Rufs but thanks anyway.

Just booking some sites and noticed this, which I am pretty sure wasn't there last time?

A short day trip to Sunderland getting legal stuff updated and when we were leaving and after paying what would have given a week+ on a club site the solicitor asked what plans we had and we replied we were heading to the charity shop.

On reflection I perhaps should have mentioned we were dropping stuff off? 

That came up when OH booked Balbirnie about 8 weeks back.  She requested a pitch near a service point, and we did indeed end up  suitably close........about 5m away.

Only water and waste, so turned out fine as we usually  prefer to use  our own shower.

Cheers Heddlo. Should have mentioned that the model is a GT-Line Sportage. 

We'll probably just position deflectors. I've written to dealers and Kia. I wrote to Kia yesterday asking if the headlights actually needed adjustment as nothing in manual. It was them that referred me to dealer. 

We'll definitely be driving in the dark so needed clarity from them.

We have moved up to mid Lincolnshire to another new to us CL, and a great find it is too, a great improvement  from the the last one, which was the poorest thst we have used so far this trip, the only one that we would  not use again (so far that is).

Birthday greetings to Mrs M fir next Wednesday,  Moulesy. Hope you both, + the dogs, enjoy you time away.

Have a safe trip over to France WN. When do you head off?

A couple of photos  from Gunby Hall, including one of a very impressive Cedar tree.

It is many years since you could request pitches close to facilities on the booking form, not sure when it made a return as we have not booked a Club site since 2021 until we booked Balbirnie recently.   For a long time you had to phone each site you were using.

CCC have had a requests box on their on line booking form for a few years now.

I wrote a complaining email to KIA yesterday and received a reply today saying that since 2016 the headlights are compatible in UK and Europe!

Which begs several questions. Namely why they didn't tell me that when I contacted the very same customer services on Monday, plus why the manual shows you how to alter the lights for Europe for 2 different sets that will apply to this model, neither of which were installed, why their dealership is totally clueless as to this and why I had to waste a trip there. I'll be asking those questions when I reply to his email.

Panic stations first thing this morning. Mrs WNs breakfast bit back and she had a cap on her tooth come out. We rang the dentist and luckily there was a cancellation at 10.00 in Chester, so we hightailed it there and they replaced the cap which she had recovered intact.

Then back home and off to the opticians for me. Fortunately all seems roughly the same, albeit after 2 hours of tests, with waiting involved.

Home to deal with paperwork for next weeks trip. Nellie we set off next Tuesday leaving MiL to look after things. Quite good really as we have someone in the village that is doing work next door and he often pops in for a chat with her.