spring is comming - better late than never

now here is a good photo to start a blog with ....

our lass had spotted this on e-bay and added it to the watch list just in case i wanted to do another project caravan for the summer ....

what do you think - does it have potential ?

no seriously back to spring

we are getting ready for it here and i have invested in a mini green house to put the seedlings in - so hopefully i can grow even more this year

i got the seed trays free from some of the big garden centres i deliver to

they get them in to grow seeds in and when they get bigger they put them in pots and the seed trays get thrown out to recycle

so if you are on a budget or tight like me it could make your gardening cheaper

this is part of the back garden and as you can see spring has sprung and the shoots are shooting

no idea what they are but they grow every year and are blue in colour

i didn't plant them but they are where one of the previous rabbits final resting place is

you know what its like with kids - a dead pet has to go with a full state funeral and lots of gifts are buried with them - i think one of the kids must have put some flowers in

this is the front garden and this is the first of the daffodils coming through

they will be closely followed by the tulips as they usually are so that will be the front sorted again for this year.

a bit of an announcement - its our gills birthday this next week (that british woman) and she will be really old of course so please pass by her blog and pass on your sympathy etc and if you have spare zimmer frames etc that you could pass on to her !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- i am so dead but i am the other side of the pond to her so she will have to wait a while to get me

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GILLIAN !!!!!!!!!!!

ps i should really tell you all all the embarrasing stories of our gills mispent youth so please e-mail in for a full book of cringeworthy tales !!!!!!

competition time - results

as promised from last week here are the figures

you will have to let me know if you were any where near

48 hours - 36 minutes driving for the week (six days)

3435km distance travelled

i've had an idea ....

how to raise money for the country - to go towards fixing pot holes and road repairs and such stuff

courtesy cameras on the roads ...


these can be fitted at road works and traffic blackspots to catch out the numpties who cannot and will not get into the correct lane when approaching lane reductions and expect some kind soul to let them in at the last minute because they cannot be bothered to queue like to rest of us

liberty takers like these should be captured , fined and the money raised could be used on the roads to help out the rest of us

rant over ........ nick

its competition time

well its a competition but with no prizes - just your own satisfaction

here is the jist of it - i will list what i have done for the week and you have to work out how many miles i have done all week and how many hours i have driven

dead simple , i bet you struggle for few weeks on the workings out but it might give you an insight into driving a wagon for a living

i will list the answers a week later and you can see how close you were - as i said no prizes but it should be fun

start penrith - tip bradford - down to lound - park up
load lound - tip bilston - load castle vale - up to penrith - change trailers - park up
tip howden - load ferrybridge - tip penrith - change trailers - run time out heading south
tip littlehampton - load gosport - load more at larkhill - run north
tip longtown - tip newbridge - tip edinburgh - load blantyre run south
change trailers at penrith - tip grangemouth - load livingston - run home to penrith
i think i have had a quiet week - lets see what you think

i suppose i had better explain tachograph rules and drivers hours laws and such just to help you out a bit

we can only drive for a maximum of four and half hours at a time before needing to take a fourty-five minute break - this can be divided into fifteen miute segments as long as the second break before the 4 and a half hour point is 30 minutes

we can only drive for 9 hours per day - however this can be extended to 10 hours twice per week

this driving time and rest periods must be contained within the working day of 13 hours - however this can be extended to 15 hours twice per week

at the end of your day you must have a rest period of 11 hours - however this can be reduced to 9 hours three times per week

you are only allowed to drive for 90 hours in any two week period

as per the working time directive you must not average more than 48 working hours in a week - this is averaged out over a three month period

working time is time spent driving or doing other work - ie loading or unloading

the wagons are limited by law to 56mph

there you are - clear as mud - but thats how we have to do it

so off you go how many hours driving did i do for the week how many hours total and how many miles did i do

not so much road rage, but...

its been bugging me for a while this one

speed limit signs on the roads ie 30, 40, 50 etc

have you noticed that if the signs are saying 60 the traffic is doing 40 and if it says 50 the traffic is doing 30 ?

it is dead obvious this one and was stareing me in the face - which probably expains why it took me so long to figure out

have a look next time this happens to your traffic queue

so what are you looking for ?

look at your speedo - not the miles per hour - look at the kph

60 kph is 40 mph , 50kph is 30 mph

so why - its easy when you figure it out - not all the drivers on our roads took their licence in this country did they ?

as a lot of other countries do all their speed limits in kilometers they are used to kph instead of mph

i had to talk to a few non uk drivers to confirm my logic and they agreed - so there you are , and now you know

is it just me ?

coffee from garages and service stations

what ever happened to bog standard coffee when the only option was whether you wanted milk or sugar in it ?

me personally i like strong coffee no sugar with plenty of milk in it and proper milk at that not this watered down rubbish

so what happened - too much choice latte, cappuccino, flavoured syrup, frappe

lets get back to good old fashioned choice - i cant be the only one ?

this vehicle is limited to 50mph to save money and the environment

i bet you have seen this too mainly on wagons - what a stupid idea this has turned out to be - probably thought up by some suit in an office who knows bugger all about transport

this idea would work great in possibly Holland or the like - but here in the uk there are too many hills for it to work properly as at 50mph the lorries cannot get a run at the hills and end up losing speed and have to pull too hard up the hills thus using more fuel in the proccess

talking to other drivers who have had this done to their wagons they all say the same thing - their fuel consumption has gone up !!

another side effect of this is that it causes more overtaking manouvers for the rest of us thus causing others to lose speed - pulling harder - more fuel used again !!

to the suit in the office who thought it up - think again and try talking to people who actually know something about it before you do it - any more daft ideas like this and you will end up as a health and safety officer

The Bathroom is finished - at last!!

told you i have been busy....

this is what i have been busy with...

managed to get a week off work so with a bit of forward planning got all the bits together so i could get on with it

i will describe it from where we last left off

i got some chrome pipe and chrome fittings and connected up the big shower head to the shower unit - i had planned this as i liked the idea of exposed pipework - so if you can see it why not do it in chrome and make a feature of it




i didnt want a shower door this time and any way i doubt i could get one to fit so a shower curtain was the way to go

it took a long time to find some thing that would do the job and not look too bulky - it also needed to be in chrome - this narrowed the choices a lot and we did struggle for a bit

this is actually two sets put together with some of the left over bits put together to make a rather nice tie back for the shower curtain

the ceiling was a disaster so we had to start again so it was re-done and done with textured polystyrene and polystyrene coving and then painted with umpteen coats of white till it looked about right



had a bit of a change of plan with the toilet side

i decided to do the bottom of the wall in the left over bits of the plastic stuff

the top of the wall didnt look right just painted white - even after all the trouble of filling it and sanding it down - so our lass chose this paper and i think it really sets it off

the pattern is wicked and actually matches the shower curtain

as you can see in the pictures our lass has been busy getting all the accessories to set it off



the towel rail over the radiator was a good find as was the towel rail under the slope

the fancy net curtains go well and i made a pole up from bits in the garage and all held up with pipe clips left over from the early plumbing jobs

overall i think all the hard work we have both done has been worth it - and we both love the end result
- it might not be everyones cup of tea - but tough - its our house not yours - and we like it

and now the sounding like our gill handy tip bit

cut a peeled onion in half and put cut side down in a saucer of water - this wiil get rid of the smell of paint


gotta go now other jobs to be on with - no rest for the wicked !!!

no i'm not dead just busy

not dead, just busy doing stuff - there will be words and pics when its all done !!!!