A slow news day

Today’s a slow news day in my house, and I wasn’t sure what to write about. I started thinking ‘what would the greats of Fleet Street do in such a situation?’ The Daily Express would probably run a story on Diana’s favourite dresses/men/colours/shops/soap, complete with free pull-out-and-keep souvenir guide. The Observer (it is a Sunday, after all) would probably have an editorial on the best places within the M25 circle that you could source fresh, organic, locally-produced and zero-carbon linguini and salt-dried cod, dahling. And The News of the World would probably have a sorded free magazine about how to pep up your lovelife by wearing a range of static-y underwear made from wipe-clean man-made fibres.

Needless to say, inspiration from my peers (ooh get me!) ran low, so I have decided to present to you a run-down of cars we have loved and lost.

First up is the trusty Golf. This saw John through his student days and beyond. Its time was equally divided between life on the road and life sat still on his parent’s drive, depending on whether he could afford tax/insurance/petrol/MOT that month. It was a fab car. The exact model is a 1989 VW Golf Syncro (Mk II), which meant that it was a four-wheel drive. They are pretty rare in this country, so you’ll probably never see one in the flesh. I just wish I’d learned to drive sooner as I could have had this for me

Next up is John’s first ever vintage sportscar, which fulfilled his boyhood dream of owning one. It’s a 1973 MGB GT V8; very similar the orange MGB GT we’ve got now, but with a dirty V8 engine. It was so powerful that it would set off car alarms on the stree when you started it up! We had to let this go, as it started to show signs of rust – Winter was coming and we had no garage. This is why John was so excited when we bought our new house – the garage is large enough for three cars!

Finally, the last car he had was this gorgeous 1969 Triumph TR6, bright red and fully convertible. This was a fabulous car and was in seriously good condition. Too good, perhaps as it really stretched the budget at the time. When renovation costs for our last house started growing rapidly, as they have a tendancy to do, the poor car suddenly came to be seen as a means of buying kitchens and bathrooms. So it went

And we didn’t have a shiny old car for three years after that until we bought our new house with its fabulous and old-car-friendly garage. And John hasn’t stopped grinning since!

A day out in York

We never made it to Whitby yesterday, and instead took a left off the A64 and popped over to York. The day was glorious and we had great fun. John had fun in his new car (look at him – he’s grinning like a fool)

He also made us a lovely Pudsey bear themed picnic, witha variety of PIE!!!!!! I had a massive doorstep sandwich, a PORK PIE and a MINCE PIE (gah – just think of the size I’ll be if I carry on troughing these until Christmas). It’s fair to say that I’m not carb-aversive, and I wolfed down the food with gusto, although neither of us had the room for our token apple afterwards. What a shame.

Have I mentioned before how much John loves Pudsey Bear? Well if I haven’t, it’s a lot! He’s from Pudsey, and uber-proud of it, and the fact that the Bear is named after his hometown really does it for him. He’s been very upset recently, as the BBC have redesigned Pudsey Bear, and have (I quote) “bastardised and mangled” him in the process. He wrote several letters of complaint to the BBC and has even written Number 10 to start a e-petition, but to no avail. In a desperate but to get his hands on all things ‘Pudsey’, he’s been stocking up with all the kitchen stuff that Lakeland sells, hence the lunchbox and apple holder. John was even more excited when we went to York as there is a Lakeland branch there, presenting even more Pudsey-buying opportunities, but his little face dropped when we got there and it was closed for a refit. Nonetheless, he mustered a big enough smile to pose outside the Pudsey display, clutching his Cropper shopper in his sweaty little hands.

And what did I get out of the day, you may ask? Apart from the carb-induced coma I nearly suffered (mmmmmm… breaaaaadddd…), I got to see the sites with a special companion. I mean Connie, not John, of course!

The first weekend off since?

Yet again I have been rubbish at posting, but for that you can blame the boyf. He has been relentless with the DIY drive, the majority of which seems to fall upon me (“I don’t know how to hold a paintbrush Flissy”). Anyway, the results can now be seen. Our lounge is now complete and is looking rather fab.

I have a lovely place to work, which is very important when you’re home-based. In the last house I faced a blank wall and now I have a fab view to boot!

But the thing I love the most is the view out of our bedroom window – it’s very special.

I’m thinking of selling this shot to the Pudsey Tourist Board if there is one (if there isn’t one, there should be), as Pudsey is very underrated.

To be fair to John, he has been working hard. He spent the past two weekends taking out the kitchen and putting it back together. There was a reason for this. The kitchen had an island unit which housed a gas tumble dryer. To accommodate the outflow from this stupid dryer, the whole kitchen floor was raised up by NINE INCHES, so you had to step up to the kitchen. Not only that but the stupid unit meant there was nowhere to put a dining table. So the island unit and the raised floor had to go! This meant:

stripping the kitchen out
removing the laminate floor
removing the floorboards
cutting out the frame which supported the raised floor
dropping the plumbing
dropping the power points
re-routing and killing some gas feeds
laying new floorboards
re-laying the laminate
re-fitting the kitchen

All this work just to fit in a dining table! It’s fair to say that I like my food, but this was excessive. I hate bad design with a passion, and this was the most poorly designed kitchen I had ever seen in my life! John’s dad’s a joiner so he helped with the re-fitting. When he saw the state of the kitchen design, he did that tradesman thing of sucking the air over his teeth whilst grumbling about shoddy workmanship (“bloody nailguns” – a no no for joiners, apparently). Anyway, they both worked hard, as this pic proves.

In non-house news, we have a new toy!

It’s a 1972 (tax free, yeah baby) MGB GT, and it’s John’s pride and joy! He’s not let me have a weekend off DIY in two months, but now he’s said it’s okay to down tools. We’re taking it for a spin to Whitby later, so I should be able to take some great photos – it’s glorious today!

Hopefully by the next post, I should have some nice crafty pics for you. I have just started Mummy’s Christmas present, but 2cm of knitting isn’t really worth the effort of even clicking the shutter button. I’d better move fast – there’s only 79 days until Christmas and this is present number one on the knitting list…