Mobile again.

I picked my car up this weekend, and it's good to be mobile again. I've made a big change from my usual cars and now have an automatic. I had been driving one while on holiday in California and with using Neil's when we got back I have got quite used to the idea of no gear changing. Previously I wouldn't have even considered one but now, and it must be an age thing, I can see how much easier it is in traffic and town, and so I decided to give it a go.

I hadn't realised that there was a way of putting it into manual gear mode, when required, but I think it's unlikely I'll bother. I also have a button to put it into sport mode, that may get used on occasions, it does give it a bit more oomph.

I also have a paddle on the steering wheel to control the stereo which I've immediately found useful, although I keep trying to turn it instead of the key as one is just infront of the other.

And so, I'm getting to know my new car quite quickly and beginning to enjoy it. It's certainly been a quick turnaround from finding out my old car was an undriveable wreck to being mobile in my new car. I'll try and hang onto this one a little longer.

Frantic Thursday.

It seems that people have begun to realise Christmas is just over a week away and panic to get things done has set in.

Yesterday, the phones at work were manic. From 8.30am, right through the day it was non-stop attitude. The spirit of Christmas could not have been further away with people demanding, shouting and generally being unpleasant over.............well, not a lot really. It's as if the stress of Christmas approaching has suddenly decended and people have lost the ability to be reasonable.

As with all businesses we issued Christmas closing dates, final order dates for pre-christmas delivery and even allowed room on the production planner for those last minute must haves. It seemed pretty covered.

But not when you have customers who seem to think that a 'made -to-measure' product is somehow sitting on the shelves in the factory just waiting for their call. As if we have a crystal ball to tell us what fabric, colour, size they are going to order so that we can just pick it straight from stock.

No, it doesn't work like that.

And so we fielded calls throughout the day trying not pass on the mood of our customers to each other, and we survived until it was time to turn the lights off and go home.

I expect today will be no different.

Hey Ho, one more week to go!

Dear Diary

After anticipating long drawn out discussions with my insurers over the payout for my car, the actual conversation took about 3 minutes thanks to my research the night before and the internet. A browse on car websites showed me how much I would have to pay to get exactly the same car, same age, same mileage as I had. I knew what I wanted and I knew what I expected them to offer, and I didn't expect the two figures to be very close.

Basically, the conversation went as follows:

Him: Have you done any research on your car to see what you are expecting?

Me: Yes, I had a look last night.

Him: Do you know what mileage your car had done as I don't have a note of it on the form?

Me: Yes, about 44,000

Him: Right, I'm looking at the Autotrader website and can see your car would now be valued between x and y

Me: Okay.

Him: So we would be offering you mid-way.

Me: Ok, I'll let you know.

Phone call ends and they have just offered me exactly the amount I had I discussed with Neil that I would be happy to settle for.

Before the internet, when it was so much more difficult to get comparitive prices and it was all done on Glass' Guide within the motor trade, getting an agreement was a long drawn out process, or it was when I had a car stolen way back in the early 1990's, (we effectively had to find a comparitive car on a garage forecourt to prove its value).

So, within a couple of days I had the cheque in my bank account and I am now looking forward to collecting my new car on Friday.

Not too bad really!

Ticking Off the To-Do List

Despite the unpleasant winter weather I have had a good day outside clearing the mountains of dead leaves which had been brought down by the intense winds over the past few days. We can now get in the front door without wading through soggy mounds of decaying leaves.

Once dressed for the outside it seemed daft not to continue with the list of jobs and I always have the dogs for company, if I'm outside they want to be with me, even if it's raining.

So the task for today was to plant all the spring bulbs. They arrived the day before we went on holiday so they have been sat in the greenhouse waiting for me to have a moment to plant them. It had to be today, regardless of weather as some of the bulbs were already showing signs of new shoots.

Hopefully, I will have a lovely patch of snowdrops, crocus, daffodils and tulips next spring, my hope being that if they don't all survive, some must surely make it.

As the rain got heavier I moved into the greenhouse. We still have tomato plants with green tomatoes on. They are a good size but I am sure that there is little chance of them ripening on the vine now so, it looks like we'll be finding a recipe for green tomato chutney to make use of them.

I took off the last of the chilli peppers too, so the greenhouse is now ready for winter. I'm going to plant the Pampas Grass into large containers and winter it in there so that the roots don't get damaged by the frost. I've always wanted some Pampas Grasses and if I can keep them alive through winter I may finally get them to grow in a sheltered spot in the garden.

So, now darkness has decended, I can feel quite pleased with my days work and get on with planning Christmas. 2 weeks today at this time we should all be sat back watching something on TV having eaten far too much turkey. Seems strange to think it will be here so soon and yet I have effectively done very little so far due to the holiday and the car incident.

Oh, and that's another item off the To-Do list - I've found a replacement car which I can pick up on Friday now that we have agreed a settlement with the insurers.

And one final thing done - we have put the Christmas tree up. It's always fun decorating the tree, testing the lights and being delighted when they work. The dogs have shown no interest in it at all this year, they are so grown up now although the 'I'm Dreaming if a White Christmas' singing Polar Bear still annoys Brinkley.

Quite a productive few days, I feel I've deserved some time to put my feet up infront of the TV, shame there's only football on!

Dear Diary

It seems that, sometimes, things just conspire against us to make life difficult. I'm going through one of those times just now. I shouldn't be, after all, I've just had 2 weeks holiday with our Californian friends and Christmas is just a couple of weeks away when I'll get to spend some time with my brother, who I don't see often enough.

But there's always a curve ball ready to come your way and mine landed a few days ago.

I tried to do a nice thing, after all, my car would be sat on the drive for 2 weeks doing nothing. I have 2 stepsons. They're all grown up and live closeby. Just before we went away one of them told us his car had broken down and needed a lot of work doing. He'd recently lost his job and was doing the rounds of agencies and had a job interview to get to. So I thought it would be a nice thing to do to let him use my car while I was away as it was only going to be parked on the drive.

Well, it's not parked on the drive anymore!

It's now in a compound several miles away, all smashed up. Today my insurers told me it's a write-off.

I have to try and be positive about it. No-one was badly hurt in the collision (I learned today that we don't have 'accidents' anymore, they are 'collisions' - the policeman dealing with the incident told me that, it's all to do with blame) and he did get to the job interview before he smashed it into the back of a stationary van, and he starts after Christmas.

But it was my car and he should've been more careful.

So, 2 weeks before Christmas I am now looking for a replacement car.

I don't like to feel angry - but I am angry about this. I know he didn't do it deliberately and I'm sure he would rather not be black and blue from the bruises caused by the seatbelt and airbag, but I'm still cross with him for not being more careful.

So, having agreed a settlement figure with the insurers today I can now get on with finding a replacement car.

Hey Ho, just one more thing to add to the 'To-Do' list!

Thanks Giving - American style

In true American spirit Neil decided he would like to make a desert to take with us to our first Thanks Giving dinner. We were now in a kitchen that was almost fully functional. The marble worktops (counter tops) had been installed yesterday, the plumber had been today and so the appliances were working, the sinks were working and we had work surfaces to prepare food on. We found a variety of bowls and utensils from the piles of items in the various rooms and we were in business - we decided a Chocolate Pan Forte would be good and visited the local Nob Hill Supermarket for all the ingredients. It's a simple dish that needs no baking, it sets in the fridge, or when short of time, the freezer. Neil somehow managed to tweak his back while taking it out of the freezer, which was to have serious repercussions for the rest of the holiday.

http://www.ginodacampo.com/recipes/panforte

Lynn prepared a dish of Sweet Potato Mallow and we were already for the next day.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1950,146170-244197,00.html

Dinner was scheduled for 3pm and we have a drive of about an hour. We hit the freeway with the rest of California. As we drove closer to San Francisco all 4 lanes of traffic started to crawl. It gave us a wonderful opportunity to look at the gorgeous autumnal trees

but it wasn't getting us to dinner. Suddenly Lynn's Satnav told us of an alternate route to avoid the heavy traffic. We took the next exit and were soon travelling again and reached our destination only 10 minutes later than planned.

The table looked beautiful

and as we moved through to the kitchen the smell of the turkey met us at the door. It was almost ready to come out of the oven so, once drinks had been served and initial greetings exchanged it was time for the great unveiling of the main event - the traditional Thanks Giving Turkey.

There was 7 of us for dinner but enough food to feed twice that number and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. After dinner, in a family tradition, we all took turns at saying what we were thankful for this year. It was lovely to hear some of the stories around the table and, although we were given a pass if we didn't feel comfortable joining in, both Neil and I were happy to say our piece having been pre-warned of this tradition so having had time to give it some thought.

After dinner we all went through to the Family Room and the guys settled themselves down to watch the big game - 49ers v Raven's - it was a good afternoon as long you weren't a 49er fan - oh, the whole room was rooting for the 49ers!

So, many thanks to our hosts Cath & Chris for inviting us to spend Thanks Giving in their San Francisco home - it will be a special memory for us for many years.

Thanks Giving and Black Friday

When we arrived at Customs in San Francisco we were, as normal, asked what the purpose of our trip was. I told the official we had come to share Thanks Giving with our friends. He responded by asking if we were also there for Black Friday. This was a term I had not heard off and only associated similar terms with stock market crashes etc.

It turns out to be a very different meaning.

It is the sales held the day after Thanks Giving. Infact, some stores were opening at 9pm & 10pm on the day of Thanks Giving.

On our journey home after our Thanks Giving meal, which I shall write of another time, we called by the local Retail Outlets . It was 9.30pm and the car park was full, not an available place to be seen. Fortunately we were only driving through, not looking to park. There were many queues outside stores due to open at 10pm and many of the signs in the store windows had anything upto 75% reductions advertised.

We would visit the sales before we left but at a calmer time.

Another off the 'Bucket List'

I've always enjoyed visiting America and love watching programs of the American way of life. Since meeting our California friends in 2004 we are just back from our 6th visit with them. This time, I managed to tick another of my ambitions off the list.

To experience a real American Thanks Giving (Sorry, my Canadian readers) as portrayed in American programs such as Cheers, Frasier, Friends and many more.

So, when we were planning our annual break earlier this year we decided we would re-visit California and so I asked it if would be ok for us to go over for Thanks Giving, the last Thursday of November.

I was so pleased when our friends said we could and the flights were booked back in June and I have been ticking the days off ever since, well Virgin Atlantic have as everytime you open up their website to manage your trip there is a large banner across the top telling you how many days, hours and minutes until you fly. And, if it wasn't for this, we would have been at the airport a week too early as I had all my dates wrong in my head and thought we travelled on the 12th, not the 19th - ooops!

In the run-up to our trip Lynn emailed to say their kitchen re-model was running behind schedule and as we arrived there would be no-where to sit downstairs, all the kitchen items being stored throughout the lounge and dining area, no where to sit in the family room as that too was being re-decorated as it runs on from the kitchen and no-where to sit outside as the furniture from the family room was out in the yard.

There was no-where to cook and no tv, but we were still very welcome to stay as the upstairs was untouched and so we could still sleep and even watch tv in one of the other bedrooms where there grandson stays when he's on his weekly overnight visit.

Effectively we would be camping out indoors. No problem, we said, we're coming to spend time with you, it will be fun whatever we do.

I admit there was an element of me that thought Lynn may have been over-exaggerating a little so that when we got there we were prepared for the worse - but she wasn't.

The re-model was originally planned to start in May. Delays meant it had to be postponed until after the family re-union in August. Once started, with plenty of time for completion before we arrived, there were snags and un-expected jobs that kept cropping up. Result - nowhere to sit, eat, cook ot watch tv.

Our first couple of nights were spent in a local hotel as Lynn & Andy were both away for the weekend and we booked a game of golf for the Monday after which we would make our way to their house. The golf was good and although it was the first time my golf clubs had been out in over a year, I was surprised to see I could still whack a good ball down the middle of the fairway.

When we finally arrived at the house we were met with an exact match to Lynn's description with one addition - Andy was very unwell, with manflu - and getting worse. He battled on being sociable serving drinks in his office while we all perched on a variety of chairs, stools and desks. Afterward we ate out, as we planned to do for most of the holiday due to the lack of cooking facilities in the house.

While out, they received a phone call about there grandson, he too was very unwell and needed taking to the doctors in the morning, could Lynn take him as his Dad was also down with man-flu and his mom was working. Result - he was brought through to stay the night and our tv priviledges were withdrawn as he would now be sleeping in the room with the tv.

American man-flu certainly seems to hit hard, that was 3 generations of men in one family - wow!