Wednesday, August 30, 2006

August update

Thought it was about time I posted again. As usual during a Bank Holiday week I lose track of the days - it's Wednesday already!

AJ got his first pay packet. That really impressed him - until he saw how much Her Majesty's Inland Revenue deducted! "Welcome to the real world!" I said. "Mum and I have yet to deduct your house-keep as well." That really made his day!

Timetables for the new academic year are not going according to plan for my boss. She is trying desperately to track down teachers so that they can tell her where the students are supposed to be - when there are more than 1700, there are quite a few spaces to fill!

Oh! On the performance front, our school had their best ever year for 5+ A*-C grade GCSEs with just over 71%, so everyone is happy - except the head; she thinks we should have done better. Glass half full or glass half empty? I think it was a good result, but then again I am now bottom of the food chain!

We're looking forward to 'admission season' finishing at the end of September then we can get some time off, especially Julie who is working long hours at the college - we'll get 'Serena' out and about and breathe some country air.

The website has been updated, the new style is a bit 'moderner' than the rather dated pages although the old pages are still available should you wish to browse.

What's all this Beta Blog stuff? I'm only just getting the hang of this one - I'd better check it out ...

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Web site news ...

For about a year I have been unable to edit my web pages due to duff information given by the host's technical team, but now I have solved the problem and updates have been made. I shall try and give it a fresh new look over time.

The address is : http://homepages.tesco.net/~kimpm/Kim

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Addition to the family


Ooops! Sorry, been so busy didn't have time to do any blogging.



Anyway, we made the trip and we PX'd Beryl for a Swift Mondial on a Fiat Ducato base vehicle. To follow our tradition of naming our vehicles she has been named, Serena. Ah! That's nice.

Our first camper was a VW Auto-Sleeper Trooper, her name was Cleo. Cleo took us to France, where we slept on board during renovations to the house we had there. We travelled on south and west to the Ille de Re; a beautiful area we plan to revisit. The Dutch campers were facinated by our driveaway awning.

After a year we went bigger and better, we swapped Cleo for Penny, the Pilote Debut Coachbuilt on a Peugeot Boxer chassis.

Penny was a four berth with loads of space and an on-board toilet which made life loads more 'convenient'. In our two years with Penny we went to France again and toured England as far north as Hadrian's Wall. A week in the rain in Keswick spoilt it for us and the following year Penny was sold on. This coincided with a change of job where weekending was less convenient. Beryl was the replacement vehicle to be used for dialy transport.

So, now we are getting sorted for trips away with Serena. Contrary to Jeremy Clarkson's opinion, we enjoy the peace and quiet away from our usual routine and filling the Portapotti is part of the fun. Emptying it is also part of the fun! Hopefully our attempts at parking and setting up will be more successful than theirs.

We'll let you know what happens ...

Friday, August 04, 2006

Counting down

Just one more 'sleep' and then we are off to find our new camper! Go West! the song says, so that's where we're going.

We'll mount up early and get the posse rolling before the grockles get out and about. The trip is around 160 miles, there and back, so the deal should be complete by lunch if all goes according to plan. The crew will consist of the full family; pilot - me, navaigator - Julie, stoker - Alex, so little Beryl will be well laden. She has been suitably prepared, including a quick wash 'n' brush up, and it will be her longest journey for some while.

So, you come back now, if y'wanna find out how we get on, d'ya hear!

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Where've ya been?

I know! It's been nearly three months since I've blogged. To be honest, very little seems to have been interesting enough to get creative about, but things are on the move!

Julie has been thinking 'holidays', and between us we've decided that we're going back to a motorhome/camper/motorcaravan, call it what you will. We started about four years ago with a VW Autosleeper Trooper. 'Cleo' was great fun but a little small for three of us. Actually she was a little small for two so after a year we traded her in for a Pilote Debut 35 on a Peugeot Boxer chassis. 'Penny' was a full four berth coachbuilt motorhome made in France. As our life style went through various phases we found that 'Penny' was becoming under used, so after a couple of years she had to go. We bought 'Beryl', the yellow peril, a Citroen Saxo as basic transport (see thumbnail on the first post).

Watch this space for further details - there will be an announcement when we have a new arrival!