In the news in 2004:-

•  More moving - or not moving
•  Holidays and other travel
•  A not so merry way to kick off Christmas

Christmas Day turns white Not having looked at the weather forecast in the preceding days, we were surprised to see a dusting of snow fall during the afternoon of Christmas Day. We were due to go out in the afternoon, so while the snow fell on the Scenic outside (see below) it was time to get out the Ka in the garage, which as usual had a flat battery due to lack of use. So, after a much-practiced routine, which involves turning on the side lights whilst charging the battery to reduce the voltage from the charger, we were ready to go. Driving through the near deserted roads of Manchester on our way to see her parents, Kathie suggested that we must be some of the only people in the country who at 3.30pm on Christmas Day had yet to touch a drop of alcohol! (Not that that state was going to last much longer.)

We passed a pleasant few hours with Lewis and Joyce, sipping drinks, eating nibbles and exchanging presents until it was time to make our way home and cook our Christmas dinner - well, just a normal Saturday night dinner really, but very enjoyable none the less. By that time, more snow had fallen, and on Boxing Day morning we woke up to the sort of "perfect" snow scene you get when there's no wind and every branch, every surface, even the washing line, is covered with snow.

More moving Once again our year was dominated by removals and finding new accommodation, mainly in the context of work. Late in November 2003 we'd been given three months notice to vacate the office which we'd sub-let from Hammerhead TV downstairs. By Christmas we'd put in a offer to buy the freehold on an office unit in a new development called Quays Reach, after a little negotiation reached agreement in January and were expecting to complete in time to move at the end of February. No such luck. By March we were bogged down in trying to establish the extent and risk posed by contamination to the soil under the site, inherited from its previous uses as a timber yard and industrial warehouses. In May, with no end yet in sight, Hammerhead finally lost their patience with us and insisted we move out before the end of the month. I suppose we could have given up before then and looked for somewhere else. The problem is that there is very little commercial property in our area of the sort that best suits our needs. Most is either traditional industrial (engineering) or conventional office block, whereas we fit into the newer "science park" category, of which there isn't so much about. Of that, the better ones don't become free very often, and even less is available freehold rather than leasehold. So, not wishing to give up on what looked like a good opportunity when we felt we were "almost there", we started renting a 200 sq ft room in a Storage World "self-store" complex in Old Trafford (just over a mile away) and started work on dismantling everything at the office. Over the next 20 days and endless regular journeys we packed it all in to Storage World, apart from a few essential items which were brought home to maintain a temporary makeshift office in the front room. Thankfully the accounts are already handled from home (on Kathie's computer), so that side of the business suffered minimal disruption apart from all the "change of contact details" that had to be sent out.

"Almost there" turned into two more months, but in July all obstacles appeared clear, purchase was completed and the whole moving process started again, in reverse, moving everything out of storage and into the new office. Unlike moving out, where everything has to be packed up before you can move it, moving in was in some ways a whole lot easier, and with the aid of a long-wheelbase hired van and an extra pair of hands we got everything out of Storage World over a 48hr period. Unpacking and getting properly set up is another story, of course, but progress has been made. See Martin's page for more details.

At around this time, during the summer, Thelma spent about ten days in hospital after badly gashing her arm and head in a fall. Prior to this the staff at her care home had suggested that she might need moving to a nursing home if there was any further deterioration in her condition, and so we had started looking. During her stay in hospital she was re-assessed as not needing nursing care, so she was returned to the home and for a while was OK. During this time we got her onto a waiting list for another home much nearer to us, which also offers both intermediate and full nursing care. In September she appeared to suffer a minor  heart attack and/or strokes and was confined to bed, from where she has not really recovered. So now she does need to move as soon as a place becomes available. We never know from week to week what her condition is going to be like, or when the next phone call is going to come.

Holidays - not The net result of all this is that we've not been away for a holiday all year, and although we thought about it for Christmas, as we have done in previous years, it seemed like too much trouble to organise on top of everything else, so instead we're having another very quiet and lazy week at home. We've both had brief individual trips away, but a proper holiday together is way overdue.

John & Sheila Revisited

Back in July (I think) we invited ourselves back over to Yorkshire (on the pretext of a business collection from Cleethorpes) to see our old friend John (aka Agraman, still in the News, literally) and  partner Sheila, to see how they were settling into their new house a few miles from the historic market town of Beverley in East Yorkshire.

Bah, Humbug on Christmas Eve (or "what pissed us off at Christmas")

...as written on Christmas eve...

1) ParcelForce, those masters of the "ring the bell and run away" game, have surpassed themselves today. Not only did they stick a card through the door while Kathie was here (and deliberately listening out for a delivery), but the card had no information on it as to what they'd done with the parcel. All is not lost, we thought, we've got the tracking number so we can check on the ParcelForce web site and maybe go and collect it from the depot. Upon checking the tracking information, it appears the parcel has been delivered, not to us, but to a "S Watts". We don't know any S Watts round here, nor are there any Watts in the phone book with an address anywhere round here. It's now 8.30pm and no-one's brought it round to us, so we've no way of knowing where it is until after the holiday. Merry Christmas, ParcelForce.

(Postscript - After Christmas, Martin went to the ParcelForce depot but came away none the wiser as to what had happened to it. After New Year we notified the supplier who made their own investigation and subsequently gave us a refund. Then on Monday (10th January) Parcel Force turn up at our door with it! No explanation, and nothing on the box to give any clue as to what happened, but it's all there, and Martin's going to take it back to the supplier on his way to BAE Warton later the same week.)

2) RRG Vehicle Repair Centre. After taking our car in on 6th December for an insurance repair following a low speed bump two weeks earlier (into the car in front at a roundabout), we were first told that it would take about week. In subsequent weeks we were repeatedly told it was "just going into the paint shop", and this week it was "almost ready" several days running until today, 45mins before they were due to close for Christmas, they phoned to say it was ready. By the time Martin had picked it up, driven it a mile and was sitting in a queue of traffic, it was clear all was not well with the engine. The idle speed was decidedly slow and "lumpy" to the point where it felt like it might cut out at any minute. It had felt a bit strange when he first left the garage, but he'd put that down to the fact that he hadn't driven it for three weeks and had got used to a much smaller, lighter car, and that that's why it felt a bit like a bus. But no, after doing some last-minute supermarket shopping and driving home, with the engine intermittently picking up and then losing power again, there is undeniably something wrong, either with the ignition, fuel injection or engine management. It may just be something that was unplugged in the engine bay and not reconnected properly, but whatever it is the car's not driveable over Christmas. Thank you, RRG, for a great way to kick off the festivities.

(Postscript - After Christmas we emailed both RRG and Zurich Insurance, and had a phone call from RRG to say that Zurich had contacted them about the engine problem, and could be bring it back in. They would organise a test at the main Renault dealership, but if it was deemed that the problem was nothing to do with the accident then we would have to pay for any work required. Not having used it for a week after picking it up on Christmas Eve, it then appeared to run fine on the way back to RRG, so Martin suggested that we keep it over New Year's weekend and see how it went. On the Saturday we went to visit Thelma and it was intermittent for most of the whole journey. Then on the Monday we went out again and it was bad from the off, such that didn't go more than a mile before turning round and coming back again. Thankfully the Ka was still charged up from running it during Christmas week. So on the Tuesday it was back to RRG and they sent it to Renault for a test, during which time "no fault was found". So now we've got it back again and, to be fair, it has run OK ever since, so far...  continued)