BIT'S AND PIECES

There are dire warnings in the press and on the internet about a drastic change in the weather due anytime. Winds are sweeping down from the North Pole and large areas of the country are supposedly to be snow bound. It is certainly colder again and the wind is getting up so golf tomorrow is looking doubtful. Fortunately there is a fall back plan as the club has two snooker tables and my mates have suggested that this will be the alternative programme.

The night before last we had a failure of lights in the lounge,kitchen and spare room. No probs Carol, I will soon replace the fuse. Opened the meter box to be confronted by a large sign warning dire consequences for meddling with the contents - and not a fuse in sight. Got the agent's electrician in and he went to a circuit breaker box cunningly concealed behind he front door and saw that it had tripped on one circuit. The bulb in the loounge had burned out thus tripping the breaker. Pretty simple when you know how.

Also lost the bathroom light - it is a fluorescent so I said no probs Carol, I'll replace the starter. Oh no - the installation looked like nothing I had ever seen before and no obvious starters. I took a photo and went to the local "we have everything store" and they said they had never seen anything like it either! The electrician then explained it was a decorative type installation with an inbuilt starter on the tube and he would see what he could do to replace the whole thing. Cars are not the only things we are having problems with!!

Carol is not going on contract with the school - they cannot offer sufficient salary as Carol is not a "qualified teacher" and there is a maximum salary applicable . The Poms have a Qualified Teacher Certificate rating which does not take any recognition of Australian qualifications!!As this salary is considerably below the remuneration she gets from ITN (the agency supplying her services to the school) she is staying with that arrangement. It means no pay during the holidays, but under the arrangement she has, she is able to deduct all sorts of expenses (including the L360 per month rent) before tax and the net effect is very acceptable.

The school term finishes on Dec 20th and there is a two week break We drive to my brother's place after school (hopefully the roads will not be ice/snowbound), spend the night there and then go on to Heathrow to get our plane for Vienna and Christmas.

I have just read a comment in the Times about the likelihood of the weather getting nasty, and it said that we should watch what the squirrels are doing as they store a lot of acorns when there is a hard winter coming. Our little buggers have been working their bushy tails off for the past few weeks - so it don't look good!!

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20TH

The weather seems to have settled into cold nights but clear blue sky days with the temperature ranging between zero and 8 degrees. Church Green pond has almost completely frozen over and the ducks can be seen walking on ice.

Today we consulted our National Trust b ook and found a site to visit just 30 miles away.It was Wimpole House and Model farm. We took Odette with us (she is the girl from West Australia who lives iin Flat 3) and enjoyed an interesting day. The property had been in one famillies possession for hundreds of years, but in the 19th century one member went through the money by living the life of Riley. Sadly the whole estate went into disrepair until it was bought by the daughter of Rudyard Kipling. She spent some years trying to restore the house and farm to their former glory, but finally gave up and it was all bequeathed to the National Trust.

The Model farm is fully operational and maintains a number of critically endangered breeds of horses/goats/cows and other animals. Several species were introduced by the Vikings back in the dim distant past. While we walked over to the house, we did not go in as it would have cost Odette 10 pounds although we would have been free as members. The estate is extensive with beautiful park like grounds surrounding the main house.

Drove back to Huntingdon and had coffee and sandwiches and ran into Ed, the Canadian guy from Flat 1- so gave him a lift back. His heating had closed down on Friday and he had been sleeping over at Odette's, but we managed to get up in the loft and reset the system last night. And today we have a new hot water tank thank heavens as the hall carpet was gradually becoming totally wet.

Sarah (the Kiwi girl in flat 3) left for Peru yesterday to walk the Inca trail before going home to NZ.

Norwich and Great Yarmouth

This weekend we decided to go to Norwich which is about 70 miles east of here. ILen spent some weeks in Norwich prior to leaving for Austrlai in1952. Ostensibly the time was to be spent "learning about the "norwich Union" in Australia where he was being sent. It was quite staggering that he has no recoolecion of his time there, and had no recognition of anything in the aCity.

Our first stop was the St Peter Mancroft church which is is one of the largest Parish churches in England. It was a beautiful brightly and naturally lit church due mainly to the fact that nearly all the windows were clear rather than the usual stained glass. this was because a gunpowder factory nearby exploded many years ago and blew out all the original windows and they were never replaced! We were accosted by a dear old lady who offered to show us around. We made her day, but she was very interesting.The church was built between 1430 and 1455 and escaped the considerable bombing of WWII which Norwich suffered.

We walked through the dellightful narrow streets of the city down to the Norwich Cathedral, another magnificent building which dates back to 1066 and again we were welcomed by volunteers working to promote the cathedral. We have seen so many Cathedrals that it is getting hard to make comparisons.

Nearby is the Norwich Castle which was built by the Normans as a royal palace and, while the outside has been restored, the inside of the old building has been turned into one of the best museums we have seen. Had lunch there, beef casserole with dumplings - quite scrumptious.

Then we took off for Great Yarmouth about 20 miles away on the coast. Waste of time - a very depressing waterfront which, while there was a nice sandy beach, was backed by a delapidated pier and similarly delapidated buildings on the espalanade. Off shore there was a battery of 30 Power generating windmills - very ugly sight. Drove home with Carol navigating the back roads. Stopped at a pub for apint and then Carol drove back through the darkened lanes - did a great job to get us home!!

BUYING A USED CAR -OR FOOLS RUSH IN !!

When we first arrived here and were staying with my brother Peter, our first priority was to buy a car so that we could get around. Peter took us to his garage where he had bought his VW Golf, and we were shown a Vauxhall Vectra 2.0 litre sedan which looked good. Took it for a test drive and were impressed. So we bought it for 2100 quid and felt very happy with ourselves.

A couple of days later we drove off to visit John Shapiro about 50 miles away, and on the way back found that the clutch was slipping badly. We took it back to the garage and they agreed to put in a new clutch and lent us a car for the week that it took to be fixed, which we were pleased about.They also put in a new master cylinder at the same time.

All was well, until we developed a decided jumping feeling when starting off in first gear. Fortunately there is a Vauxhall dealer here in Ramsey and they had a look and told me that we needed two new drop links.So that was done and another 140 quid passed over. Then a few weeks later I decided to replace the front left tyre which was looking a bit weary and as the spare was very ordinary we asked that the old front tyre be put on the spare. Great - new tyre 35 quid, and then we found that the spare wheel was buckled and the tyre could not be replaced, so a new wheel for another 55 quid.

Driving home from Peterborough a few days later, and thankfully almost home, we found ourselves putting out a smoke screen like an escort destroyer and the car behaved very sullenly. This was caused ,believe it or not ,by a complete abscence of oil in the crankcase. Len had forgotten that older cars need regular checking of oil and water!! The motor was completely cooked and had to be replaced.

So another 2200 quid to instal a new motor and we nearly have a new car! Now today the battery light started flashing on the dashboard and my (by now ) good friends at Vauxhall told me that the alternator was stuffed and was developing more amps than it should which probably means it has stuffed the battery. So now we will have a new alternator and probably a new battery which will make it the most modern 1997 Vauxhall Vectra in England.

I suppose the good news is that we have never had any of the problems develope on the Motorways where it costs 100 quid to get towed off, and at least we had a trouble free week in France!

PHOTOS OF THE FRENCH TRIP

Photos that I could not get to upload with the text below. But you have the White Cliffs of Dover/Len tackling his steak in Amiens/The figures on Notre Dame in Amiens / the restaurant where liver became kydneys / the Australian War Memorial .And of course the famous V1 or "doodle bug" as it was nicknamed.

FRANCE -PART TWO

Above is a photo of the Vi mentioned below, and the ornate figures at Notre Dame in Amiens.
We found a very handy City guide for Caen, and, as we were in the old part of the city, we strolled around and discovered many old houses which had been the homes of notable Frenchmen. Some of the alleyways were very narrow and winding, but full of character.

Checked out of the hotel at midday with the plan of visiting Rouen, about 60 miles away. There must have been some very big event in Rouen on that day because we found that every car park was "complete" and there was absolutely nowheere to park. The traffic was horrendous and tested the French driving skills to the utmost. So we decided to give Rouen a miss and drove on with no particular destination in mind. We struck lucky by arriving at Neufchatel, and smallish town where we quickly found the Tourist Information office and picked up details of accomodation. There were two hotels suitable, but one was full and other closed! This was when Carol fouond that her mobile phone actually worked and we rang a Chambre D'Hote from the list and scored a super studio apartment on a farm just on the outskirts of town. As the accomodation was so pleasant, and as we had been doing a heap of driving, we decided to stay two nights. The studio had a kitchen and bread cheese and pate with a bottle of wine finished off the day in style.

Our host (who only spoke French) was a delightful fellow and the next morning over breakfast he told us about things to see in the area, and recommended a restaurant for lunch. One of the places he told us about was a preserved V1 Flying bomb launch site in the forest about 10 miles away. It is the only one left of 171 such sites which the Germans had established in the Normandy are to blitz London in 1943/4.



This part of Normandy is extremely beautiful with rolling countryside and superb forests. We were driving on back roads, and had a few problems finding out where we were actually going. But we we found the recommended restaurant just in time to get a table for lunch. Carol read the menu and told me that there was Lambs Liver a la something - so I opted for that after a starter of mushrooms in sauce on a tasty tart base - yummy. The liver arrived in the form of kidneys -whoops - Carol mistranslated "rognons"!! But I was delighted with them as they too were just great. Then a piece of camembert with a small salad, and finally a slice of scrumptious apple pie. Oh b oy - was I full!!

We finally made it back to Neufchatel and a light supper of bread and cheese!

Next day we set out for a Amiens arriving firstly at Albert, where we visited a first class museum of the first world war. It was an underground tunnel lined with diorama of life in the trenches, and hundred of relics from the battles - all encrusted in brown mud! It was almost too much and I was glad to surface again and leave the ghastly images behind. Off we went to Arras, another town which was basically destroyed in 1944 but with no sign of that destruction now apparent. Carol bought herself a dictionary here so that she could expand her vocabulary (like not getting liver and kidneys mixed up).

We arrived in Amiens and found a car park not far from the Notre Dame cathedral. This massive building had the most elaborate main entrance with dozens of carved figures all over the main doors. The inside of the cathedral was elaborate in the extreme with two organ lofts and a gilt encrusted backdrop to the main altar.Like most churches and cathedrals that we have seen both in England and France they have a long history which includes being wholly or partly destroyed by hostilities or fire - and always they rebuild!



We walked across the bridge overe the River Somme and found a cafe for lunch. Took ages to get served and the steak was probably skirt steak and not easy on my old teeth. Lesson learnt - avoid lunches at tourist spots. A quick walk around the town and then we remembered we had to have somewhere to stay that ngith. A phone call to Le Hermitage Chambre D'Hote found us a bed at Ginchy - a tiny village near nowhere, but a most comfortable room and use of kitchen. As the Madam had told us that she would not be able to prov ide an evening meal (it was late when we booked) we stopped at a nearby village where we saw a shop open and bought some beer,cheese etc to assuage the pangs. On the way there we stopped at the Australian/French War Memorial out of Villeurs Brettoneux. The hundreds of headstones told their own story of the young young men who died in the Great War. Carol was upset when she came across one Headstone that covered two brothers who had died within days of each other.

And so we came to our last day - Friday - and decided to go to Lille as this was not far away from Dunkerque our port of embarkation for Dover. We looked at a couple of hotels there but decided that we did not want to pay the 110 euros they were asking and finally decided that we would driv e on to Dunkerque that evening after having a good look around the city.

Arriving at Dunkirque we drove aroound looking for a suitable hotel, and then Carol suggested heading for the Railway station as there were usually a number of hotels nearby. I spotted a sign for a hotel and a vacant car park almost right outside so in we went. The Madam was gorgeous and obviously delighted with Carol's French and we got a lovely big room with shower and views out over the railway square. Madam told us about an excellent restaurant and we trotted of to find it for our last French meal. Her choice was superb and I had the best Sole Meuniere you ever want to eat.

Our Ferry was due to leave at 11.45am so we had plenty of time next morning to see something of this ancient port and we explored the quays and streets with Carol determined to find the Marche (Market). This we did with not qa lot of time to spare, but Carol managed to buy some leeeks and a bag of potatoes to bring back to Ramsay. Had a wonderful smooth crossing home and then drove from Dover to Ramsay in just under 3 hours. A wonderful week in Francce.