Ho Ho Crimbo A Go Go

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Seasons greetings one and all, tis Christmas Take 2 (CT2) for the Foggies, Finks and Caddies. The new annual tradition where we get to celebrate Christmas all over again.

This years setting will be our new abode near a non flooding canal (some folk will never live that down eh caddie).

The plan then, all parties to arrive on Friday and potentially even a rare sighting of Mr & Mrs Claus all the way from the North Pole. The Finkettes are even going to decorate the tree when they arrive.

Saturday will see us playing silly games (Bartenga, Rapidough amongst others with Boys v Girls), followed by a slap up meal (involving the 14lb bad boy you see in the picture). Apparently we have one of them there veggies in our midst this weekend, challenge accepted, after all chicken is a veggie meal ain’t it?

Let’s not forget the falling down water to help the food go down.

Comfy Feeling

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It may be cold and drafty. It may be in need of a new colour scheme other than “drab”. It may have more holes than a Swiss cheese, but after 7 years of renting, it’s actually ours.

I stood outside our holey house tonight and looked up at all the stars. We may not be able to get back to Wales yet, but this is the closest to heaven we can get. I’m home folks and staying for a long while….well, at least until we’ve filled those damned holes, stopped the howling gale and unpacked all the bloomin boxes!!

Wal Nut

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It’s official, Wai Nui is no more (or Walnut as it became known when the shagging pigeons defaced the sign with their shenanigans). Yet another well planned and executed removal by the team (maybe we’ve missed our true calling here), Walnut was given back to the landlord who will no doubt paint over all the bits that need proper maintenance, before putting it up for sale.

Plus points are that it is a beautiful house, but on the downside you do have inferior build quality, a mosquito filled ditch, a patio facing the wrong way and an army assault course to access the garage 9 months of the year.

Still we tried it, living in millionaires row (according to the bloke who thinks his desres inspired the nickname) and now have our own NOLD House (the New OLD). Next stop then is a new kitchen, loft ladder, boarded loft, wood burning stove, walls painted, and on and on.

Looking forward to seeing ya’ll

it’s so tirING when you’re movING

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It is official we have now moved thanks to the stirling efforts of Turfman and Turfgal aka The Folks, under the steady leadership of Mrs Fogg.

unfortunately having to work has prevented my assistance over the last two days, but I was there in spirit.

So now it’s a few weeks of unpacking what appears to be a Kilimanjaro of boxes.

The picture, well that’s a canal that doesn’t flood, isn’t it?

Bye Bye Walnut We is movINGS

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The end of our year at Walnut and time for our new old house, exactly 7 years to the day when we sold our house in windy Denholme.

What an interesting year it has been, yet another new job for me (full time contracting now), booked Route 66 and the Mrs is going pillion and the loss of our wonderful little Spikey.

Walnut was a nice enough house, but very poorly built with a constant full ditch in the garden and doors/ floors collapsing daily.

So here we are officially home owners living within spitting distance of a non-flooding canal.

Going Once ….

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Mrs Foggy has been on that there auction site again, flogging anything that stands still for more than a minute (note to self, keep moving). Oh what joy it is dealing with some nice folk, some average folk and some folk that shouldn’t be let out without assistance.

Time to get shot of some of our book cum video cases. After frantic bidding one chappy bagged one, another bagged 2 and a lady grab the other two. Mrs Fogg duly gets on to let them know where we live since all items are set for local pickup only, low and behold the first muppet of the day lives in London! Go figure, but hey he is going to arrange a courier, methinks it would be cheaper to buy new from that Swedish meatball company.

Second chappy arrives to collect and paid a little more since we had no change (nice ploy Mrs). The lady arrived with child intow, but no-one to help her load them (apparently hubby had to go out so told her he hoped someone would help her at this end, nice), being the chivalrous gent I did my bit (and she was a hotty).

Lastly was the 3m run of wardrobes, where we had such wonderful questions of “how long are the 3m wardrobes”, “you stated that the two outside wardrobes are 50cm, don’t you mean 500cm” and “my girlfriend asked me to get in touch, will you end the auction for £50”. The winner then from the land of Chops duly arrived and in a nice big vehicle. So far so good.

Out pops 2 women, both after a night out on the town and looking like their hair went a few rounds with the Dulux dog and lost. Upstairs we go to see the wardrobe, offered them a drink and pointed out we removed the sliding doors last night to make it a tad easier (almost killing each other in the process trying to reverse follow instructions printed in arabic). So then we ask have you brought any blankets to cover the units in your van, nope just a sleeping bag, oh boy (consider the units have high gloss doors and will be sliding inside a builders van). Ok so you brought tools since you need to dismantle it, err no, we could use a knife if you have one? Oh boy!

Clearly these pair had no idea how to start, evident when one of them tries unbolting the roof and doesn’t expect the sides to collapse.

Cue us two, cannot help ourselves so we start to manage the pair. Unscrew that, lift there, you get the picture.

Magenta and Purple (yes they really did go mad with colour charts) happily chatted and marvelled at our coordination and within 45 mins we had the wardrobes plus the two youngsters loaded and driving off.

Good luck to the pair of them, they were going to pay a man to put it all back together again! Now to rest since I ended up carrying most of it downstairs and loaded said van too, who said chivalry is dead!

Less than 2 weeks to the move and still more boxes to pack, just remember to keep moving so you don’t end up on the auction site.

CT2

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Only 5 weeks to Christmas Take 2 in our new abode. The aim is Turkey, stuffing, sprouts and all the trimmings. A time to celebrate Chrimbo with friends and family who couldn’t join us on the real day.

Silly hats, frivolity and fun, good food and lots to open (well how the hell else will we get our house move finished?)

We even have the oh so crap Christmas Pud Game. Who knows the queen may even do a special speech on the day.

Ho Ho Ho

366

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It was exactly 366 days today or a leap year, since our final day in NZ. To celebrate we thought you might like to see a wonderful shot of Mnt Cook. the scenery was breathtaking and yes it was very difficult for me to return (I have always struggled coming back from a tour each time). Now we can show the pictures of Bilbo’s house since the movie has been released (we stood in front of Bag End and under the party tree).

And today we took a trip over to the Harley Davidson store, so that I can get a Harley helmet for the tour, but in the process Mrs Fogg has decided to be a biker chic and ride pillion when we do the 66. I think the thing that swung it was the fact you can get a ladies tailored leather bike jacket that makes you look even hotter than normal (is that even possible).

All I gotta do now is try to keep the bike upright as Mrs Fogg grabs hold of me to get on the thing. Looks like we will be travelling very very light indeed (carry anything you like providing it fits into a 25litre day sack!

Reliable as Ever

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Here I am at 22.15 sat in Manchester Airport, having battled the non existent car park signs, fought my way through the fag ash lil’s hovering around the doorways in a cloud of stale sweat and smoke fumes, to be greeted with the sign that Mrs Fogg’s flight is landing as planned at 22.35 (both of them apparently). Strange the that Mrs Fogg is texting me advising she is currently waiting for someone to defrost the wings and clear the snow from the plane before it can set off!

You would hope in this age of super fast broadband (obviously only applicable to city centres or London) that they could at least update the boards to show it might be delayed by at least an hour.

So then an evening of £4 per hour (yep you read that correct 6.6p a minute) with a choice for my tea of Mr Spud or Groggs Shergar and Potato Pie, oh bugger looks like Mr Spud has just closed, ah well it’s gonna be a “stable” diet for me then (bum tish).

The Countdown is On

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So many countdowns on the go at the mo. One day until The Boss returns, 28 days to the new house, 50 days to Christmas Take 2, 93 days to Route 66 and 142 days to my next contract (wherever that may be).

Next stop pick up the boss from the airport and time to hear all about it.