A word...

I have of late abandoned what was one of my most favourite pastimes, reading (no not the City in Berkshire, Literature dear boy). The main problem was I hit a wall of really rubbish books, four to be precise (of which none that I managed to complete) and finally my brain gave up and promptly fell asleep.

I was absolutely determined to get back into reading as it's been a great pleasure of mine for a long, long time, so over the Christmas period, having received 5 new books for presents (they were mostly Science fantasy with a couple of Autobiographies thrown in for good measure, well it was Christmas!) I sat myself down and managed to finish two of the rubbish books (as mentioned earlier with dogged determination) and also the two really enjoyable Autobiographies.

One of the Science Fantasy books given was the first book of a series of three books that complete the fifteen book Wheel of Time series (15 books in all, gulp!). I have had great pleasure in reading these since 1990, but, unfortunately the author Robert Jordan died in 2007 and left the eleventh book incomplete. Whilst this was obviously a huge sadness it was also a nightmare for his literature followers.
However, between the publisher and his wife (God bless 'um) they found someone to write up the notes he had made before his death, his name is Brandon Sanderson, I will read it and let you know how I get on.

All the best

Baz

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I do enjoy this time of year, at least the drinking and eating and present receiving part anyway, not so much the endless shopping trips and the nose dive that my bank balance is on during December.

This year is more special as there are five of us now, plus my eldest son is now of an age where I can play with his presents/watch his DVD's/eat his chocolate.

Anyway, I wish everyone a fun time and look forward to seeing you all next year.

Kind Regards

Barrie

New Arrival

I am very happy to announce the arrival of my son Elliot Jude Johnson, born on the 24th of October at 5:21pm, weighing 7lb 15oz. Mother and Baby both doing very well indeed.

He's a very heathly young boy who has put on weight already! Though he hasn't quite worked out that when it's dark you need to close your eyes and have a bit of a kip, but we're getting there.

He likes Formula one and Supercars, or will do if his dad and brother have anything to do with it (he likes Formula milk so we're half way there).

It's finally happened...

Well it finally happened, we found a suitable caravan, it's been quite a journey - 1000 miles up and down the country to be exact (I joke you not), it's been a nightmare, one example travelling up Sheffield (100 Miles) to find the caravan we wanted to view was sold!!

But finally we found one 6 miles from my house (ouch), here it is on our favourite site.

I even found someone to take our old 'van off us for a very small fee (no they paid me!!).

Trouble is now the season is almost at an end, well it is if you're a couch potato, we've only got a few weeks left now boo hoo but the weather doesn't look too bad.

Mind, it's the skiing season soon..

'Credit Crunch' goes my new Caravan...

Recently, I have been attempting to replace our ageing Avondale Caravan, it's past it's prime - the Caravan service guys advised us to have it put to sleep but we just can't do it until we really have to, it's back legs have gone yes but it still has a twinkle in it's eye. Anyway, before it gets sold to the great Caravan Breakers in the Sky, well down the road actually, we have to find a new one. Unfortunately we have come up against two major obstacles:-

1. Due to the credit crunch people are looking to holiday more in the UK (Are they mad, have you seen the prices and the weather?) As I'm sure you're aware we are a nation of 'Panic Buyers', try getting a fresh loaf of bread on Christmas eve, mix this with greedy salesmen or 'Supply and demand' as they call it and you have a problem. This will all change when the credit crunch ends, and your nice shiny caravan is worth about the same as a tin of Pilchards, negative equity in caravans tsk!

2. Another problem is towing weights, this is a whole minefield that I am now an expert in. I drive a 1.8 Vauxhall Zafira, not a small car and not an ungenerous 1300kg towing capacity, until you find out that most family caravans are around 1350kg, not a problem you think - we've all seen the video of the VW Touareg towing the Jumbo jet, right (Take a Look)? But the story changes when you're on the M5 and a lorry over takes you the same time as a gust a wind hits you on the other side suddenly, your caravan decides it likes the look of the lorry rather than your car, and guess what your car doesn't have enough weight to hold it back, kind of like an old frail granny taking a Staffordshire Bull terrier for a walk and he sees a cat. This is when you end up in the bushes pulling roadkill out from between your teeth and finding four broken flappy pieces of plyboard where your caravan used to be, plus a furious looking wife and a rather bent car.

So as you can imagine I am absorbing all the safety advise I can find.

Remember my previous post, it should have been called 'When Good caravans, go bad', lol - actually not a bad idea, might send that one to Bravo.

Laters....

Baz the whinging Yam yam/Brummie/Limey/Pom.

Oh I do like to be beside the Poolside.

Went fishing the weekend had a great time, found one of those rare Pools where the fish aren't overfed, so they were hungry, I caught about 30 fish, including Carp, Bream, Tench, Roach, and Gudgeon.

What an excellent way to spend the day, how many times have I fished a Pool and sat there wondering if it was stagnant.

Had a beautiful Bream, my biggest one ever (though it was only about 2lb and that's being generous).

Off Mackerel fishing soon, can't wait, now there's a barmy fish, BBQ at the Ready!!!

Barrie

Ode to an Avondale - RIP.

One of my favourite hobbies is caravanning, I'm fairly new to it having previously been a Camper for 20 years (no comments please).

I hate towing the thing (with good reason, see below), but once you're there and setup it's great.

I'm one of those rare Caravan towers that pull over when the queue of traffic builds up behind me, and appreciate the waves of thanks I get from other motorists.

I have stayed in my Caravan on a site only 5 miles from my house, a little weird granted but it's in the Clent Hills and it's just a beautiful place to be, just look.

Clent

Currently I am looking to buy a newer Caravan, the old one is very tired, and also prompted me by the wheel dropping off on the M5 whilst on our way
to Exmouth for a holiday (see picture taken at 7:00am M5 J10 - thanks to the Very nice man from the RAC we got back on the road within two hours!).

Fiddle Sticks!

I wouldn't normally mind (well I would really TBH) but this is the second time the wheel has dropped off, so it's time to say goodbye!!

It's been a good van, 5 years ownership, countless nights keeping mine and the families heads dry.

Anyway, we also have a new baby on it's way, due in October so we've run out of room to boot.

Happier times



Our current favourite site



Fingers crossed that we get a Summer this year!!

Barrie