Home sweet Home in our Home from Home

30th November to 16th December 2016

Well, first of all I think I'd better say I'm sorry for not keeping our story up to date - since we've been back our feet have hardly  touched the floor and my fingers have certainly lacked time to dance over the keyboard! But today I will try and make a concise and concerted effort to tell what's been going on in the life of T4rdis2 and it's occupants during the last couple of weeks!

We arrived back at Ridding's wood campsite near our home town of Ripley on the 30th and we're booked in for the whole of December - a 30 day period that we plan to try and leave T4rdis2 firmly ensconced, so John's having a well earned rest from the rigours of  driving.  However, this has resulted in him becoming something of a nervous wreck 😧 because to facilitate our local travels we've hired a little 🚗 and after my 15 month abstinence from sitting behind the steering wheel I am now chief chauffeur - and he is the proud owner of a set of well bitten finger nails😁

Since we've been back much of our time has been spent visiting our friends and family and babysitting for our delightful grandchildren.  We've also done a fair bit of  shopping for the BIG🎅 HO HO HO 🎅, and caught up with mundane tasks such as visits to the dentists and haircuts/colours - when John started calling me 'Pepe le Pew' I knew it was time to do something about the strip that was developing on the top of my head!

Jack

Thomas 

And little Evelyn is hiding in there somewhere!

We've also taken delivery of our very own extra special Christmas presents in the form of 2 super Raleigh E-Bikes, which so far, we've only managed to road test once - and that was an exercise that wasn't without it's little traumas!

The bikes arrived on the 7th December, but because of other commitments, we didn't get to go out on them until the following Sunday but in a way that was good because it gave John plenty of time to fine tune them and get them set up to our specifications. However, while he was doing so he noted that a rear wheel puncture may be a bit difficult to fix because it would mean messing about with the brakes and partially dismantling them to get the wheel out, but we didn't really worry about that when we set off on our 38 mile 'christening ride' along The Nutbrook Trail - an old favourite from when we used to live in Heanor.

Our outbound journey proved quite joyful as we peddled along in the sunshine with a bit of assistance on the hills when we needed it, and we arrived at Trent Lock feeling very happy with our acquisition. But I bet you can guess what I got on the way home - a big fat puncture in my rear tyre 😖, and a husband who was a little disgruntled to say the least.    I think our next acquisition will be 2 armoured tyres!

One of our other highlights of recent times has been going to see Thomas in his Nativity play.  Unfortunately, his Mummy and Daddy couldn't make it because they were both working but we were more than happy to fill in for them and I must admit that seeing small children performing with such diligence and enthusiasm brought a small tear to my eye and definitely helped to get us in the festive spirit!

And with that in mind we're very nearly ready for the main event.  Our cupboards are stocked to bursting and our small 'wine cellar' is full of lovely German grog - so we'll have plenty of 'cheer' to take with us when we and all the rest of our family gather together at Sarah's and Paul's home on Christmas Day!   We're really quite excited about the parties this year because a year ago our Christmas was quite 'alternative' - we were in sunny Spain and it was Chinese Buffet instead of turkey for lunch!

Anyway, I think that's about all my news for now, so unless something extraordinary happens in the near future I doubt I'll get around to posting again before The Big Day.  🎄🎅🎄  Therefore, while I've got your attention, those of us who reside in T4rdis2 would just like to take this opportunity to wish everybody reading this a 🍷VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2017🍷

Cheers xx😘