Monday 25th December 2023

 It's been quite a struggle but I've just about managed to get everything ready for dinner!

Seasons Greetings - Roger

Thursday 17th August 2023

A lot has happened since I last posted. 

Ann was seriously ill in hospital for over 2 weeks in March but she recovered and is much better now.

Then in May there was another problem with our van. The windscreen wipers stopped working. I booked it in to our local garage who charged me £980 to supposedly repair them. On the way home from the garage I turned on the wipers and they didn't work! Eventually the Fiat main agents in Exeter repaired the wipers inexplicably saying that there was nothing wrong with them!!!??? I am currently in dispute with the local garage for charging me to not solve the problem.

My eyesight has been deteriorating over the last few years but it's now much improved following the removal of cataracts and the insertion of artificial lenses in both eyes by the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Exeter.

The local wildlife has been very active in our garden recently - especially two stoats - one of whom is pictured above.

Friday 17th March 2023

Followers of this blog (if there are any apart from J Cymru) may remember that I scraped our van on a low wall in a car park just south of Nantes on 8th October last year. It wasn't a pretty sight! When we got back to Devon at the end of November I claimed on our insurance to have the damage repaired. The repairers, Kynestons of Exeter, collected the van from our house on 24th January.

We finally got the van back from the repairers yesterday 16th March - it was away for over 7 weeks! Apparently it's very difficult to get hold of parts these days in Brexit Britain. As you can see the van has now been unbent. The repair cost just under £3000 of which I had to pay £200 excess charge. I recently renewed our car insurance and after informing Go Compare of this claim their best quote went up from about £200 to £270. Even if you have a protected no claims bonus you still have to pay more on renewal after a claim. I wonder what we'll get quoted when the van insurance comes up for renewal in September?