It's Been A While!

So, what have you all been up to?

If it's anything like me, it's been keeping your head down and ploughing on!

At least the "Plague" situation appears to be heading in the right direction.

We have managed to have a few nights away in the caravan, not without issues though!

On our very first outing we had a heating issue, which thankfully after several months, lots of phone calls and call outs to rectify has finally been sorted. 

We also had a burst pipe, I've never been a fan of push on/press fit type pipe couplings and there is a very good reason for this - they can fail! Which our hot water one in our end bathroom did. Not once but twice!

Thankfully we were in the caravan on both occasions, we managed to shut the water down to avoid a fully flooded caravan.

We have just got back from our first proper holiday in it - a total of 8 nights and thankfully no dramas at all.

Spent time up in North Yorkshire at a site called Wolds Way Caravan And Camping - A well run site, which is fairly large, however, the vast majority of caravans all the way around the perimeter of the site were seasonal pitches. The actual number of tourers on site was probably less than 30 in total.

It was also near to where our friends from down here on the South Coast had just moved to.

Spending time with them and one of my oldest Army friends who travelled across country with his wife in his T25 to camp with us.

We visited York, Pickering, Helmsley, Scarborough and Whitby.

The journey up took just over 7hrs of driving and we averaged 24.6mpg in the ML350 (3.0L V6 Diesel)

I was more than happy with the way the Merc towed and the caravan was rock solid behind.

Back home now for a few more days before I hit the road in the truck again. Still with the same company and work is constant, so no real complaints.

There is a truck driver shortage here in the UK which is getting a lot of news coverage, with various reasons being banded about for the cause of the problem.

The perfect storm has been created, Covid and Brexit have played it's part and so has the change in tax laws, but the biggest problem which is slowly being addressed is that if you treat a driver like shite, don't be surprised when you can't get any!

It was nearly always the way that if you had a problem, the bosses would say, well, driver, if you don't like it then bugger off!

Now that they are short of drivers that attitude just does not work anymore and they are finding this out to their cost! Drivers are voting with their feet and leaving the industry and only working for the companies that pay the premium and treat you with a little respect.

I guess I'm one of the lucky one's where my company is half decent, still away to go, but better than most!

We also have a new edition to the household, a black kitten called Milo, although he is now nearly 6 months old and about to have his knackers cut off next Tuesday.

Sadly our cat Whiskers had to be put to sleep after suffering a stroke, he was only 7 and was the daftest cat I've ever known!

Lola which was Whiskers brother is not impressed at all, and has still not accepted him into the house, and hisses at every opportunity. This has not made the slightest difference to Milo and thinks it a fun game to ambush Lola constantly!

Other than that, all is well - Hope everyone is doing OK, and if you're doing that, then that's just enough in this mad world we find ourselves living in at the moment.

Till later....................