August 2014 - A Ride in the Dales

A sunny day and a trip to Hawes to visit the Creamery. Our usual route home from there would have been via Aysgarth and the famous falls then back down the valley towards Skipton.

As we left the creamery however I noticed that the road from there was signposted to Kettlewell which is a village on the valley road just mentioned. As this promised to be a steep climb up and over into the valley, and because we hadn't done this road before we turned left instead of right and began the climb.

It wasn't too steep but the views as we ascended were beautiful looking back over Wensleydale.

All photographs were taken using an iPhone 4

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July 2014 - Tour de France, Catherine

We had been planning for the Tour de France visit since we arrived in England as our friends Linda and Pete were coming over to see us and spend two days out viewing the spectacle.

Kathie and I toured the area through which the race would be held looking for good vantage points with good facilities. Because of the very terrain, access to the route was extremely restricted and most of the points we found were good for parking but we would have been stuck in place for about eight hours and the facilities were basic at best. So we agreed on Skipton for the Saturday and Silsden for the Sunday.

We were taken into Skipton by our neighbour and found a good vantage point from which to watch the race. Afterwards we took the train back to Hellifield and walked home from there. A long day, standing for most of the time but a lovely meal and drinks in the evening made us better.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny so we drove to Silsden where we knew one of the pubs was opening at 8:00am to serve breakfast. We took advantage of that and then found a good roadside spot where we had a good time chatting with other fans and the local police.

Two great days where everybody was in good humour and the organization was superb.

CATHERINE

We managed to persuade Catherine that she would not be too bored by coming to stay with Grannie Kath and Granddad Joe Cool. Well we tried hard and had some success.

Kite flying came first on the agenda and we did this at the top of the hill in our Holiday Park.

Taking advantage of the glorious summer weather we went to the local village of Gargrave. Here they have designed a superb meadow alongside the River Aire where one can picnic, play football, paddle in the river, in fact everything a small child should want to do. Catherine had a great time doing all of the above and even tried a little fishing with a net on the end of a stick.

She liked it so much that we returned for another visit later and were lucky enough to see a Heron fishing for its supper.

Close to our Holiday Park is a farm which breeds Highland and other cattle and we were able to see their latest calves in the meadow.

And Finally for July, on July 11th Kathie and I celebrated our 44th Wedding Anniversary. The picture here was taken by Kathleen Garratt at a wedding we attended earlier in the year.

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June 2014 - Interesting Music from the Web

I don't know where it came from but I saw a link to a music video about a piano left in a station and some young person comes along and starts to play it. It is obviously a setup as the pianist is well known and professional but a good video nonetheless. Fantastic playing.

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0nDhQEIdSQ

This prompted me to look around for more and I got the following video from YouTube. Three excellent ad-libbers on the piano and an excellent change over between short sets.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDMMCW0eaTs

(Videos too big to upload.)

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May 2014 - LANCASHIRE TRADE VEHICLES LTD

Registered logo of Lancashire Trade Vehicles and copyright to them.
Shown here for clarification

My lovely MX5 is nearly 15 years old and in need of a few things. I wanted something more comfortable and having recently had a long drive in a Mercedes C Class automatic I decided that my own 67 year old body would be far better sitting inside a car of this class.

I did the usual search on Autotrader looking for something within my price range, and if it was a convertible then all the better. I found what I was looking for on the LANCASHIRE TRADE VEHICLES LTD site in the form of a 10 year old Audi A4 convertible. 2.5tdi engine, leather seats, automatic gearbox etc. I contacted the vendor and as I was to be home from Spain within two weeks he agreed to hold the car for me after giving him £500 deposit.

A left hand drive version of my car

 

The vehicle has been looked after very well although the advertised "fsh" was a bit of a fib as there was a large gap in the recorded service history of about 20,000 miles. This was explained as an "extended service gap" which can be allowed within the Audi service schedule. Everything else seemed well with the car so I took delivery after paying the balance of the asking price. I was confident that anything I missed would be taken care of by the promised 3 month warranty.

A couple of days later I noticed that at low speeds I was experiencing a "juddering" from the gearbox. This was reported to LANCASHIRE TRADE VEHICLES LTD who suggested that the hydraulic oil needed topping up. This was carried out by BP Garages in Bury who do the servicing for LTV. They added 1 litre of hydraulic fluid. There was a slight improvement.

I asked LTV about a radio code and also if the lights could be permanently adjusted for continental driving. He suggested that I contact Audi.

Shortly after this I took the car to Blackburn Audi so that they could examine the headlights and the Audi radio and supply me with a code in the event that we had to remove the radio or the car battery. Whilst there I was offered a free health check for the car. THIS WAS NO REFLECTION ON LTV BUT AN EXCELLENT FREE CHANCE TO HAVE THE CAR CHECKED OVER BY A MAIN DEALER. They did point out one or two minor problems which are only to be expected on a 10 year old car. Their engineer experienced the same juddering from the gearbox and recommended that the entire hydraulic fluid be flushed from the gearbox and replaced. This was offered at a reasonable price of £139. This I accepted and the work was carried out the next day. Huge improvement from the gearbox.

I reported this back to LTV who said that a hydraulic fluid change would have been their next move so I asked for a contribution to my cost. They agreed to pay the same figure as it would have cost them to have BP Garages do the job.

True to their word they coughed up half of my cost (main dealers always charge the top-whack so I was happy with 50%) and now everything is hunky dory.

When I decided to buy a car in the UK Kathie and I agreed that we would get it right at the beginning of our holiday so that any problems would manifest themselves before we go back to Spain. We have done more miles now than the total journey back to Spain so here's hoping that the gearbox was the only hiccup.

It turns out that I don't need a radio code and the headlights cannot be permanently adjusted (more expense in Spain) but the visit to Audi was worth the trip.

The car drives like a dream and is my first taste of luxury motoring, something which I could get used to.

ADDITION MADE IN NOVEMBER

It turns out that my earlier praise was somewhat misplaced as I found out when having new tyres fitted that the car had been in a very dangerous state and the wheels were badly damaged.

A previous owner had drilled out one bolt hole on each wheel, probably to remove the wheels without a locking wheel nut. I had to have four wheels replaced.

The owner of Lancashire Trade Vehicles was "mystified" as to why somebody would do this and was very upset that I had disposed of the old wheels. I gave him a full explanation but he would only agree to reimburse me for what he said he would have paid to have the wheels replaced. He gave me £200 of the £380 it had cost me.

The latest problem now is a faulty indication of an ABS problem, I have paid to have one of the sensors replaced but the fault is still being reported by the Engine Management System. This is very annoying.

I am beginning to wish I had not bought the car.

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April 2014 - A Family Month

The month started with a trip to Barcelona for a family wedding. Tom and Jenny (our niece) had decided to tie the knot and as Barcelona is one of their favourite destinations, they chose to be married there.

The wedding took place in an old palace in the old part of Barcelona and was fantastic.

We decided our best way to Barcelona was by train and we were not disappointed. The rail fare for both of us, return, was less than €100. Our travel agent persuaded us to travel second class and we took her advice. The train was on time both leaving and arriving. Our apartment in Barcelona was literally a five minute walk from the station and was well appointed, spacious and comfortable.

 

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Mike and Pippa were supposed to come for a holiday in April but Mike has been struggling to find Contract Work recently. When an opportunity for a few weeks work came up he had to take it and so Sheila, Pippa's mother, took the vacant 'plane seat and came to Spain instead.

This was I believe her first real Continental holiday and she really enjoyed the permanent sunshine and supply of good food.

With any luck she will be back for more later in the year!

 

 

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