New date

Today I saw the Postman, he told me that because of the work further up the road had taken longer than originally thought, the work would not start here until Monday at the earliest, therefore the road is not closed. Just as well really as my best Pal came to see me this afternoon. He told me that he was changing his caravan, originally he had a 2 berth tourer but is changing it for a 3 berth. He told me that the firm would bring the New Caravan and site it, take the old one away and if everything was packed up in the old van, they would transfer all to the new one so that the disruption would be minimal. No doubt he will tell me all when he calls next time.
 I had a letter from Vauxhall informing me that a vehicle recall was necessary for my car. I went down to my local garage and saw the owner and showed him the letter. I did not think he could do the alterations nad he confirmed this. He told me that Thurlby Motors was the nearest. I said to hm I was not impressed with the. Surprisingly he agreed with me and told me that he dealt with a Dealership from Grimsby. This really is too far for me. The work carried out, will be free of charge but would take approximately 4 hours. As the road closure means that a normal trip to the Dealership would only be less than 3 miles but with the road closure the distance and time would be almost 5 times further. I thereforehave decided to wait until the roads are once again open.
 As Spring Bank holiday is now the first week in June this year to coincide with the Queens Jubilee, I hope that the work will be completed before the end of May. The date is the 31st and to be honest I don't expect it to be completed any earlier.
 I saw Richard the Farmer, he was spraying his wheat field. He waved to me and then pulled up and we had 10 minutes talk. He told me that although the wheat was looking good, what we wanted was some warm dry weather. Just then a tractor pulled up on the pull in outside my home. Richard told me it was his Brother and suggested I go and talk with him for a few minutes. We had a pleasant chat for 10 minutes or so. They are two very nice Farmers. His Brother, I think has more to do with pigs while Richard is the arable man. Mind you, they will trim next doors hedge for them. They are truly helpful country Farmers. More soon.

Update on road closure

This morning I went to get my Pension called in and got my What's On T.V. then went shopping. I was a little early for my skimmed milk so went to LIDL for some bits and bobs then went back to the place where I get my milk. I know most of the peolple who work there so went straight to the man who stacks the milk on the refrigerated shelves. He was having is morning snack. I told him that as I had been earlier and the fridge counter was almost empty, I guess the milk had been delivered. He told me he was still waiting for the delivery. We talked for about 10 minutes and one subject was the closure of the A52 in several places this year. I told him I couldn't understand why in 2012 the road would be closed for almost 3 weeks. I did tell him that the roads were closed from 9.00am to 5.00pm. Mondy to Friday. In years gone by, there were a team of guys following up with the materials needed and no roads were closed at all. He told me that this was due to Health and Safety. I just looked at him and muttered that the Country had gone mad. He went to see if the milk had been delivered, yes it had so I had 4x2 litres. That only left 2x2 litres as they only deliver 6 cartons maximum any day. Still I now have enough to see me through until late next week. When I see my neighbours I will ask them if it is possible to get into the local Town for essential foods. More soon.

Are things worse?

I have been wanting to see my Postman for these last few days because I had some plants for him. By a stroke of good fortune, as I went out the front door he was outside delivering mail. He told me that last week the delivery to his sorting office was late, but he didn't know what was going to happen this week as the Main Road was being closed.
 This afternoon there was a letter pushed throught my letter box stating that the Main A52 in our village was closed to all traffic from May 17th. to May 31st. The closure will be from 9.00am until 5.00pm Monday to Friday. Heaven alone knows what we will be able to do. The reason for closing the road is Resurfacing the carriageway. The reason given is Highway surface failure.
 I just can't believe it. Several years ago it  was the normal practice for a vehicle to spray tar on the worn surface, stone chippings were then spread on and then were pressed into a loose position. It was then up to the vehicles to drive at no more that 20mph. to give the chippings a solid base. I will ask my neighbour tomorrow, or when I see them next as to what will happen to us? It ststes that every effort will be taken to minimise the disruption and inconvenience. I don't think they realise that living in the country there are almost no facilities at all.
 Of course I will keep anyone who is interested updated. More soon.                    

One of those days

I knew it was going to be one of those days when I started to travel to my mate's home in Skegness. As I went by the end of my village, I noticed that a road leading to Alford was closed. I went on another 2 miles or so when there was a road closed sign. It must be remembered that this is the A52. It stated that the road was closed from Mumby to Ingoldmells that is about 9 miles of closure. The diversion took me to Bilsby, there were road works and some delay. The diversion was to make my journey almost double and where it normally takes me around 25 minutes. This morning took me almost 45 minutes. I eventually arrived and mentioned to his Mum about Jam Roly Poly and The bit about the blue sky and Navy Blue trousers. She remembered them well. Unfortunately her other Son came in. I don't really know him so I made my excuses and paid my mate for the goods he got me, he carried them out to my car then it was off home via the diversion.
  Not the same as I travelled to Skegness but a more direct route, I did have to travel to Sutton on Sea and I decided to do a little shopping. On the outskirts of Sutton there is a Filling Station that is attended. Yes it is not as cheap as Supermarkets, but where I live it is very competitive. I told her to fill it up but would not cost much. When she had filled it up she told me that it was more than I had expected. I thought it would be about £20. It was £21.02p I told her that I had used every penny on paying mate for the goods he got me, I told her that it would have to be £21.50. She looked at me and gave me the 50p back and told me that £21 would be enough. That was nice because the profit on fuel is not much.
 I then decided to go and park in the Town, get my What's On T.V weekly paper, then went to the local Supermarket for some Gammon and a few odds and ends. The total was £6.10. I told him it would be £6.50. He told me that was fine and gave me two 20p pieces change. As I walked from the Supermarket I noticed a Wet Fish Van in a sort of courtyard. I had noticed it before so I went to see if  he had a Herring for sale. As I was waiting this Woman spoke to me. I recognised her but couldn't remember where I knew her from. Then it was my turn. I asked the man if he had a Herring, he told me that he hadn't had any Herrings for a month or more. I then noticed there was some smoked Haddock fillets. I told him I would have a small one. When he picked it up, I didn't think it looked nice so I told him I would have another and pointed it out to him. He weighed it then put it in a bag and sealed it. I was staggered when he told me that the cost was £4.36p. There is just enough for 2 meals. I worked it out, I had just spent in less than 2 hours, over 50% of my weekly State Pension. I don't think I will be going there again.
 It bothered me all the way home that Woman who spoke to me. She had called me by my Christian name and asked me if I was still gardening. After  I guess 10 minutes of hard thinking I remembered who she was. She was an Assistant at the old Post Office Stores that lost it's Post Office about 3 years ago so obviously I hardly ever go there anymore. Mind you, I have never seen her whenever I have been in the shop. Still I can rest  knowing that I have finally remembered her. More soon.

Bank Holiday Weather

We have had an awful lot of rain over these last few days, but it did give me a thought as I am going to see my mate tomorrow. His Mum is always pleased to see me and I try to think of something different to talk to her about. With the rain reminded me of when us children, when allowed to, went out to play. If it was raining though, no play at all. What my elder Sister used to ask my Mother regular was this if the rain was about done. "Is there enough blue sky to make a sailor a pair of Navy Blue trousers." My Mother would look and nearly always be correct with her decision. I have not heard of anything like this in recent years. It will be interesting to see if my mate's Mum ever heard of this saying.
 Another thing that used to happen was that my Aunty's second Husband. She wasn't my Aunty really as she married my Mother's Brother but they were divorced. Anyway we always called her Aunty and she was nice. Her Husband would try to go poaching and occasionally we would have a rabbit. This by the way, was either during the War or just after. My Mother would gut and skin the rabbit, taking great care of the fur, she would then stuff the rabbit and sew the rabbit up then roast it. As kids we thought it was beautiful. The rabbit skin(fur) was then taken to a local rags and bones firm and sold for 6d. We would save anything that was of no use at all and take them down to the rag and bone firm. As every home had different bins or tins to save everything that could be recycled. I bet everyone over the age of 70 will have a button tin. We had a button tin a paper bag tin, a string bin a greased proof paper bin these were used for wrapping steamed puddings and the old fashioned jam roly poly. This was actually boiled, not baked as they think it was. It was wrapped in lots of greased proof papers. These were saved from butter, margarine and lard packets. They were all served in 1/2lb packets.  I know that my mate's Mum used to save enerything up. If I remember I will ask if she had jam roly poly. To finish I must tell you this. When I was in the restaurant trade we had a customer and we had Baked Jam Roll on the menu. He told us about when he was young he used to have Jam Roly Poly on a Monday. He told us his Mother used to boil one in a copper after boiling the white clothes as there were 7 in his family. We only used a large saucepan. By the way it was served with cold milk. It may sound awful but I can assure you with the Jam Roly Poly coming out of a boiling saucepan of water it cooled the red hot jam down a treat. More soon.

Italian friend called

This morning I had a phone call from my Italian friend asking if he could call to see me. I, of course told him he was welcome. He told me his wife would be with him. Unfortunately his wife suffers from problems relating to mental health. Well nerves really.
 They duy arrived and when I went out to meet them, they were looking at the car. She told him that he had caught my driveway gates. I looked and could plainly see that there was some damage done but I told them that with a bit of luck Tcut would get rid of the scratch. When they left I decided to measure the widthof the opening of the gates. Each gate was 69" wide making it 11.5ft wide. Plenty wide enough for his small Fiat Punto to get through.
 That got me thinking. When I was in the Army they taught me to drive. Mind you in a 5 ton vehicle which was bought down to 3 ton so that we could drive them at 18.
 When I left the Army, I was given a small document and was told that if I sent it off to the Department of Transport, I would for a sum of 5/- get a full driving licence. I didn't bother for about 3 years but then applied for my Licence. Yes it cost me 25p and it lasted for 3 years. It was automatically renewed for the same sum of 25p. I bought my first motor. A 100E side valve Ford Thames van. It had 3 forward gears ans a reverse. I can say with certainty that I was not capable of driving a van or car for that matter. I used to go into the country to practice and eventually improved. That was in 1960. In 1964 I gave the van to my then Brother-in- Law and bought a Ford Anglia. It was about 2 years old. Unfortunately when I went into business I had to sell my car. For about a year I had no transport at all. I then bought a second hand Bedford Van. I think it was about 4 years old. The good thing was that the mileometer did  not work it had registered mileage of 10900 so that when I traded it in for a New Vauxhall Van the Salesman said that the mileage was good so gave me a decent trade in price. This was in October 1974. I kept the Van until I managed to save a little more money. I decided to buy a Datsun120Y. Now called Nissan. It was an Estate. This was in December 1976. It must me remembered that there were no such things as rear wipers so you can imagine what the rear window was like in the autumn and winter wet days. I might just have well had kept  the Van.  I was so fed up that in September 1978 I swapped it for a Toyota Liftback. It really was a  lovely looking car but to be honest a rust bucket. I kept the car until 1984 when I gave it to my ex employee. He saw this Jaguar XJS Auto Sports. H.E. a V12. 5343cc. The most prestigous motor I have ever had. Anyay I kept it until 1988 when I bought a Citroen AX. GT. I sold the Jaguar private to a young man from Sheffield. He came to visit me much later and told me he was happy and that I had been honest with him.
 While I was in business at the Car Park I had a piece of equipment fall on the side of the car. As it was metallic paint it looked a mess so I decided to get a cheap Citroen and traded it in. I didn't care much for the cheap Citroen which incidentally was diesel so I decided to go for a better car.I think it was in 1998 I bought a Peugeot 206 Turbo Diesel. It was the cheapest car to run considering it was also a high performance car. I kept it for 4 years and sold it to my Sister and bought a Honda Civic. I only bought that car because my Mother was having difficulty getting in the car. This Civic had much more room. That was the only good thing about it. This would be in about 2002. When my Mother was  taken seriously ill and I knew that it was highly unlikely that she would ever return home. In the meantime I had an operation and finally decided in 2006 to get a different car. I went for a Hyundai Coupe. The trouble was that as the car was a coupe I had great difficulty in getting in and out of the car after my operation so in less than 2 years I decided to trade it in and buy another Peugeot. This time a 207 GT. I had leather seats and it was a nice car. Had it until February last year when I finally decide that spped was not my thing at my time of life so I went for my Vauxhall Corsa Ecoflex. It is a diesel and has  a zero Road Tax. It will do somewhere around 70mpg so it is economical fuel wise. More useless information soon.                                               

This morning I went into the local town for some skimmed milk. I had to go by the local Chemist and the delivery man was in the van and just about to leave. He noticed me and waved. his surprised me as he has only seen me twice. Then I suddenly thought to myself. Of course he would recognise me. Who else would be in overalls that are about 50 years old? Mind you I often wonder how many men would be able to get into their working overalls when they last wore them in the early 60s.
 I have got used to them and to be honest will miss them when they eventually wear out. I will try not to wear then during the summer months, thus hopefully making them last longer.
 The weather today has been better but the cold easterly wind kept the temperatures down. The talk is that it will get colder, to be candid, I don't expect it to make much difference because it has been generally cool. The exception was on Monday, the wind was cool but not strong and in general it was much as one would expect the weather to be in early May.
 I noticed in the local paper that my best Pal left me that the old Public House will once again go up for Auction. It was Auctioned off I guess 18 months ago. It was refurbished then put back on the Open Market. I presume that there were no offers at all. The Auction will take place after the last viewing date which is on May 12th. I have noticed that the Auction will take place in Lincoln on Wednesday May 16th. It will be interesting to see if anyone will be prepared to re-open the Public House and restaurant. More soon.