I'd just like to mention two things: Woolworths and the poor treatment of our Mini at the hands of Ansa (continued). To expand upon these things...

On holiday I was very excited when we went to Dorchester because we went to Wellworths! I had seen news items when they opened the store - when Woolworths went bankrupt the old Woolworths store manager set it up, and it was opened by Chris Evans. It was brilliant! Just like the old Woolworths, but before it got quite so tatty. I bought some Dorset Knob Biscuits (no sniggering) and a Fratellis CD for £2.99. Yay!

The second thing I want to say is to continue the tale of our Mini's poor treatment at the hands of Ansa. It seems people were increasingly correct when they said that being a Christian business doesn't make them good mechanics. A few months back they fixed our exhaust. I thought it looked a bit odd, and now John has it he decided to see why. Apparently they'd used the wrong mounting (a Cooper S mounting), so it was much too low. Fixing it turned into a bit of a nightmare since the bolts broke, which wasn't Ansa's fault, but they probably should have a) ordered the right part in the first place or b) not continued putting the wrong part on when they realised it wasn't right. D'oh...

posted by Fiery Fred @ 9:43 AM 0 comments

Ok, so, since I blogged last I have been on holiday for a week! I went to a place near Dorchester with my husband Rob, brother John, and my mum and dad. We stayed in a self catering cottage - Badger Cottage. (We did see a badger so it was probably allowed to be called that.)

We did lots of things, as always (not good at staying still when on holiday):

Sat 17th - travelled down to Dorset by driving all along the Fosse Way. Had lunch at an interesting pub with a railway carriage parked out the back (we ate inside the carriage). Once we'd unpacked etc in the evening we went for a walk. A lady shouted at us for not knowing which way the footpath went; the sign was inside a giant plant. If she was that annoyed about people going the wrong way in her farmyard she could have cleared away the giant plant! For crying out loud.

Sun 18th - went to a steam fair near Portland Bill, then Rob, John and I went west to Abbotsbury. Walked around and ended up on the Chesil Beach. Rob tried to bury John under lots of stones. Saw a sheep in a pillbox. Ended up quite sunburnt (in an odd way, too, since it was cold enough with the wind to keep my jacket on).

Mon 19th - went to a car boot sale/market at Bowleaze Cove, then looked at Jordan Hill Roman temple, then went on to Athelhampton House. The house was very interesting, with lots of old pictures of Parliament. And the formal gardens were impressive.

Tues 20th - spent most of the day at the Bovington Tank Museum, visiting a small ciden museum on the way back. The surprising thing about the cider museum was that there was also a collection of long case clocks (grandfather clocks). I don't think I've ever seen such a nice collection of clocks!

Wed 21st - went to Cerne Abbas, saw the giant, looked around the village (was followed around the abbey by a cat). The village was lovely, if a bit spookily deserted... Had a walk round the nearby Minterne Garden. Then late in the afternoon we found Eggardon Hill Fort, where it was very, very, windy.

Thurs 22nd - visited Dorchester. The Dorset County Museum was the best, had a vast collection of quite random things. Learnt about the aqueduct, saw lots of mosaics (and walked on them), and there was a lot of Maiden Castle stuff. The Tutankhamun and Mummies exhibitions weren't so exciting, though the 'recreated scenes' in the Tutankhamun place were good. There should have been more of those.

Fri 23rd - went to a craft place then to the Blue Pool, where we had cream teas prepared by some lovely old ladies. :) Would have been more enjoyable if we hadn't been afraid of being eaten by giant killer ants if we stood still. Hehe. Visited Maiden Castle in the evening.

Sat 24th - sadly time to go home... Took ages, due to general weight of traffic, accidents, etc. Ah well.

All in all, good weather and lots of things to see. Though now I wish I had been to the Royal Signals Museum, since I'm trying to write about Beaumanor Hall for something. D'oh!

If you want to see some photos I put some on Facebook.

Since the holiday not much has happened. John took the Mini back to Southend, so it's gone away now forever. Boo. I miss it, which is silly I know, but I liked that car. I'd always wanted one of those things. And now it has gone. :(

Maybe we'll get our new car soon, it's supposed to finally be ready tomorrow. But I want my Mini back!

Aargh.

posted by Fiery Fred @ 8:09 PM 1 comments

So, what have I been up to since I last blogged... Well, work has been pretty hectic. There always seem to be lots of meetings to go to in July - the sort that are national meetings held once or twice a year. They're usually very interesting, and it's fun to go to places (when I can get to them easily on trains so I don't worry too much!).

Yesterday I went to Northampton for a meeting in the morning (got a lift with someone) and then on to a pub for lunch and a site visit wandering around Stanford Hall. The site visit was fascinating though we were very wet by the end of it! We were looking at all the bits of parkland that are being done up as part of a Higher Level Stewardship farm scheme. And we almost got trampled by horses, which was exciting.

We finally managed to get our Mini fixed - took it to another garage and they did it within a few days (we were waiting weeks for Ansa to do it, kind of got fed up with them - we only have one car so it was very inconvenient having it off the road). It was only the clutch in the end, not the flywheel, but it still cost £509. (D'oh!) At least now we can sell a working car to John! I will miss that car, I am very fond of Minis. Even if they are new BMW Minis. :)

The British GP was exciting, in the end the Brits did well (Hamilton was second and Button came from 14th up to 4th, impressively), and Mark Webber won (hooray!). I wished I was there. It's so expensive though, I haven't been for years. Maybe I will go again at some point. Hmm...

We bought a new hamster cage. I went a bit mad buying stuff online. We've needed a few things for a while now and hadn't gotten round to ordering them, like a mattress. And I figured we should finally get a summer duvet, which is a bit late considering we've had a lot of hot weather so it'll probably keep raining now for the rest of the year! (This is exciting, isn't it?) Keep buying stuff via this Top CashBack website. It's a good deal, I'm making some money back (woo!).

My brother John's coming tonight, travelling up from Southend. We're all going on holiday together soon. The idea was that if he came up on the train he could go home in his new Mini. And then we'll be without a car for a few days until we can have our new Fiat 500. Oooh.

Anyway, that's about it. :)

posted by Fiery Fred @ 9:39 PM 0 comments