Oldies On Tour

'Hector' parked in Jane's stables

The day has finally arrived 21/3, we were both very excited, the sales guy had phoned a couple of times to delay collection, but it didn’t dampen our spirits.  Even though we had bought ‘Hector’ fourteen weeks earlier, he was still not ready, so we completed all the necessary paper work before having a run down on how everything worked. The first thing we spotted was the outside shower was in the wrong place, they had fixed it right by the door, so if we wanted to use it, we would be having a shower in the outside lounge where the groundsheet would be, not a good start, Geoff was getting very cross, several other things we struggled with, but the final straw was the sat/nav/radio did not work, oh dear! I had left at this point, as Geoff was going to follow me, he telephoned me to say come back and pick him up. Apparently he had lost his cool with the salesman.  Couple of hours later, we received a phone call to say it needed a replacement, which they could fit by Friday.

Geoff sent a long email, stating all the things he was not happy with, and when we arrived on Friday, everything was sorted, and they had offered us a full refund on the shower unit, so we parted good friends, and they apologised and hoped we had a good trip.

Off to Tom and Kathleen’s to pick up everything we had stored there, and after a quick lunch we left for Essex, I towed ‘pinky and perky’ with the car, and Geoff drove ‘Hector’, we stopped for diesel, and gas (LPG) but failed to get any gas in, no one seemed to know how it worked, so we pulled into the next station where we managed to fill both tanks.

We put the bikes in the garage, and left ‘Hector’ at the stables, where we have spent the last few days emptying boxes, filling shelves,  making beds, with all the stuff we bought over from Spain, we are both shattered, and realise once again, we have too much, so we have packed some boxes with things we do not need, and will leave them in Spain when we get there in June.

Where is this lot going to go!!

Finally we are ready for our first trip, which will be to the New Forest, hope the weather is kind to us, give us a call, if you are

'Hector' looking smart and ready to roll

coming our way, all visitors will be welcome.

View from Jane's Lounge

Whilst Geoff was in Belgium, I decided to visit my mate Jane, we were worried about the fog as flights had been cancelled all day, but fortunately I got away on time. John and Jane met me, and we headed home for a bottle of champagne, and dinner, how the rich live!!

Next morning up early, and a walk around the reservoir, not Jane’s favourite pastime, but it was lovely, missed the dogs though. We then went to lunch with Helen, at one of the posh Hotels where they were offering 50% discount, the food was lovely, although service could have been better! Next day it rained, and we had arranged to meet Carolyn for another meal, we had sea-bass and squid, it was lovely, cooked really lovely, thank you both for treating me.

Sunday we went for a lovely circular coastal walk,

Jane at Grosnez Castle

which was lovely, it was a beautiful sunny day, with fantastic views, we could see France, Guernsey, Sark, and many more Islands. We made our way back, as we were meeting

Nanny Jane with Mason

John, Chloe and Paige and the new baby Mason, he was so tiny, he was only two weeks old. Then Helen came over, and we enjoyed a roast duck dinner, with all the trimmings, plus another bottle of champagne, we then played canasta, a lovely day.

Sadly it was Monday morning, and I had a flight to catch, we were up early, no fog today, we left on time, and on arrival Geoff was waiting with a big smile on his face, to welcome me back.

The post educational test

Well today has seen the further education of two silver surfers in the art of WordPress blogging.

C&G have learned the skill of posting with pictures added, together with Categories and image sizing.  There should be no holding them back now

Rockfield House

We have returned to Derbyshire to see Marian and Martin to have a special lesson on how to use our website www.oldiesontour.com.

Studying hard

We started very attentively, but after a couple of hours it all seemed double dutch to us, we were so confused, so much to take in, and so little time, but hopefully it will sink in eventually.

We have named most of our pictures, and we have learnt how to post them on the web, but will we remember tomorrow!!!

Well the day finally arrived when we collected “Pinky & Perky” (our scooters!) and the shop kindly loaded them onto our trailer, and then we were off.

Bikes loaded and ready for the off

Next day we took the brave step and unloaded them and practiced around the Woodcroft (Andrew’s Hotel) car park and though the space was limited we managed figures of eight amongst other maneuvers to familarise ourselves with our new “toys”!

Christine good for go

After a short amount of time Christine took it upon herself to drive “Pinky” to the local garage to fill up, unfortunately there was a problem.   Her problem was simple, she couldn’t manage to lift the seat and find the filler; back to the car park and after several false attempts, we managed to open it.  Back to the the garage to fill up, just under a gallon, wow! and back to the Hotel where I had still been practicing, including driving over the lawn.  It was either that or hit another car!!!!!!!!

We re-loaded the bikes onto the trailer as we decided to take them to the New Forest for some serious practicing but by the time we had them loaded and tied down it was nearly dark so had to abort, still there is always another day.