Aarhus here we come

As if one Spring holiday and a recent long weekend in the smoke wasn't enough, another trip away has leapt up and bitten us on the proverbial. Ms A, our zany Danish friend and ex-neighbour, is throwing a party to celebrate her son's confirmation in April, the invite arrived on WH's birthday and of course we are going.

What a logistical nightmare. The most convenient flights are from Stansted, a 4 hour drive from here at least, we take off very early in the morning and arrive back at midnight. So that involves a hotel either side. Then we have to get from Aarhus to the family's home much further south, so we have to hire a car. We could get away with a small one but somehow Denmark doesn't do small ones to rent as WH found out last time he went (alone), so big car it is then. Having discovered all this I tried to make all the relevant bookings. For some reason last night all the relevant web sites were either down or running like treacle on ice, not worth waiting for. So this morning I was up with the lark and maxing out the credit card.

All I left have to do now is confirm the car hire, I put this off as it seems so horrendously expensive and I sort of thought that maybe later on it would be cheaper or perhaps I wouldn't notice the huge amount, either way I've postponed this until last. Last time WH went to Denmark we had an argument with the car hire people that went on for months as they insisted he had returned the car empty of petrol and had charged him £70 for the privilege, in reality he had filled it to overflowing 5km from the drop off precisely so he didn't get charged very much.

So now we have 5 days in Denmark to look forward to, only 5 weeks before the big Greek trip, somehow I think the house move will be on hold for even longer.

The boys from Deer Lick Holler

Just one of over 100 pix that WH took at the Borderline in London on Monday night where we went to see our fave band Hayseed Dixie on the second leg of their European tour 2008; they had played in Reykjavik the night before. It was a great night with a party like atmosphere, helped along by the shots of Jack Daniels the band provided us all with. Ostensibly it the was the press launch for the new album, but 150 dedicated fans didn't need a press presence to have a great time dancing and singing along with the old favourites. Too bad a lot of the press failed to show, we drank their JDs for them. Additionally, as the album had only been out 7 days we hadn't really had time to get word perfect by then; fuelled by JD, no-one noticed.

WH and I had spent the day trawling the shops around Oxford St and trying to resist the temptation of buying anything so we didn't have to carry it. By 5pm we had had enough and went to meet other Hayseed fans for a barbecue at Bodeans. Meal over, we trecked to the Intrepid Fox to met yet more fans and then hot foot it to the Borderline just around the corner. The evening continued in similar breakneck fashion culminating in a train ride back to our hotel in Slough at almost 2am, following an extremely decadent Greek kebab an hour before on Oxford Circus.

I am now paying for all this activity, aching in places I didn't know I could but strangely I haven't had the crash which would inevitably follow such behaviour over the last 16 years. I hesitate to say it but if I don't crash then I will KNOW I am on the mend.

Now I look forward to seeing the guys in Exeter in March. This morning I even talked our kitchen supplier into going too, another new recruit to the tie-dye and dungaree army.

A chip off the old block

As well as it being Worst Half's birthday this weekend, today middle grandson is 7. His birthday present list read like a catalogue for a tool store. In pole position was a generator because Mummy said he couldn't have any electricity in his shed. After that was an air compressor, by accident really, he thought it was a DIFFERENT generator; a camping light, also for his shed; an electric drill because Grandad wouldn't let him take one of his home; and some screwdrivers to add to his already quite impressive collection.

What he actually got from us was the camping light but in the shape of a rechargeable lead-light so Mummy isn't spending a fortune on batteries for the next 5 years; a reflective work jacket, just like a real builder's; an assortment of bird feeders and bird seed to feed his other passion of bird watching; some garden wildlife books so he can identify the numerous bugs which turn up in the shed and finally the best thing of all in his 7 year old eyes, a freebie mug and pen from a local builder's merchant, only of couse he didn't KNOW it was free.

This little 7 year old, and he is quite little, has the look of his Grandad at the same age. He passionately wants to be a builder just like Grandad and had a real moment of triumph a couple of weeks back when he helped to put the garage door on our new garage. He put the final 5 inch screws in, holding the drill with Grandad like a real pro, only this little builder was standing on an upturned rubbish bucket in order to reach. He has helped redo all the skirting board in the new house and is eagerly waiting for the first fix in the new extension. At parent's evening he entertained his headmistress with a word perfect description of how to scribe a joint. 'My Grandad showed me."

This is the boy who hates being indoors and complains that when the weather is nice his teacher won't allow him to take his work outside, so unlike his older brother who is academically gifted but prefers to sit inside most of the time, his nose in a book or on the pc. They both play football but perversely it is older brother who is the real Beckham, top scorer in his local team. I have memories of the younger boy, outside the back door on a freezing cold day, aged 3, no jumper and taking his shoes off and struggling with a bucket of cold, dirty water, cleaning his bike.

The summer's coming, a house move in the offing and the promise of a huge garden and a better site for his shed, well away from the house. We can only speculate the projects to be undertaken this year. Now 50-year-old Grandad dreams of an early retirement but somehow he's going to have to postpone it for a few years until the apprentice leaves school. Meanwhile the lead light will come in handy for carrying out spying operations when he's not working with Grandad.

The secret's out at last.

Worst Half celebrates his birthday in style this weekend. Last night we had Birthday cake, a few presents and told him of his impending suprise. First off was the presentation of a 'Magic Key' fashioned by middle grandson out of tin foil and cardboard, about 10 inches long it obviously opened a very big lock. All the grandkids were shouting 'It's the key of the door, Grandad' but even they didn't know which door and where it was.

Next up he was given an 'itinerary', travel agent style with flight and accomodation details and then the biggest surprise of all, he gets to go on holiday with his 10 closest family. He read it out loud, the kids and Great Nan, who was there to watch, were totally bemused, 'What is it, what is it?' they were all asking.

So elder daughter explained that in the spring we are all off on holiday for a week, the whole family, on an airoplane, and Grandad is over the moon. The key is for the door of the villa we are going to stay in. WH always wanted to do something like this but never had the time or the opportunity. He's been beaming ever since.

As for me it's a huge relief after keeping a secret like this for the best part of 14 months. The logistics of organising 3 families coming from two directions has been almost a nightmare at times. Especially when they all fall out. I must admit they were all threatened that if WH did find out beforehand it would all be 'off'. He would have never agreed if it had not been all signed, sealed and paid for in full, ever mindful of the cost.

So the secret was kept brilliantly until about a month ago then somebody totally unrelated happened to mention to WH that one of us was having trouble getting their passport photo signed. WH repeated the tale to me. Fortunately the News was on TV and I managed to act quickly for once and gestured to him to shut up as I thought I'd just heard that the mortgage rate had gone up. Well that certainly concentrated his mind and the crisis averted. Several days later he returned to the theme again and I was asked what the passport was for, 'EuroDisney with their Mum in September,' I countered, 'Not that it will probably happen, they're too disorganised' and again changed the subject. Then I left the folder containing all details, payments etc, open on the side in the office, he never even noticed. The same week youngest daughter was quizzing him about driving abroad 'In case I go to Switzerland or anything' she added quickly. The grandkids, too, were asking why they needed a passport photograph 'In case you ever go on holiday,' was the swift answer along with a telling off for some minor misdmeanor to avoid any more questions.

Anyway, we can all breathe easy now; the secret's out and has been the main topic of conversation for the last 24 hours. He never suspected a thing, not once, although he thought I'd been spending a lot of time on the phone, and not just business calls either!

At the end of May we are all off to NE Corfu, I just hope Corfu knows what it is in for.

Oh No it's the big O

WH has a birthday with a zero on Friday, we are celebrating on Saturday and a HUGE surprise will be revealed for the Birthday Boy. Can't say any more yet but it will be great. I'm so excited.

In other directions, I am so busy I don't know where to turn, trying to sell this house, tidy up, do the garden, sort the new house out, sort the business out and organise a monster party and THE surprise.

I saw my Lovely Lyme Doc last week and he is amazed with my progress, I am definitely 50% back to normal, maybe more on a good day. 3 more months of treatment and then I can stop for a while to see if the symptoms return or not. Met with a friend yesterday whom I had not seen for 6 months and she was stunned. This keeps happening a lot now, it's really odd, it takes a while for me to get used to the new improved version, let alone anyone else.

To celebrate both events we are off to the British Press Launch of the new Hayseed Dixie album in London next Monday. If you get chance have a listen, it's brilliant and just like the title, No Covers, there is not a 'cover' in sight. Time to take these guys seriously, especially the writing talent of John Wheeler. It's a new direction for them and we'll be celebrating a new direction for us too.

Some of last week's highlights

1. I spent a day in the sun sorting 4 huge piles of bricks.

2. A Mistle thrush set up home in the oak tree opposite my house and has been singing to us ever since.

3. The garage door on the new house finally went on with the help of youngest grandson who insisted on putting in all the 'big' screws himself.

4. I weighed in at the GPs and was 8kg lighter than I was 8 weeks ago. Not bad huh??

5. I made some headway on a puzzling aspect of my family tree but I'm still trying to figure out how my dyed-in-the wool, Cockney, uncle came to be born in Edinburgh.

6. It has been sunny for 6 whole days.

7. I discovered that my new fig tree gets the sun all day every day. That promises even more figs for this year.

I've got to look on the bright side. WH is suffering from extreme stress and clinical depression. Not much fun and mostly caused by one particular customer. We urgently need to get some sun and some rest.

Watch this space.

Time to take stock

Haven't had much to write about recently. Life plods on through January and now we're into February and it's still cold, wet, windy and depressing. We're still waiting for the roofers to put the roof on the extension, every time they go to start some other bad weather prevents them. We are now about 2 months behind with the build and all because of the weather. This has had the effect of driving the costs up too, the scaffolding seems to have been up for months.

The other house has been on the market for 7 weeks and despite loads of advertising since new year, progress is slow. The agent tells me that this has been the slowest January over all for years. Just our luck. Newspaper reports of a recession, uncertainty with the banks and the fact that this area is one of the most expensive in the country all conspire to make it harder to sell. I am begining to despair of ever moving from here. I was annoyed that I was here all last summer, now it looks like I will be here for part of this one too.

WH has moved on to other work, he's been full time on our place since then end of October and now his customers just won't wait. Meanwhile, as we weather yet another storm thoughts turn to Greece and warm weather and to wondering if, after this project is finished, we sell both places and escape. For good.

The Lyme treatment is working, I'm losing weight too and I know I'm ever better in the warm. The thought of permanantly living in more comfortable temperatures is very appealing. It's certainly more than a passing idea.

Better do a bit more of the Greek language study then.