The Tale of the Wandering Mobile Morgans and Well Dressings

On the first day of our Dales holiday, we enjoyed the Morgan Rally in Buxton,

watching the Gymkhana, Pit Stop Challenge and the Concords d'Elegance.

Mid-afternoon, we took off to see a Well Dressing ceremony - which only happens in the Dales during the summer months.

Loads of photos taken - and by 5.00pm, even the mad-snappers had had enough - so we headed back to the cottage for tea and cakes!

That's when I discovered my mobile had gone walk-abouts! I had taken to keeping it in a nifty little padded pouch, which clipped to the belt tags on my jeans.

With a philosophical shrug of the shoulders, I resigned myself to its loss. After all, the phone was a £20 secondhand purchase in Australia three years ago; there was hardly any talk-time left on it - and the neat little pouch had only cost me a quid at Focus on Imaging this year!

A phone call to the service provider blocked the phone and SIM card - so my credit was safe, and a new SIM, with old number, was to be sent to my home address - together with a £20 voucher for a replacement phone! How's that for service? I was MOST impressed!

Would you Adam and Eve it? 24 hours later a phone call from about the only friend back in Devon, who knew we were holidaying in the Dales, rang to ask which of us had lost a mobile!!!

Astonishment isn't a good enough adjective to explain my feelings!

An honest resident of Tideswell, the village where the Well Dressing ceremony had taken place, had found it left on her window ledge. She was able to access the Contacts, stored on the phone, and one of the two or three people she tried to ring happened to be our Devon friend!

So - the foot-loose, fancy-free mobile was returned safely to me - but of course, couldn't be used as it was blocked.

However, on return to Devon on Friday 25th, I was able to get the phone unblocked - inserted the new SIM - and bingo! We were back in business!

Anyone want a £20 voucher towards a Tesco mobile phone? I can highly recommend them as a server!

A Wonderful Week

Have just returned from a week in the Derbyshire Dales where a group of us went to take photographs. What a fantastic week it was, too, from a weather point of view?

The cottage we stayed in in Eyam was fantastic with every facility you could wish for! Three of our number were mad photographers - and the other two were Morgan car nuts!

There was a big Morgan weekend in Buxton which my husband went to in the company of one of the others (Julia Woolgar who owns a beautiful gunmetal grey Moggie!) After the weekend, Mike and Julia drove around all over the Dales, regally waving to admirers - and scaring a few locals with the loud honking horn on the Moggie!

Sheila, Maggie and I went snap-mad and were quite spoilt by the glorious Dales scenery! Up early (as early as 4.00am one morning) to catch the lovely early light - and stayed out till sunset most days! We were quite exhausted!

Spent about four days trying to find the famous Millstones - which are alleged to be scattered all over the moors - but we were singularly unsuccessful, despite close questioning of locals and climbers! However, on the last day we discovered 300 of the little so-and-sos - all neatly stacked just out of view of a main road!

So, all clambering up hill and down dales searching for them kept us fit - although large chunks of Bakewell Tart and other cakes at every opportunity rather defeated all that good work!

Never mind - back to normal again!

Would you believe it?

STILL no sign of the Christie's bedding - so I cut up rough! As I half expected - the range has been discontinued! Aaargh!! I tried to be supremely magnanimous - and said "get it - or I bring the lot back for a refund." So House of Fraser is going to "do what they can" and report back to me within 24 hours. Watch this space - er - sorry, I mean blog!

We are off on Friday for a week - so I guess nothing will be resolved too soon!

Good news, though, with the Sharp's corner hinged fitment - which has so far taken them four goes to get right! A new piece is awaiting fitting by a man-who-can - and said man is arriving at 8.00am tomorrow to (hopefully?!!) perform this small miracle!

The carpet looks good! Still no headboard or new mattress as yet! This bedroom revamp has taken far longer than the kitchen revamp did - and that only took four weeks!!

Good job I'm patient!

Another Small Step Forward!

Great day. Not only lovely sunny and bright - but the bedroom carpet was fitted!! Slowly getting there! Only been 'at it' since April! Still waiting for the corner lift-up lidded unit to be properly fitted. We are now into number four of this particular piece! Sharps Bedrooms seem incapable of cutting this accurately - and both Mike and I and the fitter are getting more than a little hacked off by all the faffing about! Similarly, we are STILL waiting for Christie bed linen to be provided by the House of Fraser. Supposedly this is on automatic back-order - but their system seems a bit slow to say the least. We have been waiting since mid April so I guess they must be walking the stuff over from their warehouse - where-ever that is!! Hopefully, this bedroom revamp will be completed by Christmas (2010 - that is!)

Nasty Nip

Haven't 'blogged' for a bit as I had a nasty nip about a week ago from a pooch that objected to having a haircut! Twelve years old, and never been trimmed! No - don't ask me why the owners suddenly decided "now is the time" to give Sadie a long overdue session with a pooch-hairdresser - but there you go! None so queer as folks!

Sadie really, really didn't want her front feet tidied up - and when the ignorant groomer insisted - she gave her the chop! Nasty deep chomp about 2cm long! Dog bites can't be stitched - and I sure as hell wasn't going to casualty for a 5 hour wait, a pat on the head and a quick slosh in saline followed by an antibiotic jab!

So I chose to bung on some iodine ointment, wound a plaster around the bite nice and tight - snapped on a surgeon's glove, and carried on! No stroppy old bitch was going to get the best of this one!

The bite is slowly healing after grinning and weeping at me for days! Must learn to move faster I guess!

My Very First Post!

Here we go then! This is something I've toyed with having a go at for some time and have at last got around to it! I guess I just treat this as a kind of diary? Well - that's what I intend to do!

On another one of my dieting phases! Trying the Rosemary Conley experience for a change. Lost 4lb last week, but was pipped for Slimmer of the Week by a fattie who lost 5lb! Same story this week. I lost 2.5 lbs and someone else lost 3lb!! At least there's 6lb less of me than there was last week. Onwards and upwards, I suppose - or should that be 'downwards'?!

Rotten day today, poured with rain non-stop. Guess the garden needs it. No photography, sadly, but I have done some computer imaging and hope to do some more tomorrow. Easy day tomorrow; no work. However, we are putting the finishing touches to a bedroom revamp, so will be out combing the town for posh new bedside lamps. How much more exciting can life get?

Bed time now - will try and get the hang of posting an image next time!