Saturday 1 October 2011

Bring on the snow

Today I refitted the adapters for our Spike Spider snow chains to the front wheels and put the chains in the backbox. It's the hottest October day on record but we keep hearing that snow might come before the end of the month, and it IS autumn. Feels daft though, thinking about snow chains in this heat, but I had nothing better to do.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to etc.

It was the van's first birthday on Thurs 29th September. She was in Spinneys at the time, but, when she came home the next day, she got a pressie of a super new awning (see separate post) and, to celebrate, we had French Fancies and tea. We always have French Fancies when celebrating in the van cos Auto-Sleepers have 'em in the brochure pics for the Warwick Duo. Sad or what?

So, it's the end of our first twelve months of motorhome fun.

We 've had countless trips including two abroad and have covered 11,500 miles.

We've learnt loads and we're looking forward to lots more fun and enjoyment with our van. We love it so much!

In a week or so I'm off with my mate Bernie to Normandy for about 9 days. We're gonna be visiting WWII sites associated with D Day and the battle for Normandy. I'm presently reading Max Hasting's excellent book, "Overlord, D Day and the battle for Normandy 1944".

Habitation service and warranty stuff

This week the van's been to Spinneys for its habitation service and a few warranty issues to be sorted. They've adjusted the ignitor on the fridge, which should hopefully stop it going out.
We had the wire between the heating control and the heating replaced. Evidently the cover had come off the spare blown air outlet on the heater and this had resulted in the wire starting to melt! No wonder the control was going haywire.
In an effort to find out why the waste water tank warning (which should come on when it's full) wasn't working, Spinneys discovered ... it doesn't have a warning, even though it's mentioned in the handbook. Doh! Thanks Auto-Sleepers.

The habitation service cost £183.

Phew, it's hot!

One thing our trip to the Pyrenees taught us was, we need an awning. If not for us, then for our dogs, who from next January, will be accompanying us on trips abroad. A couple of very hot days saw us quite unconfortable with no shade.

So, we spent lots of cash and, this week, I had an awning delivered and I, Chrissie and Bernie fitted it on 30th September, the hottest September day on record.

It wasn't particulary difficult, once we'd thought it through, but it's a big thing to handle.



'Looks great now it's done. It's a Fiamma F65S in titanium silver, so it matches the van.



One thing about doing this on a hot day was, once wound out you can really, "feel the benefit", as Mum used to say about taking your coat off indoors.

You wouldn't want your coat off indoors or out today, mind (Sat 1st Oct). Our weather station's showing 25.4 C in the shade!