January was a month that involved a lot of visits to the UK. And so did February.
Our travels to the UK mean that we have to make the most of our days off in Germany and squeeze a lot in. Part of this squeezing involved cleaning Carl the Mercedes Benz after he had done a lot of miles.
Klaus has found a new car wash area (self service) in Moers which is much better than the ones in Straelen and Nettetal which we previously used. So we headed off to the Moers one, stopping off on the way at Edeka so I could get a few supplies.
Whilst walking around Edeka I saw some people wearing some slightly weird clothes. And then as I was looking for some Ajvar the following took place:
This is all part of Karneval in Germany.
It took a while to get around the shop (I had to dodge random people marching around, plus cheerleader-type ladies and other people dressed as royalty.
Once I was through the checkout there was a large group of people blocking the exit.
This doesn’t happen in the UK.
Anyway, the car duly got washed and looked much better for it.
Later that day we had a visit from Lara and we took her out for cake at Winthuis near Wemb (Weeze).
All three of us chose the same cake, the Kase Sahne Torte – which was very nice!
Valentine Visit to the UK – and other visits
Klaus and I had arranged another visit to the UK which would include Valentine’s Day. We would normally choose to be in Germany for this as Klaus’s father’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day but with the scheduling this didn’t work out.
So we headed off on the Wednesday afternoon as is now our routine and took the overnight ferry to Harwich. Of course partaking of the goodies in the Stena Lounge.
Klaus had an appointment on the Thursday morning so would leave around 10am to drive to Coventry. I had arranged for Colin the Handyman to come and build our IKEA Pax wardrobes as well as the chest of drawers and do some other jobs.
He arrived and said hello to Klaus (they had not met before) and then Klaus headed off to Coventry. Colin started on the many tasks and I also started building the Bestä units from IKEA that we would have in the Study.
Unfortuately one of the boxes was seriously damaged in transit.
I phoned IKEA and they arranged to send another one free of charge next week, but it meant I couldn’t complete the units so that was rather frustrating. I did what I could though.
In the meantime Colin was building the Idanäs chest of drawers which turned out to be really rather complicated. Also bigger than I expected! He built it very well though, did a couple of other small jobs (putting up curtain poles in two rooms, fitting the new loo seat) and then started on the major work of the IKEA wardrobes.
I had a visit from Mum’s neighbour Maureen and her friend Margo – Maureen was the person who told us to visit Bury so started this all off! I had walked into town earlier to get some cakes (including Gluten Free for Maureen) so I was able to feed them properly when they arrived in the early afternoon.
It was lovely to talk to them both, and Margo also talked to me about her work volunteering as an Appropriate Adult, which is something Mum used to do and I am currently toying with the idea of doing it too.
Colin the handyman came back the next day to finish the wardrobes and a couple of other tasks. Once again he did an excellent job – he’s not particularly quick but he is methodical and makes sure everything is lined up properly. It was the first time he had built the PAX Wardrobes and we had things such as the lighting in them, but he did it well.
That evening was our Valentine’s meal and we had to leave Colin at our house as he wasn’t quite finished when we went off to our pub meal at The Moreton Hall pub.
At this pub you order online via an App – this is not something one sees in Germany very often. It went OK – you are also able to order at the bar if necessary. We had a reasonable meal (standard pub grub but no price hike for it being Valentine’s Day) and Klaus enjoyed a Guinness.
The next day was Saturday and my sister Anna and brother-in-law Roderic came to visit us. It was the first time Roderic had been to our house and it was the first time someone had plugged an electric car into our porch socket. It worked!
I had seen various adverts for a place called Risby Barns which seemed to be an antiques centre a little like Battlesbridge (only smaller) which also had a tea room. So we headed there, being a bit surprised by some light snow flakes on the way.
We looked around the various antiques places. I was interested to see some Wedgwood and to check the prices as I will be trying to sell my Mum’s huge collection of Wedgwood over the next few months and this gave me a bit of an idea of prices.
After having a good look around, and Klaus being a bit shocked as there was some Nazi memorabilia on display (not allowed in Germany), we stopped for tea and cake at The Nook. I had a cream tea.
Anna and Roderic headed off and Klaus and I did a little bit of relaxing.
We had an early start the next day for the ferry – we left Bury at 6:30am. At least there is very little traffic on the A14 at that time of day.
We installed ourselves in the Stena Lounge as normal and enjoyed the food and drink.
And I had a bowl of porridge, as did Klaus.
We were home by 8pm on the Sunday night. Although it’s relaxing on the ferry, there are four hours’ of driving in total and it is still tiring.
The next day Klaus went to work as normal and I started packing, as I headed back to Hoek van Holland for the ferry on Tuesday (this time taking Murphy the company car with his free fuel).
On this leg of the journey I leave Kempen at 9:30am and get on the boat at 12:30, so it’s lunch of cheese and biscuits and olives.
I noticed another traveller who looked very like the actor in the film “The Lives of Others”/”Das Leben Der Anderen”
Klaus was working from home that day as he needed to look after Poppy (Gudula and Frank were away on a holiday to Scotland). She was very proud of her hunting skills as she found a carrot somewhere and carried it on the walkies.
I arrived in Bury and one of my first events was a visit to the dentist – this was registering with a new practice and an initial consultation. The dentist took x-rays which I hadn’t had for some years and decided that she needed to do a bit of extra work cleaning out around my gums (at another visit) so we booked another appointment and I got ready for the financial hit. This was just a few days after Klaus had discovered he would have to have his first root canal treatment.
I went back in time for the delivery from IKEA of the replacement Bestä unit and spent many hours building up the units. It’s tiring work as you spent a lot of time on your knees and mine are just not used to it.
I also did some more sorting out, tidying up etc. There is still a lot to unpack in the house but nowhere to unpack it to. Once the Bestäs would be finished there would be loads more storage space but I couldn’t hang the rest of the doors on my own so would have to wait for Klaus’s next visit.
The next day, after more tidying and sorting out, I went for lunch at Bailey’s 2, a really good café.
I also bought myself some hiking boots for our Lake District trip in May. I got these from Black’s as there was a closing down sale.
When I got home I felt that the house seemed rather cold. I checked the boiler and it was showing a fault code, “FL”, which means flame loss. When I pressed “Reset” it started again, but I discovered it tended to trip out again every four hours. So I had to check it regularly and press reset. I notified the letting agents and they said they would get it fixed before Klaus and I returned five days later.
That evening I ate soup and bread again and then had an early night ready for my trip back to Germany the next day.
Another early start (6:30am leaving the bungalow) and I was greeted by name by the workers in the Stena Lounge. They also knew my preferred breakfast order of porridge, although this time I asked him to leave the fruits of the forest as I find them a bit cold with the warm porridge. He showed some initiative and gave me the fruit separately which worked well.
It was a nice relaxing crossing on the North Sea as usual.
Murphy the car had behaved reasonably well for me. He hadn’t done any unexpected emergency stops, which was a bonus, but he had switched the headlamps back to continental Europe settings twice – but I am wise to his tricks now and check regularly.
As he’s now over four years some of the Skoda features are no longer available unless we pay – which you can see here. However, I am delighted to know that we have another 98 years of “Pay to Park” free of charge.
It was lovely to see Klaus and Poppy when I got home.
The following weekend we collected Lara and then visited Klaus’s father in Mannheim as a belated birthday trip. We picked up some decent cakes from Bauerncafé Beyen the day before and enjoyed those after some fish soup that Klaus’s father had made for us.
It’s a 6-7 hour round trip drive to visit Klaus’s father but we are happy to do it and to check that all was well with him – which it was. The assisted living facility where he has now been for six years or so has the disadvantage that other residents regularly die – I think it reminds the long-term people there of their mortality rather more than they would like.
The next day I had planned to meet chum Bella for cake at Tönisvorster Obsthof. We always chat for several hours so it was a two-caker as usual.
My two:
Bella’s two:
It was lovely to catch up with her again. She is the person in Germany I have known the longest and although we only tend to meet a few times a year it’s always great fun.
The next day I had the luxury of sitting on my sofa in Germany watching the boiler man repairing our boiler in Bury St Edmunds (we have a camera in the kitchen).
Unfortunately he needed a spare part for it so was not able to complete the job, and when he came the next day there was another issue so when we arrived on the Thursday the house was freezing cold and had been for several days.
Klaus had already booked a hotel for that night in Birmingham as he needed to go to Nottingham for work and then be in Birmingham early the next morning. I rang the letting agents to find out when the boiler would be fixed as the house was 8 degrees so no way could I sleep there that night. They assured me the engineer was coming that day so I waved Klaus off and hoped they were right.
I did lots of physical activity such as moving the bikes out of the garage and into a side passageway to give us more room for parking my car. I cleared some leaves with a broom and generally tried to warm up. We have no fan heaters or anything in the house so I was perished by the time the gas man came at 2pm. The hot soup for lunch hadn’t helped all that much.
Fortunately Owen was able to fix the heating and at the time of typing (four days later) it’s still working!
Klaus had two days of meetings but they all went well. He’s doing loads of driving in the UK. I had bought an Apple CarPlay screen thingie for my car and installed that – it seems to be working quite well so far!
On the Saturday Klaus and I decided to walk into town and as I was breaking in my new hiking boots Klaus decided to wear his. After 1km he realised the heel/sole was collapsing so we turned round and walked home. This was the state of his shoes when we got back to our bungalow:
So he changed to some trainers and it was time to walk back to Bury town centre.
We had managed about 100 metres further than we had walked earlier (when the shoes collapsed) when we saw a chap and a lady with their car stuck in the mud as they had foolishly gone off-road trying to turn round. Several passers-by tried to help (including Klaus) but the wheels were just spinning and he realised he would have to call the AA if no Land Rover Defender went past.
When we walked back about two hours’ later the car was gone and it had left deep gouges in the verge beside the path.
Klaus found himself some replacement hiking boots, also the brand Lowa, as the last set had had more than twenty years’ usage.
We had lunch in the Wetherspoons in Bury at Cornhill. This is a pub with a very impressive roof (see below),
I had actually vowed not to eat in a Wetherspoons again after Tim Martin, the boss, was horribly Brexity and also awful during Covid. But some years have passed and we wanted to try this out as it is famous for the roof. The food was OK and fairly priced so it was survivable!
Klaus and I put all the remaining doors on the Bestä sideboard in our Study but will have to do the door handles on a later visit as we ran out of time and energy.
We were still in Bury at the end of February. We will return home to Germany on 2nd March and Klaus’s visa application will be lodged on 3rd March. Once this is done he is unable to visit the UK until the visa is awarded, but the company are paying for the express version so we should hear within five days. We have another visit planned for the UK after eight days, so if the Visa application is delayed then I will be travelling on my own instead. But we hope very much that the visa will be awarded and then we will have a leaving party from Germany and will have moved out of our flat by the end of March.
I will keep you posted.
Any suggestions for the new title of my Blog as it can no longer be “a Brit in Germany”…