So 2025 has started, the year that Klaus and I will move to the UK (all going well).
We had a quiet New Year’s Eve – it was also quiet for Poppy who is of course mostly deaf now so doesn’t hear the fireworks, fortunately.
Setting up home in the UK
This month was the beginning of my set of 9 trips to the UK to get our new house ready and to arrange furniture removal from Mum’s house to Bury, and then clearance of Mum’s house. Busy and also probably emotional.
I had booked day crossings each week the next two months going out on Monday and returning on Thursday (so giving me two full days in Bury to get stuff done). On each visit I would take things from Germany and basically fill up the car boot, but I am also restricted by how much I can carry due to my arm disability, so the things had to be items that I can unload myself from the car.
Fridge and Broadband Visit (7-10 January)
The Mercedes E-Class has a cavernous boot and so for the first run I made the sensible choice of taking my trike (!!). The tonneau cover has a dog/luggage netting option which I used as I was also transporting lots of flat removal boxes and several other heavy boxes of things (mostly books, piano music etc). I had been collecting the smaller Amazon boxes which I can then carry myself, so the car was full of lots of small boxes – and also our stock of spare bicycle tyres (seems we had thousands), bike panniers etc. Carl the Mercedes was fairly full but I could still see out behind me.
I arrived at Hoek van Holland just before check-in started so parked in the queue and popped to the loo, which is about a 100 metre walk away. Of course, on my way back a hailstorm from nowhere erupted and I had to jog back to the car – and still got wet.
I was parked fairly near the front of the ferry for once. It wasn’t too busy.
I took my seat in the Stena Lounge, ready for 8 hours of free food and drink and internet usage (I had downloaded a few episodes of various TV programmes to watch too). Stena now offer free decent wifi everywhere.
But first of all, a view up the Maas (I was in the seat right at the bow of the boat).
Time for cake (with my own tea as the tea on the ferry is substandard as the hot water from the machine isn’t boiling).
It’s a long journey but as I was prepared for it all was OK. Darkness fell whilst on the journey.
We arrived safely at Harwich, I got off the ferry and drove to Mum’s house, arriving at 9pm to a very cold bedroom so I slept rather poorly.
The next day was to be a full day in Bury St Edmunds as I had lots of appointments – mainly the Openreach/PlusNet Broadband fitting, but also several deliveries (including our new larder fridge). I was very cold having had the bad night’s sleep so woke early and headed up to Bury, arriving before 8am as the fridge could be delivered from that time. I had a phone call from the delivery company when I was still on the A14 saying they were 10 minutes away – luckily I was only 5 minutes away and so arrived just before them.
The fridge was installed but the power cable was too short for the existing socket (which was up really high) so I knew I would have to get an extension lead for it, so the fridge was just put roughly in position but not turned on. Also I had nothing to put in it yet!
I then had a meeting at the house with the landlord and the letting agent as there was quite a long list of things to do (mostly small items). The Landlord’s handyman came along too so I met him. I had listed the issues and we went through them all and the landlord said they would try to sort them before my next visit.
The PlusNet/Openreach chap was supposed to come at 13:15 or later so I took the opportunity to go to Sainsbury’s and get myself some lunch. Whilst failing with the Nectar Card App at the self-checkouts I got a phone call from the OpenReach man – he would be there in 10 minutes (more than an hour early). I said that was OK, finished my shopping quickly (without nectar points!) and headed back.
The OpenReach chap was very friendly and efficient. He said he would have to climb two telegraph poles, which indeed he did!
The silver truck at the bottom parks so that its backside hangs over the road just before our gate. It’s a bit of an eyesore but there you go. There is always space to get past.
Whilst the OpenReach man was doing his thing I had my lunch. The only furniture in the building was a chair (no tables) so I stood at the kitchen worktop to eat my soup and bread and olives.
The broadband started working and was very good (we are paying for 300mb download speed).
I went back to Mum’s house after this to do more packing. I got pretty much everything done, including washing and drying the bedding as I decided to move into the smaller bedroom for that night as the heating works better in there (the radiator valve in the bedroom Klaus and I had used was stuck and so it was only very feeble heating).
I also decided to pick up a Chinese take away from Ipswich. I found a restaurant with good reviews and placed my order. I then headed off by car to pick it up, not having reckoned with rush hour. I was in gridlock in the town centre, passed the Chinese without seeing it and couldn’t find anywhere to stop. I turned into a side road that was so narrow I didn’t fancy parking the E-Class in the few small available spots so I carried on, eventually finding a car park. I stopped there, walked briskly to the Chinese (3 minutes away), collected my food, came back and saw three parking attendants there, just preparing to give me a ticket. I hadn’t bought a ticket to park there so it was fair enough. I had a chat with the chap and he told me I was the first person all day who hadn’t shouted and sworn at me, which I thought was very sad. He was friendly, said I should appeal the ticket (which I did – but the appeal was rejected). The ticket cost me £25 and the Chinese £17 so that worked out quite a pricy dinner – it was very good though! As the Germans say, “selber Schuld”, as I didn’t buy a ticket. That’s the second parking ticket I’ve got in Ipswich and I’ve hardly spent any time there, the other one was a ticket machine fail (which I didn’t realise about at the time).
The next morning I planned to go to Bury for a bit more work there but first Margo, who was a really good friend of Mum’s, came round and we had a lovely chat. I commented that I had slept badly as the house was so cold and she asked me why I hadn’t kept the heating on overnight. You know what, she was right! I should have done that – as we have a half full oil tank! It just feels not very environmental.
After she left I headed to Bury. There was still no furniture of course so I just did a few odd bits around the house and then walked into the town centre for a sit down lunch.
I went to the café Baileys 2 which has good reviews and they sat me down facing the cake display.
However, I was feeling so generally cold/chilled (due to having spent time in two houses that hadn’t been heated for over a week) that I went for something warm, a very tasty pie.
I had a bit more of a look around generally and then went back to Mum’s house, having picked up some more soup and bread for the way home. I would be heading home early the next morning.
I had to leave Mum’s house at 6:30am to get to Harwich on time but that was fine as I was awake. This time I went for the square window at the bow of the ship in the Stena Lounge.
And to help me warm up after a less cold but still not really cosy night I had their porridge with honey and fruits of the forest which was actually really nice, and a very generous portion!
For lunch I grazed all the free snacks, then for the evening meal I just had some dirty fries.
Here we are approaching the Hoek van Holland. It had been a fairly choppy crossing because of the high winds in the UK but it is still very stable on the Stena ferry.
We arrived and disembarked relatively quickly. I was then on my way back to Kempen, with the last part of the journey outside the speed limit restriction time in NL (maximum 100 km/h before 19:00) so was able to do the last half an hour a bit faster. I think I prefer everyone driving at 100 though, much more relaxing and flowing. It was good to see Klaus again when I got back.
Whilst I was in Bury I had delivered printed leaflets in the letterboxes of the houses on the access road to our bungalow, as there are cars parked on the side of the road that mean it can be quite narrow. I old the neighbours that there would be a removal van coming the next week – a friendly reminder to park leaving plenty of space. When the actual move happened I noticed nothing different with the parking, but before that event I did get this rather lovely message from a neighbour.
So after arriving home late on Friday evening I had Saturday and Sunday in Kempen with Klaus.
We decided at the last minute to go out for a posh meal on the Saturday. We felt like it had been some time since we had done something for ourselves together as a couple and so went to Villa Medici in Krefeld and enjoyed a very tasty evening meal. Klaus was able to enjoy a martini and some wine too as I was OK to drive back.
The furniture removal visit (13-16 January)
After the two full days of the weekend Klaus went off to work on Monday morning and I headed to Hoek van Holland for another ferry journey to the UK, the day ferry again. I arrived at Mum’s house late in the evening again and this time slept with the heating on all night, following Margo’s recommendation. It meant I did sleep better.
The removal men were meant to be coming at 08:00 but they actually turned up half an hour early (fortunately I was showered and dressed already). There were three of them, all really nice and friendly, and they worked very efficiently.
They weren’t taking all Mum’s furniture but I had stuck stickers on the things that were going, plus I went through the whole house with them at the beginning to say what needed to go.
It was very difficult getting the dining room table out. It’s an Ercol table which is at least fifty years old and it’s no longer possible to disassemble it. They had to take the lounge door off its hinges to get the table out but in the end they managed it.
Here is the lounge and dining room after the clearing – the one leather chair from the four piece suite wasn’t going to Bury.
My father loved clocks and had two grandfather clocks (and also previously a grandmother clock). We decided to take both clocks to Bury and one of them would eventually go to the auctioneers, we would keep the darker one.
The guys had packed up the whole house, including some garden furniture, within about three hours. They said they would stop for a sandwich on the way to Bury so that gave me time to get there first and unlock the place.
I had a car full of boxes too but was able to offload those before they came. They were equally efficient putting everything into the house, it was a little easier as the doorways are all wider and there are patio doors to the outside from the dining room so the Ercol table and the lounge three piece suite went in that way. Everything was in place within two hours, I gave the chaps a tip each and then they went on their way. Just before they left I mentioned that I was planning on getting a house clearance company to do the remainder of Mum’s house and they gave me a quote of £400 to do it, and in the next week. That was very good value so after consultation with Anna we agreed to this. Mum’s house would be cleared way sooner than expected (we had an appointment for a survey before quote for 30 January from the British Heart Foundation but that meant it wouldn’t be cleared until February and we couldn’t put it up for sale again until that was completed).
I was able to make my bed and have the first night in our new home in Bury. I didn’t sleep well though – a mixture of the emotional effect of clearing out things from Mum’s house plus the fact the bed is a bit soft for me. Lots of things were running through my head – it would have been good to have Klaus there.
The next morning I was up early as the electrician was due to come to change the lights. There were some very unattractive (but very bright) strip lights in the kitchen, plus some very naff wall sconces in the dining room and bedroom. There were 5 wall sconces in the lounge that Klaus didn’t like but Lara and I both thought they were OK so they would get to stay. The electrician would also remove a strip light from the spare room, add an LED ceiling light to the study and also to the spare room.
Graham from CAMMAC Electrical arrived punctually and was very helpful.
We had bought the lights for him to fit and he very efficiently did the study ceiling lamp and the two kitchen LED ceiling lights.
Where the old lights were taken away there were a few holes and also a lack of paint but I have purchased some filler and some paint so I can sort that out on a later visit.
What wasn’t possible unfortunately was the wall lights in the bedroom as we needed double insulated lights and didn’t have these. The wall lights in the dining room were OK as the electrical wiring was different.
Graham said he would come back when we next visited to fit alternative wall lights (which we would buy, that were double insulated) and also to make a single socket in the garage into a double socket as we had to run both washing machine and freezer from them. He didn’t have the right bits with him for that.
This was all fine, we pencilled him in for our next visit (a week later) and after doing some more unpacking and tidying I drove back to Mum’s as I realised I needed to rescue some things before the house clearance. This was my last real opportunity!
I collected the fine art paintings (I have no idea why I didn’t get the removal people to take them – d’oh!) and of course had to pack them safely in the car. I found a tall ladder which would be very useful, various other bits and bobs – and the car was soon full. Anna and Gwen would come up a few days later to take anything that they wanted, everything else would go to the house clearance.
I popped in to see Maureen and gave her all the different keys for Mum’s house so that they didn’t disappear with the house clearance people.
Then it was back to Bury for me, to await the arrival after 5pm of the Handyman I had contacted that morning. That was because one thing we needed to do was move a wardrobe from the Study to the Spare Room. It was similar to an IKEA Pax but was 2 metres wide and, unlike a Pax, was one unit rather than 2 x 1 metre fixed together. It was too tall and too wide to fit through the door.. It had heavy sliding doors too.,
I wouldn’t be able to move this in any way on my own, and Klaus was also reluctant to try to lift the doors as this would no doubt be bad for his back. I had asked the removal men whether they might be able to move it but they said not without adding an extra man to the team with the extra costs (as it would take a long time) so I decided against that. In the end I put on the Facebook Bury St Edmunds Community Group that I was looking for a handyman who might be able to move the wardrobe, and almost immediately got a message from Colin Rodgers. We chatted and he said he would be happy to do it for me; and could come after 5pm that day when he finished another job.
He said it would be an hourly rate of about £20 per hour which I thought was excellent so asked him to go ahead.
He finished his previous job a bit earlier and arrived on my doorstep with a van and various tools. He had a good look at the wardrobe which, although solidly built, had clearly been moved once or twice before and had a few small areas of damage (which had been noted on the Inventory), but it was still well worth keeping. It would be large for the spare room but would be useful for storage.
Anyway, Colin got to work and was methodical and careful. He slowly disassembled the wardrobe with me hovering around occasionally lending a hand. When he had got the doors, top and sides off we realised that several of its feet were missing and it was standing on a few blocks of wood, one of which had woodworm. He said no way should we reuse the woodwormy block when we moved it and so he suggested he came back the next day with some alternative and better wooden foot replacements. This seemed like a good plan.
So he headed off, with the instructions that I would call him when I was free the next day and he would come round via the DIY centre to get the required wood pieces.
I then enjoyed my evening meal of soup and bread again. I had been so busy the last few days, walking 16000 steps on this day and 18000 the day before (the moving day), and had been on my feet almost the entire day. It was tiring so I had my second night in the bed and slept much better this time.
The next day was the day for Carl the Mercedes Benz’s service. We had booked this several weeks before and I knew I would have to wait about 2 hours for the service. The garage Tim Revetts Prestige was in Moreton Hall which is the other side of the A14 from Bury. It was a 10 minute drive to get there, but about a 45 minute walk back to my bungalow. However, the walk into town was just 20 minutes and as the chaps said they thought I’d only need to wait a couple of hours I decided to stop for Brunch in Bury.
I walked from the car place along a fairly narrow road, heading in via Eastgate. The road goes under the A14. I spotted several roadkill sugar beet (no doubt originally bound for the British Sugar factory), which. makes a change from roadkill onions I used to see all around Great Bromley near Colchester.
I arrived in town near Abbey Gardens and the Cathedral gate.
I headed to a cafe, Wright’s, which looked good. They did a very tasty Bruch, although this English Breakfast was quite pricey at £14, although it did taste good.
Klaus was expecting a delivery of a new Sound Bar he had bought for the bungalow. We didn’t know what time it was coming but of course if I wasn’t in for it then they wouldn’t be able to deliver it for more than a week (we guessed it would be sent back). We got an email saying they would deliver within the hour, so I phoned the garage to see if Carl was ready. They said he would be ready in 15 minutes or so, so I headed off at a brisk walking pace to pick him up. The service had gone well, everything was fine, and so I headed straight back to the bungalow. Five minutes after I got there the delivery man turned up with the Sound Bar, so that timing worked out well,
I phoned Colin the handyman to say I was now available and he appeared soon after with the bits of wood for the feet of the wardrobe. He made quick work of assembling it and then also helped me with fitting some pendant light shades and also checking the cable for the fridge as I had purchased a replacement (which turned out to also be too short, so we had to finish this job on the next visit). Colin was great company and willing to turn his hand to anything, he worked for several hours over the two days and charged me a very, very fair price. I would definitely use him again.
With the wardrobe now in the spare bedroom I was able to unpack some of my clothing and put it in there for the time being. We would have to wait for the IKEA delivery for the main wardrobes in our bedroom, that would not be until the 31st January. But at least I had fewer removal boxes full of clothes lying about.
The rest of the day had no appointments, hurrah, so I just spent my time unpacking, sorting things out, doing some washing, trying out my new heated airer, etc etc. I was pretty exhausted by now – the emotional toll of sorting through all my Mum’s things over the last few weeks, choosing furniture to take and furniture to scrap, packing everything up etc. So I was very happy to have fish and chips delivered and sit at the Ercol dining table in my new home and enjoy my evening meal.
It was really tasty!
I then headed off to Harwich for the night ferry, went straight to bed when I got on the ferry (no cakes in the Lounge) and had surprisingly decent sleep for the ferry.
The next morning I drove back to Kempen, had the whole of that Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Kempen and then it would be back to the UK on Monday – but this time with Klaus and not in a car!
A visit in a van (21 January)
We knew that at some point we needed to transport the velomobiles to the UK and that this would involve a long wheelbase Sprinter or equivalent. We also have a 2.3 metre long worktop which we use as a desk which it would also be good to take and would not fit in the car. So we spent a long time choosing the best van rental option, which ended up with a very cheap rental but we would have to pay an additional 550km charge (which was just under 150€) as it only had 200km as an option and you couldn’t upgrade to a higher km amount with this supplier. But knowing this, it would still work out cheaper. We like a bargain.
So we collected our van from Sixt Mönchengladbach on the Monday lunchtime. Klaus was working at home but we were scheduled to pick up the van at 14:00 which gave us enough time to get it back within 48 hours’ rental, all going well with the ferries. It was a Peugeot Boxer and was quite a good van, although the suspension was definitely a major step down from the Mercedes E-Class.
We drove it home and then had the fun of putting the velomobiles in and fixing them down with ratchet straps. I also realised we needed to put the desk/worktop in so that my velomobile stood on it, as placing it between the two velomobiles ran the risk that it flopped back and forth and damaged them. This was a bit awkward as the desk/worktop had extension leads fixed to it, as well as cable tidies, which all got a bit in the way. But we managed to get everything in there and well enough secured. We packed some other boxes of things around the velomobiles once they were in place.
This all took much longer than we had expected so as soon as the final item was safely in place we needed to head off to Hoek van Holland. Klaus did the driving – he does not like sitting at such an upright angle when driving, he’s normally very recumbent. But off we went.
I wondered if they would check inside the van at Hoek van Holland but they didn’t. We joined the usual queue to check in and then to board and were soon in the Stena Lounge.
This was our evening meal of course. Washed down with proper tea and cake.
The next morning I said I would like to drive from Harwich to Bury, but initially had problems moving the van forward. It turns out there was a handbrake lever on the left hand side which I hadn’t known about. The van wasn’t checked by the UK border people either (although I have the document from the Inland Revenue with me showing that we have registered all our worldly goods to move them to the UK, and the Velomobiles are most definitely on the list).
This was Klaus’s first visit to our new home with furniture in it, so that was nice for him to see how it all looks.
He also helped me sort out the too-short electric cable for the fridge, the extension lead I had bought for it fitted well and once the fridge was put into its slot we were able to reuse a top piece of wood that the previous tenants had used, so that made everything look a lot neater.
We also moved furniture back into the van – my father’s old desk which we had moved from Mum’s house to Bury as the plan was to take this to Germany to replace the desk/worktop we had brought over with us. It’s a fairly battered pine desk but will be fine to use for the remaining month or two that Klaus is in Germany and still working from home, and it will be good to have a desk still in the flat when we leave. We put the desk in the van and Klaus had the usual tussle with the ratchet straps to tighten it, but all was soon well secured.
The electrician arrived to finish off the bits that we couldn’t do last time, including fitting the wall lamps in the bedroom and a double socket in the garage, and again he did a great job. The new wall lights looked really nice, and the invoice for the work was also very fair.
The garage now had velomobiles and one trike in… One trike left to bring over.
It was time for us to go to lunch somewhere in Bury so we walked into town again, past this rather amusing bit of graffiti.
We had lunch at Wright’s as Baileys 2 had no spare seats at the time. We had toasted sandwiches – nice and warming but it isn’t really Klaus’s favoured food. He would have preferred soup but they didn’t have any. We both picked up our free doughnuts from Greggs with our Monzo Perks vouchers so we ate these later in the dining room at home.
We were travelling back the same night and were pretty exhausted from all the carrying stuff about. Klaus got the new Sound Bar working (it’s very good) and chilled out in the lounge.
I find it almost impossible to sit still when there’s stuff to be done, but as we weren’t yet sure where to position the two bookcases we have from my Dad’s Study I couldn’t unload all my books. So just faffed around with washing and drying things again.
We had an evening meal of soup and bread as the ferry leaves too late for our dinner, and then Klaus drove us back to Harwich, where we were once again not searched.
When we arrived in the Netherlands the next morning someone finally decided to look in the van. They asked about the desk – it was a very large van for a fairly small desk after all! But it was no problem, we were allowed through and were home, offloaded the desk and then took the van back by midday.
We may end up having to rent another van if we can’t get everything transferred to the UK by E-Class on our regular visits but at least it wouldn’t have to be a long wheelbase one. The main large item remaining is Klaus’s office chair, which does not come apart. It may just squeeze in the E-Class, although I’m not sure about this, but we also have his trike to bring over and I would quite like to bring our bio-ethanol fireplace to the UK as it’s nice and cosy. We shall see.
So although Klaus has visited our furnished house he had not yet slept the night there, and we had been paying rent for two months already. These things take time!
Klaus’s first night in our English bungalow (30 January to 2nd February)
The month of January contained 4 different visits to the UK for me, and two for Klaus. The last weekend of January would be Klaus’s first chance to sleep in our new home.
He arranged to work from home on the Wednesday and we would set off at 16:00 for Hoek van Holland. We had filled up the car, this time with the mini filing cabinet that goes with our desk, Klaus’s camera gear, my flute, a large suitcase with various odds and ends inside and also lots of tools. We fitted this lot in the boot with the back seats down and the net guard/dog guard in place. When I saw there was more room I added more (my kneeling chair, for example). Finally everything was ready and we headed off to Hoek van Holland.
The journey was fine, we arrived about 15 minutes before check-in started but we are old hands at this so just wait patiently. We were on the boat before too long and, of course, enjoying our Stena Lounge snack dinner.
We went to bed early enough that we both slept OK in the ferry cabin.
The next morning I drove us to Bury St Edmunds. We switched the heating on straight away of course, and then unloaded the car. Klaus would have a visit from a colleague (from the UK) at 11am and I was also expecting Anna my sister around that time as we had to go to meet a new prospective Estate Agent at Mum’s house,
Klaus and I did as much sorting and tidying as we could, having unloaded the car, and I also popped to Sainsbury’s to get some soup and rolls as lunch for us.
Alistair duly arrived at 11am and we had a chat and a coffee before they started work in Klaus’s new Study.
Anna arrived a bit later and had made us all some home-made soup for lunch, which was rather nice. We had to eat it before Klaus had finished his meeting as we had to go to Ipswich for the Estate Agent meet.
It was our first chance to check out the house after the house clearance company had been there. They had done a very good job but had missed one cupboard and they had also left a few odds and ends (cleaning materials etc). Anna and I went through the cupboard and decided what we wanted to keep and threw the rest away. We also had to deal with a lot of cables left over from when they had removed the HiFi my Dad had set up – he had used mains cables as speaker cables and they were all over the place. I found some garden pruners that enabled me to cut the cables in places so that they could be pulled out from behind radiators etc. I tidied everything up whilst Anna worked on more clearing and checking of stuff, and then I swept up all the little cable router plastic thingies that had spread themselves everywhere. We filled the bin up again.
The Estate Agent chappie from Fine & Country came and said that it was up for the right price and that they would do a brochure for it. Their fee is 50% more than the previous agent but hopefully they have a better reach and the right person can find this home. So Anna and I agreed with them then and there that they can represent us.
After the Estate Agent went and we had finished cleaning up we went into Ipswich to get the spare key back from the Estate Agents there. We then headed back to Bury St Edmunds so Anna and I could spent a bit more time together.
Klaus had finished his meeting with Alistair and had also had a meeting with the Visa lawyers via Teams. That was all moving ahead, but they informed him once his application for a Skilled Worker Visa is lodged, he is unable to visit the UK until it is granted. So we would have to fit it in between our visits (should take 5 days) and, if it doesn’t come in time, he won’t be able to come on the visit.
We ordered a Greek take-away for delivery and Anna ate some food she had brought with her, before heading off. We were all tired so Klaus and I went to bed by 9pm, the travelling is tiring and of course our body clock is one hour ahead.
The next day Klaus had to drive to Coventry for a meeting so he went off at 8am. I spent the day building various bits of furniture, taking delivery of the colossal IKEA delivery and trying to find places to put everything, and walking to the local Morrisons Convenience shop for some food (Klaus had the car). I got rather muddy feet, and the Morrisons isn’t that great, but it was just 1.3km there and back so this is very convenient. There is a post office and an EVRI Parcelshop there too. I bought four custard doughnuts as a reward for this effort.
In the afternoon I did more jobs, including building our coat/shoe rack for the hall, the bamboo storage unit for the bathroom and the laundry storage box. My back was complaining by the end of this, due to all the crouching down and shuffling around with bits of flat-pack furniture.
Klaus was back by 4:30pm having had a very good day. He is really positive about the opportunities for work in the UK with his company and how he has a lot of knowledge to offer his new colleagues, having transferred from Head Office, as well as much that he can learn from them. He always seems very positive about it.
We decided to go out for an evening meal and so walked into Bury Centre. There was music playing in the Cathedral and so I stuck my head in the door – it was only a Musical Radiohead Event which would have been right up my street if I had known about it beforehand!
We had our meal at Pommodoro, which was a nice Italian. It felt quite pricey but I think that is a difference between Germany and England when eating out – things cost more in the UK.
Some things don’t cost more though, and that is cars.
We had Saturday free and as Klaus was already booked to be travelling around the next Thursday and Friday that we were in Bury (mid-Feb) it was definitely time for me to get my new car.
I had been looking at Mercedes SLKs on Auto Trader for months. I knew I wanted a blue one but there were very few – everyone seems to have bought black ones. I also didn’t want diesel, I did want heated seats, parking sensors, the airscarf, good MOT history etc etc. With all of these requirements there were only 2 matching SLKs at the moment, both the same price (just under £11,000). One was near Ascot (Heathrow area) and the other one was in Havant (South Coast, 130 miles away).
So we decided to go and visit both of them. To stop off at the Ascot one on the way, then visit the Havant one, and choose between them. This would be six and a half hours’ driving.
I drove us to the Ascot garage first, leaving Bury going west towards Newmarket on the A14, then the A11 past Duxford, then the route through Royston, Baldock, Stevenage and then down the A1M to the M25 and round to Heathrow.
The garage was set in an area with some very posh houses but the garage itself was a bit downmarket. It was drizzly grey weather and but the car looked good. I got in and instantly realised – no heated seats or air scarf. The lack of the heated seats was a deal breaker to me – somehow we had missed this in the description of the car. We drove it and it was fine but I had already decided not to go for it – we just hoped the one in Havant would be better.
We had a chat to the salesman, looked at the MOT history (all good), and also discovered that the car had lived in Tonbridge for some of its life – which of course is where I used to live.
I told the chap I would ring him to let him know either way and off we went, this time Klaus driving to Havant.
We arrived and this garage was much more upmarket. It is called “Performance Car Company” and it had Jaguars, Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes SLs and a random Fiat Panda. It had a lovely blue SLK and he had excellent lighting so the car really popped.
I had been almost unable physically to lift the boot of the SLK in Ascot but this one was much easier. The car also felt a lot better when I sat in it – and it had the heated seats and the air scarf. The salesman came with me for the test drive and he took us on a really good route which had all sorts of different road.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention, the first SLK was a 1.8 litre, this one was a 3.5 litre V6! But interestingly not as thirsty as you might think – combined MPG should be about 41. Note that from Priscilla I got 29 mpg as a lifetime average.
I was very happy with the test drive, the car was great. So it was Klaus’s turn, and whilst they were out I got the insurance information ready so that I could take out the insurance contract and take the car away.
Klaus came back with a huge grin (he likes 6 cylinder cars) and we agreed on a price straight away. I am useless at haggling and I knew I wanted the car for full price, he gave me a little bit off for politeness. We paid the tax (£305), the insurance (fully comp platinum with legal protection and European breakdown at a surprisingly cheap £350), the money for the car…. which was slightly worrying as the chap banked With Barclays and they had an outage, but fortunately my test payment came through and so did the full payment. And after doing all the paperwork formalities we drove off in… Samantha!
Why Samantha? Well, we weren’t sure if this model of SLK is female or male. The original one (that Priscilla was) is clearly female but this one was designed to appeal to men as well. I felt it was still female, Klaus wasn’t sure, the car salesman said he thought female. Anyway, Samantha can be shortened to Sam which is gender neutral so we went with that name.
Samantha can’t have CarPlay in the Mercedes Comand system (which Carl the E Class could) so I had brought along my trusty Mobile Phone Holder which went on the dashboard. We got bluetooth sorted for my Podcasts but on the journey I couldn’t get the volume to work with telephone calls so we need to do a bit more experimenting when not driving an unfamiliar car 3 hours back home.
Klaus followed me and we stopped at a petrol station, where the pumps I was at only had E10 Unleaded or Shell V-Power. I didn’t know if the car could run on E10 so ended up with the V-Power at 20p a litre more than the Sainsbury’s standard unleaded, and I put in 45 litres. So that was a £9 treat for Samantha which is probably going to be a one-off. I was a numpty as I could have just reversed to the previous pumps as they had normal unleaded, but I didn’t realise that at the time. Bah! And Samantha can have E10 without problems anyway. Lesson learned.
We then had a McDonald’s and I told Klaus to head off without me as I had to fiddle around with some stuff on the car before I carried on. He was ahead of me and then Google took me on some really weird route off the A3 through some villages. In the end I gave up, navigated back to a main road and just did the M25 as normal.
Klaus got home 15 minutes before me, his Google having directed him straight up the A3, then round the M25 to the M11 and up there to the A14. My Google took me round the houses towards the A31 and then past Aldershot to the M3 near Farnborough. I then went round the M25 until the A414 at St Albans, and then up the A1(M) to Letchworth and then cross-country to the Newmarket bypass. Phew!
What was good about my journey was it was lots of roundabouts and twisty roads so I could start to get the feel for Samantha’s road handling _ much, much better than Priscilla’s. I have to get used to a non-turbo engine again but there is plenty of pulling power (305 horsepower). The seats are really comfortable, she is relatively quiet inside and although the suspension is hard and sporty it’s not jarring. A great car!
Klaus had started tessellating bikes in the garage by the time I got home as we hoped we could maybe fit Samantha in the garage so I didn’t have a car outside the house for two weeks with no-one living there. We didn’t think it would work out but we had a go and in the end we could indeed fit the car in the garage as long as we didn’t want to open the freezer (which isn’t on yet, so no) due to a trike being in the way. The garden furniture can be put outside in a few months anyway. But we do have to fit one more trike in there!
We were both completely pooped after all the driving so went to bed very early again. We got the house ready for us to leave (emptying bins etc) and were out of the house by 6:30am the next morning to drive to Harwich.
We were doing a day crossing on the Stena Ferry which means snacks the whole time…
However we both started off with an order of porridge as it is lovely and warming.
The journey was fine as always. It’s relaxing to sit in the lounge and watch TV programmes on the iPad or read the internet. And me? I wrote this blog whilst on the ferry with my trusty MacBook…
Murphy
Klaus’s car is named Murphy as things are always going wrong. I have mentioned Murphy the Octavia several times before in this blog, as he has had 4 replacement steering wheels over the time to try to fix the problems. Unsuccessfully. Although we hear tales of other cars having weird software glitches, and in fact the Peugeot Boxer Van did an unnecessary emergency stop on our journey to the UK, Apart from that it seemed fairly reliable, but unexpected emergency stops are not great.
Anyway, we were filling Murphy up at the petrol station when he asked for another software update (this happens occasionally, you just press “OK” and off it goes). So I pressed “OK” and we were presented with a completely new screen.
Do not use the vehicle. But for how long? We were at a petrol pump.
The little progress bar was moving VERY slowly, then we got a new screen…
This all seemed a bit scary. We definitely didn’t want to move in case we bricked the car.
One guy pulled in behind us and Klaus had to go and suggest to him he used another pump as our car was doing a software update. The chap seemed fairly unfazed by this and moved. Modern life is rubbish.
After about 20 minutes we were finally able to use the car as normal. So in future we won’t click OK for a software update unless we are home!
An anniversary
The day I bought Samantha was the first year anniversary of my Mum’s death. It seems amazing that so much time has already passed, but we have also done a lot in the intervening year. Mum’s generosity has enabled us to rent our lovely bungalow in Bury St Edmunds, we have used most of her furniture and many of her other goods such as crockery, cutlery, washing machine, freezer, garden furniture and more. It’s great that these things have continued use in our family. We look forward to hanging the fine art paintings on our walls once the furniture is all in place.. We look forward to sharing times with the family in our house as they sit on Mum’s sofas or eat at her dining table. We all miss her, as do her friends in Witnesham and further afield. She would have loved our place in Bury, and the fact that we were moving there.
I am typing this on the 2nd February and hopefully in two months’ time Klaus will have his visa, he will be starting work in the UK and we will be permanently there and not travelling each week on the Stena ferry, as nice as it is.
I will keep you all posted!
Thanks for any comments, always greatly appreciated.
Auntie Helen