Day 653 - Road Trip

Day 653...

Today was our first time using our new electric car for a long journey as we headed south to see Molly and Dan in Bournemouth.

This meant a relatively early start to the day as we got ourselves organised and the car packed. We had made sure that the car had a full charge and we had already set a route using the Zap Map app with a few different options for recharging. In theory the full charge should be sufficient to make the journey in one go but we had already noticed that the number of miles available dropped much quicker compared to the number of miles actually travelled. We also knew from watching some YouTube videos that most cars fall significantly short of the predicted miles.

With that in mind we set off just before 11am for what would be a 3 hour 15 minute non-stop journey. Let's just say our journey took a tad longer than that!

Our first stop was about 80 miles into the journey and when we arrived at the services all the charging points were taken! Thankfully a spot opened up quite quickly but then we discovered that one of the units would only let one car charge at a time rather than the two that it was designed for. But there was a small charger available which we could use as we had our own charging cable with us (the main charging stations had their own cables as these were fast/rapid chargers). But this smaller charger meant a much, much slower charging rate but we figured anything was better than nothing.

Ethan and I went in search of coffee and by the time we got back to the car one of the fast chargers had become free and so we could swap over. This meant that what we had hoped would be a 30 minute stop turned into about an hour!

Back on the road and we started to think about whether we would need another stop for charging and where would be best to stop. We had in mind a services that was around 60 miles from our destination. But when we arrived we were confronted with just two charging stations that were both occupied and had two cars waiting...mmm...we had a quick look on Zap Map and found another option just a few miles down the road.

This turned out to be a great choice; smaller services so not as busy; four units set to the side of a petrol station forecourt; two out of the four units were available; much faster chargers and once connected we could leave the car for a toilet break and to grab a coffee. About 30 minutes later and we were at 90% charge and had more than enough capacity to get us to our destination.

The overall journey took us 5 and a half hours!! A lot longer than it would have took us ordinarily; in our petrol car days we would have had one stop for a coffee so I think this journey took about an hour and a half longer! But what we recognised was that the urgency of a normal journey wasn't there, the whole journey felt much calmer and we had set off with the mind set that this would be a different way of travelling. 

The ease and quiet of the car, coupled with being very conscious of the effect of how we drove affected the charge available,  meant a completely different approach to driving. We knew it was going to take some time so we didn't rush and consequently the whole drive felt much more relaxed and much less stressful.

This is a very different way to drive and I think will take some getting used to and travelling long distances will take planning especially if a journey is time critical. But for us long journey's are not the norm and going forward we will have to accept that more planning will be needed. We have even said that on occasion it may be more beneficial to hire a petrol car, but for now planning will be key.

Although, we have been pleasantly surprised at how easy charging on the go has been. And we have also had some great conversations with other electric car owners, all of whom seemed to be rather new to electric cars and were happy to share their experiences!

Anyway back to the point of today, getting to Bournemouth to see Molly and Dan. Luckily the hotel we have chosen has electric car charging units; they are slow charges but are free! So we parked up and plugged in and left the car to charge away!

Once checked into the hotel it was time to recharge phones before taking the 10 minute walk into the town centre in search of food. Our choice today was Five Guys, a great fast food option for those of us on low carb diet as burgers can be ordered with your own choice of toppings and without the bun!

We then met Molly and Dan at the outdoor ice skate rink that has been set up for the festive season. I am not a skater and was quite happy to watch everyone else on the ice. Dan is a very accomplished skater and Molly is now very skilled and they both make it look so easy. Simon has always loved skating but after taking me many years ago when we first started dating he realised very quickly that me and skating just did not go together! He has therefore not skated as much as he would have liked but he has never lost the skill and looks very much at home on the ice. Ethan was happy to have a go but as it was about 10 years since he last ventured onto the ice he needed a good amount of help! But all credit to him he persevered and was getting better the more circuits he did. The ice was very wet tonight as the weather has been unseasonably warm so I think everyone came away with wet feet but thankfully no-one fell over...there were plenty others who did and who came away very wet!

We then had a wander through Bournemouth's Christmas Tree Wonderland; some lovely lights in a gorgeous setting. It was then time to grab a hot drink before heading back to the hotel.

Phew and that was our day, see you tomorrow for more shenanigans!

xx

Day 619

Day 619...

Well it is rather late in the day and I've still got stuff to do so this may be a quick post.

The morning started with breakfast and snow...yes we had snow this morning and for a while it came down quite heavy leaving everywhere looking very festive. 

As Molly and Dan had arrived home yesterday Simon had decided to cook up a treat and he'd made a batch of waffle mix so that this morning we could have Mickey waffles for breakfast.

Mickey waffle maker

Mickey waffles!!!

The first job of the day was to help Molly and Dan load up Dan's car with some of Molly's stuff that we hadn't been able to take with us when she moved out a few weeks ago. Thankfully the snow had stopped but everywhere was very slushy and very cold.

We then decided to carry on working outside as we were already cold and put up our Christmas lights. I have had to come up with a slightly different way of doing things this year as our new windows will not let me feed cables through as I've done before so I am having to use just the two outdoor sockets that we have. But I've been able to get the majority of lights plugged in and so my back garden is looking pretty festive.

Although I did have a slight mishap when I accidentally cut through a cable (thankfully not plugged in)...oops! This meant I was one set of lights short so I then had the brainwave to re-purpose the lights that are normally hung along the front of the house. I'm not able to put any along the front of the house this year as we don't have any outdoor sockets that side of the house.

The finished results;

Then this afternoon we dropped Molly off at her old kickboxing academy as she was helping out with their black belt grading as we then collected our grocery shopping before heading home to carry on with more Christmas decorating.

Back home and we had a few bits to finish off outside before me and Dan spent a couple of hours assembling my three trees; one in the dining area, one in the hall and my main one in the living room. We have all the decorations out and now have the task of deciding where they should go and decorating the trees...think this maybe a job for tomorrow!

And with a much deserved Indian take-away that was our Saturday.

See you tomorrow.
xx

Day 614

Day 614...

Another Monday and another day when lots of things got done.

But as Ethan is on holiday from work this week and both Simon and I don't work Mondays we actually had a very slow and steady start to the day for a change.

After breakfast my focus was on tidying around the dining area of our kitchen as I needed to create space for one of my Christmas trees that will be going up this coming weekend. At the moment I have a very large wicker basket living in the space where the Christmas tree goes and so this needed to find a new home. Inside the basket is our collection of photo albums that I am very slowly going through and creating digital copies of. So the basket was emptied, cleaned and relocated upstairs to Molly's old room and all the albums were dusted and also moved upstairs. I also had a lot of loose photos that needed a new home so I took the chance to go through them and throw out a lot of packaging and old frames that were no longer needed. This in turn meant that I could store them all in a large Disney store bag which means that they are neat and tidy and were easy to move upstairs as well. With the basket and photos out of the way I could then have a good clean around.

That 'quick' job took a little longer than I'd anticipated so as the middle of the day rolled around we decided to nip out for a walk in the beautiful, but chilly, November sunshine. A walk that took us 3.2 miles in 59 minutes.

After a spot of lunch it was time for Simon to head off for his opticians appointment; just a check-up which proved to be successful with no change to his prescription. While Ethan and I ventured outside into the chilly afternoon in the search of Christmas lights...otherwise known as entering the shed!

Last year we had stored all our Christmas decorations away in our garden shed rather than in the loft space in our garage which meant getting to them this year was a lot easier. But we did have to empty a lot of the contents of the shed in order to get to everything! The aim of this afternoon was to see exactly what outdoor decorations we had, check to see if they still worked, bring inside the Christmas trees ready for next weekend and then work out which lights we could use and how.

Now in previous years all of my various Christmas lights have had cables fed through windows and doors to be plugged into sockets indoors but because we now have new windows and doors that are sealed units this is no longer possible. So I needed a plan to get as many lights working as I possibly could. 

We have two outdoor electric sockets which means that I can plug in two extension leads, these leads will then sit inside weather proof boxes to which all the lights will then plug into. This is a system that I've used in the past for just the three blow mould decorations that I have which have relatively short power leads and need to be run off an extension. But this year I will need to run two extension leads, each with four sockets, so that I can power the majority of my lights. 

This meant I needed to order an additional weather proof box and an extra extension lead, but first I needed to figure out what size box I would need. This meant measuring all the various plugs as they are all peculiar shapes and sizes to ensure that the box I ordered would be big enough for some of the more unusual shaped plugs! I also had a couple of 'taller' plugs which I had resigned to being too big for any box I could find until Simon reminded me that the extension lead and plug could lay on their side and therefore fit the box - doh!

But I will still have to scale back a little this year as I only have outdoor sockets in the patio area, which is where the majority of the lights will be, but I won't be able to have any along the front of the house as there are no outdoor sockets there. Although I do have a call to put into my electrician so who knows!! I have also thrown away one set of string lights as the transformer was cracked and unfortunately the function control switch was so close to the start of the lighting that it wouldn't have reached the weatherproof box and wouldn't have been safe. This does of course mean that once I have extra outdoor sockets installed (maybe this year but definitely by next Christmas) I will be able to treat myself to some new lights!

Back inside for a well deserved coffee and the next job was the ironing! Whoop!

But by the end of the day I had achieved all that I had wanted to; another productive day. Although writing this blog this evening was interrupted with a little candle emergency...well the candle wasn't so little...and emergency might be over stating it...although the description by the boys in the house was 'the candle has exploded'!!!

Maybe not quite an explosion but a crack had somehow appeared and had caused all the liquefied wax to ooze out...not only onto it's stand but onto the unit it was stood on and then onto the floor. In fact it had splattered onto the floor! The large sections that had begun to solidify were easy enough to pick up but it was the sections that had harden a bit more that were a little trickier to budge. But with a little elbow grease, a pallet knife and some isopropyl alcohol it was all cleaned up and thrown away! Such a shame as it was a cranberry scented one and made everywhere smell very Christmassy!

And with that excitement out of the way I need a cup of tea!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Christmas Lights Away

Day 291...

Well another quiet day and the last day of my Christmas break.

After updating my online grocery order the main focus of the day was to take down our outdoor Christmas decorations and lights. So we had candy cane lights, Christmas tree shaped lights, door wreath, small trees, baubles in trees, a swag, multiple strings of lights and three blow molds all to disconnect and store for the next 11 months.

I did decide to leave some of the string lights up in our back garden as these are just plain lights that go down each side of the garden and into a couple of bushes. I think these will brighten up in the garden but by leaving them on static rather than twinkly mode they won't look like Christmas lights.

Back in the warmth it was time for a little Disney research prior to recording this weeks show with my co-host Michelle for the Disney Dream Girls podcast. We chatted about some news and history as well as looking forward into 2021 and what maybe coming new to Walt Disney World. Hopefully the Disney parks will be able to carry on with their plans for new attractions and begin to open up more as we move forward and, fingers crossed, we begin to get a control of this virus situation.

Not long after recording it was time for this weeks Disney Quiz via Zoom. I was tasked with writing the questions this week and they were supposed to be all about the new live action version of Mulan, however as I haven't yet seen the film I had to come up with something different. I'd hoped to get the movie watched at some point last week but the time seemed to have escaped me. But having played so many board games the last few days I decided to use some of the questions from the Disney Trivia game as this weeks questions which worked really well. But next week it will be questions on Mulan so I really need to find the time to watch the movie.

And that is where my Sunday draws to a close, as well as my break from work. We are back to work tomorrow and while there are calls for schools to close and further, tougher lockdowns, we will be back until the powers that be tell us otherwise.

Take care out there.
xx

Simple Saturday

Day 262...

Well after a pretty rubbish nights sleep I decided to get up earlier than a normal Saturday to see what the day would bring.

As it was it was a pretty standard sort of day. I had a couple of Ebay sales finalise this morning and so was able to sort the postage out for them, along with some Christmas gifts ready for posting.

Over the day I had a couple of deliveries arrive and between those and some online shopping this afternoon I think I am almost there with all our present shopping for Christmas...although I am sure I will probably add a few more bits over the course of the next few days as I think of things!!

Molly was back at her guitar lesson this week as they have been allowed to re-open...even though we are in Tier 3...really can't make head nor tail of how the 'rules' work or have been developed. So while Molly played guitar we went off in search of a coffee and headed to the nearest drive thru'. Must have taken a good 20 minutes to get our coffee (and a cheeky mince pie each) as there were easily 10 cars in front of us. The retail park where we were was as busy as any other 'normal' Saturday and the McDonalds drive thru' was even busier than the one we were in.

The afternoon was spent doing the aforementioned online shopping, my last two items on Ebay sold, Simon did some more sanding and priming for his R2D2 build (working on the legs!) and I decided that the plants in my garden needed some Christmas love so they were adorned with red baubles.

And talking of Christmas outdoors here are a few photos of my outside lights...

Even have a projector going in the background

Just love these blow mold figures

I love my outside lights, and those blow molds are my favourite. I just love the retro vibe...although as I've had a couple of them for over 20 years (or more) they probably are actually classed as retro! Such a shame they are so hard to come by, especially here in the UK. I always have a look each year to see if I can get anymore and unfortunately the majority are only available in the US and come with extortionate shipping rates, never mind the import duty I'm likely to get hit with!

The photos don't really do the lights justice as I have lights going through the bushes and trees and over my shed and you might just be able to spot the tiki statue wrapped in tinsel. I think I may like Christmas a little bit!

Take care out there.

xx