The Rosabella eventually arrived home towards the end of May. She was delivered to our normal fixer in Ludlow and they took the gearbox off with no delay and initial response was that it was unrepairable and we would have to get another one.
However, it seemed that despite their best efforts to track one down they just couldn't find one. There were a couple of false alarms - one was delivered which had the wrong ratios (we weren't sure why the innards couldn't be changed) and another turned up which had originally been built for a left-hand drive vehicle (like the Rosie) but had been welded up with a modification for right-hand drive, and Aris (who runs the garage) was reluctant to start pulling welded bits apart.
Eventually,with help from the Motorhome Fun forum - a really helpful site - T tracked down a supplier in Devon who said he had a suitable box, confirmed by Aris who called him. The cost was going to be £490, with an additional £150 payable depending on the state of the box being exchanged. Excellent!! A way forward at last.
And then disaster. On a trip to Birmingham the clutch on T's Alfa gave up the ghost. It had been misbehaving for a while and after an evening of wedding planning with the family (of which more later), it just stopped working.
The car was relayed back to Aris's place and next morning we had the bad news - £850 worth of repairs to be done. Bite the bullet - in T & K's world we can't do without the cars so it had to be done and The Rosabella would have to wait, and that's where we are right now, in the middle of July, waiting for funds to build up again.
In the meantime.........
Gertie
Gertie is a Citroen-based Romahome owned by T's friend, neighbour and landlady, Jackie.
We had told Jackie before we went to France that amongst our plans for the spring and summer was a performance by the band at Fishguard Folk Festival which would entail us being away for the late May bank holiday. We'd arranged a house with a big drive so that we (the band) could all be together. With the demise of The Rosabella Jackie very kindly offered us the loan of Gertie for the weekend.
It was great - we'd never even seen inside a Romahome before and we liked it a lot. The bed, when made up, is huge, and very comfortable and the rest of the facilities were great for a weekend away, although we didn't do any cooking as meals were provided as part of the deal at the festival.
Rapsquillion went down very well. We were support to the main act on Saturday night and we also ran a very well attended harmony workshop on Sunday as well as singing all afternoon in one of the pubs in the town. We sold out of our new CD and all in all we had a lovely time, enhanced by the fact that we were able to sleep so well in Gertie.
 |
| Our latest album! |
We were also able to use Gertie on a second weekend in Pwllheli where we had a little gig in the sailing club over the weekend of some championship or other. Again, we were very comfy, slept well (enhanced by the mojitos K produced on Saturday evening) and were very grateful for the loan of the Citroen.
The Wedding Of The Year
Since then it has been all systems go, with K becoming more and more excited as the great day approaches. The outfit has been purchased and we've even had a summit conference with T's ex-wife to talk through the details. Needless to say, camper vans may well play a part in proceedings. Watch this space!A few years ago we realised that T's son and K's daughter were really hitting it off and it wasn't long before they were sharing a home in Ludlow. In 2009 he popped the question and at the beginning of 2011 they announced that the wedding would be going ahead on September 24th. People seem fascinated by the fact that they are together, as if they've grown up as brother and sister. We do try to explain that they were grown ups when they met. The funniest thing for us is that we are now going to be related by marriage.
 |
| Tim and Fiona |
Work
After a couple of years of 'will they, won't they', T's employer has finally decided that he can change his working hours to part time. This is great news and added to by the fact that he can also claim his pension straight away on a scheme called 'flexible retirement'.
This means that the lump sum will be coughed up as soon as the rearranged hours start, and the monthly payments will go some way to mitigating the loss of income suffered as a result of going down to three days a week.
It also means that we'll have a bit of time to develop the private business a little - it will all help.
The biggest thing, of course, is that T will now be able to prepare The Rosabella for weekends away without running round like a mad man on Friday nights - providing he wins the argument about which days he's going to be working!!
