The Rosabella
The juddering from the gearbox, which K had tried to convince us was due to 'bedding in' became worse and, additionally, the steering seemed to have a big issue - it felt as if the wheels had minds of their own and would decide to plot their own course down the road at entirely random moments. T had a quick look and discovered a lot of play in the drive shaft, which may explain the juddering, and possibly the weird tracking of the wheels. Reverse was also still hugely difficult to engage and the column shift was very sloppy with a lot of free play.
Back she went to the mechanic who had fitted the gearbox. A week later she was ready for collection again with a bill for a further £100-odd pounds for the replacement of circlips on the shaft and shims on the steering rack. The gear lever had also been reset and when T drove away The Rosie felt like a new vehicle - a pleasure to drive. Alleluia!! And it was a good job too because.........
The House Move
In early February T's landlady dropped the bombshell that she wanted to move back in to the cottage at Bentlawnt. It came completely out of the blue and after ten years T was pretty dischuffed (not wanting to share his home with the landlady!). Of course, renting a property privately means that there's always the risk of this happening. The fact that we'd also decided to get married (T and K, not T and the landlady!) also went in to the pot - we'd decided that there was no urgent need to change our living arrangements and that we would move in together when the right place presented itself - this new situation merely moved things on a little. Add to that K's house and altogether it wasn't a complete disaster. There were a couple of irritants about the way things were done but apart from that, well, we could cope.
We decided to use The Rosabella as a removal van and started shifting stuff the 35 miles south to her place. Have you ever seen the amount of junk a confirmed bachelor can accumulate over twenty years? And can you imagine trying to fit it all in to a house designed for one person who also has twenty years of singleton rubbish already filling every space? The Old School House now looks like a Dali-esque take on the Mad Hatter's tea party.
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| The Old School Room (K's house) |
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| The view from T's terrace, Bentlawnt |
We have decided to let K's house and find somewhere to rent for ourselves. We currently have a possible tenant, and we've seen a place we have both fallen in love with - back at Bentlawnt! So we're now faced with the prospect, if everything works out, of dragging all our stuff back to about half a mile from where T's stuff has just come!
Work
T is having a grand time in semi-retirement, but K's job as a manager at the Royal National College for the Blind at Hereford wasn't really giving her what she needed. She applied for a job leading a project at Shrewsbury College, fluffed the interview and was promptly offered the post.
Again, Sod's Law. We'd often thought it would be convenient for her to work in Shrewsbury because of the amount of time she spent at T's cottage, 11 miles from the town. When she's finally landed something suitable we've had to move to her place at the other end of the county!
And of course there's the small matter of.........
The Wedding
With all of the other stuff going on, not to mention a celebration of a big birthday for K, an even bigger one for T, and a world tour of South Wales for the band, we've managed to make a little progress with plans for the society occasion of the year. The date has been set (July 19th), the banns read (or whatever they do at a Register Office), the reception booked (a garden party followed by a barbecue at The Old Mill, Clun - cue torrential rain throughout mid-July) and the cake designed. That's it then - sorted!
We've decided that we're definitely gong away for Easter in The Rosabella (exactly a year since our last big trip and the incident of the gearbox), so hopefully the next entry in this blog will be more travel and less hassle. Fingers crossed!
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