The adventure begins.......

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Here we go again! Since my last entry I have had still more hassle as tho' the van arrived ok I have found it much harder to handle than I expected.Time to departure date got steadily nearer and I waited and waited and waited for the insurance covernote to arrive. By 3/5 it hadn't.I then rang Dolmen(dublin) and they said it had been sent but (at my suggesion )they would send an e-mail copy. Great I thought now I can complete my errands('messages') in Ballymena and pick up the tax disc. When am I going to learn!! I continued to mooch around the farm,with occasional stops to relax in the sun(20C)and herding/separating heiffers (more anon) in between checks of the computer screen! At 2.30 I had had enough and tried to contact Dolmen again - luck running true to form I was put on hold as all advisors were busy (-now 7 days since applying for insurance).I e-mailed the company stating that I still had had no communication and that I had to leave the house at 3.30 in order to tax the van before the offices shut at 4pm for the holidays. .At 4pm I rang them,gave-off to them about the service and received an appology for the delay.She said she would mail it now and having checked it had arrived this time,I rang off.thoroughly ------ off at a wasted day,with no jobs completed and no tax disc either!! To go or not to go then became the issue and I decided that with my 'tax applied for 'sticker from Camper Ireland I would go and hope that the disc would eventually materialise in Shefield.We had decided to get in a Chinese/pizza carry-out according to taste and this was duly ordered with a 20 min wait. About 15 mins later I set off to the car to pick up the grub only to see the 2 heiffers ,that caused me much trouble earlier in the day , cruising at great speed thru the silage field so the 14 month old baby could get back to her lactating mum (who had let her suckle milk destined for her as yet unborn calf!! )So much for my ideas of an orderly meal and a steady send off.I had then to ring Lee and explain that I was going to be later than anticipated so that if the kids needed to go to bed to let them.Then by the time myself and Karl and Ilona returned with the food they were re-housed in the cattle house and we ate in peace. Pete and Gillian offered to try and complete the tax process
on Fri(before the holiday break) and after a tearful goodbye I headed for Belfast and Lee's.Their the 2 K's were still up and we had a nice ,if lively visit .Iwas afraid that my lack of luck might have rubbed off on Lee as his contractor for garden redesign, had stayed half a day ordered a skip and then thought fit to explain they were going on holiday and would cont on Weds!!-why order a skip?!
Eventually I climbed back aboard the 'greenhouse' otherwise called 'gwannyhouse' by Kaitlyn. Heading for the docks in the fading light I then relised I did not know how to switch the lights on. I found out whilst waiting for the boat - useful as disembarking at 00:30 hrs it was pretty essentiall!! Against all the odds I had made it out of N. Ireland and the real adventure began /begins - more soon, Supergran.

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