Blogs from Cheshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 20

Monday 28 April - After a massive English breakfast (which following closely on the heels of last nights enormous dinner, was not strictly needed), we headed off along Torside reservoir, crossed the dam and then along a tree-lined path up the far side of the reservoir as the rain steadily fell. Shortly we turned left and climbed through the rain back into the hills up an impressive valley. Eventually we reached the Laddow rocks, where we clambered along the top of the rocky cliff edge, hoping the wind and rain would abate! The views behind to the South gave us grey glimpses of yesterday's accomplishments...the desolate Bleakflow and even further behind that Kinder Scout...and the view to the north was towards Black Hill, which at this point was apparently innocent looking, even in the rain. We ... read more

Upholstering the Walls At this point I had the choice of paying about £600 to get a T4 Conversions place to upholster the van for me, or pay around £100 for the carpet & glue and do it myself. No brainer. I started with an easy bit, the side door panel. To make sure the upholstered panel still fit snugly into the van, I took about 2mil off the edges of each panel before applying the carpet. The key was to cut the carpet with about 2 inches of overlap (to fold over), spray both the carpet and the ply, and stretch the carpet flat as you glue it. (Do you like the way I casually flip from metric to imperial like its the same thing?). I realised after the first panel that you could spray ... read more

Best buy so far I managed to catch up with an old mate last month - Dave Lowe. Top bloke and he know's his VW's as he's been restoring them for years. Dave's converted a couple of T4's (including a classic yellow AA van). Fittted his own pop-top roof along with all the bits inside - rock-n-roll bed, stove, sink, fridge, additional lighting, rear speakers, units, table etc etc - so a handy man to catch up with. The swivel seat is a very simple design, but there's a number of versions and depending upon where you source them, can go for nearly £200. The one I opted for was £75 on ebay, and came with it's own base (£87 inc delivery). This means I'll be able to sell my original non-swivel base, which seem to ... read more

One of the coolest women I have ever known is called Jane Barnard. The mother of my friend Joe, she is one of the woman I aspire to be as I grow older. She raised four sons, one of whom was killed in a tragic accident. She has lived all over the world and she worked at Joe’s company until she was well into her 80’s. One night, years ago, I was in Dallas visiting Joe (he and I used to work together). After a day at the office, we all went out for drinks. I was debating what to order and Jane looked at me askance. In her beautiful, genteel southern accent, she announced that if I was not yet drinking martinis, she was going to introduce me to them. So - my first martini ... read more

Monday 31 March 2008 Our little Ka (photo) was quite comfortable and easy to drive. It made it easier on Michael that Britain drives on the left hand side of the road. We also received some helpful advice about safe driving from the road atlas that we bought from the service station (photo). With a car, maps, sunshine, Cadbury Cream Eggs to fuel the driver, and music we set off on our big road trip (photo). The road signs still puzzled us though (photo). Our first stop was Chester in Cheshire on the English-Welsh border. The town was very attractive as most of the town centre is restored historic buildings (photos). Many of the old shops and residences were built stacked on top of one another in an odd fashion that has caused the central district ... read more