Sunday 20 July 2008

Adjusting to Present Conditions

Friday I went into Grantham again and picked up the tiles I had ordered for the galley. I am going across to Stourbridge on Monday to deliver the tiles, finalise the colour of the oak floor, decide on the base for the woodburner and generally drool over Caxton. I will of course go armed with a camera in order to capture all that wonderful progress!
Below, the glass border tiles for the galley. The galley will have highly glazed white 4 inch tiles with a mosaic glass border AND, a chrome ceramic border.

In the mean time I have been out with himself to get some bits for the caravan. The caravan, along with the house and the car, were all to be sold, freeing us to go and live on Caxton. However the present economic climate means that we would have to give these assets away - I kid you not - so, we have decided that the house can be mothballed and we will keep both car and caravan until such time as things recover. The cost of storing the small amount of our household goods that we are planning to keep is roughly equivalent to the cost of mothballing and insuring the whole lot. The advantage of keeping the caravan and car is that we also get to use them! So we are off to Norfolk in August and then Wales in September. Next year we might moor Caxton up and take off to France for a few weeks with the dogs. That will be our first time abroad with the dogs. So some advice please; how easy is it travelling with dogs on the Continent?

4 comments:

Dogsontour by Greygal said...

Hi Lesley

Re: taking dogs abroad, I found the most tedious bit the actually Pet Passport getting. Once you're all official, the actual transport/travelling bit's a doddle. The only pain is getting your dogs ticked/wormed within 48 hours of your return to the UK. I believe there is an English-owned campsite not too far from the ferries that can arrange the treatment with their local vet - google it and you'll turn up something I'm sure. A couple of things to be aware of - a lot of French dogs just wander round, no owner, no lead in sight. That's okay if F&F are good boys but a bit of a pain if the French dogs continue to make a nuisance of themselves. Also, most important, there are tick and parasite-borne diseases in France, particularly towards the Med, that can be potentially lethal - leishmania and babeosis. Consult your vet re: prophylactics and read up on them so you know what to look out for if the worst happens. But don't let this spoil what could be a fantastic trip!

Nb Yarwood said...

Thanks Greygal
The boys are both Pet Passported so that bit is behind us. Fletcher can be a bit unreliable but Joe is less than keen to have him gelded - its a man thing isn't it? I will get on and do the research to safeguard the boys. TA

Anonymous said...

We took my mum's pekingese abroad last year and were amazed at how easy it was. We found this website http://www.caravanning4u.co.uk/vetseurope.html which has a useful list of vets that know about this stuff. We used a vet in Bruges who was totally lovely on all fronts - knowledgable about the scheme, excellent bedside manner, polished english and utterly handsome - couldn't be better!
I must emphasise that I only noticed he was handsome on behalf of my sister-in-law who's also a vet and looking for a new man!
Sue, indigo Dream

Nb Yarwood said...

Sue, Now let me get this straight; bedside manner? Who's bed pray?

No, only jesting. Thanks for the Web site that will be very useful.