Ready for The Willows, Cymru

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Well, it's been an early start and a late finish, but the 2 Hobbit for Wales are at last completed.  A bit of a flap when we discovered at 3 in the afternoon that the mattress covers had not been made yet, but the factory pulled out all the stops and the boss and his wife manned the machines to get them to us just in time.

Big Davie dropped in for a visit, got his overalls on...and blessed us with his best qualities... He made the coffees and swept the shop.  Good man!

All ready to go!!

Home cinema experience

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Not content with coming up for hobbit designs, we have now developed a true home cinema experience. Ok...it's still in the 'beta version' but as a Blue Peter build, this works not too badly.
Any beverage box or crisp box will suffice for the construction materials, and in-ear headphones are a must.
Get an adult to cut out the Iphone sized hole in the front of the box for you....

Been busy little bees in the shop, and just fitting the kitchen worktops for the builds going to The Willows on Monday, plus doing a new ring section for a Wee Hobbit.

My weeks doggy sitting has been going well so far, but my lodger refuses to eat the food that came with him, so I'm reduced to cooking sausages for him every night as that's all he seem to eat.  Mind you, I'm not really sure if he's truly effective as a burglar deterrent...

What think you???

Footie day

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A nice wee lie in for a change today, fluffy rolls for breakfast and Celtic v Rangers game due to start in an hour, so it will be either tears and beers, or grins and gins....
Cat is going crazy as he can't understand that his cat-flap (aka, the bathroom window), is now a no go zone due to our friendly local burglars.
I'm not looking forward to tomorrow morning with a big wood delivery due, so I may take a leaf out of Garys book and skulk just around the corners until I see the truck has been offloaded.
I just realised that my laptop case has also been taken with my press clippings from when I was gigging in Spain, so if anyone is offered embarrassing newspaper photos on the black market of a guy dressed as either a Bay City Roller, Hank Williams or Eddie Cochran...please give the guy money and then burn them...

Lost and NOT found

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What a rotten week it's been.

On Tuesday I awoke to the bathroom window wide open...well missing to be exact.

Of course, upon inspection, that wasn't the only thing gone. Add to this, my wallet, laptop, phone chargers, bank cards etc etc.

So, the start to that day was awaiting the police to come and get the details, and inform me that cars across the road has also been broken in to, plus sheds in the street.  It makes me wonder why I bother doing 12 hour days at work to let others take what little has been earned.   (rant over).

On the building side, 2 Hobbits will be ready for delivery to the Willows on the 28th, and the wood for the Wild West Wagons is arriving on Monday, so we'll be making a start on those.

Meanwhile, my weekend will consist of having to re-design the website as all the upload data was stored on the missing laptop.  Yes...I did make back-ups, but a few months ago, so still lots to do.

Also, trying to remember a multitude of passwords is a nightmare.

My back hurts

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I started bright and early today as the wood delivery truck arrived at the crack of dawn.  No sign of Gary??  Hmm..
Funny he should appear as the last of 4 ton of wood entered the workshop.  Methinks he was parked around the corner hiding.
Had a cracking day and got the frame and walls up for the Willows Hobbits, so tomorrow we will finish the interior channel lining and get the electrics in.
We found a new way to trim the wood on the front and rear walls, thus saving 5 hours on construction, which has to be good.

It was a beautiful spring day outside, not that we saw too much of it, and not long now until I can get some evening walking done.  Hopefully, I can get some miles in when we visit Miles and Anna at the Abersoch site.

Does anyone have a good home for 2 vagrants??

Home from SECC

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At last, back into the workshop.  Hurrah
These exhibition things really wear you out, ....and I'm already pretty worn anyway.

Still, needs must be, and we had a very successful show.

Cracking on with the builds for The Willows in Abersoch, and are actually ahead of schedule.

It was nice to see Kerry and Dave (Woody), from Pinewood Holiday Park make it up from Scarborough and we are delighted that they have gone ahead and ordered Wild West Wagons for their excellent Western themed park.     http://www.pinewood-holiday-park.co.uk/

We even had a chat about turning a Microlodge into a steam train.  Now that would be an exciting build to do.

All our existing customers turned up at the stand at one point or another during the event, so it was nice to catch up with everyone again.

We also had a very popular raffle on the go, with Robbie from Loch Ness offering a 2 day free stay at his site for the winners.

We are now at the 'juggling stage' to try and fit in build schedules, and Gary still has far too many phone calls to make to customer enquiries received at the show.

Long paddle home

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I'm not sure if today was a success or not, as it started off in a miserable manner with a car breaking down at junction 15 on the road into Glasgow, which meant sore clutch knee for 3/4 of an hour to get into the SECC.

If that wasn't bad enough, we were all gasping for coffee, and I was the chosen one this morning. Found the kettle ok, but no water in it. Luckily, I espied a bottle of water nearby, filled the kettle, and made the coffee.

Tip of the day.....when using bottled water...read the label.

I'm not sure if you've drunk coffee made from Volvic water (flavoured with Lime and Lemon), but I can vouch that it's terrible.

Then we all had a tiff a few hours later.  This was due to an enquiry about getting Hobbits installed in the French mountains.  Gary thought he should go out to do a site survey as it was him talking to the customer.  I of course pointed out that as I have vastly greater experience of mountain terrain, I should go.
Then Davie pitches in using his near perfect French as his excuse for being the European Microlodge Rep.

Ah, never mind.  After another coffee using pure SECC tap water, we all kissed and made up.

The journey home made us realise we should have went to hall 2 and borrowed a boat. Terrible floods on the road, lots of detours and tired eyes.  Early to bed I reckon.

Picture taken from the blog of John and Jenny Wilson

http://bestfrenchcampsites.blogspot.com

SECC 1st Day

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Oh, what fun.  Blizzard conditions as we set off from Fife at the time of the morning as most decent folks are just getting home from the pub.
Got to the SECC in time but missed David Coulthard...he must has been going so fast past us we missed him..

I must admit, in normal circumstances, I would rather be on a long-haul flight to Australia with children kicking the back of my chair for 22 hours than do the 'show stuff', but today was a pleasant surprise and was actually quite enjoyable.

Breakfast consisted of a pack of jelly babies thanks to Gary.  I really need to house-train him a tad more.

We had a nice bit of interest from Fort William area, which is good as this means my hillwalking regions may expand.

Once again, all the staff at the SECC have been brilliant, way beyond the call of duty, even helping me into the skips to search for our 'lost' clipboard with all the customers info attached to it. As luck would have it, the missing item was found and is now superglued to Gary tighter than an ASBO bracelet.

Ah well, early to bed and hope the trees are still vertical rather than horizontal tomorrow.