With the year drawing to a close I thought that I should review the year with some photographs - so here goes.

The year started with the sad news of the death of Toby the rabbit. He died early in January and this meant the arrival of George and Jeremy who are still with us today in the garden in the their new home.

Next came my trip to France at the end of March. Normandy is such a beautiful place to visit and I would recommend that you go if you get the chance. The buildings and history are great, not to mention the food and drink.

At Easter we went to Warwick and paid a visit to Warwick Castle. It was a great day out in the Castle with lots to do. The highlight had to be Helen holding an Eagle called Batty. He was great!

We went to Knowsley Safari park in May and the animals they have are great. I just love going to see animal attractions such as the zoo or safari parks. The otters were just so tame I couldn’t believe it.

I sold my car later in the year but not before I could take some excellent photos of it when I had given it a good wash. I headed to the countryside to provide a good backdrop.

The summer saw us going to a wedding and also me constructing a patio round at friends while my wife went on holiday.

George and Jeremy were enjoying the summer weather in the garden. Jeremy in the shade of the plant trough and George basking in the sun.

We even had the press round when we started selling our house ready for the move to where we are now. I still haven’t seen the magazine they said it would be in!

We got more budgies later in the year with Goldie and Carlos joining Harry and Christina. The birds will soon be in their new home.

Finally the year ended with the house move and the new home for the animals.

Roll on 2008!

Having spent a large majority of the last two days stuck in traffic jams on British roads, mainly on the M6, I thought that it was about time that we took a look at the other options that are available to us when travelling, rather than using the car and what strategies can be employed to reduce the congestion.

I have done many journeys this year, travelling here and there to different places, including Warwick, Bracknell and Devon.  On each of these occasions I have managed to find myself stuck in a traffic jam.  I don’t mean a 10 minute wait while you crawl along at 30 mph instead of 70mph, I mean sat on the motorway moving slowly or not at all for a period of hours not minutes.  I am probably writing this post now because of the horrendous journey down to Devon that I suffered on Thursday afternoon.

The cause of most of these delays is simply due to accidents taking place which then shuts the motorway or reduces the number of lanes that are open.  This then causes traffic congestion on the roads which delays people.  I  think that there are probably accidents taking place more often because of the sheer volume of traffic on the roads.  This in itself means that the traffic slows to a stand still at time even though there may not be an accident.  In fact the Science Blog suggests that if there are more than 15 vehicles per kilometre then events such as a lorry pulling out and slowing traffic can have a knock on effect of causing traffic to become a stand still.  Even someone breaking heavily because they are slow to react to a situation on the road can cause a traffic jam several miles back due to the knock on effect of people braking.

What is needed is new radical thinking about how to ease these pressures on our roads.  The first thing to think about is people taking other forms of transport instead of using their cars and filling up the motorways.  Great idea, but in practice this is harder than you think.  Take my journey down to Devon these past two days.  If I had gone on the train it would have cost me £38 and I would have had to have changed trains 5 times.  I couldn’t have travelled by coach between the two destinations and therefore would have been left with using a coach to somewhere nearby and then perhaps a cab, which would have been rather difficult.  Taking a plane was not an option as would have been to expensive and taken a long time with checking in and out etc.  Therefore these options are poor.  Travelling by car cost me £34 and also you have added benefit of door to door travel.

So what are the other possible solutions?  Congestion charges have been used in London for a while now, but do we really want to get to the point were we are charging people to use the motorways in the hope that some would decide not to, which would then ease the congestion?  Maybe, maybe not, we all have our own opinions on that one.  But what else is there on offer to solve the problems?  Around Birmingham on the M40 and M42 the hard shoulder is used to ease congestion.  This seems to work well as it gives an extra lane to ease the traffic congestion.  Whether you are allowed to use the hard shoulder at the time is controlled by the matrix system of lights and notices.  With today’s delay where there was an accident that caused tremendous jams, so why couldn’t the hard shoulder be used to clear the extra traffic that had backed up on the motorway?  Opening this extra lane for 30 minutes would have greatly assisted in clearing the extra traffic once the accident had been cleared.  Obviously when emergency vehicles are needed to hard shoulder needs to be opened but once cleared this lane is no longer needed for this purpose.

The other thing is the traffic announcements that we receive over the radio etc.  How many times have you hit a traffic jam only to hear on the radio 10 minutes later about it with them telling you to avoid the area?  More time that I can count.  What there needs is warning before you hit the area.  Not only warnings but alternative routes suggested.  This would work by taking people away from the black spots, but it would have to be selective and not allow everyone the alternative route or else the jam would just occur elsewhere.  How about linking traffic updates with TomTom SatNav’s and therefore the Sat Nav would just automatically change your route when the traffic builds up?  What about a dedicated traffic radio station for the entire UK?

Whatever is decided it needs to thought out.  I hate using this phrase but we need to think ‘outside the box’ about how we are going to make travelling on Britain’s roads better.

Any suggestions are welcome in the comments section!

On Thursday and Friday of this week went down to Devon. It was a 274 mile (according to the AA Route Planner) journey down the southern county of Devon staying in two hotels.

The journey was going to be long, we knew that and with our track record in journeys we thought that it would take a while. We were right. Setting off at 1330 we got onto the M6. No sooner had we hit junction 27 than the queues started. A lorry had jack knifed into the central reservation and the whole motorway was shut. The only way through was to get passed on the hard shoulder. The police were waving people through but it was very slow.

Once we were passed this we had about 10 minutes of normal speed driving until we hit the next junction. Then it was stop start all the way to Birmingham, with a little rest in the middle were the traffic eased. We managed to travel 67.8 miles in 4 hours. By this time we were desperate for the toilet and so stopped at Sandbach for a toilet stop.

We were back on the road by 1715 and then we made are way down to the M5. Once we were on the M5 the conditions were good and the traffic was light. We eventually found our Travel Lodge at 2115 when we checked in. We ate our butties and watched TV for while before finally going to sleep with a very aching right foot!

The Saunton Sands Hotel was the venue for the next stop off of the journey. Arriving at the hotel we checked in and instantly realized that the hotel was ‘rather posh’, in a good way. It was a ‘propper’ hotel were you are meeted and greeted and the porter takes your bags to your room for you. Really good service and the rooms and food were great.

The journey back was less of a problem however we did get held up once again for around 45 minutes when we hit the M6. Britain’s roads really do need sorting out!. All in all it was an excellent short break and it was great to see the fantastic views of Saunton Sands from the hotel car park.

Well that is it.  All over again for another year and another Christmas Day has come and gone.  This Christmas was a little different whilst at the same time very enjoyable.

Why was it different?  Well the main reason is that me and Helen would be spending the time alone on Christmas day with just to two of us.  I can’t remember the last time that I was not spending Christmas day in the company of other members of the family.  I have to say that both me and Helen really enjoyed the experience.  There was less ‘pressure’ on you to over eat and over drink.  Difficult to describe really.  We had a peaceful relaxing day.

Laying in bed in the morning watching Christmas rubbish TV was luxury.  In fact I didn’t get out of bed until half ten after I had opened my excellent presents.  A cookbook and Jamie Oliver Shaker (which looks really cool) and something I am really looking forward to - a half day racing single seater cars!  I will report back on that in due course.  After this we spent the next few hours like any other day really.  We pottered here and there doing a few (rather un Christmas Day like) jobs such as washing etc.  I then prepared out very un-traditional Christmas lunch.  We decided to have sirloin steaks, with prawn cocktail to start with and my device Banoffee Puddings for afters.  You may ak why so untraditional?  Well I am not that keen on Turkey and we just thought that there is only two of us, so why spend a fortune on a meal that really we wouldn’t appreciate as much as a nice piece of steak.  Therefore we decided to just keep it simple and have what we enjoyed the most at the time.  So steak it was.

After lunch we decided to go for our Christmas walk and see the ducks in the park.  The light was fading at this time and the sun setting, which looked spectacular as it had been a beautiful clear and sunny day.  On the way to the park we called at the post box to drop off a letter and I noticed something strange on the post box.  Instead of having ER on the front it had GR.  Does this mean that it has been there since King George’s reign?

Feeding the ducks is always great fun.  They swarm around you and they are so timid.  They really aren’t bothered about human presence at all.  They finished off their bread, weetabix and crackers and then we headed back down the main street.  Christmas day in the centre of the town felt really strange.  Every day I see that street crowded with people, cars and lorries and today it was empty.  The same can be said for Tesco’s car park.  No doubt tomorrow will see it busy again.

That left the evening to watch Christmas TV.  Coronation Street, Harry Hill and then al rounded off with Red Dwarf.  A thoroughly pleasant and enjoyable Christmas day.

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Photos of Christmas Eve
Playing the Piano

Finally we have come round to that time of year again were everybody goes absolutely mental for about 2 weeks all for the sake of one day. Yes we have reached Christmas Eve. The day before the big day, or is it?

The run up to Christmas these days seems to last for ages and ages. In fact as early as September Christmas things were being sold in the Supermarkets. I remember when I used to work in a supermarket when I was at University that the Christmas Puddings used to arrive the first week in October. Why is this? In fact the run up to Christmas is now that long and over hyped up in the media and in the shops that when Christmas itself arrives it is often, well, a bit of a disappointment. After all it all builds up to just one day. Really it is just another day which is slightly different to rest. We all get presents and eat and lovely meal which is great but does it really need all this attention?

I think that people have forgotten what the real meaning of Christmas actually is. Ask people what they think of when they think about Christmas. Their answers will probably be something like presents, food, Santa, Alcohol and Christmas cards (I’ll come onto those later on). I bet there are very few who would actually say the birth of baby Jesus which is what the celebration is all about. It has turned into an excuse to spend lots of money (money which according to the news we haven’t got), eat and drink too much and have lots of parties. Not that I am saying that I don’t enjoy these parties and things but it seems that the real reason Christmas is on the calendar has gone completely.

Think of the Christmas cards that are sent. There must be literally billions of cards in this country along that are sent to others. I never send cards. Firstly because I think that they are very un-environmentally friendly. Lets face it the amount of paper used is phenomenal, not to mention all the lorries that are used to delivery the cards giving out all the carbon dioxide gas. If you think about why we send cards to people there really is no need. I mean we send them in order to wish people a happy Christmas. Can’t we do this in person? Most of the people that you will want to say this to you are going to see anyway so why not just tell them? The stress of writing cards is often a massive burden on our already busy lives. If I sent cards to all friends and family it would take me a good 2 - 3 hours I would think.

Why can’t Christmas be the celebration that it should be? The 12 days of Christmas isn’t a rhyme for nothing. Surely there should be 12 days of Christmas. I have been sat in today after going to the gym this morning and really I am just waiting for the ‘big day’ tomorrow. Why it will be so big is another thing? For sure we are going to have a nice lunch and some wine and perhaps fizzy white wine but other than that it will be another normal day in for the two of us.

Anyway that is enough of my winging for this Christmas lets get on and enjoy Christmas over the next few days. Lets face it we are coming up to the real Christmas time now and not the ridiculous build up that has been happening over the last few months. Whatever you are doing this Christmas make sure you enjoy it. Merry Christmas to all my readers!

This weekend I decided to open a bottle of red wine and was given an rather nice surprise was I tasted the vintage.

I was given a bottle of wine by a colleague at work for Christmas which was most welcome. The bottle was a “Gran Reserve Castillo De Calatrava Tempranillo 1996. Although I enjoy wine I am not a wine expert and therefore I can only think that it comes from Spain. It was only after opening it and drinking it that I noticed the year 1996 on the bottle.

It was clear after the first taste that this was something special. In fact I would go as far to say that this was the best bottle of red that I have had the pleasure to taste. It is an 11 year old wine which is unusual as wines that old tend to be passed there peak (so I am told!).

Well this was a treat indeed and if you are ever in a supermarket or even a wine shop and you come across this wine I would suggest you getting some, whilst at the same time getting in touch with me so that I can get some more.

As many will know we have several livestock living with us at our residence. These include Harry and Christina the budgies and George and Jeremy the rabbits. New to the Wilkinson livestock family are Carlos and Goldie the budgies. They all now have a new home thanks to the portuguese carpentry skills of a local farm worker.

The new home has been placed in the rear garden. What is it you may ask? It is an avary. For those not in the know this is a home for birds. It is basically a large shed with half of the sides removed and replaced with wire mesh. Our avary measures approximately 3 metres in width and metre deep and around 2 metres high. At the one side there is a small shed which the birds can fly into when the weather is less clement and the other side is an open fly around area with wire mesh sides for viewing. This will be the home of the birds for the near future. They are not being put in straight away because of the current weather conditions. Budgies can survive no problem throughout thewinter as long as they have somewhere inside to go in the cooler conditions, however as they are used to the warmth of the modern central heating system a phased introduction to the new home is preferred.

So how do the rabbits get involved with this new home? Well they are going to live in the bottom of the aviary using the shed as a rather large hutch and the fly area as a rather large run. Those of you who saw the rabbits at our previous house will no doubt be aware the my innovative rabbit whole under the garage door meant that George and Jeremy had the free run of the garden. Although this was great for them it was not very good for the garden. In fact they ate all the grass that quick that the garden was in fact moss. Therefore with the new garden we didn’t want it to suffer the same fate. It was therefore decided that the rabbits needed to be confined to a smaller area so that they couldn’t ‘trough’ their way through the folliage of the garden. It will have the added bonus in that we will actually be able to plant plants in the garden again without having to have then all off the floor.

S who made the new home? Well working on Helen’s uncles farm are two lovely young Portuguese chaps from Madeira. By trade they are carpenters and offered the make the avary for an excellent rate. I have to say that there skills are excellent and the avary is brilliant. It looks pride of place sat behind next doors garage but in our garden.

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Video of George and Jeremy in the Garden

As regular readers are undoubtedly aware of, Penny4Them has not been updated on a regular basis for the last month. With the house move came the switch over of broadband from the old house to the new one. This has been a nightmare, and hence the reason why I still have no internet connection at home.

Back in mid November just before the move I logged onto the Tiscali website (they are my broadband provider) and filled out the appropriate forms on-line in order to get broadband switched over to the new property. The website informed me that the switch could take between 10 - 15 days. I was keeping the same telephone number as at the previous address, something which later in the saga proved to take longer to get the internet back up and running than if I had taken a new number.

Well 10 to 15 days had passed and there was still no connection to the internet. I rang the Tiscali help desk which was a nightmare to understand and a series of press such and such a number for this and that, which left me screaming down the phone “just put me through to a human being!”. After a lengthy conversation to the customer service assistant they told me that the line had been cancelled on the old property and that it was no being activated on the new property, therefore it would be active in 5 - 7 days. Stupidly I believed them.

Eight days later when the service was still not connecting, I decided to ring the 0871 number again to see what the hold up was this time. To my amazement and disgust I was now told that there was a problem with the cancelling on the old property and therefore activation on the new property had not yet taken place. Annoyed at being lied to on the previous call, they now told me that they would apply for activation on the new property and, yes, you guessed it the service would be up and running in 5 - 7 days.

Well guess what it wasn’t. As I am sure you are as bored as I am about the whole thing I will round up this sorry tale of terrible customer service, simply by saying that after several more phone calls all lasting between 20 - 75 minutes then have guaranteed me that my service will be up and running by 1800 this evening. Watch this space!

My advice - avoid Tiscali like the plague and their customer service is appalling. Pick a company that has a good UK call centre and that deals with [inevitable] problems well. The problem is which one to pick when I tell Tiscali to shove it this evening!