Sunny Jim

A nice surprise this morning. Went to get the spare tyres @Jimbob McGregor had put in the boot and discovered three bottles of beer! Thanks to whoever provided those. Boot now pressed into what will be its regular role - somewhere for the dog to be while I'm at work.

And home. Dog back where he started the day - asleep on the sofa. Car ran perfectly and the journey was great. It's a nippy wee thing with great turn-in, so much fun to hustle over the Hartside Pass. As my surname is Catton I had to stop off here: Sits at about 3.5k revs at 70mph on the motorway but still feels nicely composed. I filled the tank before leaving Hexham (just over £60) and still had half a tank 250 miles later when I got home. Now I must confess I did cheat and remove most of the jeopardy of driving a 20 year old roffle prize home. The car only had a couple of weeks test so @loseronekindly dropped it off with @Jimbob McGregor who gave it a check over and service and put it through an MOT - I'm indebted to both of them. It now wants for nothing other than perhaps a new rear wiper blade. The rather small and off-set pedal box will take some getting used to, my size 11s only just fit and I have to be precise so as not to accidentally catch the brake when going for the accelerator or clutch! I'm counting my blessings and feeling very appreciative tonight - I'm lucky to have won the car and I'm grateful for being part of this automotive community. Cheers Autoshite!

Just crossed the border back into Wales. About an hour to go to get home. Car going great, dog asleep in the back.

Here's the quarry. Obligatory pez shot. Hartside Summit coming over Teesdale on some ace driving roads. Car came pre-decorated for Halloween. Lovely to meet you @loseronethanks for making the pick-up so painless.

Spiders, wasps and flies - I'll eat them all.

Made it to Carlisle where we saw a steam train. Now waiting for our last train of the day.

Managed to find a seat so I'm comfortable* now.

We were delayed getting into Warrington so I just had time to nip out of the station for poo number 4 before catching the next train. Packed train again. Himself had a seat reservation but an old lady was sitting there and he didn't have balls to evict her so we're left squatting in the vestibule.

Made it here. Next train's so crowded I have to stay under the table.

First train. Fortunately not crowded so I've got space to get comfortable.

Lift number two in another Peugeot. Gets us to here. Aus-bloody-stralia by the looks of it.

And we're off. Peugeot for the first leg. Second breakfast bonus sausage for being good.

For Dawg's Sake, we're off to get another car today. Breakfast Poo Count

Look who's back. I've been told it's a young male tawny likely looking for a home. Plan is to work out where he's getting in, put up a nesting box and try and encourage him to use it. Any tips gratefully received!

Discovered a surprise visitor at work this morning. Gave me quite a fright when I switched the lights on and it flew overhead. Is it a tawny?