luckykaa

Nothing seems to be working all of a sudden.

We went down to Sussex to see my parents. Traffic was pretty good. Roads were mostly clear. Then we got a flat!

Not a huge problem. From past experiences, I thought I was prepared. We have an actual spare. Only a space saver but it should get us the rest of the way. That was something I learned we needed last time. I also have a decent spanner because the electric tools they use make these very tight! So I got the nuts off, and... the wheel refused to move!

Fortunately a tyre repair van stopped next to us. They offered to get the tyre off for £50. Now, while I'm okay with this, it's a lot of money to pay someone to whack a wheel with a hammer! I mean I was happy to pay that to get moving again but it was a business transaction rather than the Christmas miracleflickums  seemed to think it was.

Oh well. We got moving and were at my parents place before midnight.

Next day we sought out a tyre repair place. Seems there's a tyre fixers flu going around. First place they couldn't help until Tuesday. So we tried Camden road tyres. Now this is a dodgy looking place. Looks like an abandoned petrol station and just has rough ground and lots of tyres. They offered us a used try for £30. Cheap but I really don't want to scrimp. Kwik Fit also seemed to be suffering from tyre fixers flu, having a staff of 2, but could fit us in the next day.

Asked what caused the problem - the tyre was worn on the inside. Kwik-fit suggested that the tracking needs to be looked at. They couldn't do it there and then but suggested we could book and get it done another time. Yeah. Not until January. Finally managed to get this sorted with Halfords. Some people think the big chains are rubbish but I prefer them for this routine type of stuff.

Flick had offered to forward some packages to a French woman. Turns out she actually wanted about a million dresses shipped! That took up about an hour!

We got back. We'd made a commitment to see my brother, so had to leave again almost immediatey. Decided we'd go to Brighton's Winter market.

Well, that was a bloody disappointment. There were a few places selling food and that was about it! After hunting for something to do we finally ended up in the library. On the plus side, we did get to the Rock and Soul cafe (previously Kensingtons). And I found a birthday present for my niece.

Got home. Dad was cooking for us. Except the cooker broke!

Went to watch The Polar Express. My parents' terrible DVD player stopped working half way through. Couldn't get it to work on my laptop either.

Was expecting a nice relaxed weekend catching up with friends and family. Instead we spent most of the time doing errands, and running around, and dealing with broken tech. I'm pooped!

A Canadian friend had a hankering to see some of Sussex. I had a hankering to see a friend. Borrowed my mum's car and we drove to Arundel.

It's a lovely little old fashioned Sussex village, with a river running through and a medieval castle looking over it. River was close to bursting its banks, and finding a parking spot that didn't require wading was a little tricky, but we found one, and headed to the castle. Sadly the castle was closed for the winter. But we did wander around the outside of the grounds seeing if there was a way to get closer. There wasn't but we got some lovley photos and met some Shetland ponies with 80's hair, and some horses.

Strolled back to town and hunted down somewhere nice to eat. Found a nice little tea shop, and had tea and cake but according to several people, it turns out that we should have gone to the Black Rabbit. Wish we'd been told so earlier.

Canuck wanted to get some shots of quaint village. Shame there were road signs and cars in the way. Does rather ruin the look of the place.

Finished off Arundel with a quick bit of geocaching. Found the cache. Yay! Then went to Chichester.

Chichester was nice. Saw the Market Square, the Cathedral and Bell Tower, and had a look at the city wall. Canuck was annoyed by vans unloading in front of the best location for a photo. Rotten place for a loading zone.

Was getting wet and dark. Decided to quickly find a geocache. A "nano". Tiny little thing. Maybe I should take up this hobby. It's nice to have a destination.

Christmas was fun.  And a little less stressful than I was expecting. 

Caught a bit of a cold on Friday.  Struggled to do the remaning shopping on Saturday then curled up in front of the telly for the next day and a half.  This was what I was planning to do anyway so no loss there.  then I managed to get to the pub for the traditional annual Christmas Eve drinks with mates.  Pub was a little empty and they ran out of real ales a bit early.  And for some reason, people were all clustered around the bit of the bar by the stairs when there was a good half a pub pretty much empty.  Odd.

I was expecting my dad to be his usual rather stressed frantic and occasionally angry self.  But now he's a granddad and has Chilli to play with which seems to cheer him up a lot.   Chilli is much larger than when I last saw him.  Still cute.  He was a bit grumpy on Christmas day for some reason. 

I got some nice prezzies. 

A cute Dalek game
Some pens
Some chocolate.
A Cheapass game. 
Some Tarot cards. 
A 20 questions game type thing. 
A rechargable hammer drill/screwdriver (with the extremely handy torx bits to disassemble my car). 
Some jellies and a 20 quid note.  (My nan always makes sure I have a present to unwrap).
Tarantino DVD collection
Star Wars Lego 2,
And various useful dull things like CD cases and electrician's screwdriver and sidecutters.

So, not a bad haul.

Boxing day we went to Bramber castle.  There's not much of a castle there any more.  More of a hill with a hill on it and some bits of castle wall. 

Stopped off at a supermarket.  Young lad at the till was asked by another customer (or it may have bene my mum) about working on a bank holiday.  He said,  "Because I'm a muppet".  Poor lad.  Still.  He seemed good humoured about it.