Frustrated foster carers

Myself and Yvonne were approved as foster carers back in March. We had to do a few jobs about the house, something we were loathe to do until after we had been approved. We didn't see the point in spending money if we were not going to be approved.
Anyway, we were and had the jobs done. We told our social worker that we were wanting to have a holiday, that was the one to Skopelos, and that we would be available to have a child, because that's all we are allowed to have in our home, on account of it's size, from June the 2nd onwards.

So here we are on the 24th September and so far no child.
But, Yvonne had a call today, while she was in work, telling her that we could be getting a child this afternoon. I too was in work and I had the car, remember, we had one stolen by some scum bucket last December.
Yvonne got hold of me and told me about the little lad we might be able to have. I couldn't get out of work, because we were mad busy, due to 2 of our 5 person shift being in a quarterly brief. Yvonne said she wasn't sure if she could get out of work, but then I reminded her that I had the car.

So she rang back the agency and told them that we were not available for the little fella.
I was gutted, we have worked hard for this and seem to be getting nowhere.
Perhaps we will get a call on Monday saying he had been fixed up for the weekend and that we were to get him Monday or Tuesday for a longer period.

Whatever happens to us though, I hope he gets a nice family, who look after him and give him the love and care EVERY child deserves.

Brandon Flowers - Crossfire

Cars

This time last year we had 2 cars. Yvonne had a VW Polo and I had a VW Golf. Then in early December some scum bucket decided to take Yvonne's Polo, leaving us with only the Golf and an absolute nightmare in trying to get the insurance company to pay out. The insurance company is a well known company, whose adverts you will see on UK TV everyday. They caused a great deal of upset in our house, with their accusations and insinuations. Eventually in March they finally paid out.
Having gone over 3 months with only one car we decided that was the way forward for us.
We traded in the Golf for a newer Mazda 3 and now we work around having just the one vehicle. This morning for example, I got out of bed at 05:40 to take Yvonne to work, so I can have the use of the Mazda today.
Yvonne works at Manchester Airport and the amount of traffic on the roads is worrying. Last week I took her on 2 occasions to work. On both these occasions her shift began at 05:00, which meant leaving home at about 04:15. I haven't done this early morning run from home to the airport for a while. We live about 20 miles from the airport and it's virtually all motorway. I was amazed just how busy the roads and motorways were at that time of the morning.
Even more worrying though is the way people drive. The speeds of some drivers this morning was a little bit crazy, to say the least. I was doing a steady 65 to 70 MPH and cars were whizzing past me. At one stage I almost got out of the car, I was convinced I'd stopped!!
Last week when Yvonne was on the 5AM starts I was on my way back in the afternoon to collect her. I was doing about 70 MPH and the car in front was doing a little less, but in the middle lane, with nothing in the inside lane. I pulled out to overtake and as I pulled alongside I glanced over. The young guy driving was texting!!! What the hell is all that about? Where are the police?

Tomorrow I'm back in work for my 4 shifts and Yvonne will have to drive herself to work. I worry about her on those roads, with all those idiots about.
Cars, eh?? can't live with them, can't live without them!!

Manchester City

Manchester City are playing West Bromwich Albion tonight in the league cup and as I'm writing this it's 2-1 to West Brom. All over!
Disappointing result from the richest club in the world.

Another year before we win that trophy again.

Where to next then?

Lads weekend away is the next certain trip, but me and Yvonne might get away for a few days in November.
We're thinking of a trip to Athens, but we'll have to see on that one.

Meanwhile, me and the lads are looking at going to Tallinn in Estonia, for a weekend next march.
Up to now, we are 6 strong, myself, Paul, Bernerd, Andy, Kev and Leroy.

In march of last year, 8 of us went to Bratislava in Slovakia, which was fantastic.
We flew out Thursday evening, the same 6 guys named above, plus Rick and Carl.
When we arrived in Bratislava it was raining and so we all got a bloody good soaking. Not a great start to the weekend. We got ourselves sorted in the apartment and set off to look for a bar, in the rain!
We couldn't find one and so decided to go back to the apartment and begin our quest the next day, after all we had been drinking at Manchester airport before setting off.

So friday morning was an early start. Had to find somewhere for breakfast. None of us fancied cooking in the apartment. We found a nice place near to Tesco, in the centre of Bratislava. Yes you read that right, Tesco!!
This was to be our place for breakfast for the 4 days of our visit.

We wandered around for a while to get our bearings and then found our first bar.
The bars in the city centre were good, with beer priced low enough for us to be happy.

We had a fabulous meal on Friday night in a very nice city centre restaurant, plenty more to drink and the weekend was taking shape nicely.

Saturday saw us have breakfast, then jump into a couple of cabs to the railway station, where we caught the train to Vienna. Different city, different country!

Now Vienna is a great city, well worth a weekend devoted to it alone.
The buildings are amazing. The bars, while not as cheap as Bratislava, are excellent.
We took the tube to get around, because we had a list of places we wanted to visit. On my list was what once was Prater Stadium. This was the setting in 1970 for Manchester City's victory over Gornik in the Cup winners Cup  final.
It was here at the stadium where our friend Leroy got locked in the toilet. That was fun. We had a language barrier to break down at first before we could get Leroy out. The guys who ran the kiosk where we were snacking, didn't speak any English and we didn't speak Austrian German.
We did eventually free Leroy and had a fabulous day, getting back to our apartment late at night.

Sunday was almost deja vu. Breakfast, railway station, train. This time we were off to the Czech Republic to visit Brno.
Now we had found ourselves a cheap little place. Lunch consisted of 2 litres of beer each, chips and a sandwich each all for about £5 each. Excellent value!
The weather was not very good while we were in Brno, so we made our way back to Bratislava reasonably early.
We had another great meal and then had a very late and drunken night.

Monday back home, after a few beers in the centre of Bratislava.

What a fantastic time we had.
We left  Carl and Rick behind, because they had got themselves flights on Tuesday.

So we are very much looking forward to going to Tallinn.

You got to start somewhere

I started to write a blog about 8 years ago and lost interest within weeks, never bothered since, but now I'm getting well into my mid fifties, I thought why not have another go.

One of the biggest enjoyments I have had in my life is travelling. I haven't done much compared to some, but what I have done, I have loved every minute of it. Whether it be with family for a a well earned holiday, with my wife for a restful 2 weeks in the sun or with the lads on a boozy weekend.

This year, myself and my lovely wife Yvonne had 2 weeks in Skopelos, Greece.
We first went to Skopelos in 2002, while on holiday in Skiathos. We went on one of those days out organised by the tour company, where they take you to various places, give you an hour here and an hour there. I remember writing a review of my Skiathos fortnight on another website and saying that I would go back to Skopelos and so it was, that we went back in may 2010.

We stayed in Skopelos town at a hotel called The Ionia. We booked this through Thomsons, which is something we had got away from in recent times, booking with tour companies! Since the demise of XL Air, we decided to go back to the 'safe' option of tour companies.

The Ionia is set up the hill above the main town or Chora and has a nice pool and a super bar overlooking the pool.
We stayed on a bed and breakfast basis, which suits us. A Guaranteed start to the day and then we are free to eat where and when we like.

The weather was, well, shall we say, mixed? Yes mixed describes it best I think. Wet, windy, cold, sunny, warm, hot. Yes we had the lot, don't suppose they get any snow in may in the islands!

We met some wonderful people too, people who were, like us on holiday, or people who lived and worked on Skopelos.

That is all I'm going to write for now. Like I say, it's just the start.
Check back for more of my life, my vacations, my work, etc etc....