John and Andrea Udberg

We have had a great time this weekend away with Graham and Beth at Norham, just West of Berwick.  After Graham and Jim had repaired some minor damage to the caravan on Saturday morning we hit the road North.  The bank holiday weekend traffic was surprisingly light and we made good time to the camp site.

Once the caravan had been maneuvered into position there was just the simple task of erecting the awning before we could hit Berwick for some lunch.  If it were only that simple.  The random collection of poles and hooks proved to be quite a challenge… a mere 45 minutes later the awning was up but not pegged down because of the mix of concrete and rock like soil it was sitting on… this later proved a fatal mistake.

Berwick is a great little town and the town walls provide some fantastic views of the coast.  We ate and watched what turned out to be Roeder’s final game in charge of Newcastle before stocking up on supplies and heading back to our little home.

After a sleep for Andrea (she is still not well) and cards for the rest, we went to our local for a meal.  It was a sumptuous feast!  Really fantastic pub food.  mmmm.  We then retired to the mobile unit for drinks, Cranium and more cards.

As the caravan is a single room affair the awning was mine and Andrea’s roof for the night, beneath which we had a little two man dome tent.  All would have been fine if it wasn’t for some exceptionally strong winds.  At 3am we woke to the flapping sound of an awning gone wrong.  One of the poles had come down, its anchor to the caravan forceably removed by the wind.  Graham and I scoured the camp site for more breeze blocks to weigh the sides down while the girls huddled in the caravan.

The morning brought the realisation that water had pooled in the roof of the awning and poured onto the bottom of our bed.  We hastily tried to further secure the awning in the increasing morning wind.  Opening the door wasn’t a good idea in hindsight.  Luckily Graham was clinging to the awning at the moment it decided life of on the ground was not what it wanted.  The thing took off, flipped and crunched in a heap with the Andrea and Graham prone inside.  The offending item was hastily removed and stuffed into the boot.

On a windy day such as Sunday you might as well head to somewhere which is always windy.  Holy island did not disappoint.  The gale force winds did not spoil the beauty of the place and we had a great day seeing the castle, priory and landscape.  Beth and Graham stayed a second night as the wind was too strong to drive back towing their mobile home.  Hopefully they will be able to make it back today!

Click on the piccy above to see the photos from our weekend.

John and Andrea.

It’s been a busy week at the Udberg household! After the fabulous long weekend over Easter it was back to work for John while Andrea waited in on Tuesday. She was rewarded with the arrival of our boxes from New Zealand!

After 4 long months they had arrived! Our winter clothes, just in time for summer, all of our photo frames and lots of little bits and pieces that mean our place looks more like our home than ever. Its good to have all of our clothes to choose from and nearly all the DVD’s here (I shall never let it go Watson…). Last weekend we did our first DIY! Three “floating shelves” - the brackets are hidden. We won’t be doing DIY again in a hurry… Drilling into brick is not easy! They look great though, there’s a piccy up now.

The Beast is now complete. Our new 24″ monitor arrived last week, its huge! Its also a second TV for the lounge and means we have joined the High Definition revolution! (Andrea is soo excitited).

Andrea got contact lenses last week. She has been enjoying being able to see without glasses and is getting used to them pretty quickly. She loves being able to wear her sunglasses, while still being able to see more than 3 foot in front of herself!

Its been another scorcher here this weekend. Beth was away at camp on Saturday so we had the responsibility of looking after Graham We had a great time looking around the “Historic Abbey Town” of Hexham then visiting Lynne and family at her caravan. Sunday we hit the book fair at Tynemouth Station, pretty good. Andrea picked up some kids books. Then we headed for the coast.

Tynemouth Rowing Club had an open day and Andrea was invited to take to the high seas! She was shown the basics by a very accomplished fella from down South while I chatted to his wife. She might be rowing for England yet.

There is a bunch of new pictures up in the gallery here showing all of the above!

Hope all is well wherever you are.

John and Andrea.

The Beast is built.  It was a fairly painless procedure and was completed in a couple of hours.  I had heard that the P180 case was difficult to work with to make the cables neat.  I found it pretty easy… then found out today this was because I had actually been shipped a P182! I know, crazy eh?  :) 

(more…)

Pictures are now up.

The 11th of March saw the one year marker passed since we were married.  It definitely doesn’t seem that long…

Mary and Dave threw a great party on Saturday night in our honor and a good time was had by all.  Mike and Julie drove up from Chester on Friday night and Shona and Simon arrived from Birmingham on Saturday afternoon for the occasion.

There were also lots of Aunties, Uncles and family friends thrown into the mix along with a special appearance from Gertrude to keep the party lively.

As usual, Dave provided a feast of spicy proportions and quiz questions to keep everyone fat and happy.

Andrea is into her second week of substitute teaching and it is going really well.

John and Andrea.

The month is yet to end but we have our new picture category up.

We have seen a bit of the area in our first month, we might as well while we don’t have jobs! Things are still progressing slowly on that front but we are chipping away.

I have been keeping my self busy by building a website for my scout group (www.seventhtynemouth.co.uk) and putting together a new computer for my dad. The latter looks like its going to keep me busy for a while as something appears faulty.

Andrea has a teaching course this week and the second half of the term starts next week so volunteering will be on the cards.

Keep in touch everyone, we love hearing all your news!

John and Andrea.