12 12 12

Yes today is the 12th Day of the 12th month, 2012.  
Hayzel and I got up at about 6.30am (pitch black here) and round about 7.00, we left for Norwich.  Thanks to the GPS we found the Holiday Inn Norwich City with not much problemo (after we checked last night on Google Earth .... there are FOUR Holiday Inns in Norwich, so it was a good job that we checked, otherwise we would have gone to the wrong one!)    This hotel is right on the Norwich City Football Club grounds - Norwich City lost 4 -1 to Aston Villa last night (just by the way for all you football fans)    

We were hoping to collect our Avis rental car from there and then go back (driving in tandem) into Norwich city centre to drop off the Ford Galaxy - anyhow, that was not to be.  The Avis car was not ready for us - we were there too early (we were only supposed to collect at 930 and this was about 8am).   So we got back into the Ford Galaxy and drove into Norwich using the GPS to drop it off ... well that was the plan.  We ended up going right out of Norwich and taking a huge detour.   A trip that should have only taken us literally five minutes, took almost 45.   There are TWO Dereham Roads in Norwich and I had typed in the one with the wrong postal code, hence the long and winding road trip.   Postal Codes!   They RULE in the UK. 

Eventually we found the drop off point for the Ford Galaxy and from the advice of one of the guys at the Holiday Inn, we phoned a taxi service to collect us from ToysRUs, which is located across the road from the Alamo drop off point.  This ToysRUs shop is so huge - much bigger than anything I've seen in South Africa. We are definitely going back there to look for gifts for the kiddies.    Taxi cab picked us up with hardly any fuss and we were back at the Holiday Inn about six minutes later!   It cost us six pound - cheaper than using the buses.

We walked into the Holiday Inn at about 930 - which is when we were supposed to collect the Avis rental but the car was not ready for us to collect - due to the fact that we booked and paid for it so late the previous night.  We were told it would only be ready round about 11am.  This wasn't what we wanted to hear, particularly, due to the fact that our appointment with Ewans' school was scheduled for 1230!

We decided to have breakfast at the Holiday Inn (11 pounds each) - full buffet breakfast, as much as you want to eat and all very nice - to kill some time (obviously).   Breakfast over, we still had more time on our hands, so naturally we wandered across the road in the direction of some huge shops. 
Half and hour later, we staggered back to the Holiday Inn carrying duvets, sheets, duvet covers, Christmas wrapping paper, bathroom stuff blah blah ...  

Long story short - the car (after four phone calls to Avis) was eventually delivered by a very nice chap in a bright red Avis jumper at just after 12 minutes past 12.   But instead of the Peugeot 5008 we got this:

Gangsta!
God.   I'm really not complaining at all.  
When we told the chap who gave us the Gangsta Mobile that we had to be in Long Stratton by 1230 he just shrugged his shoulders and said, 'That won't be a problem!' with a big smile.   And it wasn't.   Press start to stop but we couldn't figure out it's onboard GPS, so used our TomTom. 
Never mind - lovely car.  The neighbours must think we are related to Posh Spice.
Next week, we'll be driving around in the Ford Focus.    

Hayzel and Kevin, plus Ewan and Faye made it on time for the appointment with Ewan's new nurseryschool and by all accounts, this was a very successful meeting.  Ewan is very taken with it and didn't want to leave!  I am going on Friday to have a look and will take some photos.    It sounds like a lovely little school, I read the notes that they were given about the school - he will be going from 1215 to 330pm every day - I will probably walk him there and walk him back ... it is literally just around the corner from our house!

Stuart (from Diss Bed and Furniture shop) came round this evening (at about 445pm) and delivered our beds by himself.   He all but ran up the stairs at a rate of knots, fairly flung the beds into the rooms and then discovered that he'd left Hayzel and Kevin's base behind!    No problem.   He told us he'd quickly go back to their showroom and bring the base back.   Can you imagine that happening in South Africa?  No way, we would have gotten an 'Aish, it's Tjaila time now, we will come back tomorrow, or the next day.' ... 
Anyhow, off our interpid bed salesman went back to Diss (about 15 - 20 minutes drive away) .... a few minutes later he was back again - up the stairs he flew, assembled all the beds for us, chatting to Kevin all the while (Kevin reckons he's divorced ...  oh shut up) and then he offered to sell us a second hand cupboard for Ewan's room (a tallboy style of chest of drawers) for Fifty pounds - he's bringing it back tomorrow morning (bright and early, he told Kevin - say 7am??! ... er, no).     So friendly and pleasant he was, what a pleasure and now we have beds to sleep in now!   

We are going to Tim and Toni's on Saturday for a nosh up - so our SKYPE with Andrew and everyone is going to have to happen on Sunday, I hope this is okay?   Please let me know if there is a problem and we can make a plan to do it from Tim's house on Saturday morning, if you want.

Here's some photos from evening/early morning (Hayzel's camera)

A sign in our neighbours garden

FishEye lens view of our street on a wintry foggy night

House taken at night - with the Ford Galaxy rental that is now snugly back at Alamo, Dereham Road, Norwich City

Kevin coming back from a smoke break in our back garden with trade mark beer in hand - he's getting back into Stella Artois!

Me and the kiddies yesterday afternoon - love my slippers hey?

Thank you for your emails and messages - I haven't had a chance to reply to all your news yet but will try to do so over the weekend. 

I hope you all got the Christmas photos - there are a lot more but I will send those tomorrow.