Simon took Tina into JCT600 Aston Martin in Leeds yesterday as her heated seats are not working properly. Simon being Simon just wants the car right – he doesn’t have much intention of using the car when the seat heaters are actually required. Plus there is a warranty on the car, so best make use of it to repair the seats in fairness.

Simon got a call later on in the day yesterday to find that the near side shock absorber at the front is leaking so they are proposing to fix / replace it accordingly. The passenger seat heater is working properly apparently although the heater element is broken on the drives side – hence will be replaced. On top of this, she needs new brake pads at the rear at a small cost of just over £400 (gulp) showing how Aston Martin ownership is going to work out :-(.

Today, another call from the dealership to advise that the warranty company are sending an assessor out to the dealership given that the claim is greater than £1000. It is looking unlikely that the car will be back before the weekend sadly.

Apologies – it has been a week since the last update…

Ralph the Reindeer was a massive success – the children in Foundation and Reception classes performed wonderfully and the production was REALLY good.   Typically the photographer only managed to catch Elliot smiling once, but thankfully it was the all important whole production shot 🙂  So, we have ordered a couple of copies so that we can display it with pride in the house 🙂  There was also a DVD so we have ordered a copy of that as well.

Last night was the St Hilda’s School Disco in the school dinner hall.  It was a really well organised setup with Father Christmas in a wonderful grotto available for quick 3 minute checkins with the children.  When FC asked Elliot what he would like for Christmas, Elliot reminded him that he had already written to him hence insinuating that FC should indeed already know 🙂  Mummy helped out in terms of getting the hall ready for the disco and also helped staff the stalls during the event.

Mummy also went in [to school] again on Wednesday this week to bake with the Reception class and is planning to go in again next Wednesday to have  final pre Christmas bake with the class.  She has collected some rather cool sweets that will be adorning some Christmas muffins.  The class seem to really enjoy having Vicky there as they seem to only do baking when a parent offers to go in to do it.

We went Christmas shopping in Newcastle on Thursday and dropped off a suit that we exchanged in Moss Bros to cousin Claire for their upcoming wedding.  While we did not get much shopping don in the end, it was a lovely day out and was great to be able to stretch Tina’s legs – her first time out in almost a month sadly 🙁  We ascertained that Tin’a heated seats are indeed not functioning correctly so Simon has her booked into JCT 600 Aston Martin in Leeds next Tuesday and has already found that their standard hourly rate is 125 UKP plus VAT (gulp !!) Let’s hope it is a quick job to figure out and that the warranty company will cover most of it.  They (he warranty company) only cover up to 75UKP (inc VAT) for the hourly rate so we are going to be out of pocket whatever happens 🙁

Daddy and Uncle Tim went out fo a bike ride into the guts of Ossett this morning and came back worn out (so daddy did) and very dirty.  It was exceptionally cold first thing as well – daddy lost the feeling in his thumbs for a little while 🙁

We are heading to Thomas Land tomorrow for a bit of festive railways – Olly does not yet know [that we are going] but will LOVE it there 🙂

Finally, Simon has re-commenced fitness training with Greg on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings before taking the boys to school.