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.

We chose not to buy side steps for Bruce when we bought him a month or two ago as the cost just felt too prohibitive – £800 PLUS fitting. Typically though, as we have seen many Sports as we have been plodding around, we see that the steps really set the car off well, and actually Elliot would benefit from them as he really struggles to get in easily 🙁

A quick trip around google helped us locate some steps online for £300 delivered to the door and self fitting would be the order of the day. well yesterday was fitting day, and Uncle Tim kindly offered to help as his bike ride fell through due to a tanker load of Marmite being deposited on the M1 motorway, closing it for several hours. Thinking it would be a two hour job we set off at 11am, having already been down to halfords to buy a tool to help remove the Tim from underneath the doors etc. It ended up taking nearer to four hours and as a result we ended up finishing the job in the dark AND in the rain 🙁

The steps do look stunning however,can’t we’re more than worth the cost differential. What do you think?

Vicky is in school today baking with Elliot’s class – funny though as the school have had to do all sorts of police checks on her to make sure that she is suitable to work with the children 🙂

Tomorrow is the big day for Elliot – Ralph the Reindeer 🙂 10am

This Thursday we are going to St Hilda’s to watch Elliot’s school concert – Ralph the Reindeer.  Elliot has been singing the songs and practicing his lines over the last few weeks, and seem genuinely excited about it.  When we collect him tonight from school he will have had his face painted as part of a dry run today 🙂 We’ll see how well he has taken to the face painting aspects…

This last weekend Simon and Tim went out for a meal and drinks with the Gleddings crew in Halifax – was very nice to catchup again (for Simon) and meet for the first time for Tim.  We went to the Design House which is in the Dean Clough area of the town near the North Bridge Leisure Centre – there would certainly not be any passing traffic, so the patrons need to know that it exists.  It was a good meal at the right price, and we had a lot of fun chatting with old friends.  Guess we’ll see if Tim goes next year – will tell whether he really enjoyed it 🙂

Olly woke up this morning feeling rather ill following waking in the night with a fever 🙁  So we watched the Polar Express in 3D – the best 3D movie we have seen yet – will have to watch it with Elliot this weekend 🙂

A fun day yesterday with Rich, Clare, Ben and Alex – we finished up by heading out to the Hollywood Bowl on Kirkstall Road in Leeds 🙂 The boys sort of had fun  both V tired – big sleeps required this week 🙂

We (Simon, Vicky and Tim) managed to get out on the bikes this weekend – we head down to Sherwood Pines (South of Sheffeild and North of Nottingham) on Saturday – it was a nice day and we started out on the blue run – a nice leisurely 6 mile trail.  While it was not for Tim, it was a good starter trail for Vicky and Simon, with a little whinging from the pair of them ref sore behinds etc.  The bike carrier proved to be spot on and now that we are used to popping the bikes on the trailer, we will be able to attach the bikes back on in a much shorter time from now on.

We have decided that while Sherwood Pines was a really nice trail center, it took over an hour to get there and then the same again to get home – it is just too far away sadly.  We therefore need to find something much closer to home 🙂

On Sunday, we ventured into the 3D televisual land and have bought a moderately priced 47″ LED TV that has 3D and a 3D Blu-Ray player.  It has been installed in the Lounge along with a pseudo surround sound bar that we managed to get in the deal at around 50% off 🙂 The sound is tremendous and it is great to have a large screen for the room again (we have been using Tim’s 32inch screen, which in itself is a big screen, but just seems dwarfed in the room – plus our aging eyes were struggling with any text on the screen 🙁

Today, Elliot has had a day off school (foundation day – whatever that means :-s) so we all went to Meadowhall to see Father Christmas.  The boys were pleased to see him and both had reasonably lengthy lists of items that they would very much like for him to bring for them in 34 days….