Simon received an email from the Land Rover dealership this morning pointing out that his first MoT is due while we are away on holiday. So, in the discussion that followed (ie should we book it in or wait until we get back) we realised that he would fail the test because he needs new tyres :-(.

It became clear that we needed to make the tyre purchase happen sooner than we had planned so we did a quick bit of research and found that black circles have a pretty good deal for a Pirelli set – we found that the Pirelli is the current OEM tyre from Land Rover, so that helped in the decision making process easier. So, on Saturday morning, a local tyre fitter is going to install 4 new Pirellis for £900. The Continental tyres (existing ones) would have cost a little over £1000 and the Pirelli are apparently better in the wet and also should last a little longer while being quieter on the road 🙂 So an all round win 🙂

To top this all off, Bruce also has an expiring Warranty during the holiday – that’s a further £1045 – OR a £1045 chaser as Vicky called it 🙂

Given the challenges with his brakes, we will more than likely get our money’s worth, so will pay the big bucks for that insurance cover 🙂

Oh, the fun of owning a large SUV :-(. Good job he is a tremendous motor….

In swimming lesson this morning, the teacher took off Elliot’s armbands and then finally his float (they were practising backstroke with their legs only) – he did two half lengths of the pool with no assistance 😀

Yay for Elliot

The teacher then proceeded to take all but one arm band (on each arm) from Oliver and he also did it 🙂

Oliver actually has a slightly better looking style and sets off with real determination.

They are both really benefitting from the lessons with Splish Splosh and are going to be pretty well setup for their holiday I a few weeks 🙂

Were the words that Oliver shouted out in terror as he saw an Alsatian sat on its owners driveway on the walk back from Martial Arts tonight. Had Daddy laughing for a little while…. 😀

We finally bought Elly a bike that is the right size and took him out tonight for 30 minutes to get his first practise on the new wheels. Within 10 minutes of daddy just holding his shirt at the back he told daddy to stop holding his shirt. OK, so let’s see what happens we thought…. wow he was pretty good considering he has never rode without training wheels – proves that the strategy of getting them going in the scooters may have worked….

Check out the short video to see his progress – and keep watching for Super Olly at the end 🙂 time for him to get going on a bike with pedals it seems….