2011 Summary

What a year...

Back in January, the days lengthened and I started looking forwards to the year, but we were met with the sad news of the loss of a good friend, he would have laughed so much if he's known that on the day of his funeral in February we would be sitting with other good friends in Cheddar, drinking red wine and I'd be bidding to purchase a 24 year old vehicle for no better reason than I wanted one to have fun with.

I won and then being terrified stated as I wondered what I had done. No way to stop things now and I arranged insurance and road tax and by the end of that month, with a few adventures in Preston to go with it we had collected her. In March the hard work began. So much of that has been a learning experience that it's hard to reflect on how little I knew back then... Mind you I am not sure even now whether I realise how much more there is to learn.

April was a real set-back being recovered home on the back of a truck from Hopwell Services on the M42 having learned that the gearbox(s) were shot and therefore May was a month of trying to work out what to do about it, ordering parts and making preparation

June came along and so did the new gearboxes and I had wonderful fun installing them with help from Steve, so in July we had our first real adventure camping in Anglesey and cooking in the rain

In August we learned how much she leaked in Pembrokeshire and I made a start on what I nwo understand will be a lifetime in water prevention and I gave up on the electrics and had someone else do it, and then in September we all went to a wedding together which was real fun

In October I failed to fit a new exhaust a few times and I learned the ancient martial art of waxoyling. I also got a copy of Katy's military history and we joined a Land Rover club 

In November I fitted some exhaust sections and learned that some more needed doing, but I didn't have the parts

In December with all the parts I finally got the new exhaust in place and I have started to look into some of the next things I need to do

I know a lot of my friends tune into this blog from time to time, and I've met a whole bunch more people on-line and in person in the local Land Rover club that I don't know well yet so I think I'd like to say to my friends old and new, readers and anyone just dropping in

My best wishes to anyone who's enjoyed reading this in 2011 and my thanks to those who have helped so far. especially Rhian who's put up with me on some bad days during this project and will have that joy again I'm sure

I didn't start this as blog as anything other than an on-line diary of an adventure, but from some comments (BTW If you are enjoying it I'd lve to hear about it through a comment) and links made to the blog from other websites, it is clear that it is starting to be of use to come people and therefore it will be continuing. 

I will start to add a few articles about things I've learned and other items of Land Rover interest from time to time, but  the essence will remain a story of our adventures  together. 

 Happy New year for 2012 !