Preparations.

Over the last few days we have been trying to sort ourselves out.  Paul goes back to work at sea and flies out tomorrow; I am going with him.  We have been purchasing a few items we need to take with us, unpacking and re-packing for the next few months at sea. 

In the middle of it all, the weather has been nice so on Saturday Paul felt it would be good to take the quadbike out and take it for one last spin before we put it into a lock-up garage.  The quadbike was a bit low on fuel but fortunately Paul had a jerrycan of petrol in the his mum's garage so he could fill up the tank.  Unfortunately the quadbike's fuel cap wouldn't open, no matter what Paul did.  He eventually asked neighbour, who has a motorbike, to have a quick look but to no avail.   Paul ended up going to garage where he had the quadbike serviced and I followed behind in the car in case he ran out of petrol.  It turns out that fuel cap was broken so Paul purchased another one and then we went to the nearest petrol station.  There was a car wash across the road from the petrol station so Paul decided to get car washed - it needed it after weeks of being on the road.  It was a big mistake.  The spoiler broke in car wash, the garage owners not taking any responsibility however we were told to bring the car back on Monday back on Monday to get it fixed.  I cried on way home, very frustrated at so many things going wrong.

Our quadbike ride route.

On Sunday we took the quadbike out for a ride, popping across the border into Belgium and back again, making use of unpaved roads as and when possible.  It was a nice scenic drive.  We finally put the quadbike in a lock-up garage and the car too, where they will stay for the next couple of months while we are away. 

Today Paul and I made use of the online check-in for our KLM flight to Los Angeles.  Mine went smoothly enough however Paul's didn't.  The online check-in would not allow him to continue to the seat selection because he didn't have a USA ESTA visa.  Because he is a sailor, he doesn't need it - he has other work visas and documents.  In the end he ended up applying, separately, for an ESTA visa and it was approved; yet the KLM website still wouldn't allow Paul to check in online.  Because Paul's office had booked our flights separately (why, we don't know) it means we usually don't get seats together so as and when we check in online we look at the seating plan and try to change our seats so that we can sit next to each other.  This time it wasn't going to happen, by the looks of things.  In the end Paul rang KLM's booking office and after a long wait of nearly ½ an hour he got through only to get cut off by mistake whilst moving his hands to reach for some paperwork.  Frustration is ...  He dialled again and eventually got through after holding on for about 40 minutes.  The KLM representative managed to check Paul in and gave us seats next to each other.  However, when we looked online at upgrading our seats to extra leg room seats we discovered Paul was seated at the back of the aeroplane.  Just as well we had checked!  We managed to get seats together online and printed our confirmation tickets out. 

Betty's fish bowl needed cleaning so the poor fish were relocated to another smaller (cooking!) bowl, while their large bowl was emptied and cleaned out.  In the meantime one of the snails tried to make a quick getaway out of its temporary accommodation and I had to persuade him to turn around and go back.  All done and dusted then it was time to finalise our packing.

It's now quite late and we have an early start in the morning.