5th May - We woke up under canvas and had bacon and sausages for breakfast on the barbeque and then took a look around the kit show.It is full of various types of kit cars, some of them extremely beautiful, as well as lots of stalls selling everything from clothing to newspapers and mechanical items.Today was bright and sunny and we packed the tent up and set off back to Ralph's parents in the early afternoon to sit in the garden (while Ralph's poor dad worked around us!) and bask in the sunshine.We went out to a local pub for a drink to see if one of Ralph's old friends was there, and ended up sharing fish and chips for supper.

6th - Nothing much planned but my sister Kariss has a deadline of today to hand in 4 essays at university and she is stressed out and has only had an hours sleep.This being the case I have offered to go over to Lincoln after 4 p.m. (deadline time) to take her for tea (she never eats properly when she has been stressed) and take her out for the day tomorrow to forget all about the horrors of the last week.I set off at about 5 p.m. and arrived just after 6, and it was great to see Kariss looking so happy after the hard work she has had to do.It was a lovely warm evening and so we went to eat at Nando's on the Lincoln waterfront and then went back to her halls to watch crap television and a film, a perfect night's relaxation. Today, Ralph spent much of the day doing a few little jobs for him mum & dad while he was around and the rest of the time working on his novel. He's about half way through now - slow progress since he's been working on it for over six months!

7th - Kariss and I got up and set off in the warm sunshine to go to Skegness.On the way we called in to get Kariss some replacement sunglasses for the ones I managed to break last night and then called into see AC and UJ at their caravan just outside Skegness.It was lovely to see them and take a look around the caravan, complete with flat screen tv!We then headed into Skegness and went for dinner before unfortunately having to head back pretty quickly as I had other things planned for the evening, but at least we had had a day out somewhere a bit different.We drove back to Lincoln where I dropped Kariss back off and then drove back to Ralph's parents to collect the faithful old Nissan Micra and drove it back to Barnsley so it could be taken into my dad's garage tomorrow for its MOT. Ralph spent the day on his novel and then left his parents' house, after a nice few days spent catching up with them, and drove to Doncaster to have a drink with a couple of his old work mates (including Darran - who we stayed with in North Carolina).

8th - Got up and took the Micra to dad's garage for the MOT, how much would this cost us??!We called in at Meadowhall for Ralph to buy some new jeans to replace the ones he had split (!!) and then headed to see my nannan, who was looking very smart as she had been to her Thursday morning bingo at the library.After a good chat with her we headed to Cannon Hall in Cawthorne, Barnsley, a 70 acre country estate.There we enjoyed a picnic in the sunshine supplied by Greggs and Co-op, but eventually got chased away by the large amount of bugs we seem to have this year already.

9th - We went in to Sheffield to get an engagement present for our friends Michelle and Andrew and then headed to one of Ralph's favourite restaurants, Chiquito, for fajitas, just like being back on the West coast of America!We then headed to Penistone in Barnsley to feed carrots to some donkeys we found yesterday whilst on the way to Cannon Hall, and then spent 40 minutes at a blood donor session only for Kirsty to be told that she cannot give blood until they get her doctors consent because of her heart murmur.I then went into Barnsley to play snooker and pool with Kirsty's dad and Kirsty spent the evening making 4 trips in to Barnsley to ferry the rest of the family in and back from the pubs! The cost of getting the Micra through the MOT came in at around £400 - considerably less than the cost of a replacement vehicle, so it looks like the old faithful Micra will be recommissioned for a gruelling slog around Europe. At least we have a month or two around the UK to check that she is up to the task!

10th - We spent the day sorting out the suitcases ready for the next part of our trip so that I could drop the ones we don't need off at my parents' in Nottingham tomorrow.We also put up the massive trampoline for Kirsty's parents', which amazingly took over an hour to do, and had a lovely barbeque in the evening, to celebrate the warm weather and the fact that Kariss is home from university for the summer.

11th - Kirsty headed to her friend Jenny's house as they were in for a day at the seaside, Bridlington on the East coast.The weather was again hot, as it has been all week, and they had a good journey there and managed to fit in fish and chips, donuts, a ride on the log flume, a ride on a speedboat out at sea and a pub drink before heading back.I drove to Nottingham (and my beloved Hooter's Bar) to meet an old uni friend I've not seen since he came to our wedding. I spent a few hours catching up with Gary and then drove back to collect Kirsty.