Author Archives: Toby White

About Toby White

I'm a doer!

We’ve moved house!

Toby writing this blog post

Toby writing this blog post

I’m sitting here on our new patio in the shade, the sun is shining, and finally I have been able to catch a breather… for a little while at least.

This post is a somewhat belated update. We moved back in January and have been in our new home in Terrington St Clement for 6 months. It has been a rollercoaster. We’ve finally had some electrical work completed ensuring our ~60 yr old chalet bungalow won’t spontaneously combust or electrecute someone (slight exageration).

The workshop (all 25ft of it, including inspection pit) is and was the selling point (for me at least) as well as garden with lawns worthy of a ride on mower. We managed to secure a couple of mowers with the sale, both in varying degrees of disrepair, but at the moment functioning. We’ve finally got space and a detatched property. I can play Slayer at midnight (only attempted once so far, but why not!) and can play the surround sound for films loudly without disturbing anyone. We’re in a cul-de-sac far enough away from main roads for our two cats and have friendly neighbours.

Frontage

Frontage

I wouldn’t recommend moving in January into an older property. We soon misjudged how much heating oil we were quite literally going to burn through to keep an older home heated. We had our front door and patio doors replaced with double glazing as a matter of urgency, for both security and heating purposes, but 90% of the others either need replacing or are still single glazed… so this is a priority.

As always my lovely wife has kept me on the straight and narrow, and my parents have been a tremendous help in clearing the garden. We’ve now got a garden incinerator bin and a garden waste bin, and the works continue.

In the house, much DIY works continue and I’m nearing completion of updating security features including CCTV and outside lighting.

Front and garden

Front and garden

I’ve been able to get out and about in the Mazda and my other German motorcar will soon be returning and have a warm place to live.

 

 

 

 

I should also add that both me and my wife have been able to move to Norfolk thanks to being able to work from home! If you have the opportunity to move out somewhere where there’s less hustle and bustle, and a more relaxed pace of life, then I would highly recommend it.

A quick look to 2024!

The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan

I’ve lived in Northampton for 9 years, and I’m currently in the process of boxing up our house. It’s a weird feeling. Lots of people have moved multiple times. There are items I’m clearing out that I hadn’t cleared out when moving from my parents in 2014. But on the grand scheme of things, haven’t hoarded too many items.

My wife has a big collection of books, that and clothes and shoes, seems to make up the majority of items we’re in the process of boxing up.

I have already moved one car, the Porsche is being worked on, and I’m going to start organsing the rented garage ready for boxing. We have all but cleared the loft already.

I’ve nearly lived 1/3 of my life in Northampton and my wife has known no different so moving away from here will feel strange.

A lot has happened in the past years, both good and bad… but ultimately we have outgrown our current home and I need a bigger space to work on my cars, which I’ll be getting.

The biggest change will be for my wife. I’m lucky, that I can work from home. She will also be continuing with her current job, but traveling back to collect work material, so she can continue to make shoes.

Our cats will also need to adjust to a new house, but they will be pleased to be getting a much larger garden, I’m sure.

To everyone, hopefully the New Year will be productive and rewarding!

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Brandenburger Tor, Berlin

Brandenburger Tor, Berlin

Albeit slightly delayed, I wanted to write about my recent travels to Berlin for a friend’s Stag!  I write this as I longily look back to the Indian Summer we had in early September, where the temperatures hit the 30s (C) for a long weekend. Probably not the best combination when planning on drinking copious amounts of beer!

This was my first trip abroad this year, and only extended break from work following a week away in Norfolk.

We set off early on the Friday morning. I was lucky to get a lift so was able to relax a little to the airport. We missed the junction to Stansted off the M11, so not a good start.. but we made it with plenty of time to spare.

We got our bags dropped and through security, where we could relax a little.

This was my first trip to Berlin, and although I am half German, hadn’t made it there yet. I have family near Dusseldorf and in Hamburg.

Following delays getting through airport security on the German side (lots of jokes relating to German efficiency) we managed to get an Uber and get to our AirBnb. At this point we were fairly ravished, so headed out to find food and beer! We managed to find the German equivalent of Weatherspoons so got stuck in for lunch.

Next, our plans were to see some history, before we drank too much. We hopped on the U-Bahn and checked out Brandenburger Tor, the Rathouse, and the Wall. The weather was beautiful whilst we walked round taking in the sights.

We returned in the evening for a traditional beer hall event, with music and lots of steins. We bumped into lots of friendly people and all had a good laugh.

The next day was a rather slow start, but we had a beer bike booked so needed to get ready and into town. We managed to split off and get some breakfast and headed to our location. The idea was to eat something to line our stomachs. The weather was going to be hot and we were all dreading a beer bike in the heat. I remembered sun cream and wore my hat constantly. That and my forward thinking bringing electrolyte powder with me (saved me).  It’s also true that a lot of local UK beers have impurities which tend to cause a fuzzy head the next day. The heat and lots of walking kept us drinking lots of water too anyway.

We had a great time, with many additional breaks added in. These were definitely needed as the weather was very hot and we were out in the middle of the day.

We got some good recommendations of places to go and visit and stopped off at a nice river side location called “Holzmarkt” lots of pop-up bars and restaurants. We got really good homemade pizza! I was equally surprised how many places still didn’t take card (compared with Hamburg where everywhere takes it, certainly since Covid).

This is getting quite lengthy now, so keep an eye out for part 2!