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TEXT ONLY for 2009 Card
Wishing You a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2010
The first real frosts of winter provide the opportunity to sit back and think on the year just past, and perhaps too, to the year to come...
For us, 2009 was a more relaxed one that its predecessor; we spent more time at home concentrating on other projects. Just like in the traditional rhyme, February brought the snow - in fact several inches fell here in Owlsmoor, the garden gained a thick cap of snow, and there were snowmen in the Avenue!
Railway activities began the year with the annual G-scale dinner held at Arlesford on the Watercress line, preceded by a return trip on the steam train. Having been asked to assist on the Scandinavian Railway Society Stand at the Eurotrack Exhibition outside Southampton, Phil decided to develop his Scandinavian layout idea to create a portable scenic layout specifically to display moving rolling stock, this enabled us to play trains for the duration of the show and a good time was had by all.
In April we took a short break to Devon, visiting the folks and cats, catching up on progress at the Lynton and Barnstaple, and train ride to South Devon, along the Dawlish Sea Wall. Though not warm, the weather was kind and it was a full day of sun trains and sea With thoughts straying to the summer ahead we stopped off on the way home to look at second-hand camper-vans. This was the start of our year long project! May saw us attending 'Eastleigh 100' celebrating 100 years of the locomotive works, and a huge festival of trains under full sun.
Bruksbanen, Lin's portable G-scale shunting puzzle was invited to the Railway day at Hollycombe Steam Museum and Edwardian Fairground. It proved popular and was invited
back later in the year.
Garden visits continued throughout the year, along with attendance at the Swiss Railway Society events, held in Southampton library, conveniently close to IKEA!
With an ongoing drop in opportunities, Phil finally took the plunge and mothballed
Fillin Ltd. This freed the funds for our new project - a camper-van. The first
step was the purchase of an ex-demonstrator Maxus van, with less than 1,000 miles on the clock, and collected the day LDV went into administration. This was followed by extensive planning and measuring sessions, and comparisons, to determine the layout that would satisfy our specific requirements; which involved 'no gas' and easy transport of Railway Baseboards and Stock!
After many years and nearly 180,000 miles stalwart service, we decided that time was approaching to replace our Discovery, and whilst it was passing its MoT at the County Garage, Phil chose a successor, which he arranged to collect just prior to our summer expedition.
July saw the marriage of our niece Amanda to John, in a traditional English summer
wedding (following plenty of rain) in Hereford (where Hurricanes Hardly Ever Happen) including a beautifully decked marquee and a jazz band. After which we headed off to Scandinavia.
We chose to take the Ferry from Harwich to Esjberg again this year, and to 'go clockwise' for a change; heading up the west coast of Jutland, appreciating the beautiful countryside in this part of Denmark. We visited the bunker museum in Hirtshals' German Defence installation from WWII complete with its own ammunition train! There are a large number of large concrete bunkers still visible around the coast.
From here, we took the ferry from Hanstholm across to Larvik in Norway, still a thriving holiday route. We found a really pretty campsite overlooking Tyrifjorden south-west from Hønefoss, from where we visited the Hadeland Glassverk where we watched large decorative plates being hand blown - quite different to the Swedish thunderbottles! In Oslo we visited Louise, and in Hamar re-acquainted ourselves with the Norsk Jernbane Museum.
Crossing the border into Sweden, we stopped off at Bengtsfors to visit the DVVJ taking the elderly railbus down to Mellerud and back, a thoroughly enjoyable journey despite the rain! From here it was a short trip down to Alingsås and a campsite we knew with a good swimming lake. The weather, and water were warm. Lin's friend Eva then let us stay in her summerhouse; waking up to silence, and seeing nothing but trees from the windows - not to mention being surrounded by delicious blueberries! Many many thanks Eva! With Mikael and Kristina we visited the Nordic Watercolour Museum on the island of Tjörn where there was an enthralling exhibition of the work of Elsa Beskow, a famous Swedish illustrator of Children's books.
There was time for a trip on the Anten Gräfsnäs railway, one way in an elderly white railbus, returning behind a huge Diesel, and passing the steamer en route. In Göteborg we saw the transformation of Mikael & Kristina's kitchen, and met up with Ulf (who arrived by
motorcycle). We also called in on the Hobbycenter to catch up with the latest model news.
Rounding off the holiday we took the Stena ferry from Göteborg to Fredrikshavn, and
calling in on a model shop and military transport museum in Alborg, on the way to Esbjerg.
We were offered a Commodore class upgrade on the return trip to Harwich giving us unlimited tea coffee and nibbles as well as a comfortable lounge.
Returning from holiday we collected the Maxus floored, lined & complete with windows
and solar panels; the interior fitting being Phil's project for the rest of the year. Late summer found us at Legoland Windsor, which, while not a patch on the original, is well worth a visit!
A further visit to Devon (collecting a new Single seat for the Maxus, from the County Garage) was extended to include the Exeter Large Scale Model Railway show, as well as a day travelling on the full-sized West Somerset Railway.
The 'Modular Team' also took centre stage at the G-Scale Solent Area Group's 'Winter Meet' in Wickham at the end of October, for the 'Modular Layout's' second appearance. It now has bookings for next year, and we hope it will expand further. Now we are looking forward to a winter planning trips and expeditions, and our first major trip will be Nord Kapp in early summer 2010.
We wish you all the very best for 2010.
rgds
Phil and Lin
Fillin Limited provided Technical Facilities for the RISC OS SE Show and SASAUG
And offered Technical Training for Broadcasters from 1989-2009.
The Company Name is being retained for possible Future Developments in new Areas
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