Aidan had another big adventure last weekend in going to Skipton to see Chris’s friend Emma and her baby Jasmine (Jazza).

Here’s Aidan at the start of the trip.

He’s very happy to be in his new car seat since it means he can now see out of the car like a ‘big’ boy.

We left around 10:15 in the morning and didn’t make it to Emma’s house until 3:50 in the afternoon. This was mostly due to the fact that there was quite a bit of construction with average 50 mph sections. We were even stuck not moving at all for about 15 minutes at one point. Not what you want when trying to escape on holiday.

The first night was fairly calm. Aidan had trouble getting to sleep in the travel cot even though we brought an extra pad for the bottom of it. Can’t blame him really, I’d probably cry if I had to sleep in it.

On Saturday, we got up and went into town and went to check out Skipton Castle. The website says, “Over 900 years old, Skipton Castle is one of the most complete and best preserved medieval castles in England.” You can read more about it here.

So I finally sold something on eBay. I’ve been buying stuff for ages, but haven’t ever sold anything.

Since the bikes are costing more money than my wife is probably comfortable with – and – since we are running out of space in our flat, I thought it was about time I got rid of some stuff I hadn’t used in ages.

The first things to go were my old cameras. I had a Nikon F80 SLR film camera (remember those?) and lens combination that cost me around £300 when I bought it new, but that I haven’t used in ages. It’s been sitting packed up in its box on my shelf gathering dust, so it was time to go.

I sold it last night for £80, which is about what I thought I’d get for it. I would like to have made £100, but “C’est la vie”.

I also put my Mamiya medium format camera kit up, but it hasn’t met the reserve price yet, so I’m leaving it up there for now. You can bid on it here if you so desire.

Anyway, the first sale was a nightmare. The buyer wrote me to say he was trying to pay, but the system was blocking his payment. It took me absolutely ages to work out that my default currency on PayPal was still set to USD instead of GBP. Once I changed that, it was ok.

So I emailed him back and asked him to try it again. No dice. It was now trying to charge him VAT (sales tax) but there’s no VAT on this type of sale. So it was back into the depths of the help systems on eBay and PayPal.

I finally found the setting that controls VAT charges and was able to disable it. Email the buyer again and ask him to try again. SUCCESS! WOOHOO!

Sad, I know. Oh well, it should be better next time. Isn’t that what we always tell ourselves?

Well, the tow bar (trailer hitch in US-speak) has finally been installed on the car, so I can go pick up the new trailer when we get back from Yorkshire on Monday.

I know that probably isn’t terribly exciting for most of you, but it is a major step in my getting the TM up and running so I can go do some off-road riding. I’ve had that bike for several months now, but haven’t been able to ride it ‘in anger’ yet, so the prospect of actually being able to get out there is very exciting for me.

Chris, Aidan and I are all going to see a lady named Emma who lives in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

You can see from the push-pin that it’s pretty far away as far as the UK is concerned.

I’ve only ever been to Leeds ‘up norf’ before, so it should be interesting. I’ll try to take loads of pictures and maybe some video if I get the chance.