Landy Lundi - SNAP

Nogbad got a head-start on me today unfairly using the UK control of GMT. However I got the last laugh and could load my Blip and shout "SNAP". And before anybody comes up with idea of saying mine is LHD and his RHD - he took his photo using a mirror.

This 110 belongs to one of the employees at our local agricultural suppliers, Managed to have a quick word with him about it's history. It is a 2008 model, i.e. not with the previous BMW (celebrating their 100th birthday today) engine. He bought it second hand from a dealer near Cordoba in Spain who seems to be big time in 4x4 . He took a plane from nearby Memmingen to Malaga for 50 Euros, hired a one way car to Cordoba and drove the 2500 km back here, needing two days and sleeping in the back. He is very pleased with it, has had no trouble.  As he said "You either love em or hate em"  (in Bavarian)- he is the former. The Defender started life in white. Seemingly many of the vehicles are from the Spanish Government fleet who want white paint jobs and used by officials who don't really need 4x4, so they haven't seen any hard work. However white and Land Rover is not popular on the 2nd hand market, so the dealer resprays them. He thinks he saved about 4000 Euros on the deal compared to one on the German used market.

I won't make any connection between the Defender and the sign above it "Agricultural"!

Weather wise OK - cold but sun did appear quite a lot although during the morning walk in sunshine, snowflakes kept appearing.

Day was not as uplifting as I hoped. A dear friend in the UK who I have talked of lots and once posted a Blip of about 40 years ago, sent an e-mail. I was thrilled to read she had got the postcard I mentioned in a Blip a few weeks ago  and was going to frame it - a simplified map of central London in the early 70's, our common stomping ground for work and pleasure (not the same employer or workplace!). I haven't seen her since but was horrified to hear that someone in her family has contracted a very nasty illness - myeloma. Luckily she and the entire family are taking it on very positively and my thoughts will be with them as they go about tackling it. I kept asking why? Why does it happen to such a good person and why to Annie as a spectator, who grew up with her father bed stricken through MS and now so looking forward to retiring at the end of the year after a lifetime in the NHS herself. As always, no answer came - such news puts a lot of things in to perspective. All the positive vibes I can send are winging their way across the Channel.