coseperlacasa's activity

Hello We can help with this. We run a freight service across Europe, but most especially between Le Marche and the UK as we live in Civitanova. Our next run, and the last before Christmas, would be able to bring your goods to Marche in the first week of December. There are details and pretty pictures on our website (www.philipwhitefreight.com). Contacts are below: Tel (UK): +44 (0)7767 887494 Tel (Italy): +39 349 849 7808 Skype: white.phil All best Phil

Blimey, what a source of information you lot are. Particularly liking the Carrefour Ancona tip! Up North, do try to deviate through Luxembourg. At 96 cents/litre, you can make significant savings on a tankful. And for goodness' sake brim the vehicle before entering UK. Shocking, shocking price (£1.25ish per litre for diesel, and HM Govt sticks you for a premium if you dare to use 'heavy oil' in order to get better gas mileage. Cheeky stronsi). Otherwise, Alan is right - if you can be bothered to stray from the Autoroutes in France, you'll find better coffee and cheaper fuel than on the accursed things. I actually carry coffee in flasks to get me through either Germany or France. After six months of this freight business malarkey, I've refined actual coffee-buying stops down to Italy only. Germany's is rubbish and costs a fortune, Austria's and Luxembourg's, and Belgium's, is criminally bad and just as expensive. France serves decent beverages for UK prices. Ditto food. The UK is unforgivably bad, but at least you can escape from motorways in search of roadside stops or old-fashioned greasers which do passable grub for achievable money. The Costa Coffee route is only for the desperate or unwary…

I'd take up Kingspan on its kind offer, to be honest. If it can get 10 metres cubic down there for that price, bite its arm off. That is, if it can sort out any import issues (there shouldn't be as VAT is paid already). Your other stuff might be worth taking down in a hire van. Alternatively, one of my ilk, including myself, would be happy to help with that if your time is better spent not at the wheel for three days each way. But Kingspan is offering a good rate there for the board. Generally, UK building materials work out much cheaper and better than Italian. I've run quite a bit of stuff down, from gates, through bathroom suites and radiators to flooring (ceramic and wood). Tragically, even paying me to take this works out economically. Having visited a building show recently in Marche however, I can see why. Prices of home-grown stuff are astronomical. If anyone needs links to good sources of building supplies in the UK I'll happily pass them on...

It's probably feasible, if you can find a shipping company that will run to Bari, then truck it to your door. The container will cost about two grand to buy (a mate of mine who farms in Cornwall bought one). Lord only knows what the shipping would be, though. All told though, it's a bit of an expensive shed, which is then the work of the Madonna to cut holes in for windows, power, etc. And you need to make sure the locals aren't going to take offence with it in the garden. Where we are, the comune would have a baby if we tried that on. Shamelessly blowing my own bugle here, I could get you a 14 cubic metre vanload to Puglia for considerably less than the cost of buying a container and shipping it. You could throw a flat-packed workshop/shed in there too, if you fancied!

Thanks for the reference, Alan. FYI, the Philip White Freight van run seems to be a monthly affair nowadays. Bikes and quads are a pretty transportable item.

Blushing. Thanks very much for kind words you all! I'm not terribly insecure by nature, but it is lovely to be plauded. I'll carry on, then... I did a wonderful thing a couple of weeks ago. I completed my removal work like a good boy, then went off to our old stamping ground of Sheffield to do a whole bunch of errands. One of these was a trip to Thai Panna, the local South-East Asian food store. I'm now restocked on green and red curry paste, plus yellow and Masaman. Also tamarind for Joy (strange tastebuds, these Pinoys) and even better, freeze-dried lemon grass and galangal. Hurrah! Lidl's good for coconut milk - when they have it, buy the lot! I'll be doing the whole thing again at the end of the month. Next stop, Mr Shah's, Abbeydale Road. We need Indian spices... And I forgot lime leaves. Oops!

Blushing. Thanks very much for kind words you all! I'm not terribly insecure by nature, but it is lovely to be plauded. I'll carry on, then... I did a wonderful thing a couple of weeks ago. Having completed my removal work like a good boy, then went off to our old staming ground of Sheffield to do a whole bunch of errands. One of these was a trip to Thai Panna, the local South-East Asian food store. I'm now restocked on green and red curry paste, plus yellow and Masaman. Also tamarind for Joy (strange tastebuds, these Pinoys) and even better, freeze-dried lemon grass and galangal. Hurrah! Lidl's good for coconut milk - when they have it, buy the lot! I'll be doing the whole thing again at the end of the month. Next stop, Mr Shah's, Abbeydale Road. We need Indian spices... And I forgot lime leaves. Oops!

It's worth trying a local wood place, but make sure they understand you need pressure treated (tannalised) decking. Tis worth trying Big Mat and Obi (Ancona for the latter). Brico is useless for such North European affectations.

One thing we've found is that materials are exceptionally expensive over here. This is a tragedy for everyone except me obviously, as I've ended up bringing quite a bit of building stuff over from the UK for a variety of clients, as well as machine tools from machine mart and stuff from Screwfix. Even France is a cheaper source. To perspectivise it, some friends recently used me to bring 220 sq metres of tiles and oak floorboards over from the UK. Despite the transport cost involved they saved over £4k and got better quality kit than available here. The experience was similar with bathroom suites and wall tiles.

My segue into construction in Essex used beautiful hardwood decking from the following source, which we'd thoroughly recommend: http://www.ajsmith.uk.com/deckinghardframes.htm

They do softwood as well, but might be worth going the extra mile (50% more cost if you use invisible fixings, which creates an amazing look. Can send you a pic of my - if I say it myself - stunning creation to demonstrate this). Hardwood will better resist the dreaded boring insects which are so at home in timber constructions hereabouts. The US-standard stuff is thus, as over there termites etc are a frequent issue.

Thanks for your kind words. Phil's currently on the road doing a removal (Le Marche to UK). He'll be thrilled to know he's made people smile. Kind regards. Joy

Might be worth having a look in Germany. Well-maintained cars are available there, and you can get the train up to buy. Much best to take it straight to the UK, MoT and tax it, then return to Italy.