November 2014 – No Man’s Land

Spending November going through the process of transition from my job at PPP to a new role for which I have agreed (slightly limiting) terms with Amey plc (Built Environment division).

This has given opportunity to spend a few days at Tote Hill Granary, near Romsey, which is one of our favourite holiday hideaway locations (even in November rains); and to spend some time at home and about town in Hastings.

Still welcoming even in the rain

While we were in Hampshire, when it was possible to make an excursion between the showers, we went (again) to the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, shown below.

Autumnal colours

Since then we’ve also been moderately busy…mostly for me cleaning the recently rejuvenated decking, and trying to sort out my options for employment and transport at Amey; looks like company car will be best. They have proven not to be quick off the mark with paperwork, or planning, but I gather I’ll be in London meeting people and getting the lay of the land at a London site before being assigned my own responsibilities sometime in the New Year – which is good, as it’s worth spending some time to get to know the approach and practices etc.

Meanwhile we have had our first staying guests at ‘no. 27’, when John and Jo came for one night only, after deciding to come early for the Kings Church 40th Birthday Party in order to see Margaret W who has just had a serious operation.   They went on to stay elsewhere for that as previously arranged.

The party was a great reflection on the journey form ‘Upper Maze Hill’ to The Hastings Centre; Don was there, and several couples and one or two on their own from further afield and some time ago, which was great to see…..

March 2013

Muddy Mevagissey…,
Another few months and another illness drawing to its inevitable conclusion – life is a matter of seasons and this one carries some sadness as the older generation reaches its finishing post. We’ve been spending more time travelling to and from, and enjoying brief outings in, Cornwall as we visit Mum in the nursing home that is looking after her so well.

But there is a newer generation too, and a nephew of 2.5 years provides a lot of light relief in the midst of anything else!!  My camera and a new lens have and will have good bouts of exercise, until that subject too raises too many objections!!

We have been dealing with matters outstanding around the house after the distractions of our outage last year – replacement, and hence newly sealed, units for many of our windows, as well as a nice new, brightly glazed front door; and now a new consumer unit feeding its supply to more, and many newly doubled, power sockets!!  Only the failing garden fence left on the major to do list (and some smaller ambitions to decorate here and there noyt affected by the leakage).  Hoping to think about moving on sometime after this year so moderating our investment in the light of this – though still a desirbale small 4-bedroom home in a quiet location, for anyone who’s looking!!
I’ve been reading about writing, and how the best way to be a writer is to write, but still find the matter of having something to say (that’s worth anybody else reading…) something of a challenge – as you may be able to tell. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding, I shall try and post here more often, just for the exercise.

Posted using Tinydesk blog app

20-12-2012

Drawing towards the close of 2012, it feels like an eventful year. Glad to back in our own home, after four and a half months living with some very accommodating friends, though not quite now so glad which home that is, perhaps!! We realise we have had the living areas decorated at a massively ‘subsidised’ financial cost, courtesy of the insurance process, but continue to face challenges over heating, windows, electricals and the shower, not to mention the garden and boundaries, so the financial demands seem to be effectively endless! We are also conscious that my Mum is facing a difficult time through these past and coming months, which will be a tough journey, but are pleased we were able to visit Cornwall again and to see her in September to make her 50 years of faithful attendance at the Minack. 

The tide was out…..

We stayed in a very nice house tucked away in the middle of Helston, and enjoyed visiting a number of classic locations, including St Ives and St Michael’s Mount, as well as Eden and the Minack.   Cornwall’s beauty is very distinct, as many people observe, but it increasingly feels like the holiday annex to the rest of the country, which seems a great pity.

I have to say that the land and sea scapes still have a great pull on my affections – I’d like to spend more time in regular visits over the ‘older’ years to come.

Dr Jean Dance

b. April 1923 – d. August 2012

Lunch at the Bell in Sapperton

My relationship with Jean was maintained over a distance mostly of nearly 200 miles and always a gap of 35 years. She was a great Aunt in some key ways – always interested and faithful and generous in practical financial support. She paid my way through secondary school when I was able to start before taking my eleven plus, as I was just too young, and I’m sure she helped us when we were students in those days before we depended on student loans.

When I was young ‘Aunty Jean’ lived in a large and old house and drove a Morris Minor – in saloon or shooting break form. What stays in my mind from our times staying in Gloucester, whether in Tuffley Avenue (at her parents’ house) or Churchfield Rd in Upton St Leonards, is the preparation (for hours) and enjoyment of meals round the table; walks on Painswick beacon (golf course or quarry), and evenings watching TV!

Jean was always interested in matters musical and when we were young she played the piano to us when we stayed at Tuffley Avenue, as we did over many years at Christmas, later keeping track of our musical development with interest.

She would occasionally come to visit us in Cornwall, and one year came to stay while training at the then relatively new Treliske hospital. When Jean was with us a highlight of the stay would be lunch out – at the Brookdale Hotel in Truro particularly.

I guess most people had a relationship with Jean where at times (at least) she took the role of ‘Aunty Jean’, or ‘Dr Dance’. It was in her nature to seek to be in control.

Jean’s decline into poorer health and reduced mobility was a reminder that physicians too fall prey to the natural condition. I know that in better days Jean expressed her belief in ‘Christian values but not in a Christian God’, but even so I hope and pray that as she saw the end of things approaching she may have considered further.

In Jean’s last week I visited her to say thank you, and good-bye, and I encouraged her, if she were still able to hear and to respond, to call on Jesus to receive her into eternity with Him, and prayed for her that she would do so. It remains my prayer that she was able to embrace the possibility and throw herself on God’s mercy in the most important choice she would ever have made.

Summer Airy

I realise this is so out of date – but also has a very small audience (that is, restricted in number not height). I have been collecting loads of photos, using a new DSLR camera bought after several years of waiting, including many from a holiday in Hampshire, and several from a visit from Jan Baxendale (Whiting) from Vancouver, B.C. 35 years after we last spent any time together!!

Our stay in Hampshire (late June) was very pleasant, with great weather and some lovely gardens to visit – including Mottisfont, which has a national collection of ‘old fashioned’ roses, the Hillier Arboretum and Gardens, and a place called Houghton Lodge, with gardens and a beautiful riverside walk (and wildlife).

We also did Buckler’s Hard (quite good exhibition but a bit mundane to look at), Lymington, and Broadlands (quite bad, although the little they allow you now to see was just reopened after a massive refurbishment).  They play down the Mountbatten connection, and have removed a museum in his honour that was previously there.

We love the cottage, which we have stayed at before (in 2009), and this time also had visits from a young roe deer.

Since then, we had a couple of weeks back at work before Jan Whiting (as was) from Vancouver, who was at the student hostel with me (and visited us in St Agnes with a Canadian guy called Sydney, she reminded me).  She is visiting the UK for a couple of weeks and found me via Facebook.  She came to us for a couple of days before then going across and up country.  We kept her busy with a visit to Hastings, then another to Bodiam and Battle; a little history goes a long way with our North American friends!!

It was nice to see her, and have her stay with us at our friends’ house (they were away and out respectively most of the time!!), and to get caught up with 35 years of life and its happenings.

Today (Sun 22nd) we have been to Hastings to see the Red Arrows as the culmination of a Pirate Day extravaganza, reclaiming the ‘record’ pinched by Penzance after it was first established here a couple of years ago – they had 14,231 there today to reclaim the record, we gather.

I realise all of the above are far too may photos but my sharing facility makes it easier to upload the whole ‘album’ than to select only some (though I could do so with some more work, I know!).

Meanwhile the house has been ceritified as dry this week, which is great news.   We await an indication of when the first follow-on action will be arranged.  We have been looking at paints and paper to change the colours, and have to do so bearing in mind the furniture we have bought and paid for but had to leave in the warehouse until we can take delivery into the new living room!!  They need to strip eom wallpaper (painted) before plastering the areas uncovered, then papering and painting again, so probably some weeks before carpets are laid and we can move back in.

We have become used to our way of life where our house actually acts as a large cupboard while we live at Crowhurst, but will need to readjust to living in the cupboard again in due course!  I can walk to the train from here, but Stephen’s journey is further from here.

We are all four off from here to a wedding in Wales next weekend, so are looking forward to a few days together…..

Winter’s Here!

I’m so glad we had our insulation topped up a month ago!!  We are able to keep warm even in this weather.  I’ve even managed to  do some high rise boarding of one end of the loft to rise above the padding.

We have some good news for Stephen, with some moderation perhaps, as he has been accepted for a temporary position at the Child Support Agency – a difficult environment in a role he will not find easy, but an income nevertheless, and something to fill the gap on his c.v.

We expect Andrew will be even colder than all of us this weekend; he has a friend from school days visiting this weekend, and is preaching at the Darlington church next week.

I am supposed to be visiting Microsoft near Reading on Tuesday, but that may need to be postponed unless the roads are clear and the temperatures higher.

We have some fallow time today because there are no gatherings at church, but may have a go at finishing some shelves made up from pieces old wardrobe, to use inside our inherited fitted units…..I’ll never be any good at DIY, however, as I constantly prove to myself (and others)!

We were due to have some friends for lunch today so will be enjoying a casserole for the next few days….hope things are well with you where you are.

Snow has arrived!

New Home, New Year

At home today with a seasonal ailment, but time to reflect on our move and Christmas/New Year at Hoover Close.

We managed to get a lot sorted by Christmas – including recovering floor space in the living and dining rooms (by filling the garage completely with anything remaining un-unpacked!), and having a new shower enclosure fitted.  We had a gas hob fitted yesterday, to replace the ceramic predecessor, and are due to have loft insulation topped up tomorrow (though a subsidised energy efficiency scheme), and a new garage door and surround (unplanned) soon after.  A number of things seem near end-of-life 25 years after the house was built – and as it was not lived in full time I think had been left for the ‘new owners’.

We’ve ordered a new ‘suite’ (2 sofas and a separate faux-leather easy chair) after promising it for years, but still have a few things left on the procurement list!  All in its time.    A minor bugbear is that the digi-box keeps telling us the TV Aerial cable is short-circuiting, and freezes up (as a result?) – and I fear fixing / replacing this may be made more difficult once the loft is unmanageably full of insulation!!

We had a good time over Christmas – Andrew came home on 19th and was with us until the 3rd Jan, doing some studying and spending time with us and his local friends,  and we had time with Anne’s family (including the day itself at her sister’s with her partner and one year old son, who provided entertainment for all 8 adults throughout), as well as hosting Jon, Jenny and Mum here on 27th.

Apart from the furniture shopping in the sales, we hosted or visited  friends most days through to New Year – having a quiet meal with some friends on NY Eve.  We planned to have Anne’s folks on NY day, but Dad had a cold, so we only saw Caroline and Toby – who still came to see Andrew before he went back to Darlington.

Andrew is thinking he will live in ‘Darlo’ next year and commute to uni (20 mins by train) rather than find a house to share in Durham – both as this means he can more easily lodge rather than share, and he can be involved in the church there, where he spent his gap year, which both parties will be pleased about!  He plans to commute to church from this term, having found it less easy to become established in the related church in Durham.

Stephen had a few hours for a few weeks in Clinton Cards before Christmas, and was waiting to hear from the CSA by then about a role there – nothing yet but he gathers no-one else has heard either, so may still get an offer.  Otherwise he is interested in an apprenticeship with EDF at Dungeness – although initially training at a former naval base in Portsmouth for 2 years!!  This time being paid would make it a bit better than last time there, however.  He won’t get called for an interview until March or April, and wouldn’t start until September, so would still want something in the meantime.  It’s a very hard place being a NEET young man, growing up but with no resources and nothing very purposeful to do.

Anne is as busy as usual with church and ‘Hastings Centre’ catering on top of running the household, and we are both very happy with the house.

Our new home

We have great views towards Eastbourne and Beachy Head – but that’s also where all the windy and wet weather seems to come from!!  We also have a steep garden at teh back, and a road just behind, but the slope is terraced and we look forward to seeing what we can do with it.  It should be less demanding than the garden we created at Westfield!!

(We’ve learnt about estate agents’ wide angle lenses, by the way – the front driveway/parking is quite small and we hope to extend it a little into the grass to provide more hard standing).

So lots of separate things to do through 2012, as finances allow.  Not much chance of advancement at work, but hopefully we will find running costs much reduced along with our revised square footage!!

Going Down…..

Entering the autumn season for house sales; price dropped for fourth time – sliding down the market for our down pricer!! September or October – otherwise likely to wait until the new year!!

Garden has been lovely this summer. Tree full of apples, pond with a bright green frog – though s/he has hopped it or copped it recently, as s/he’s not been seen for a couple of weeks.

Actually, I de-hopped it last week by pulling down the abundant hop plant from our tree and fence near the pond, but I hope I haven’t just scared him away for good.

A great garden if you love cutting hedges and mowing lawns – sounds a pain but very satisfying for a short period when done!! (Short in every sense, I guess).

The patio always looks great, but we don’t use it enough – must remember that next time, perhaps (or get to use one more).

Holi-days

Late June and early July were good weeks for us.  We visited Darlington (related photos here), had a week at home then attended the annual (but final, in this form and location) ‘Brighton Conference‘ for the church family we belong to.    Both were refreshing and the second inspiring – the photos don’t quite communicate that!!

Since then we have had a couple of house viewers, but no offers, and we change agents this weekend.

So the praying habit continues!….

We have a new viewer who has accepted…

We have a new viewer who has accepted an offer on their house, coming to see us on Friday 8th July – pretty much a year after we started this process. Our hope and prayer is of course that they will make a viable offer and release us to buy a house that is in our sights – and has no onward chain (though has many other desirable features!)!

Andrew is coming down next week so we shal have a full house for some of the week – quite an unusual position or us, these days!!