Monday, May 28, 2007
Long wet weekend
On Sunday morning we braved the monsoon to head down to Brighton to see Alex and Jen, and meet young Freddie Cowell. Going against the fashion, he's the only baby boy that we know currently. Just as we were drying out it was time to leave and head off back into the downpour to the gravestone laying of our friend Mark who died last year. It was very moving, and also a good opportunity to catch up with a lot of friends and try to persuade them all to move to Cornwall. Finally in the evening we met up with our Brighton mate Joe and spent the night at his swanky Hove apartment, where the nice sea view was spoilt by the torrential rain.
This morning we left Joe's at about 10am in the drizzle and headed cross-country back down to Cornwall - this time without the aid of the RAC - I'm sure they would have had us driving via the Isle of Wight or some such. After a few breaks (we're learning how to spot a good roadside café from a distance) we finally arrived home about 5pm, to find that it's been a glorious weekend here! That'll teach us to leave the county.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Two things to celebrate, and one not to
Good news #1: today is the 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie, Episode IV. Apparently I've seen all of them in the cinema, but I must admit I don't remember watching A New Hope at age one, or Empire Strikes Back at age four. It makes me feel very old that one of the great films from my childhood is this old, because it means I must be older!
Good news #2: we used our new barbecue for the first time today, and it rocks. We ummed and arghed (this is Cornwall after all) for ages over which one to get, and in the end bought the spendy one - which just happened to be the Aussie model. I'm really glad we did, because it cooks the best steak this side of Tatooine! I learned a few tricks about cooking outdoors from Marcus in Melbourne, and I'm looking forward to more great bbq food like banana pancakes for breakfast.
The bad news is that Lesley is rather poorly and in hospital at the moment, so please send nice thoughts to her and wish her a speedy recovery :) She's hopefully getting out tomorrow, but the biggest shock is that she hasn't eaten properly since Wednesday! This must be a first, and once she's well we look forward to cooking for her on our new barbie.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Settling in
Mat: After a week of being in our new home we're starting to settle in nicely: we've met all our neighbours (they're really nice); on Friday we picked up a fridge and washing machine; and on Saturday we took three large boxes of junk - er, bric-a-brac - to the charity shop in Bodmin, so we can finally sit on the sofa. On Sunday evening we went to the local pub quiz at the Globe and didn't even come last due to my unexplainable remembering of Nancy Kerrigan's name, although we lost out on £80 by not knowing what an arctophile collects.Having said that there are still lots of things to do before it's properly home: we need to build a shed for our bike collection; we need a double mattress for our bed; and we've still got several boxes that need unpacking. There are obviously more important things to do though, because I spent most of yesterday taking photos for Wikipedia articles and baking apricot and walnut cookies...
Monday, May 14, 2007
Home!
Our new home is much smaller than our old flat in Brighton, so it's rather full at the moment - we brought all our possessions down instead of trying to understand our cryptic box labelling and sort them out there, and so we've already filled five large boxes with items we're throwing away. Why exactly we wanted to keep half of the things we packed I really don't know, but some of it's got to go. It's a three-bedroom house, but only just: the main bedroom has a specially-designed bed frame so it can fit in the room; the guest room has an inch of space on each side of the bed; and the third bedroom makes a pretty cosy office for the two of us.
It's already starting to feel like home, and as soon as we unpack and it looks even halfway tidy we'll post some more pics. In the meantime you'll just have to come and visit!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Moving on
Kat: It's taken an age for the estate agents to sort out our tenancy in Lostwithiel, but finally our moving day has arrived. This afternoon we'll pick up a van and load it up with all our stuff which has been stored in our parents' lofts and dotted around their houses for the last two and a half years. Tomorrow we'll drive down with Michael and Lesley, who are kindly helping us move into our new home and returning the van on Sunday.Because we still have furniture from our flat in Brighton, the only big items that we need to get are a double mattress for the main bedroom, a fridge-freezer and washing machine. We're really excited to have our own place again, and to go through our possessions - we can't remember what half of them are any more. It'll be the first time we have our own garden!
In the last week we've been to two events: Johno's 90th birthday and Dan and Sarah's wedding in Lympne Castle. It followed a stag weekend on a barge in Guildford, which involved two out of the six going in the water. We knew it was going to be a messy affair when one of the party had to go in the water to untangle the tow rope from the propeller just 2 hours after having collected the boat; then, after a rushed launch on Sunday morning, another one fell against the boat and cracked a rib. Luckily the wedding was much better organised and we had a fantastic day - hopefully Dan and Sarah did too!