It's a family affair

Time is a rushing and the date we have been waiting for is approaching ever faster. There will only be another four or five of these updates before the next one comes from our home in Bulgaria and this is exceptionally exciting (and not a little nervewracking). Everything is rushing and I am going to take a moment to stop, look back take stock and appreciate the last week.

 

Nommy spaghetti bolognaise

So way back all those many years ago to last weekend when we got back from our trip to move my best mate. How long ago that seems now but I am reminded of it by the picture I snapped of the spaghetti bolognaise which A made (with way too much garlic bread, as standard) which put the energy back into us. I had a lovely long soak in my Radox bath before this and pretended to myself that I wasn’t aching any more though by Monday morning those aches and pains had come back with a vengeance.

 

A reading her book

One of the best things about our life at the moment is the peace and quiet and coexistence that we manage; we are able to sit comfortably in silence both with a book (or maybe A playing Candy Crush) every now and then holding hands and just being quiet. We do have music on sometimes, mainly she does when she is cooking, but most of the time it is that lovely quiet which gives you space to think. There is so much on my mind at the moment, so many things to think about, that time and space to think is a must. Anyway, here she is enjoying the present given her by Cjc and Fi; and yes she really was enjoying it just as much as she seems to be in the picture.

 

Dark clouds bringing snow

All week it has been bitterly cold and with a biting wind so it wasn’t that surprising on Wednesday when the weather went from sunshine to driving snow very quickly. I was in the office and managed to snap a picture of the raft of cloud as it swarmed over the sky and engulfed the last of the sunshine.

 

HENRY! He smiles while you're hoovering

The weather held off for the most part, with only a couple of flurries, and I walked home to get in Thomas with A and go into town to collect me old Henry hoover before we swung past the airport to pick up her brother. He imports dairy cattle and was overseeing the delivery of two trucks to the UK from Germany and had asked to stop with us while this happened. Just as we pulled up next to him at the airport the heavens opened and we saved him from being pelted with huge hailstones.

 

It snowed quite heavily this week

I was still tired, having not slept that well, and I didn’t stay up as long as A who was obviously catching up with her brother. We had a lovely pizza and chips dinner, sat around in the living room, however and that was a nice change as well; sometimes junk food is just what you need. I crept out of the house the next day without disturbing him and once again it was a cold day but this time the snow fell seriously and several times it settled and then melted. The irony here was that he needed A to drive him to see the cows being delivered and with the snow on and off it was making that drive look a bit uncertain. Of course, nothing was working out as planned and when eventually we heard that the trucks had managed to get onto the boat it was a celebratory moment.

 

Finally some settled snow

The problem with the massive delay to the delivery was that it meant A was up at 11pm (having had a couple of hours questionable dozing) to drive her brother to the delivery point. When she arrived there she says it was as if the heavens opened and the hugest snowflakes started to fall. By the time they managed to get away from the farm (having been fed coffee by the famer’s wife) it had settled deeply and it was a little bit hairy on the roads. She got them back safely about 3am and didn’t really wake me when she got into bed. When I woke up the next morning I was shocked at how much snow had fallen but you could see from Thomas that none had come down since they got back.

 

Pleased with her new toy

With the delivery done her brother was able to book onto a flight back home and, barring a slightly long visit in the morning, A got back from the airport totally exhausted and to find that I had burned the cake she had made and put in the oven and told me to watch. In my defence I had watched it and turned the heat out when I thought it was ready, but the base and sides had become a little crisp. Talking of which, here she is with the new cake mixer that I got her as a little gift which she has now used again to make a replacement cake which was lovely as always.

 

Here comes the scaffolding

During the day my scaffolding arrived which was a very exciting moment. The van turned up and the chap helped me and A to get the metalwork off into the back of Harrison, and the planks stacked up on the driveway. The only problem with this was that when I thought about it after the delivery man had gone I realised I should put the metal in the back yard and the planks into Harrison and so I got a pretty thorough work out moving it all on my own (I had to be quite firm and encourage A to rest and not try and help me) which was fine until it started hailing and I had to rush to get stuff in which would get damaged by precipitation. Anyway, hard work never hurt anyone and now I have the scaff the next step is to get the kitchen from my parents and then I can pack.

Talking of my parents, this weekend was the one we had booked my parents to visit and they were due any time after 4pm on Friday. This being the day after she was awake most of the night chauffeuring her brother around, I eventually managed to persuade her to leave cooking the curry that was planned until the day after, and that we should go to the pub for food. This was a very good idea and after a cuppa we walked round and everyone enjoyed the fantastic food that place serves. It was a cold wind on the way back however so we walked quite fast despite being stuffed full.

Cutting out shapes for my scale packing model

The next day my parents were over for breakfast which I put together with my famous butter fried mushrooms, sausage, egg, bacon and baked beans with a side of toast. It went down well for everyone, even A joining in, and filled us up pretty well. I had struggled again with sleeping the night before. Actually, that isn’t quite true. I slept very well but woke at 3am with loads of things spinning through my mind (work, money, packing, business plans) and I made my decision for the business, then decided a plan of action for the packing, and only then was I able to get back off. The plan for the packing involved making a scale model of the floor space for Harrison, and then cutting out shapes in the same scale of the large ticket items which will have to take up floor space, and using them to tessellate the items rather than having to do trial and error like I had for the first move. With the electric two seater, the huge three seater and now this massive amount of metalwork for the scaffolding I would rather move some bits of paper stuck to card around than have to drag everything out if I came up with a better arrangement. My mother helped by cutting and sticking the shapes while I was cooking, bless her.

 

And here are the cutouts

I have been running many different configurations of items around in my head over the past couple of weeks and now I have seen the scaffolding most of them went straight out of the window. Now that I have this little scale model to play with I have been able, with A giving good advice, to work out a way of maybe fitting everything in and still leave a space for Rambo. It does require us to stack the two seater up on its end which is not ideal but I would rather that than not be able to collect the little doggy. I still have the large fridge, and a filing cabinet, to get dimensions from my parents to double check this but I think it will work.

 

Me and my parents at the entrance to Beeston Castle

A ran all the way up here to have her picture taken

Looking through an arrow embrasure

Looking towards Wales, with the wind blasting

The curtain wall is still quite well preserved

After eating we had to decide what to do with ourselves. The sun came out and so I dragged everyone into the car quickly and we set off to try and find Beeston Castle. A and I had spotted signs for it while we were on our way to and from the boat at New Year and decided we wanted to explore it. This was our chance and after a bit of driving we parked up and I paid us in. It is really quite a massive place and well preserved in areas. We had a lovely walk around, getting up to the keep and then walking by a roundabout way back down through the woods towards the entrance again.

 

Awesome caves that you can't get into

At the bottom of the hill there was a sign for some caves so, wanting to get the most for the money that had been paid to get in, we walked round the hill and first of all came to a very disappointing scrape in the hill which didn’t really deserve any label let alone “cave”. As we were walking back we spotted some more a bit further down the track and these were much more impressive. Apparently they were dug out by a guy mining sandstone but now they are all gated off so you can’t go in. Health and Safety is boring.

 

The Queen....

... and her brave Sir Knight

We returned via the shop and had a good look around the little museum they had attached to it. I had spotted a Celtic Sword on the way in and decided, while we were exploring, that I would get it. The girl behind the counter was very surprised as I don’t think they sell many but both me and A are very happy with it; it’ll go above the chimney with the two leather bound daggers I got a couple of years ago, and the Scottish kilt knife I bought in Edinburgh. I did not buy the crown now the knights helmet though don’t we both look fetching.

 

Waiting to dig in to the lovely curry

From there it was a windy serendipitous route back home as we took a slight wrong turn and a visit to co-op for some biscuitey provisions. When we got back A set to preparing the curry while I read and once the food was in the slow cooker and my parents were both starting to snooze I went upstairs and we both fell into a dead sleep for an hour. We were heading out for the night to a gig so had to have eaten and be ready to leave by about 6pm so an alarm was set but when it went off it was a struggle to get out of bed and start moving. Dinner was, as you would expect, really nice and I am looking forward to lots of curries, both made by her and myself, from that cook book.

 

My friends rocking out

We left on time and, having followed them back to their hotel so they could drop the car off, made good time and parked up exactly where I planned. The problem was the pub we were aiming for wasn’t where I thought and the map took us walking into the (still biting) wind for about ten minutes before we reached the haven of warmth and beer. It was a tiny place and we were early but the band were already there so I was able to say hi to Andy and then the four of us sat with a beer before finding that there was a balcony upstairs where we could settle. We were alone up there for a while but then other people found it which was annoying. The first act was a bit dull, to be honest; a bit to repetitive and not enough different ideas so after a promising beginning I switched off and I think so did everyone else. It was not helped by some scrotes from Fleetwood who were shouting over the music behind us and managed to break a glass which shattered where my parents were sitting. The evening was saved by my friend’sband which was just as good as I expected and then got better as they reverted to the two piece acoustic band and played some old songs which are excellent.

All in all it was a successful evening but it was a tired group who got back in the car and drove home. After a cup of tea it was into bed and sleeping so I could wake up to cook breakfast again before my parents said goodbye, went to church and from there, home. Bacon and egg butties went down very well this morning and then they were off though we’ll see them again in a few weeks when we are down with Harrison to collect the kitchen and other assorted items they have for us. Oh, and have another family farewell meal with my dad’s side.

So the planning for the next year has also made some progress this week. Of course I’ve already said that the scaffold is here and I’ve got a really good idea of how to fit everything into Harrison. On top of that we’ve decided that the packing will be done the Sunday after we collect the kitchen (we won’t have any other weekends free after that, other than the one right before we go, and I’m not leaving it that late). I have also managed to arrange for a building firm to do the drainage work, for half the price I had been quoted previously, so that is firmed up.

This week is going to be another long one and my next update will be typed from her motherland. More family affairs there I’m sure.

EDIT :: I've done a countdown timer till we leave... less than five weeks til we are on the ferry as I type this edit.