On Monday Matthew (son) and Friday Gemma and Callum (daughter and boyfriend) went home. Today Julie's mum and dad and her brother and his family (see previous Blog) all went home. Pete is off to London for a couple of days too and Julie will be left at home with the Alfie (the cat).This last few weeks has been manic, what with getting the new house, our anniversary and Julie's birthday followed directly with our housewarming and the visit by so many of our family. We have thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, however, it has been tiring and we now need to sit down and have a few days (or weeks) to ourselves.We really do now need to settle into a routine of life in our new home and start to make the most of the opportunities offered by our surroundings. Julie may start to row twice a week and Pete needs to get back to his photography and set himself up to start adding photos to future Blogs. Again this blog will be devoid of photos, but hope is that we can start again next week.
Tonight we had our housewarming party. We had family and friends round for the evening to help us celebrate our move into our new house and yet another new start to another new period in our lives. It was great that so many friends were able to come, but it was even better that we had some of our close family there too.
Our daughter Gemma and her boyfriend
Callum came down on Wednesday night and our son Matthew came down on Friday. Matt spent Friday at a friends in Paignton so didn't actually arrive until Saturday - he goes home on Monday. Gemma and Callum are here for the week returning to Essex next Friday. As a surprise housewarming/30th anniversary/Julie's birthday present they gave us a professionally taken studio photograph a copy of which is shown here. In contrast there is also a "Photo Me" booth picture attached of Gemma and Callum just to show that the old staples of courtship are still out there (except that you have to have four identical photographs).
Additionally Julie's mum and dad are down with her brother Gary and his wife Jeanette. They are all staying at friends Nola and Brian's house for the coming week so plenty of time to see them too. Later in the week Gary and Jeanette's children will be down and it will be great to see Mandy and Paul and Paul's wife Becky. Good weather would be nice, but I'm sure we'll find things to do regardless.
Now we have our own home in Salcombe we are looking forward to other family and friends visiting and also to a rich and fulfilled life together here for many years to come.
Day 12 and we are still not set up to blog in the standard format (i.e. 3 pictures and some text), so yet again no pictures just a few lines on the week past.
Another busy week for us both. Pete working at home trying to re-establish a home office, Julie working in Ajanta and the Deli. Evenings too have been busy. Julie rowed on Wednesday; she attended her ladies group on Tuesday and Monday and Thursday saw her machining together a boat cover for friends Nola & Brian.
Pete was at Cliff House on Wednesday to attend a council meeting regarding the proposed development of a site or sites to build around 50 houses in the town. An interesting meeting and well worth the entrance fee (it was free). Seems the District Council are in the thick of implementing the Governments National Housing Planning Policy and the likelihood is that it will impact the South Hams. This is not a blog where we intended to express opinions on anything, but where we were with our lives, however, it will be an interesting date reference for us to refer back to should the plans every come to fruition.
On Friday evening we were visited by Pete's cousin Darrell, his wife Chloe and their dog Amber. They had just picked up a VW camper in Plymouth and stopped by on there way to Chris and Cora's at South Molton. It's not your vintage hippy surfer dude model, but the newer style, but will be great for them to have weekends away in. We took them down to North Sans were Amber had a run on the beach. We then enjoyed a BBQ at the Winking Prawn before they went off to North Devon.
Last night (Saturday) we were invited to attend Lorna's 100th birthday party. Lorna is a traction engine owned by a local man and we were invited along through Pete & Beth. The event was to raise funds for the Devon Air Ambulance. We wish Lorna well for the next 100 years
Unfortunately it absolutely bucketed down and although we had food and a beer in a holey tent in the middle of a field we didn't stay very long. Julie enjoyed the hog roast, as did the majority of our crowd, but Pete and Martin had fish and chips from the local van that was also parked up in the field. Really strange that we have a local fish and chip van that comes to Salcombe regularly - we don't use it a lot, but they seem to remember us both. We ended up back at our house for tea and biscuits with Pete, Beth, Mike, Lyn, Martin & Clara. Despite the rain a very enjoyable evening.
Today Julie is off to Bristol with her friend Sarah. No real plans except to pick up some of the necessities of life that we don't appear to have anymore. Also a day out just to have a mooch and another opportunity for Julie to do some long-distance motorway driving of which she has little experience.
This coming week sees us preparing for the arrival of family for a summer break and we are both looking forward to having them here in Salcombe for a week or so.
Again not our usual post (once a week with three photos), as we have had the busiest few days of our recent lives this past week. Having just moved in neither of us knows where anything is and Pete's camera, lens and PC are in three separate locations in the house. The PC isn't plugged in and Pete only has his laptop to work from.We have also had a visit from our friend Mary, which has been great. Although she hasn't stayed with us (no beds to share yet) we've seen a lot of her, which has been very nice and another reason for us being so busy.Enough for now - we hope to resume normal postings next week.
Today is the day we move into our new home. It was the 1st of January this year that we moved to Salcombe and have rented since then and now, six months on, we have our own home. Next step is to get the office transferred with our phones and broadband - fingers crossed!
