Funeral and Furniture

On Monday, as advised last week, Pete attended the funeral of Joan Perkins. It was sad to see Diane and her family so distressed by the passing, but considering how ill her mum had become Pete believes they think it was a merciful release. The funeral was followed by a wake at the Jobbers Rest PH in Upminster - strange we should have had Sunday lunch there the day before by pure chance.

The funeral was really well attended and many of them were from Pete's family. Pete's mum's brothers Brian and Kenny were there with their wives and cousins David, Darrell and Anouska also made it. Pete's brothers and their wives came along and brought niece Emma-Jane along too. The link to Joan's family was via Pete's uncle Brian's friend Doug, who brought Pete's stepfather John with him to the funeral, as John has recently lost his car. Doug's daughter Kim and her husband Peter with two of their triplets were also there along with their oldest daughter and her husband.

Stepfather John (who married Pete's mum once her sons had all left home) drives a Reliant (a-la-Delboy) and lost his car to an accident some months back. His replacement car went up in flames after only having it for ten days whilst he was driving it and it was only the shouting and horn honking of others that probably stopped him being badly injured. Flames were licking around the sides of the car and it sounds as if he got out just in time. To add insult to injury he thought the molten mess had been stolen and was told to report it as such by the police, but it turned up in their compound. Undeterred John is looking to buy another three-wheeler - we wish him more luck!

On Tuesday the furniture we bought for our spare bedrooms was exchanged bringing to an end a saga that has been ongoing for some months now. The way this has gone is somewhat akin to a farce and not worth the writing here, but it certainly was a catalogue of errors. As we might have expected all didn't end quite well, as one of the cabinets had sticking draws. It was returned to the warehouse so only time will tell when it might return.

Julie continues to attend her flower club, rowing, keep fit classes, etc.. There is so much for her to do here that they are starting to impact on one and other and what with friends and work she really has a full life. Pete finds himself working a lot and as such his days are tied up and he certainly doesn't have the interests that Julie has found. Even time for photography is limited with the shorter days. As testament to that there are no photos this week

Weekend in Essex

Nothing much to report this week - no photographic opportunities so a few more from last week's storm.

The winds have continued and although our garden was covered with pine needles we have had the garden tidied this week and it looks a lot better. The beds have been cleaned up and we can now see the wood for the trees, so to speak. In the spring we can decide what we might do to replant.

Pete was in London from late Tuesday and has been very busy with work. He managed to take a few days off so we could have an extended weekend back in Essex to celebrate Pete's brother Paul's birthday and we had a Mexican meal with Pete's brothers and their wives on Saturday.

Generally planned as a quiet weekend to catch up with the family, it never pans out as expected. On Sunday Gemma had a shunt in her car and although minor it cast a shadow on the day. We had also heard that Diane's mum Joan had died this week and as the funeral was on Monday Pete would be able to attend. Pete has known Diane for as long as he can remember, being related to a close friend of the family and Pete would normally refer to her as a cousin. Diane and her family flit in and out of our lives as things change for us all, but it's always great to see them. The funeral will be a sad affair, but Pete will meet up with most of his close family there, as they all knew Joan.

Julie is working now and spends a lot of time at Ajanta trying to help out and promised to spend Thursday at Kitely House near Plymouth at the Christmas Fayre. Because of this she had to travel up by train on Friday, but was able to meet up with Gemma at Hammersmith for a bit of Mother Daughter bonding. Her next trip back will be for Matt's birthday in December where she will again go back by train.

It's been a while since our last Blog and whilst we have been busy with work we have also had our adventure; friends visiting, a birthday, a twisted ankle, a broken tooth, a car accident and a myriad other incidents, both good and bad. We have been logging some of the happenings as drafts and have had some technical issues when trying to publish, but we do intend to revisit past weeks and make retrospective Blogs from the drafts that have been deposited.

This week has seen some violent winds and the pine needles in the garden have come to a head. We never realised they would be this prolific and nothing in the buyer's pack gave us any clue it would be like this (thanks Giles - the house is great though). The garden is covered in pine needles and other debris from the Monterrey pines that border our property, due to the Autumn generally and to the storms. They are majestic trees and are protected by tree preservation orders. We have a resident owl, but the over hanging branches probably add to the needles so we are going to get the branches covered by an outstanding planning consent taken off.

As you will see from the pictures the winds created a storm and the sea was ideal for the surfers. It was the worst we have seen in the year we have been here, but talking to friends it appears this was as bad as any other year. The gusts blew you off your feet, but it was strange, what with the sun breaking through the clouds.

It's been a busy week for us both with work and social activities. Pete had to go to London and Birmingham this week, whilst Julie had her keep fit and new NIA class. She is also working at the rowing club on Saturday mornings getting the Gigs ready for next season. We had friends Mark, Sue, Nola and Brian round for dinner last night, which was really great.

We decided to walk through town today and have lunch at the Salcombe Coffee Shop and met Clara and Martin in there. Seems we are getting to know a lot of people down here now (Julie more so) and the opportunities to mix are ever increasing.