Joy

After that previous post, something to celebrate today is that it was one year ago today that I left Brighton to move to Essex to live with Chris. Despite such a whirlwind romance my gut feeling (and his too if I may be so bold to speak on his behalf) is that we are both really happy together and that the decision was absolutely the right one. I miss my friends in Brighton but can pop back as and when as it's only a few hours away but sadly that's not possible with the choir and I've still not found another that I feel "fits" as the Rainbow Chorus did. I'm still looking though.

Things are (much!) quieter, the pub is closer, the night is blacker, the stars are brighter, the feel is calmer, the buses are fewer, natural beauty is much closer and life is very different.

I'm looking forward to the unfolding years of my new life with my wonderful, loving and provocative man. Yey!

Cake competition

This post is stupidly overdue, but that seems to be the way with me. I'll try to improve ...

Anyway, it was my first Goldhanger Gala Weekend at over the 8/9th of September weekend and there were a number of competitions one of which was "cake to a given recipe". I love cooking so I thought I'd enter into the spirit.

It was "Crunchy topped lemon cake", though on the recipe printed in the parish magazine 'Crunchy' had lost its 'n' ...

So, I made the cake which was only the 3rd I've ever made. Number 1 was a disaster and put me off for many, many years. The 2nd was earlier this year and was a Delia recipe which was a definite success so I thought this one might turn out OK.

I made it on the Friday because I knew there would be no time on the Saturday (can't remember why) even though I had to enter it on the Sunday. Anyway, on a beautifully sunny Sunday morning I took my cake on its slate base to the tent in the churchyard and placed it beside the other entries. I have to say, I thought mine looked very nice.

I went back at 4:30pm or so after the judging and was greeted with a "Ta Ra" by about four or five women in the tent and walking over to the cake ... well, what did I see?

On the reverse of the left paper it said something like "Excellent texture and flavour. Well done". The original paper is somewhere in the bottom of a full box of papers that I'm too lazy to search.

I burst out laughing I think and then grinned stupidly. Another woman who had entered every cake competition (this was one of three) had won the other two ... but not this one. I had! So far I'm still alive but I keep an eye over my shoulder.

One of the women in the tent warned me that next year the WI would be visiting when they needed 500 scones ...

Here is a photo of it as the judge first saw it before we tucked in:

I must admit, it was lovely to look at and very tasty indeed. I made a second one for my Mum as she wasn't there to try the 'original' but that didn't look as nice (it had a slightly raised centre) but, paradoxically, hadn't risen as well so it was a bit heavily textured.

Anyway, I was dead chuffed as was Chris and everyone else it seems and intend to be back next year.

Birthday!

Today is Christopher's birthday so I naturally made tea and took it to him in bed along with a card and a small gift - he liked both of them and the card is still on display some time later as I write (as I said, this is a bit retrospective!).

All in all a very relaxed and lazy day with some tasty food later on.

Books

Today we assembled my reclaimed wooden bookshelf in the back bedroom (well, it doesn't have a bed in it but we have to call it something), allowing all those piles of book boxes to be emptied, removed and flattened. This now meant that other boxes from the lounge could go up there in their place and we now have an almost box free lounge! Fabe.

Chris clearly loves making fires in the fireplace. Squiggle the cat sits and stares mournfully into a cold dark fire grate waiting for heat to return... I think Chris will soon be making her a happy cat.

Boxes, boxes everywhere

What a mess!

We'd slept the night with the mattress on the bedroom floor but today was bed assembly day. Ahh .. that's better. Had to be rather careful though with the lower ceilings and those long pieces of MDF.

Next big task, after breakfast of course, was to clear enough stuff from the lounge so that we could actually find a place to spread a handkerchief and perhaps, more to the point, assemble the sofabed. I have a Knole sofa which is a little curious but does make you feel very snug with the sides up and here you can see it assembled and with Chris next to it emptying boxes of books onto the bookshelf.

The plan is to sleep on the sofabed when the fire is going at the end of the night rather than sloping off to a chilly bedroom when we've already got snug in the cosy lounge. I'll let you know ...

Later that night it was off for a well earned easy evening with food and fun supplied. In other words, we went to the pub! Our little village, like so many others in England no longer has any of its original shops but does still have a church and two pubs and conveniently our cottage is about halfway between both of them but it was The Chequers to which we went tonight.

I had been to the pub when visiting Chris earlier in the year but now it was my local. It's a pub I'd happily visit even if I had to travel several miles so it's a real bonus having it on our doorstep (Hmmm - is that a bonus?). Tonight it was cosy and inviting, packed with people, a log fire burning in a large metal box fire with folding doors. We settled down with our beers after ordering some food and shortly afterwards joined in the evening's pub quiz which happens every Thursday night. We named our team as "The Two Poppadums" as the barmaid said that she'd charge the cost of the quiz to our tab as two poppadums! If it works for them ...

So, there I was after the first full day in my new home in a great pub with a roaring fire, good beer and food and the most beautiful and gorgeous man at my side. Happy indeed.

The only downer of the evening was not winning the quiz, but there's always next time. We could of course have been knocked off kilter by the jokes of Phil the landlord. I have a couple here taken from the seemingly never ending stream of them from his iPhone (Health warning - this is not Brighton and the Politically Correct approach has not yet taken hold here. Yet):

An Irish man has a new girlfriend and he's in her bedroom looking through her clothes drawers and find a nurse's outfit, a  policewoman's outfit and a school mistress's outfit. Shocked, he goes downstairs and storms out of the house saying to her as he leaves "If you can't hold down a job then I'm not interested!"

Did you hear about the man who put helium in his blow up doll so that it plays hard to get?

On these edifying thoughts I'll leave you for now...

Moving in with Chris

(I am only almost 3 months late posting this, but better late than never ...)

Today, the 14th of December 2011 was the day of the move from Brighton, my home for the last 29 years. It was quite a shock and yet not. Chris had been down for about three days prior to the move to offer practical and emotional support and was great with both.

There were still boxes to pack right up until the arrival of Smooth Movers who would be carting all my stuff away. The ability of the movers to lift and carry, on their own, furniture and boxes for which I would need a helping hand never fails to amaze me and working at quite a speed they had everything of mine packed into the back of their van by 10am and were heading off for Essex and we were about to follow them.

Two things did not come along for the ride ... My gorgeous, and ever growing six year old Kentia Palm which simply would not fit in my new home without vicious pruning - luckily my friend Grae has offered to look after it until such times as I do have the room. The other thing was my pair of QUAD ESL-63 speakers which have also had to go into safekeeping, for the same reason as the palm, until the hopeful day of reunion. I've had these magnificent loudspeakers since 1987 and they are sorely missed.

Leaving Brighton was a strange experience. I cried from Seven Dials until we had driven down Dyke Road and onto the bypass and then out onto the A23. I cried thinking of the people I may never see again, and all my friends that I would not see for some time. I cried for streets down which I'd walked and cycled over decades that I would now walk along, if at all, as a visitor. No more fabulous coffee and socialising in the Red Roaster, no more books borrowed from the modern Jubilee Library, no more iconic Duke of York's, no more pier, no more Sussex Downs, no more lovely organic goodies from Infinity Foods and the weird and wonderful shops of the North Laine. I was especially aware of never again being a member of the Rainbow Chorus to which I'd belonged and had been such a big part of my life for 10 years and the extraordinary Brighton and Hove Green Party of which I'd been a member since 1985.

But out on the road, I was starting a new life with Chris. Chris is the man I'd met four months ago to the day and who had captured my heart leading to my decision that I had to leave Brighton to live with him as it really made no sense for him to move to Brighton. Apart from a brief stop at the infamous Clackett Lane services on the M25 we journeyed onwards to the cottage only to find that we had kept those Smooth Movers waiting for 30 minutes! The shame ...

Steve and Kemba began unloading without further ado and we felt so useless as they refused all offers of help whilst they carried crazily heavy loads upstairs to the study or bedroom. My two drawer filing cabinet which I would have emptied, carried the cabinet up then one drawer and then the other was carried upstairs in its entirety! Amazing. Then suddenly it was all inside and our two very friendly (and strong!) removal men were gone and Chris and I were together in our new home which now looked like an Essex outpost of Big Yellow Box Storage. There were now two people's stuff in a cottage which had previously held just one's - it's a tight squeeze ...

We managed to clear a space in the lounge from most of the boxes and put things roughly where they were intended to live permanently. After that, it was of course time for tea and Chris lit the fire - he had been waiting through some of the colder days for my arrival so that it would be lit when I was here, symbolically creating the heart of our home once I'd arrived. He's just gorgeous like that!

Later on it was a gorgeous bottle of R. Pouillon Champagne to celebrate (thanks Henry!) from the wonderful Butler's Wine Cellar, which thankfully does free delivery for crates ...

I'd arrived. My new life with Chris began this day. I am so excited.