Marion asked me to start today by saying how much she enjoyed the Zumba class at St Michael's rooms on Friday evening. She tells me that it's great fun, the instructor Eileen is terrific and it's a really good workout too.
We got off to a good start on Saturday morning and unwrapped all the paintings that had been packed for us by the removal company - heaven knows where we are going to hang them all (there are more than this). As we stacked them all neatly in the spare bedroom we both noticed that one of our favourites is not there. I contacted Dave at the removal firm and he's confident that it will be here but maybe packed in one of the scores of boxes currently inaccessible in the garage because I haven't got the garden office where those boxes' contents were intended for. I've got to try and somehow root through them all sometime this week (as if we haven't got enough to do). What's more, the vacuum cleaner hasn't turned up yet either (could well be the same for that says Dave). Oh office studio suppliers (who shall remain nameless as we are still trying to get our money back) if only you knew the hassle you have caused.
I said last week that we had pledged to shop locally for anything that we could and we stuck to that pledge on Saturday when we used almost all of the town's food shops, including the market and several non-food shops to boot. After doing the shopping we headed back to the house to meet the Sky engineers who fitted the dish and connected up the system. Our excellent electrician (of whom more in my next blog) completed all the electrics that he was able to finish off pending the kitchen being completed and he wired up all the thirteen phone and broadband sockets. Unfortunately the broadband started to drop out and I ended up on the phone to Amit at BT for an eternity. Amit reckons that the line is okay so it may just be that filters are needed on the Sky sockets. They're now on order so we'll find out if Amit was right very soon.
On Saturday night we treated ourselves to a very good meal at The Lemon Tree Bistro. We were joined by Dave and Lyn the owners of the cottage we are renting. The food and wine were great and we were served by two charming, friendly and attentive waitresses - we'll certainly go back.
Yesterday we decided to have a day away from working on the house and went to Ipswich to pick up a new phone and a few bathroom accessories from John Lewis (somehow none of our phones survived six months in storage) before heading to Cineworld to see The Impossible. By then it was snowing heavily and we wondered if it was a wise move to use the tickets but being a tight northerner I wasn't going to waste the best part of twenty quid and we watched the film. The Tsunami bits are spectacular and extremely well done but we both found the aftermath tedious and dull and the acting somewhat wooden. Friends have said they sobbed watching it but my only sobbing was on realising that there was still another thirty minutes left. And yes we had made a mistake going into the screening. When we came out it was snowing heavily and the roads from Ipswich to Framlingham were a nightmare and for long sections we were driving at about 15mph. Good job as we slid across to the other side of the road on one hill. Fortunately nothing was coming the other way.
And snow has been pretty much the flavour of the day today. There was no way I was going to get the car out of the cottage's drive this morning. Fortunately we can walk to the house in five minutes.
The wood across the road from the cottage was like Narnia.
This was the view from our back bedroom.
The kitchen fitters couldn't get their vans off the drive so we ended up pushing. The fitters have done a lot today but they still aren't finished and we had no room to get any boxes open so we went and sat by the fire at The Crown and had a sandwich and read the paper before buying some new fire irons from The Fireplace.
We have to leave the cottage on Thursday. Will we be able to move in? Watch this space.
No comments:
Post a Comment