Home at last

Woo, what a month it has been since we returned, We arrived home as I have said, in the in the pouring rain to find that we had lost three segments of the back garden fence to the gales and the roof felt from the garden shed, had also blown off. The gardens front and back were filled with debris from the trees; the whole place is a tip. Have gathered it up for now, but will need to get an incinerator and burn it. . Now it’s just a case of e waiting for the tradesmen to come and repair the other bits...

We have made the decision that we no longer want to have dinner parties or feed our families en bloc at home, with all the organising and cooking that entails, restaurants do it so much better. Accordingly we have shared much of our Dinning Room Furniture, Decanters, Glassware, Dinner Service and Cutlery out among the kids, thereby at a stroke doing away with a dinning room and providing a convenient location for my new den

. As a result of this we have cleared the shelves and cupboard of books and ornaments etc. and have about ten boxes full of stuff we intend to take to our first ever car boot sale in the spring.

Anne’s daughter has been in with her brushes and pots of paint to completely redecorate the room, and a splendid job she has done. Telephone lines and sky TV have been run in, a large desk purchased and assembled to take the computer, printer etc, and all the gear for my photos. A man sized TV for watching football, along with my stereo units and speakers, have also been installed. We await the delivery of the new furniture and blind, then hey presto a den at last.

Anne’s 16 year old grand daughter Helen had a leading role as the evil stepmother in the village Pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this year. She did very well and soon had Anne in tears. As support we had taken ten tickets for the matinee and all my family adults and children turned up and thoroughly enjoyed themselves booing and hissing Helen, as she tried to do away with poor Snow White needless to say the good guys won and Helen came unstuck.

Afterwards all ten of us plus baby Laura, adjourned to a Chinese restaurants for a super banquet, a sort of late Christmas dinner as we had been away over the festive period. As a trial for our new direction it worked well and was a great success with everybody having a good time. Including Anne and I, as we had nothing else to do but eat and enjoy the families company.

Chinese meal
Originally uploaded by 6dandan3.

As an aside, at least the insurance company has coughed up without complaint, the money we spent on Anne’s medical expenses on board.

Happy days