A nice long trip to Devon
On Wednesday 8th June I went down to Devon - to an absolute scorching hot day. Far too hot to go walking! The weather deteriorated thereafter and there were some heavy showers. Jayne had been doing a lot of work on possible improvements to the house, including a wet room, new kitchen, french doors and a ramp. She had lots of brochures and things for me to look at regarding doors, showers, units, floors etc - which I found difficult to enthuse about!! She loves that sort of thing though and was constantly looking at websites for door handles, paint colours etc.
Whilst I was down I went in to the bank and "refreshed" all my accounts and Mary's accounts. This is necessary each year to keep the best interest rates. It took an hour - and that was with the bank manager, ie someone who knew what they were doing! It would have been a nightmare online. It is so nice to go in to a local branch and talk to the manager - who recognises you.
Jayne and I went to the Vue cinema in Exeter to see Me Before You which had just come out. It's about someone in a wheelchair who commits suicide! I needed to use up my free cinema tickets from the bank before they run out at the end of June - I get 12 a year.
I was originally going to return to London on 17th so that I could ring in the Barnes QP by special request of Mike, but I needed to come back again the following Monday so that I could go to Glastonbury with Jayne on the Tuesday (more of which later). As the time to leave got nearer I was thinking how silly it was to do so much driving just to ring in a QP at Barnes which was likely to fail anyway - so I asked Mike if he could think of anyone else (it clashed with Surrey and Middlesex practices so all the usual suspects were not available) and he managed to get Lucy Eyles to ring. So thankfully I was spared and could stay in Devon - which was lovely as I suddenly had 3 whole days extra to enjoy. Mike was judging a striking competition (with Tony so 2 wheelchair judges!) on the Saturday anyway so I would have been on my own then. I needed to be in Devon for the 3 Thursdays so that I could go to the handbell practices as I am in the team which was doing a fund-raising concert at Manaton for Cancer Research.
Jayne works on Fridays and Mondays, so I had a nice quiet Friday cross stitching a new kit I picked up in a charity shop of Sheltie dogs (very straightforward with no half stitches or back stitch - some light relief to contrast with the snow wolf) and then on the Saturday we went to the Teignmouth Folk Festival. Well Sidmouth it aint!! We eventually found a few morris dancers in the middle of the town and they then spread out to dance in various locations around the town, but that seemed to be about it. There was one group who sang for most of the afternoon in the town square (well Triangle actually) - they were very good. We didn't find any more singing or folk related activities although I think there were performances going on in the Pavillions which was out for us with Suki. We had a nice day out though and were lucky with the weather. We walked along the Dawlish sea wall and came back along the beach which took up a couple of hours and there was also a Lifeboat Association fund raising event on the green with lots of stalls and a place to get a mug of tea and a slice of homemade cake.
The quiet life in Devon changed dramatically on the Tuesday! Jayne had asked if she could bring some bits of furniture to the house, including her sofa, and I agreed - but this eventually turned into a wholesale removal of all her stuff from the 10 square foot unit in Glastonbury to a 7 square foot unit in Bovey! She also wanted to go through all her boxes and get rid of lots of stuff. So we set off early on the Tuesday morning for the unit so that we were there before the removal men and she could start sorting what was going where. There was an awful lot of stuff! Once it was all on the van we drove back to Bovey and reversed the process - except that they delivered half of it to the house and then took the rest to the storage unit, where we met them and supervised the packing of the unit.
By the end of the day Mary's three-piece suite had been replaced by Jayne's sofa and chair, and Jayne had all her own bedroom furniture in her room as well as her own double bed - we put the twin beds into storage. The house filled up with boxes and boxes of stuff which she then went through, putting most of it aside for charity shops. It was just as well we got the stuff out then because some of it was beginning to go damp and show signs of mildew. I vetted everything in every box to see if I wanted it, and picked out several items either for Devon or London, and in particular some things for Lorraine for when she moves out later in the year.
The sofa and chair looked lovely in the lounge, and although we had discarded Suki's chair she quickly made herself comfortable on the sofa and made it her own! It also meant that there was now room to have both of Dad's tables in the lounge - so very pleased with the end result.
Lee and Emma came over for a couple of days to help me to clear the garage out. This is a job I have been wanting to do for a couple of years - it's really the last big clearing out job left in Devon now that I have done the sheds. They worked really quickly and also took all the stuff to the tip for me, and I finally collapsed when they had left with it all looking absolutely wonderful. Very clean with all the cobwebs and spiders swept away from the roof area and lots of empty shelves and with the bits we were continuing to store neatly stacked along one wall. But what a huge job it was. I was surprised at how little there was that I wanted to keep. I thought it would be a treasure trove of gadgets and tools, but actually most of it was just old cloths, boxes, rope and metal bits.
Lee and Emma had the discarded bedroom furniture and also took away all the boxes Jayne had sorted - they will keep what they want and then take the rest to the charity shop, The three-piece suite and other bits of furniture which no longer fit (!) were collected by British Heart Foundation.
In the midst of all this we also fitted in lunch with Ann and Douglas (proper sit down with three courses) and a fund raising garden party at Tracey House. I also had a few handbell sessions and scored a QP of Lincolnshire Royal which was my first in hand.
I was going to return to the London on Monday 27th, but realised this was Glastonbury Festival exit day so delayed my departure another day and went home on the Tuesday, stopping off for a nice lunch and catch up with Jay at the White Horse at South Cheriton.
Whilst I was down I went in to the bank and "refreshed" all my accounts and Mary's accounts. This is necessary each year to keep the best interest rates. It took an hour - and that was with the bank manager, ie someone who knew what they were doing! It would have been a nightmare online. It is so nice to go in to a local branch and talk to the manager - who recognises you.
Jayne and I went to the Vue cinema in Exeter to see Me Before You which had just come out. It's about someone in a wheelchair who commits suicide! I needed to use up my free cinema tickets from the bank before they run out at the end of June - I get 12 a year.
I was originally going to return to London on 17th so that I could ring in the Barnes QP by special request of Mike, but I needed to come back again the following Monday so that I could go to Glastonbury with Jayne on the Tuesday (more of which later). As the time to leave got nearer I was thinking how silly it was to do so much driving just to ring in a QP at Barnes which was likely to fail anyway - so I asked Mike if he could think of anyone else (it clashed with Surrey and Middlesex practices so all the usual suspects were not available) and he managed to get Lucy Eyles to ring. So thankfully I was spared and could stay in Devon - which was lovely as I suddenly had 3 whole days extra to enjoy. Mike was judging a striking competition (with Tony so 2 wheelchair judges!) on the Saturday anyway so I would have been on my own then. I needed to be in Devon for the 3 Thursdays so that I could go to the handbell practices as I am in the team which was doing a fund-raising concert at Manaton for Cancer Research.
Jayne works on Fridays and Mondays, so I had a nice quiet Friday cross stitching a new kit I picked up in a charity shop of Sheltie dogs (very straightforward with no half stitches or back stitch - some light relief to contrast with the snow wolf) and then on the Saturday we went to the Teignmouth Folk Festival. Well Sidmouth it aint!! We eventually found a few morris dancers in the middle of the town and they then spread out to dance in various locations around the town, but that seemed to be about it. There was one group who sang for most of the afternoon in the town square (well Triangle actually) - they were very good. We didn't find any more singing or folk related activities although I think there were performances going on in the Pavillions which was out for us with Suki. We had a nice day out though and were lucky with the weather. We walked along the Dawlish sea wall and came back along the beach which took up a couple of hours and there was also a Lifeboat Association fund raising event on the green with lots of stalls and a place to get a mug of tea and a slice of homemade cake.
The quiet life in Devon changed dramatically on the Tuesday! Jayne had asked if she could bring some bits of furniture to the house, including her sofa, and I agreed - but this eventually turned into a wholesale removal of all her stuff from the 10 square foot unit in Glastonbury to a 7 square foot unit in Bovey! She also wanted to go through all her boxes and get rid of lots of stuff. So we set off early on the Tuesday morning for the unit so that we were there before the removal men and she could start sorting what was going where. There was an awful lot of stuff! Once it was all on the van we drove back to Bovey and reversed the process - except that they delivered half of it to the house and then took the rest to the storage unit, where we met them and supervised the packing of the unit.
 |
| The unit at Glastonbury |
The sofa and chair looked lovely in the lounge, and although we had discarded Suki's chair she quickly made herself comfortable on the sofa and made it her own! It also meant that there was now room to have both of Dad's tables in the lounge - so very pleased with the end result.
Lee and Emma came over for a couple of days to help me to clear the garage out. This is a job I have been wanting to do for a couple of years - it's really the last big clearing out job left in Devon now that I have done the sheds. They worked really quickly and also took all the stuff to the tip for me, and I finally collapsed when they had left with it all looking absolutely wonderful. Very clean with all the cobwebs and spiders swept away from the roof area and lots of empty shelves and with the bits we were continuing to store neatly stacked along one wall. But what a huge job it was. I was surprised at how little there was that I wanted to keep. I thought it would be a treasure trove of gadgets and tools, but actually most of it was just old cloths, boxes, rope and metal bits.
The garage before it was cleared!
Lee and Emma had the discarded bedroom furniture and also took away all the boxes Jayne had sorted - they will keep what they want and then take the rest to the charity shop, The three-piece suite and other bits of furniture which no longer fit (!) were collected by British Heart Foundation.
In the midst of all this we also fitted in lunch with Ann and Douglas (proper sit down with three courses) and a fund raising garden party at Tracey House. I also had a few handbell sessions and scored a QP of Lincolnshire Royal which was my first in hand.
I was going to return to the London on Monday 27th, but realised this was Glastonbury Festival exit day so delayed my departure another day and went home on the Tuesday, stopping off for a nice lunch and catch up with Jay at the White Horse at South Cheriton.
