We are up, we are in!!!

We are up, we are in!!!

Time for an update and the event of the year has undoubtedly been Moving House! We are now resident in a bungalow in a little village called Haxby, 4 miles north of York.

We are at that stage where the furniture and packing has gone into the house – been re-arranged once, but is now being re-arranged again! Yes more stuff will, I'm afraid be going for sale, or to thee charity shop. The undoubted effect of having lived in so many places and moved around so much over the last 40 years.

Fortunately Pam loved the house after all the redecorating and refurbishment. There's still lots to do though. At least we have time!

One effect of moving up here is a change in travel-mode over to the Continent. I have another trip to Belgium coming up and I'm experimenting with going via the ferry from Hull to Zeebrugge. More expensive, but it saves me (and the car) 500 miles of driving. I'll let you know how it works out.

Now we ARE up of course, we have to get on with all the minutiae of life; registering with the doctors, library cards, etc. etc. Luckily I made a personal check – you can get a bus into York avery 12 minutes and it stops 100 metres from our favourite York pub. This is important! The Three Legged Mare (known locally as the Wonky Donkey)

Among the goodbyes to the soft underbelly of the country was a Tuesday trip to have lunch with the delightful Oxford Chapter of the Romantic Novelists Association. Of course, I sweetened the pill (literally) by taking some Belgian chocolates with me. A remarkably nice bunch of ladies, and many thanks to Liz Harris who has organised and been “mother-hen” to the chapter for ages. I look forward to seeing them again, and to reading (and reviewing) their books.

We also had a visitor to our (old) neighbourhood. Talli Roland is another author who keeps me entertained - and Pam and I met her, the Doc and young MasterTR in yet another of our favourite pubs for a lovely couple of hours. Her blog is here: Talli Roland. Oh, and young MasterTR is a grand little lad!

The pub is the excellent Fleece, at Bretforton. It is owned by the National Trust.

So – in the next month – LOTS of sorting out in the house, garage and garden. It already looks better though.

John