We made the most of the new freedoms at the start of the month to start socialising with the neighbours. The road map out of lockdown allowed us to meet with 6 others outdoors so first call was across to Don and Pat’s to celebrate their 35^th wedding anniversary along with Bob ‘n Sheila.  Next day it was across the road again to Paul and Maureen’s also with Bob ‘n Sheila.  The weather wasn’t great so we kind of broke the rules by being partially inside with windows open.  We’ve all had at least one jab and we’ve all been very cautious throughout the pandemic so it wasn’t quite so naughty.  The freedom was short lived as the good old British weather decided that the really dry April would be followed by endless cold and rainy days…..pah!

Concrete & Clay  

It’s been an exciting month and we have managed to finish off some things.  Not everything, of course, but enough for us to feel like we are getting our lives back and devote time to things other than the renovation.  We didn’t include any landscaping work in our original plan but as soon as we installed the French Doors near the kitchen we saw the potential to remodel the ugly concrete no-man’s-land outside which we had totally overlooked when viewing the house. 

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This scruffy neglected space between the greenhouse and the loggia was actually a perfect suntrap in the late afternoon.  These two areas were divided by a low wall and a screen of very dangerous plate glass.  You may remember that Neil in Destroyer mode removed the bricks and glass (without a single scratch….a miracle!).  This left us with the opened up space with a low step up to the loggia with a terracotta tiled floor and another area of mixed concrete surfaces with steps sideways to the garden which were way too high.  We spent a lot of time in the space over the summer with BBQs and entertaining so decided it deserved a revamp.

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This was time we decided to get a man in and ‘Alistair the Miracle Worker’ arrived to give us a smart new extended patio where once a totally useless bit of space had been.  After almost 4 weeks Alistair had demolished, dug, barrowed and filled a 6 yard skip and laid a stunning new patio area and smart new steps. 

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Remodelling the steps has given us about 30% more useful area, provides us a sunny afternoon and evening space to enjoy alfresco eating and looks superb as against the previous shite!.  Whilst this was not ‘in the budget’ it was money well spent…..thank you Alistair. 

Dave the spark followed on shortly afterwards to give us some outside lighting and sockets.  We put up zillions of fairy lights meaning that you now need sunglasses to sit outside at night.    (Neil blames Cheryl who got carried away and says you can never have too many fairy lights).  We put out the new teak furniture we bought from the man with the van and finally the Tibetan Prayer Flags went up (thanks Gail who brought them back from Nepal on the last flight out before they locked down last spring).

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Magic Carpet Ride

Regular readers will recall the catastrophe we faced last month.  The local carpet supplier managed to get hold of a close match and at last arrived to fit the study carpet.  Hurrah! Another room with furniture back in, curtains up and a few homely touches added.  Ten days later the hall, stairs and landing were scheduled.  The day before we made a trip to the tip with the odd bits of old carpet we were using to keep the dust levels down in the hallway.  Goodbye swirly green carpet, farewell last bit of Red Axminster – we won’t miss you!

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The fact that it’s not exactly the same carpet as the rest of the house isn’t so bad and it’s wonderful walking on nice soft carpet rather than noisy wooden stairs.   After Paul the fitter left Cheryl decided to celebrate by performing a carpet angel. 

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Yup, it’s all over – apart from painting the outside of the front door and patching the odd blemish or two the renovation is just about complete and groundhog day finally came to an end………yeeeeeeehhaaaa!  Neil also took great delight in binning the shorts and t-shirt that have appeared in so many of our pictures over the last few months of the paintin’ ‘n sandin’. 

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Whilst we are ‘living the dream’ in our beautiful house by the seaside we still keep in contact with friends in Goa.  We all know that India is really going through it as far as Covid is concerned and despite the government being in denial we know that the number of cases and deaths is probably at least 5 times the official statistics……..just read about the hundreds of bodies floating down The Ganges.  All of the people we know who live there don’t go out of their complex unless they really need to.  They did venture out to get ‘the jab’ but gave up because there was no queuing (yes, this is India), no social distancing (difficult when there are over a billion Indians) and no face masks.

Boris’s road map out of lockdown brought another bonus for Cheryl which in turn brought a bonus for Neil.  Cheryl went off to Champney’s with the girls in the extended family and friends.  Champney’s is meant to be a health farm and the girls have options to join exercise classes (maybe),  swimming & spa (possibly) and pampering sessions (definitely).  It was a great opportunity to catch up and laugh, gossip and consume multiple bottles of Prosecco.  The bonus for Neil is that he got quality time for a few days with son and grandson. 

Ticket to Ride

We’ve volunteered at Seaton Tramway which is a top tourist attraction in the town.  Our friend  Diane we know from the French Twinning Association is an employee in the office.  She called to tell us they were looking for volunteers to help out with the many events that are held throughout the year.  ‘Why not?’ we said, ‘renovations just about done it’s time to do something useful in the community’.  We started with an afternoon of training with her boss which was a gentle introduction to the way the tram runs and an outline of what the events entail.  The following week we were back again to meet the 4 other new volunteers and rode the tram to Colyton to get to know layout of the group spaces used for events, the café, shops and the location of toilets etc.  Then a quick behind the scenes tour of the engineering workshops and it was done.  We are now awaiting our first assignment. 

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Reasons to be cheerful

1. We’ve now both had our second jabs……..jabber jabber two!
2. We love silly jokes and Tony Blackburn on Radio 2 has more than his fair share of pretty bad ones, however, this one stood out –

‘The Devon and Cornwall Music festival has been cancelled as the organisers couldn’t agree whether to put The Jam or Cream on first’.  Boom boom!!  (For our overseas readers, unaware of our regional rivalries and the importance placed on baked tea time treats, look up ‘Cream Teas’ on google

3. Our annual 2 weeks on the narrow boat are looming……aye aye Captain!  ….…it’s also stopped raining and the sun has got it’s hat on……..yay!!!