Christmas Wine

We had the most delightful time during the holidays at Steven's Friends Christmas Party (we hosted one last year).  So much wine, so much good food (this chorizo and bean dish has had me thinking of little else since I ate it)...twas a good way to usher in the holidays.  Steven's Christmas jumper though?  Love.

Anne Boleyn

We're lucky enough to live fairly close to Hever Castle or, as I like to put it, Anne Boleyn's house.  I ran there one day in the fall, unseasonably warm and beautifully-skied.  Swoon.

Mom's Autumnal Visit

On the day we moved in to the new house, amid all the hustle and bustle of unpacking, cleaning, organising, and reorganising, Mom came in to Heathrow Airport for her first visit to England since I moved here.  We spent my week off hanging around our town, waltzing around London, and doing some general relaxing.  It was lovely.

We stayed in an AirBnB apartment across the street from Hyde Park.  Though it was busy like mad, and we did made one dash into the Primark on Oxford Street (it was a baptism of sorts for my poor, unsuspecting mother!), the sanctuary created in that peaceful pentagon was so unexpected, so amazing.  It was about the tiniest place we'd ever seen, but had a perfect balcony and so, so much greenery.  Loved it. 

Though I've posted these on Instagram, I thought it was worth a big blog post for a great holiday together.

Our Home

We finally moved in.  Nearly four months after making the offer on our first house together, after two trips to the solicitor's office to complain about poor customer service (read: no customer service), and after an uncountable number of phone calls to the estate agent and to the previous owner, we finally got the keys in mid-October.  

We walked in after having not seen the place for months and gawked at each other: was THIS the place we bought?  It looked tiny, dirty, and just not what we thought it was.  Oh dear. 

After four hours of scrubbing the house with Steven's mother tackling the kitchen (and oven!), it finally looked like a home.  It was high time for some paint and some wall hangings, and it would be great.  Here's a few pictures from the inside...

The living room after (complete with bottle of hot sauce!)...

I've found a forsythia bush, roses in the back yard, and, apparently, azalea.  It's been an interesting year (nearly) of poking around and trying to grow things, figuring it out as I go.  

And now for the bedroom renovation...

When we moved in, Steven's brother Tony and his girlfriend put our fabulous new bed together, but abutting the bed was this tragic wallpaper.  It wasn't an easy job taking it off, but more of a challenge was the fact that the WHOLE ROOM was wallpapered, covering up fragile plaster.  Looking back, I would have had the whole thing replastered (and might yet), but for the mean time, it has been a welcome change, evolving over a few months.  But first, that view.  Winter, summer...we love it.

 Why would ANYONE choose this?

These plaster walls...groan.

Pervy boyfriend... ;)

And...after:

And I'm back.  I know it's been a looong year of not posting, but I think I'm back into the swing of things and am ready to tell a few stories.

Interesting read

I just read a harrowing tale in the Star about alcoholism.  One line stood out like a sore thumb:

Aldous Huxley has called the founding of AA the most significant social development of the 20th century.

Have a read if you're curious.