Oh, I’m back in England !

I was warned about the weather, but did I listen?

NO

Do I care?

Not a jot.

We have been back a month and I’m loving everything about England – yes even the weather. However, the move was going rather too smoothly and there was bound to be some ‘bears in the road’ as a Dutch friend of mine so aptly puts it.

When we got here we enjoyed the homeliness of a friends comfortable Sussex cottage for the first two of weeks. Then we headed up to the Cotswolds to move into a delightful cottage rented from another friend and this was where we encountered ‘the bear’. It being the fact that most of our furniture was far too large to fit in.

Therefore most of our possessions have stayed in storage including our sofas which means we have to sit on a couple of garden chairs to watch telly. We had intended to take our time to search for our ‘forever home’ but living the life of a canned sardine spurred us on to house hunt quicker than intended. It was exciting to begin with until reality hit and we realised our budget is a drop in the Cotswolds ocean.

Our scrawny budget sent me down the rabbit hole of viewing places described as ‘ripe for renovating. Yes, they could be if we had a million pounds to spend. It made me stop and think about how you can buy 2 or 3 superb Languedoc houses for the price of just one English one. For a brief moment I looked back over my shoulder, but I knew this is where we want to be so, with the word compromise ringing in my ears I set about interrogating Rightmove until it was on its hands and knees begging for mercy.

And then there it was – the perfect honey-gold stone cottage tucked away in a sweet village waiting for us to find it. We held our breath for several days while we waited to hear if our offer would be accepted and when it was, we celebrated down the pub with a couple of halves - cider for me, beer for him. Very English…