Merry Christmas!

Well - it's Christmas Eve tomorrow so close enough!

I've been busy cooking yesterday and today, only a few things left to sort tomorrow morning and then we're all set! I think I'm ready to feed 28, never mind 8. (Is a choice of 3 puddings overdoing it, or just catering for all possible tastes?!) The home made decorations only sort of came about - we've got lots of holly everywhere, and some lovely dried grasses that have been sprayed shiny colours. None of the garlands or wreaths happened - but I guess that was a little optimistic anyway!

Dad & Lynn turn up tomorrow for a few days, which will be lovely. We've also got Jen & Ray (Anthony's parents) and Sara & Tony (Anthony's sister & partner) coming on Christmas morning. It'll be fun squeezing into the cottage with all 8 of us, plus over-excited puppy and cat...!

Anyway - I probably won't get a chance back on here for a few days now, so wanted to wish you all a very merry christmas.

Sonia xx

Christmas and all that jazz

Well - it's not long to go is it?! Only 3 weeks today. That's come around fast. Having the time to do it properly this year, what with not working still, is making it quite an enjoyable process. We're having christmas here in the cottage - I shall be cooking for 8 which I'm really looking forward to. We're going rustic, home made, and local with everything. So it may not be the prettiest meal, with the mis-matched plates and so on, but my goodness it should taste good! I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm also about to venture into the world of home-made decorations. We've got such an abundance here of natural things that are stunning that it seems wrong to use plastic shiny stuff. Well ok there will probably be some tinsel around cos I've already got some - but I'm making my own wreath and going to try some other stuff as well. Loads of evergreens, holly, ivy and so on round here. If I succeed I'll put some pics up.

Suddenly with only 3 weeks to go there seems an awful lot to do though - I've still got to make my curtains for the living room, and Anthony's going to try and get the new dining table made. I'm sure we'll get there though. It doesn't really matter if we don't - it would just be nice if we could. :-)

Still no landline. BT were due to put up the new pole last week, but got to the day and realised they'd "forgotten to order the temporary traffic lights". So they've had to place a new order. We don't have a new date yet. We're not holding much hope of having it installed by Christmas - it's less than 4 weeks away so on current form (the order was placed a week before we moved in here on 15th September) I reckon we may have a phone line by February. Maybe.

On the other hand this mobile broadband thingy seems quite good. Despite our atrocious signal here in the house (solid granite walls - very pretty but completely useless for phone signals), even just one dot of connection seems to allow us to get online. And it's not as horrifically expensive as I thought it would be. We bought a stick with £15 of credit on it 3 weeks ago now - and we've still got £10 left on it. Not bad really.

The dog is growing!! He's already 7.2 kg and towering over the cat (they were the same size when we brought him home 4 weeks ago). I'm sure he does stretching exercises in the night when we can't see him. He's gone very leggy at the moment. Still - he's wonderful - very well behaved, intelligent and learning quickly. He's already off the lead in fields and walking nicely to heel. Recall is good, and he'll sit, lie down and give a paw nicely. Not bad at only 13 weeks old. I'd prefer it if he didn't chase the cat quite so much, and left the shoes alone - but we're working on those! ;-)

Causing chaos!!

Oh dear. The phone saga continues! It appears not only do we need to have the main road dug up by the house to have a cable installed so we can have a connected phone line - BT also need to put a new pole up as well!!! It had to be us really - we don't like doing normal easy things!! ;-)

Meet Blue

This is our little bundle of chaos!

And this is him playing (sort of) nicely with the cat!

We're back!!

Finally! 2 months of no internet access has been rather strange! Especially when moving house and setting up things like utilities - it's quite staggering how much is now set up to be accessed online. Even things like terms and conditions of new policies and so on - you can phone up and arrange contents insurance, but for the full details they say 'you can see those on our website'. Err - no I can't actually. Quite odd. In a strange (albeit occasionally frustrating) way it's been quite liberating not being tied to such things.

Anyway - there is a ton of stuff to update you on so I'll try and stick to the headlines only.

1. We haven't got a landline yet I'm afraid. I've bitten the bullet and gone for pay as you go mobile broadband for now - it was the only option available. They have been to connect the line - but it seems there aren't any spare wires available in the closest exchange box. Which means they need to install more. Which means they need to dig up the road to get at it. It may be some time before this is resolved....!

2. We've settled in really nicely - loving the new house, loving the area, the village is very friendly, we're near friends and Anthony's family here as well - everything is just as we wanted it really. No regrets about leaving St Ives at all - we both grew to loathe the place. Still - this place is great and we're really happy here.

3. We've got a dog! "Blue" is a black and white border collie - currently 11 weeks old - with one traditional dark brown eye and one a piercing blue colour (hence the name). He's gorgeous, very intelligent, incredibly friendly and seems to get on with everything and everyone we've thrown at him so far! He's also appearing to be very easy to train as well, which definitely helps. Once he's had his 2nd vaccination next week we can get out and about with him properly. Lots of long bouncy walks with this one I think! The cat seems to be coping with him as well.

4. I'm still not at work but working through the process of feeling better. It has its ups and downs but I think overall the curve is heading back up again which is a relief.

That's enough waffle for now. I will get pics of the dog up on here soon.

S x