Finally, We’re Back After Our Anus Horribilis

Well, what can we say really……..

…… except that, like our own dearly beloved Queen, we are not above having our own Anus Horribilis! It started in January and just continued to continue. In short, alongside a lot of other turmoil, we lost Uncle Stephen Granddad Colin and Granddad Jack, three very special people, in untimely and unexpected succession.  However, now isn’t the time to dwell .... it happened! All we can do is carry each one of them in our hearts and never ever fail to appreciate just how precious an "ordinary normal " day is. 

And, in the midst of this we decided, after all our planning, that we really needed to set the wheels in motion and try and sell Castle Greysquirrel and then, in turn, try to find a new abode dans Evesham, but more of that later.

In our time away a lot of good things happened too, perhaps the hugest was Darrell finally going, in real life, to the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm with Nigel.

It was emotional as you can imagine, in a totally poignant Hello Magazine type way and we were heartbroken not to have been able to share this momentous event with you. 
It was the culmination of many years of yearning for Darrell, but I have just told him that he will have to do it all again for you when a country a bit nearer than the Ukraine (who won it this year ) wins.

Then, perhaps, he could meet up with the very nice couple he met, who were sat sitting on the row in front of him.  The gentleman really couldn’t have been nicer when Darrell accidentally spilled half his Swedish Cola on the gentleman’s head! As a fellow Eurovision Obsessive the gentleman fully understood Darrell’s excitement and the fact that he really couldn’t stop himself shaking until almost half way through the contest.

In April we became uncles for the second time to Young Master Bertie, who weighed in at 9lbs and 13ozs, entering the world bum first (by Caesarean) and yes, we are obsessed, and Bertie’s arrival made our intended move all the more imperative.

While we were busy selling and buying The Castle Lu was also up to her neck buying her own very lovely house, in fact, to make sure we didn’t lose our buyers, we found ourselves moving in with her for a few weeks. She is a lady of outstanding patience and kindness, who furnished us with many, many pints of hot, sweet tea as we spent many anxious moments waiting searches to be completed and questions to be answered, before finally getting the call from our solicitors to go in and sign away all our rights to The Castle. Once more it was emotional.

….. And then we had to bubble wrap for our lives.

Vans were booked and loaded and all our worldly goods sent ahead to Tom and The Lovely Laura’s in Evesham, while, as I said we stayed with the Ever and Truly Patient Lu …….

Each of us bid an emotional farewell in our own way to The Castle

Watching Nigel say goodbye to his beloved fish had both Darrell and I  reaching for the kitchen roll (tissues just couldn’t cope for the deluge), but we reassured him that they would be very well looked after, in fact, they would, as we found out later be thoroughly spoilt with new pumps and stuff.

We then went outside to say goodbye to our village with its Motorworld, bus stop and Tesco Express  and made a pact, not to look back……. in the knowledge, that hopefully, in a few weeks time we would finally become bone a fido Eveshamites.