Brian and Jackie Cross: Birmingham, Malvern, Buckinghamshire

Monday, 12 June 2017

Birmingham, Malvern, Buckinghamshire – late May to mid June 2017

With Denise (Brians sister) and Paul in Warwickshire

Doesn't time fly? It's been crazy, hence the long gap, though obviously now back in the UK although we are busy and want to record it for ourselves it may not be as interesting for others!

The normal form with housesitting is we arrive and the owner goes away. This time however Abi had a few jobs for us, and herself, so we have house shared for the first fortnight. We haven't finished them all, but have made a really good start.

St Marys church, Lapworth, Warwickshire

The first thing we did was visit mum, in order to swap some clothes and catch up. This involved a trip to the village Indian, hurrah, the food we've been missing and a couple of pints as we didn't have to rush back to Sooty as Abi was there to look after her. After the curry and lots of chatting over a jigsaw it already felt like we hadn't been away.

Next on the list was a walk and dinner with Denise and Paul. Lots of family catching up and lots more chatting, a really enjoyable afternoon. Discovered they were off to Lisbon the following week, shame we couldn't have coincided, but they had a huge itinerary planned so perhaps we'd never have kept up.

A modern stained glass window, 2015, in the church

By the middle of the week we had made it to Ian and Helen to visit their loft and retrieve some of our cooking pots and pans to aid in reminding me what I used to cook. We also caught up with them at Diwans for the best curry. Hurrah.

Abi was away for the weekend, so Sooty had to make do with just us, though she seems quite happy and has rekindled her relationship with Brian. Over the weekend we caught up with Fiona and James, with middle granddaughter Becky coming home mid way through. Followed by a day with Jonathan and Lucy and nephew and niece Charles and Caroline. They have both grown so tall and are maturing scarily quickly, but still seemed happy to see us and spend time with us which is fabulous.

Jackies brother Jon with Lucy, Caroline, Gran Pauline, Charles and Jackie

Bill showing Brian the rare 1920's Morgan three wheeler

The second week involved doctors, vets, financial advisers, the gym, a Monday drink with Mark and Fiona and a curry at the beautiful Indian restaurant round the corner from here. (Seems to be a trend going here.) Mid week we had to take the car to Worcester to the garage as there were a couple of small niggles, mostly that the air conditioning wasn't working, which we did actually need when we first got back. We were quite happy to entertain ourselves in Worcester, but Abi followed us down as her mum, Mary, lives in nearby Malvern so we were going to visit and see the house we have heard so much about. We stopped at the campsite Abi stores her caravan at en route to collect something. We were in danger of never leaving as Brian's eyes lit up at the sight of a Morgan motorcar in a small polytunnel . He had a great time with Bill, the owner who used to work at the Morgan factory explaining how it all worked and how he had done it up. He was a lovely man and it was a beautiful car, but I think Abi and I glazed over slightly!

Call me an anorak but the controls on the steering wheel are, on the left, the choke, small lever on the right the ignition advance and retard and the big lever on the right is the throttle. In the centre of the dashboard,partially hidden in this photo is...

The oil feed for the engine. 1 drop every two seconds is the optimum!

Amongst the various visits, social and 'business' and small DIY jobs, Brian has fitted lights in the conservatory that we laid the floor in last year. We also tried to spend time working on our TEFL course as the weekend just gone was our two 10 hour days in the classroom. Very interesting, but very hard work. It's a long time to concentrate for our old brains and it was a good dose of reality about how hard producing lesson plans is.