It’s been around 6 weeks here so far on my journey of a year. I flew into Heathrow and landed, spending 3 days in a local hotel. I had no local phone number, no car and no home but I did have a friend and his family from Australia who live in Eastbourne. After three days this friend arrived to take me to his home and his wife and child welcomed me knowing I had contracted Covid-19 and despite her and her daughter not being vaccinated. I was unwell but not too bad, indigestion and lack of appetite being my worst symptoms. They brought meals to my room and generally looked after me. I was really scared they’d catch it from me but thank God they did not and I emerged after a week to some sense of normalcy. I will be forever grateful to them for looking after me. My friend had sourced and bought a car for me from a titled woman in South Kensington London and had brought it back. It was a bargain. A class Mercedes Benz auto for around 3500 pounds. So I had a car. I’d got a new sim and a new English phone number so I had a working phone and during the next three weeks I found a terrace house in County Durham that had failed to sell on the auction day and made a bid for it which was accepted. So I was on the way to having a home.
A few weeks later and I’m waiting for the bank to do the right thing so I can finalise the purchase. So technically, I am still homeless and renting short term rooms on Booking.com and through AirBnb. I have stayed in Eastbourne, Coventry, Stockton-On-Tees and currently in Darlington. I have visited my new home in a small County Durham village. Its a bit of a shithole to be frank but at least it will be my shithole. There’s a lot to be done. Tiles off the roof, a broken window, old crappy furniture to be removed and an overgrown garden but I am itching to start. It’s in a small town which I am used to. I am, and always will be, a country girl. I even went into a pet shop today to look at the pets because I am missing my chickens and ducks. They had some Siberian hamsters which are tempting as long as I can pass them onto a new owner when I leave here. They are smaller than guinea pigs and a lot cheaper to buy. 10 pounds as opposed to 30 pounds each.
So how is England different to Australia? Things are expensive here. When I convert the pounds to dollars things are often twice as dear as home. Car and home insurance was cheaper. Diesel is about 1.45p so about twice the price of Australia. The rolling hills and flat green paddocks remind me of home in the Southern Highlands. Most country roads are lined in high hedgerows. We don’t have these in Australia. The roads are very much worse than Oz. They are very narrow and often force you to park at the side to let oncoming traffic through. The Motorways are good. The M1 from the south to the north has three lanes. It has a 70 mph speed limit which is too much for me, I go along at 60mph.
The historic sites are fabulous and there are a lot of them. I have already visited London twice and seen Piccadilly Circus, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. The trip to London one day on the train from Eastbourne cost around $200 including entry fees so it is expensive, particularly the trains.
In East Sussex I visited the site of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 at Battle Abbey and saw the plaque where King Harold was supposed to have died. I have seen Pevensey Castle- part Roman, part Medieval, Dover Castle which overlooks the amazing ferry port and Lewes Castle in the quaint town of Lewes. Michelham Priory was very interesting with its Tudor interiors and medieval herb garden. The highlight of my visits was to see Shakespeare’s birthplace Stratford-Upon-Avon. I have a real feel for 15th and 16th century dark furniture and low ceilings with black beams now. Shakespeare’s father sold gloves out of a ground floor window in the house. Anne Hathaway’s cottage though extended since her time is a typical cute chocolate box of a house with a thatched roof and black and white exterior.
Gardens are lovely here. Summer brings out all the roses, lavender and poppies and some town councils have made a huge effort to have nice gardens such as the seaside town of Eastbourne. I got quite used to walking on the pebble beach there every night when I left my friend’s house and stayed in a small apartment. The houses are pretty cute too, lots and lots of terraces. Even in the new estate where I stayed, they build the houses in the traditional way out of brick and tiles or slate and they look like Lego houses.
Well the adventure continues. A favourite site is to go to Seaham Beach and look for seaglass. The last time I went, I was happy with my haul only to find a hole in my collecting bag had let out most of my treasures. There’s a moral in there somewhere- don’t count your seaglass until you get it home?
au revoir mes amies
amundr 