Enjoying a Thai Takeaway

The other evening when we were getting supper ready we caught the tail end of one of those Escape to the Country programmes which was featuring properties in Somerset and Dorset.  When we lived in the UK we lived on the Somerset and Dorset border in Yeovil - Yeovil was in Somerset and the next town Sherborne was in Dorset.  That dividing line made a huge difference to property prices as Sherborne (or as the posh people pronounced it Sherbun) commanded a premium.  Anyway it was interesting seeing places we recognised from our past and at the prices being demanded now.  In the programme the presenter visited a country fair and both John and I agreed that fairs and markets were something we missed from our past and I also said I missed some of the beautiful scenery with the lush green fields and rolling hills.  John did not agree - he said that some of the views around here are pretty breathtaking - just different.

He was proved right as we went down to Polis today for a bit of shopping together.  We took the off-piste route which takes us past where John and Susan Read used to live.  Their house and garden has been completed remodeled and is now in the ownership of a Mr & Mrs Schmidts - we know this because their name is emblazoned across the front of the house.  We know nothing about Mr and Mrs Schmidtz save that the house appears to be a lock up and leave.  There was certainly no-one in evidence today and the house was all shuttered up.

The views across the valley are amazing at the moment - everything is so lush and green so not quite the same as when we lived in Somerset but equally beautiful.  We are lucky and sometimes we need to remind ourselves just how lucky we are.

We did our bit of shopping. I had seen an amazing painting in the Hospice Charity Shop yesterday which would have looked brilliant in the lounge but I wanted to run it by John because our tastes are so very different - he said I should have just got it, if he hated it we could have put it back in a Charity Shop - disappointingly but unsurprisingly it had gone.  Someone had got themselves a bargain.  

I will just make do with the old picture I got from work many years ago when Brenda and I were clearing out one of the Porter Bartlett and Mayo offices and this had been cast to one side to be got rid of.  I couldn't face binning it so asked if I could rescue it which I did.  It is old, the paper shows signs of damp and bloom but I like it and the black and white goes well with the 'theme' if there is a 'theme' going on in our house!

We didn't go out for Valentine's so had decided that this evening we would treat ourselves to a Thai takeaway from the Farmyard.  We do love it and it does for two meals so works out as good value.  

We sat in the restaurant chatting with Rachel and Savvas catching up - we haven't seen them in ages.  Savvas was trying to get a new pellet burner working - he has dispensed with the old log fire that used to be in there which is sensible as a pellet burner can be left to its own devices and is much cleaner than an open log fire.  The only trouble was that he couldn't get it going - both he and John were giving it a good old investigation but it wasn't clear what was going on.  Savvas was telling John that the price of pellets has doubled since last year and the quality halved.  John said he had a bag at home which I would drop off in the morning on the way to Mum's.  Yes I know we don't have a pellet burner but John had an idea about using them in our woodburner but it wasn't overly successful.