Jim & Happy : Abinger Common 'Parkhurst Cottage' housesit (end of week one)

It is hard to believe we arrived this time last week.

The house is comfortable and the property is just what you’d expect from an English garden – it is just beautiful. There is a ‘public footpath’ outside the side gate where Poppy and Daisy like to go for a slow meander. The girls are very slow and happy to lie around most of the day in their various favourite spots. They are both very affectionate and love any attention you give them.

Jim has his daily jobs: feeding the tropical fish in the mornings, tending to the chickens & ducks (collecting their eggs) & tending to the rabbit and feeding the girls at night and throwing a handful of food to the outside fish.

I feed the fish at night and look after the veggie patch, flowerpots and beds. My job list seems light to compare to Jim’s but I feed and tend to us -that all takes time.

25 years ago when I worked in the pub ‘The Volunteer’ next door in Abinger Hammer I met Simon (Johnston). Simon stayed with us in Tawonga in 2001 (we think, none of us are sure of the exact date) but we lost contact not long after. When we decided to come to England I tried to find him via the social network and Internet but with no luck. Karen, our friend in Cornwall tried to locate him when we arrived at her house also with no luck. Last week when we arrived in the area, we stopped at the local corner shop/post office and asked if they knew of him – they did, not only did they know of him they gave us directions to the pub he works in - The Abinger Hatch. You are not going to believe this but The Hatch is minutes down the road from us here in 'Parkhurst Cottage'. We decided to surprise Simon and drop into the pub unannounced. He was very surprised. It took him a few minutes to put things in perspective. We had dinner together here on Saturday night. It was great to catch up.

We walked to the Hatch yesterday afternoon for preps (is that still a saying!). It is great having a local so close with a friend to chat to as well. Shame the roads are so narrow, tree lined and windy, it is a bit nerve racking walking around the place.

Over the weekend we’ll take some photos of The Hatch and post them on Flickr.

Poor Jim is in mourning, his Croc thongs (flip flops to the English) broke when we were in Cornwall last week and his Teva sandals of 20+years broke a final time on the weekend. We looked around for replacements in Dorking and Guildford, two towns close by but with no luck. Unfortunately Teva no longer make that model – that is no surprise considering they are so old. I finally persuaded him to buy a pair of thongs just for the interim as it may be another 20 years before he finds something he likes.

We are leading such a relaxed life here in Parkhurst Cottage getting up between 7 & 8.30am, taking the dogs for a little wander, visiting the local shops and tending to our duties – it is going to be difficult to return to Australia to a structured lifestyle. Lucky for us we still have 7 months of this hedonistic lifestyle to go.

Don’t forget to look at our Flickr photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimhappy/