Time for an update

It’s been nearly two months since we acquired the keys to our home and moved into Axial Drive and I am pleased to say that things are going swimmingly.

Yes we’ve had a few new home problems but as per the agreement with our builders everything has sorted itself out.

If you had asked us about moving to Essex/Colchester a year ago I would have thought you were mad but now I see we have made the right decision.

Essex was a county I knew little about and Colchester a town even less. We have soon become accustomed to life on the Suffolk Borders and are very happy here.

Considering everything else that is going on in the world at present I am very pleased and honoured to be able to come home to such a beautiful home in such a nice place and spend my time here enjoying life with Richard and Brandy.

I didn’t realise home much of an impact the old house and location was having on us and our way of life. St Albans may have been an easy commute into London but the cons certainly do not weigh up that one pro.

We lived in a house we didn’t own, which need work and was looking tired. Looking at the state of the house when we cleaned it to leave (not that we are messy!), I realised how much soot and crap had accumulated in that old cottage and am sure that it was detrimental to our health.

It’s also a huge benefit being able to park on our own drive – this gives us a ridiculous amount of freedom. Prior to this we lived in a residential parking area on a road which was a bit of a rat run. If the other residents weren’t competing for the parking spaces then the town centre shoppers were. Over time this meant we got more and more agitated about going out or being away for long period of time as after a certain time we wouldn’t have any where to park and would be victims for the traffic warden.

This ultimately meant we stressed about travelling home at certain times and stopped going to the cinema/theatre (nether of which St Albans has).

It’s nice to sit here and type this in the relative peace of Colchester, enjoying what is now our second weekend where we haven’t done anything to the house (save for a minor bit of tiling and painting).

When I say we are complete we are just that. There is minimal waste in the garage, the occasional stuff is in the loft and the house is furnished and decorated as we want it. It has already become our home and I am confident to say that we are both pleased and amazed at how quickly this has all fallen into place.

There may be a blog entry stating something contrary to this as our new sofa is being delivered on Wednesday but how often does that happen eh?

We have made good ground in getting acquainted with the local area, most notably when we took Richard to Colchester Zoo for his birthday. The town centre is not too far away from us and we have been out exploring the delights of Essex. This includes a couple of nice country meals in country pubs and an evening stroll in High Woods Park which is literally 5 minutes away from us.

I have to give points to Colchester Council as they are very swish in their organisation and they are great at providing lots of interesting and lovely local areas and parkland. High Woods is a lovely park literally 5 minutes from the house which (on our first visit) gave us a 3 mile walk around wood and meadow land – the park is much bigger but it’s nice to know we have all of this literally on our door step.

A few friends and colleagues have also moved around the same time and we were invited to Beck and Noel’s yesterday for a joint Birthday and Barbecue. Now the weather this summer hasn’t been that great so the choice of a barbecue was a brave one.

That said Becky and Noel were very lucky that after a morning of torrential rain it eased off and we got to enjoy the house and garden. Noel cooked up a feast without getting wet.

They have moved into a lovely house in the Woolwich area of London and seem very happy with their new home.

Becky and Noel were excellent hosts and it looked like all their guests had lots of fun.

I am always unsure about taking Richard to a party which includes people from the office but that group that were invited were quite mixed and lots of fun.

Of course it helped that one of my friends was also invited so we had a chance to catch up and have some fun before he went on holiday.

As you can see from the following photographs we had a fun day.