Another hectic week of early retirement- when did we ever get time to work? In a classic Jackie and Richard way, things seem to accelerate over the week with our house renovation project just days before we head out to Arizona on our next adventure. We defiantly felt the time ticking! There was great news from our life in the Dales… the lambs have started to arrive!
House update
Plumbers must be like London buses- you wait ages for one to arrive, and then two come at once! We had a much more reasonable bathroom quote from a one man band plumber based in Skipton, who was lovely and we really liked- things were looking up! Then last Saturday we met with a local plumber who loads of people recommended and who had just returned from holiday the previous day! He was so lovely, really down to earth and talked a lot of sense. He moved heaven and earth to get a fully itemised quote to us by Monday night before we headed off to the States. We went to see the bathroom options in situ at the local plumbers merchants and now have a start date a week after we get back from Phoenix! Happy days!
This means that in theory, when we get back from the States, we have a kitchen fitter starting on the Monday, the wood burning stove being installed at the end of that week, the bathroom being fitted the following week and hopefully the flooring going down just before Easter. If we had even dreamt of this timeline a few weeks ago we would have been kidding ourselves, but miraculously it all seems to be dropping into place. We just need to avoid doing everything in the few days before a major trip. Regular readers will recall we were meeting Kitchen designers the day we departed for skiing in January!
As far as our own efforts went, we spent every available daylight hour (remember we have no lights or electricity downstairs!) preparing and painting bare plaster- and there are acres of it! So much so, that by Tuesday I think I had done myself some real wrist and shoulder damage with all the overhead roller work. We were both absolutely knackered, but driven on by two things- the way that each layer of fresh paint transformed the space ever closer into our dream space and secondly, the abject fear of not having the room prepared and ready for the kitchen fitter on our first day back after Phoenix.
Transatlantic adventures
On Wednesday we started the long journey to meet up with Jackie’s Mum in Phoenix, Arizona. Now call us naive, but it wasn’t really until we got to Heathrow that we realised just how far Arizona is from the UK- we just thought it would be another hour or two from Florida- not a whopping 11 hour flight!
The journey started really well, as we were waved off by our next door neighbours like the brave explorers that we are, linked up with a local taxi firm- which was easier said than done in rural parts and began our journey proper at the historic, and beautiful Settle Station.
The train journey to Leeds was so lovely, and a bit of a step down memory lane for me as it passed through Bingley, the town where I grew up and brought back both happy and sad memories from the past. Navigating the London tube system was a bit interesting for us country folk, particularly with 2 massive bags at rush hour. I have to say I have become a bit uneasy in large crowds- I think that living in the country may be developing hermit like tendencies in me!
We had a lovely overnight stay at the Holiday Inn Express- a real surprise at quality for the price- modern rooms, clean bathrooms and a cracking all you can eat breakfast- albeit at 0500 in the morning. Imagine our delight as two newly retired teachers when we went to check in and there were 2 youth football teams checking in, followed shortly by one of the biggest school groups we have seen on a plane. Jackie did point out that it was Kama for all the years of taking school rugby teams on tour!
The flight was really good with American Airlines- food and drink flowed readily and the flight passed by quite easily. Knowing that we were getting picked up at the airport allowed us both to have a few relaxing drinks of really quite good red wine!
The soccer theme continued as we realised our hotel in Phoenix that we were using for a couple of days was also a base for a number of youth soccer teams, all in town for the President’s Day weekend tournaments. In actual fact, they were all really good and very well behaved.
We intend to keep you up to date with our Phoenix adventures in our weekday blogs over the next few weeks- watch this space!
Lambing begins!
Jackie’s world was completed early this week. If you could heat the squeal from the van as we left the house, and realised there was a solitary ewe and her new-born lamb in the field at the bottom of our house, you would be shocked (or not!) at the excitement. By the third day, and the day we departed for a few weeks away, the lamb count was up to 3- modest we know, but a definite sign of things to come. The whole of the Dales is full of very rotund ewes ready to pop at any moment- and we will be away for a lot of that time. We figure that there will still be a lot of new borns due at the end of March- fingers crossed.
So that is it, another week gone and you find us editing this weeks blog at 5am on Sunday morning in Arizona as we are still battling the jet lag and cannot sleep. After our first few days in Phoenix we are so excited for what is to come, this place is simply mind blowing.
Have an amazing week,
Richard & Jackie
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