New Year Musings

Lots of people in the Hobbit House guest book have referred to how romantic the place is. Well, of course it’s romantic. There’s nothing else to do!! There is, as you know, no internet. There are only three fuzzy TV channels. There’s no DVD player (although there is a video player and a few old videos lying around). And I suppose there are some books, plus we brought a couple of books and some magazines. And The Builder has found some games on his laptop that he had forgotten about. But there isn’t even a radio. We do have a travel radio but I hadn’t thought to bring it. If nothing else, most British guest accommodation has a clock radio by the bed. No clock radio here. Come to that - no clock of any sort.

This has meant that I have been floating around the three fuzzy television channels (BBC1, BBC2 and ITV). And have seen (the last part of) a romantic comedy which I had to send to Tabitha to find the name of, (the last part of) the new version of the Railway Children, (the last part of) the original Willy Wonka, all of the New Year’s Day Doctor Who, and lots of programs about comic actors such as Mollie Sugden, John Inman and June Whitfield (as far as I am aware she remains living). Lots of things I wouldn’t normally bother with. Ordinarily we are messing about on our laptops with foodie programs burbling away in the background!

I’ve also been practising my hiragana. I suppose I ought to have been learning some vocab as well, but that doesn’t seem to have happened yet.

So it’s not all bad. And the flat is warm and cosy. The location is lovely. We saw a curlew on the way back on Thursday evening - although what precisely it was doing in the middle of the road in the middle of the night is a mystery! And we have heard owls at night and seen lots of birds during the day.. We even managed to sleep in the first morning we were here. The curtains are quite thick and it was very dark and somehow our bodies were seduced into thinking it was still night time. Now, however, we have got used to the darkness and I am waking at our usual, insanely early hour. Therefore, of course, so also is The Builder who is happy to provide tea but who won’t let me actually get up until it gets light (ish!!!) We are, after all, supposed to be on holiday.

So it’s a nice place. I could be persuaded to come back - provided they’ve fixed the baby belling so I can make what was effectively a bubble and squeak last night in less than half a day!!

We had lunch in The Swan at Stoford with Gwen to celebrate the arrival of 2010. We had pea soup to start (and absolutely delicious it was too) and then ENORMOUS plates of fabulous shepherd’s pie, made with lamb shank meat. They were only open until 3, and I don’t think they were expecting quite so many people to come for lunch. The chef had only made 4 shepherd’s pies, and we had three of them! I suspect if they’d had a few more reservations, rather than people just dropping in, the chef would have made more than 4 of the pies!! Then we took Gwen home and went for a potter about in the Forest. We called into Fordingbridge so I could collect the bridge. We came home along country lanes. The sun shone brightly all day. As we came back along a single track from Whiteparish, we passed by a stubbly field along an open bit of country with the sun setting behind it. You could almost have been out in parts of the Victorian countryside. Except it was deceptively cold and icy when you got out of the car!!!!

I wonder if you can buy games to play on Apple Macs - for those rare occasions when you can’t play games online