Blog Day 2

We live in a small village on about an acre of land and although there is land, access for the cars is limited by hedges, small gates and out buildings that are too close to the entrance.

We recently purchased a Chrysler Voyager which is huge by English standards and does not fit through the gates so today we decided to cut into the hedge and enlarge the entrance. We also demolished a couple of out buildings to make room for the 2 cars.

Whilst this is good, it also means we lost quite a bit of storage space so the garage is now full to the door.

Another task is to get the whole area sealed and paved in pea shingle. We had a man around today to quote us. He said he would call with the quote rather than let us know on the spot. This is usually code for expensive, we will see.

We have spent the last 10 months dragging the house from the 1920's to the present. When we purchased the house, it had 5 layers of wallpaper on every surface including the ceilings. It was a nightmare to renovate, upon removing the wallpaper on the ceiling upstairs, the whole ceiling collapsed and had to be replaced.

We also replaced the kitchen and 2 bathrooms, added a laundry, rebuilt a boot room and painted the entire exterior of the home. The place is unrecognizable to that which we purchased.

One thing that was fascinating to learn was why the English wallpapered their ceilings, it was to cover up cracks that formed during the anti-aircraft fire during the war. It turns out our village was on a flightpath to Biggin Hill air base, a favorite target of the Luftwaffe so the Anti-Aircraft batteries were located here.

I have become quite chummy with a mid 70's chap up the street and he fascinates me with stories of the battle of Britain and how he used to watch the American bombers leave in the morning and return in the afternoon.

This is one of the things I love about England, the sense of history the place has. There are reminders everywhere of momentous events from the Roman occupation through to present day. Australia just does not have this sense of history.

As a people and to generalize, the British don't travel in the same numbers as Australians and it is a shame because without seeing other parts of the world, they cannot and do not appreciate what they have. It irritates me immensely that the British have a superiority complex when it comes to Europe but few of them have bothered to see Europe for themselves.

My children will be home from school soon, today is Spanish class after school which they love. All 3 of them are learning Spanish and I hope they stick with it, a second language is a great asset .

That's enough for today.