“ARE you
ready…?” I ask for like the twenty-seventh time as we slowly head towards the
door.
“Nearly,
veeerrry nearly…” Jacks replies.
“Just wait 21,
20, no… 19 seconds…”
“Huh?”
“YES!” Cue
Jacks punching air in triumphant fashion.
“I won!!!”
“Huh?!”
Yep, that
was the moment last month when I inadvertently discovered my wife had firmly
discovered eBay.
Dear lord.
The next
week-and-a-half was a standout time in the Nichols casa in the 16 months since
we moved to England.
You see, I
now know that pairs of women’s knee-high boots, chunky warm jumpers and most
long ‘dressy’ dresses just won’t fit through most front door letter box.
I know this
for a fact.
And I know
because every day for what seemed like an age I came home from work to find
one, two, three… maybe five… Royal Mail ‘sorry we missed you’ cards posted
through the door.
Some of
these cards even mentioned the fact that ‘5’ items are “waiting for you”.
 |
| You've got (a lot of) mail |
Wow.
It took
maybe a week for me to determine the extent of my wife’s new found love of
eBay.
And by that
time we’d already been to the Royal Mail sorting office five or six times to
pick up the various items of post.
At one point
the beleaguered-looking chap behind the counter stated that Jacks had
set a “new record” with 36 items ready to pick up in one hit. I nearly had to rent a van.
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| Parcel force |
You see, as
I found in Mexico, it’s not easy to order something for delivery like that.
Tijuana
didn’t - to my knowledge - boast a reliable Royal Mail equivalent. And then I was told
things often go missing.
The
alternative is to get something delivered to a friend across the border in the States who can
then re-deliver. But of course it’s a ball-ache just for you to get your post.
So yes, as
Jacks settles properly into English life, with its penchant for consumerism, I
guess it was only a matter of time before one (wo)man’s junk became her
treasure.
I’m as much
to blame as anyone having amounted quite a sizeable collection of G1
Transformers toys during a nostalgic phase I went through, plus an absolute
boat-load of All Saints gear.
Boy do we
need a bigger house.
So I
mentioned before that I’ve been a bit slack on the blogging front.
You see,
when you’re living in a different country with different culture, food and
people, it’s easy to feel inspired.
When you
come back to everything you know it’s difficult to create that same level of
creative spark.
Jacks and I
have discussed switching up the blog so we shine a light on her English
experiences but we’re not quite there yet… 16 months down the line.
So instead I
guess it’s up to me to pick out the amusing bits of life here in England as we
experience new things for the first time.
Like the time
a couple of months ago when we went to see Jacks’ beloved ponies on Dartmoor –
and how we go one stuck in the car.
I guess it’s
also worth mentioning that the summer is now pretty much ‘over’ in England –
aside from some miracle occurrence.
Did we see
30 degrees in Plymouth? Did we f*ck.
Did Jacks
actually feel warm at all this summer? Nope.
This is pretty summer defined in Plymouth (and indeed the UK as a whole):
We did buy a frikkin 14ft-long sea kayak though (ahem... as a tool to make us make the most of the outdoors regardless of the weather...)
 |
Oh, readers
interested in hearing how our chili crop is going this year will be pleased to see that
our jalapenos are finally producing! And there’s more to come.
 |
| From this... |
 |
| To this! |
 |
| Beauties! |
Right, we’re
off to explore and find inspiration!
Greetings peeps! Play nice ;-) x
@tristan_nichols
