A New Life in Suffolk

All our deliveries have arrived safely, including the man from the council. He & the smoked salmon have been the only ones who have found us without directions!
So, let me tell you about what building regs require if you want to let even only one room. We were under the impression having read all the books that if you had no more than six guests then you did not have to get involved with all the fire regulations. How wrong were we! Within a few minutes of him walking round I thought we were not going to be able to open the B&B,& our dream was up in smoke. No pun intended. We have to make virtually all the doors into fire doors, smoke alarms in all rooms,&extra exits to the house. There is lots more which I won't bore you with.It was quite daunting, especially as I have to draw a plan of the whole house marking all the planned alterations. I totally understand that it has to be done & that our guests safety is a top priority, what makes me mad is that we did our research & all the books we read are wrong.Luckily we will be able to find the money to implement this, but to make such a big life change on duff info is a bit scary.

So the cold that has been threatening me since we have been up here has now fully developed with a hacking cough. I have a week to get rid of it, nothing is going to spoil this Christmas. I am so excited at our first Christmas in the country together. What makes it even more special is that 6 of our closest friends will be spending it with us. There are other friends I would love to have here,like C whom I have known since I was 2. That is a very long friendship & I am godmother to her daughter, so we have a very close bond. I hope she will come & visit in the New Year.
What have we done since the last blog? Saturday was not good for me. I had my first doubts about whether we had done the right thing. It felt very isolated here & I missed being able to pop round & see my friends. Not that I did that much when I lived in London, but it was nice to know you could. Anyway a nice supper of pork chops with kidney in & Strictly Come dancing on the TV cheered me up & by Sunday I was feeling positive again.
We have put up our outside lights which look lovely. Very tasteful, only a string of white lights hanging from the side of the house & some coloured lights wrapped round a big tree in the front. We have done this partly so that friends & delivery men can find us. As I have said we are on a very straight road with no obvious sign of our driveway. So if we tell people about the lights that may help. Of course that is only til xmas, we will have to think of something different for the New Year.
Sunday evening we went to the carol service at the local church. It was lovely, quite a full congregation for so many scattered villages.We introduced ourselves around at the mulled wine & mince pies. I bought a parish magazine & hopefully will go to a few more of the advertised events. I have to point out that we re not outwardly religious but I do enjoy the community that the church generates.
Yesterday we went to Beccles. The better half wanted to get me a surprise present & I needed to do some store cupboard shopping in Tescos. Well firstly he forgot his wallet & then he couldn't find what he wanted. How intriguing! So after I had finished my shopping we came home. I realized that a very important delivery of locks & handles hadn't arrived, & on phoning Parcelforce, it transpired that they couldn't find the house.(See above)
So the better half offered to drive to Norwich(only 17 miles) and collect it & then he could look for my present.
It must be special,I will know in a week.
Today we get lots of deliveries. the new door has already come(he couldn't find us), the TV arrives & the man from the council. I hope he knows where we are.
I must now start doing some cooking towards christmas. will let you know how it went in a couple of days.

I realize that is has been nearly a week since I last wrote. This is a big failing on my part as I promised myself I would write every other day. But I haven't, so never mind.
It has been quite a week. The purple bedroom is gone &looks so much better. Our friends P&H I'm sure will be much happier in a cream room. We also decided to paint the downstairs bedroom which was an okay shade of yellow but was looking a bit tired. So two rooms decorated, very satisfying.
The man from the planning office has been, & all in all he seemed very positive. Things that we thought we needed planning permission for, it seems we don't. but our entrance on to the road was a bit of a concern, so we must get the man from the highways agency in to talk to us. I think it is a case of widening the entrance for better visibility, which is good because it means hopefully more passing trade will see us. Next week the building regs man will come over to talk about the internal building we want to do, & also how to make the downstairs room accessible for disabled guests. Apparently there is a lack of that type of accommodation, so let's hope we can do something.
We have ordered our septic tank, which should go intend of Jan/Feb. The environmental agency can take up to two months to pass the plans. this is even though we are now making it more efficient & legal. Bureaucracy, what a nightmare.I am not looking forward to being without a loo or running water in the depths of winter for several days while it is put in. Maybe a trip to see a friends in London while it is done is called for. I'm sure the better half & the cats can manage without me!
We had a treat on Wednesday & went to Norwich for the day. i was really looking forward to going "to town" & although we had a great day I was pleased to get back to my home in the country.
The better half was very happy, we bought a new 32in digital TV with a DVD recorder. It was decided that as our existing TV is 18 years old & it will be our main form of entertainment we should buy it while we have some money. It arrives next week, very exciting.
We have had the most fantastic frosts here. I don't remember seeing them like that since I was a child. Mum used to hang out dad's washed shirts & they would go as stiff as a board. I have taken several photos which will appear on here soon . Another of our friends, J, who is coming for Christmas has said she will help me sort out how to do it. Watch this space.
I must close now as we are off to buy our christmas tree. For the first year we can have a floor to ceiling one, though that is only 6ft6in as we have quite low ceilings. Hope we have enough decorations, if not it is a good excuse to buy more.
I will try to write my next blog sooner, but no promises.

I'm afraid the photo experiment hasn't really happened so that is now on hold.
On Friday we went to look at buying a new front door. We have to have one as the weather comes straight across the fields & batters the front of our house. We have decided to get a solid oak door as it will look right in our house. Anyway we drove for over an hour to south of Bury St Edmunds to a place we had heard of. The doors were beautiful & we came away with loads of brochures & a price list. When we got home I worked out the cost which scarily came to over £1000. The better half felt this was well over our budget so went online & did some research. Suffice to say he has found a door with all the bits for about £500. So I think that is what we will go for.
We had our first visitors this weekend, very exciting. They are our good friends from Essex who plan to move this way themselves in the next few years. J had a look at our heating system & he is going to work out a way for all of our guests to be able to shower at the same time( but not together!) without the hot water running out. C is a very keen & good gardener & has great plans for our large & quite empty garden. They are staying for Christmas & she hopes to have sketched out some ideas by then. There are quite a few criteria, parking for guests, veg patch, room for chickens, & relocating the swimming pool. Let alone any flower beds.
The farm just down the road sells fantastic veg & I had bought Brussel tops for Sat lunch & a cabbage & brussel stalk for the week. J&C decided they would also like some, so on the way back from the pub we stopped & bought a cauli & a brussel stalk. After they had left Sat night, I asked the better half where he had put the veg for the week(because I always blame him when things go missing!) Having not moved it we realized that J had mistakenly taken them. Nevermind I thought I will buy more on Sunday for tea, but of course they were shut. So J&C have double veg & we have none!
Today was the Lions Christmas Fayre in Halesworth. We went down with a view to finding all the Christmas presents, & we did! What a result, so much more pleasant than trawling along Oxford St. And this afternoon I have written all my Christmas cards & included change of address thus saving on postage.I feel so righteous.
Tomorrow is decorating day. One of the bedrooms is a very pleasant shade of purple but it is a bit overwhelming on wall & ceiling as well as the carpet being the same colour. So it has to go.
Time to call it a night so night night.

I was hoping to report on the visit from the council planner, but unfortunately he has succumbed to the dreaded lurgy that seems to be doing the rounds up here. So no visit & we will have to reschedule. This means we can't go ahead with any of the building plans yet which we wanted to get going before Christmas, but hey I am learning to slow my pace down to Suffolk time & it will happen when it happens!
So to compensate we drove down to Peasenhall to Emmett's to order our ham for Christmas. It really is delicious, traditional suffolk black ham which is steeped in black porter beer.
I really do feel at home up here. We haven't left London a week yet & we don't even think of it anymore, it's as though it never happened. Except for all our friends, I really do miss them.
We had our first delivery of oil today. This is a new experience for us, & an expensive one. Not sure how costs to gas compare, time will tell. All I know is that I wrote a very large cheque. I am learning to put on another jumper rather than turn up the thermostat.
I really will try to sort out photos so there is a before & after look.
Maybe I will stop now & have an experiment.
Goodnight

So, our removers have delivered the contents of our old house. You know there is something to be said for minimalist living! How can we have so much stuff? I really don't think we will ever be organized, but as the better half says, we have only been here 3 days. The thing is, we have to have some building work done & I am having a new kitchen(well when you move it is essential!), so how much should I unpack? I want all my bits & pieces around me but I don't want to repack it all after Christmas. I think I will make that decision tomorrow.
I woke very early this morning, about 4.30 & as we have no curtains the moon was shining in. I got up to look out the window & I couldn't believe the sky. So many beautiful stars, I had completely forgotten how
fabulous the sky can be. It never looked like that in London.
The cats seem to be settling in a bit more now. They are not under our feet all the time & seem happy to find a comfy corner(usually our bed) & sleep.
Tomorrow I must get on & phone a few people like the bank & the tax man & let them know I have moved. some already know like the water board & the council. I can't believe how quickly they have sent out their letters & bills.
I'm sorry there are no photos yet, I'm not such a computer whiz kid that I know how to add them. I will learn though & when I am feeling less stressed & raddled I will get the better half to take my picture.
I'm off now to unpack another box, only a few dozen more to go!

I think I will start this with a cliche. Today really is the first day of the rest of my life.
The better half & myself have given up our jobs in London & moved to beautiful rural Suffolk with our cats . We plan to open a B&B in the spring & live the life we have always wanted. Over the next few months I will try to entertain with the highs & lows of getting this venture off the ground. Everything from installing a new septic tank to choosing fabric for the curtains. I hope most of it will be pleasurable but am sure there will problems.
Just moving in was not without it's trials. The better half left London early to be up here for the movers & I came on later with cats so that when I arrived I could move them straight in. I should have realized that however hard I try to plan things the law of sod has other ideas.
First the money took forever to get through so we didn't get the keys until 3.30 then the sellers hadn't quite moved out. What it boiled down to was that because it got dark at 4, our movers couldn't unload until Monday. So as I sit here writing this, we have only a bed, a television & a sofa. No pots,pans,chairs or clothes! Not quite what I planned for the start of my new life.
But when I woke this morning to the sun rising through the trees & a pheasant on the lawn I knew it was all going to be worth it.
The cats are completely flummoxed by the move. They are quite elderly & not used to change. However that hasn't stopped Tabitha (black with white whiskers) from examining every nook & cranny & getting shut in various cupboards. Susie(tabby with a superior air) has taken over the one chair we have as her bed, & will not move. I can't wait to let them out to explore but know they must stay in for a couple of weeks so they don't stray.