Author: Kate Wilson

11.11.11

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Just after 11am and the two minutes silence,  I walked up through the field outside my house to get some fresh air as I had suddenly felt very dizzy and sick.  I listened to the dongs of Big Ben and shared the silence while lying on my sitting room floor while the room whirled around me.
I think it was overdoing it to go dancing tango last night – not 48 hours after the anaesthetic!
At 11.11 I took these photos of the dogs, some rowan berries and the rather grey skies which were covering Penwith today

 I like the number 11 and remember spending another special cosmic moment ‘The Harmonic Convergence’ at Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire.
Can’t now remember why but then there was also some talk of the potent energy of 11.11

leaving no stone unturned

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

OK hospital procedure over and I can get back to packing and sorting. My consultant was most disappointed to find no stones to zap when he got inside me so it was not really necessary to go through with yet another general anaesthetic but….at least I know I have nothing lurking in there and I can feel pleased that my intuition was right when I felt I didn’t need the operation.

So, where was I?
Lists – trying to have only one on the go but I found I had two almost identical ones in the same notebook yesterday.
Van – I am waiting for the DVLA to return my log book with Campervan on it instead of Commercial. This is because Spanish authorities will not allow a UK commercial panel van to be replated and registered as Spanish.  I have read some terrifying internet stories of the time and expense needed to go through this process but, who knows, maybe it will be different for me!
Money – apart from the fact that this whole move is costing me much more than I expected (what with 4 new tyres to conform with Spanish regulations, a new stove in my cottage, the very expensive palace we have created to house my furniture, the quotes for removals which range from £2500 to £3800…..) I have been looking into ways to send money from the UK to Spain.  In the past I innocently went through my bank and did a couple of transfers. But this is a very expensive way of doing it and I now know there are specialist agencies who buy and sell currencies and give you better rates. You need to register first and then can either send lump sums or regular payments and there are no charges and give far better exchange rates.  I spoke to one today and was surprised to find he is based in Penzance and lives in St Buryan!  Cheaper than running an office from London I suppose.
Yesterday he was buying euros all day with the pound doing well because of the Italian crisis and today he was selling them. 
It’s another thing to get to grips with which makes moving to another country so interesting!
Selling – I sold another book on Amazon and although it’s harmless fun it isn’t really the most effective way of clearing out your book collection. I’ve sold two in the past three months and it means an extra trip to the Post Office when there is so much else to do.  I’m definitely more a fan of giving things to Freegle at the moment although it doesn’t help the bank balance. People come and take things away within 24 hours be it a food mixer, an old toilet, tree guards or a broken mini greenhouse. Noone seems interested in the ironing boards though – does noone iron these days?

Old Birds

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

It was a misty Cornish day when he arrived

I knew something was wrong but he wouldn’t let me get close.
It was good to see him keeping company with one of my birds.

I hoped he was taking comfort

The next day his body was in the field.   He didn’t seem seemed injured – just old.

He just died and I was a witness.

Bonfire Night

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Last night we decided to light the bonfire and burn the mountain of wood that has accumulated over the past few weeks of building work. Sometimes fires take ages to get going and you end up having to throw some petrol over them ….very nervously in my case!  But this fire wasn’t like that. With loads of dry gorse on top it went up like a rocket and soon was crackling and snorting with flames and puffing out smoke.  Soon the pile was disappearing. Some of it was still damp but this fire didn’t pause or falter.
It’s a great way to get rid of things too.
I threw on old bank statements and accounts. Old client notes from London times. Two fat diaries full of angst from a few years ago.
I went and brought out two chairs that ‘could be fixed but I’ll never get round to it and there is no way I am dragging broken furniture all the way to Spain’. We have plenty of broken things over there already!
Then the shopping basket – ‘oh it’s so nice I can’t bear to let it go but the handles are broken so I can’t use it..maybe it could be fixed….” NO!  Onto the fire.
What joy!
The flames are cleansing and exhilarating.
There are things you can sell and give away, things you can throw away and some things just need to be burnt – there are things that can’t be donated or sold or relegated to the dump – burning is the answer.
I had a lot of those programmes you get when you go to a funeral. I suppose they remind you of the person but really I’d rather remember them alive.  And the growing pile was depressing in itself – so many people gone.
Anyway, you may be glad to know the teddy bears are still safely propped up on the piano – no furry animals were cast into the flames.

Duna the seasoned traveller

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Duna has left Cornwall and is much missed by me, less so by Blue and not at all by Bonnie!
She arrived safely in Roscoff early this morning after sailing across from Plymouth and she would like to say that it was not the best way to travel. Brittany Ferries have several options for dogs going abroad – kennels, cabin or car. It depends which route you take and as the Plymouth – Santander route stops at the end of October, Duna went to Roscoff on the night ferry. She passed through the check-in easily with only a quick scan of her microchip, and then had to spend the ten hour trip in the car on the car deck. She could have slept through most of it except for the idiots who had forgotten to switch off their car alarms so the night was one long neek-neek, bee-bah bee-bah, nyang nyang nyang nyang.
But she is a seasoned traveller now and emerged this morning to have a pee and a potter on French soil before setting off on the long trip south.

Meanwhile back in Dolphin Cottage – floors and windows to varnish, boxes to pack, things to sort and furniture to move. Hoping that the log book of the van will come back in time for us to set off well before Christmas. The house still looks pretty full of STUFF !
I am missing my companions and now must seriously get on with the move.