Home visit

January/February 2015

The last two weeks NT and I have been enjoying the wonderful cold, fresh air of Europe. We landed very early on Saturday morning and were at my Mother's farm by 8am, it was a lovely frosty morning with clear blue skies, a real novelty for us. The fields, farmyard and her garden looked very picturesque.

Later that day my good friends KP and KN came over with their dogs for a walk on the farm. KP very kindly has taken on our dear labrador; Harvey. It was a really difficult decision to leave Harvey in the UK but we knew he would hate the move, the climate in Singapore, living in a condo without a garden and in particular Singapore's frequent thunderstorms, he hates thunder and lightening. Harvey has known KP since he was a puppy and we often used to walk together and look after each other's dogs so I knew he would be happy living with her and her dog. Harvey seemed delighted to see me again but is obviously very happy with KP and looked in wonderful condition. 

After a few days catching up with my family and our local friends we headed off to stay with NT's mother, stopping on the way to visit my sister and brother in law and  to see their newly built house. The house is unique, it is the UK's first amphibious home and if/when the river floods the whole house will rise up on 'dolphins' and stay above the flood waters. The architect won a gold award for the design and the building of the house was featured on Grand Designs just before Christmas-it really has been a labour of love and perseverance against many odds but the end result is amazing and the river view is wonderful. They still have a few things to finish off and sort out but I know they will enjoy the challenges and making it home.

In spite of it being late January and only a few degrees above freezing, it was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed a drink outside whilst watching the ducks and a lone fisherman float by.

After a lovely lunch we carried on to NT's mother's house. It had been July last year since we had last visited and it was lovely to see NT reunited with his sister and mother. 

 and of course we had the joy of seeing BT again, now a working girl and looking very smart after a hard day at the office, BT had managed to arrange to time off and was going to come with us the following day for a weeks skiing in Samoens, even working girl's need time off, especially if it's c/o Bank of Mum and Dad!