First of all, apologies for my shameful lack of posts!
I had promised myself that I would continue to post when I returned home from my adventures. So far I have been very remiss!
I arrived back in the UK at the end of May. The first stop with Tracey was a visit to the amazing Tom Ashley to get my hair cut! Thank you Tom for fitting me in and making me feel fabulous, like you always do. 😘
I spent an amazing week up in Hertfordshire catching up with family and friends.
Thank you Marsha and all the fabulous bookies for throwing such a wonderful garden party! 🎉 it was wonderful to see everyone.
I also managed to catch up with both of my sisters and my nieces in the same place at the same time! This hasn’t happened for a very long time, so that’s was lovely. 😻
More parties, mini school reunions, some very late nights and lots of shenanigans resulted in me having a rather nasty cold/cough thing and almost losing my voice! 😳😂
Thank you to all the lovely people who let me stay with them and looked after me! Tish, Tracey, Diane and Anne. You’re the best.
It’s such a pleasure to see all my friends and to catch up on their news and share my stories.
After my week in Hertfordshire I flew back down to Newquay, courtesy of Ryan Air. The flight was cheap, thanks mainly to Nikki, who took lots of my luggage back down to Newquay in her car. ❤️😘
I spent the 1 hour flight listening to a group of very attractive ladies from Essex discussing the merits of various cosmetic procedures, and competing subtly on how many fancy holidays they’d all had or are going to have. 😂 It was very entertaining. I would have loved to enjoyed it whilst sipping a wine, but sadly no alcohol was allowed on this flight.
Arriving in Newquay was so exciting, as it meant I was going to see my beautiful baby girl, Georgia, for the first time in over a year! I have missed her so much and couldn’t wait to give her a massive squeeze.
They were waiting down on the road when I came out of the airport, but spotted me and drove in. It was so fantastic to see my beautiful Georgia and also to see my gorgeous boy, Grantley, and the lovely Jack. An emotional reunion.
We headed into Newquay to grab some dinner and drinks and to meet up with my friend, Stretch, thank you for my fantastic Keffiyeh. 🇸🇩🇸🇩
Unfortunately the weather was a bit pants, our chosen venue only had outside seating a available and the rain made that tricky and bloody cold, although we managed to endure it in order to have 1 cheeky Margarita! 😍
We ended up with a tasty burger at ‘Herd’, a burger joint that also sells a very pleasant Rosè! Yum.
I was a little knackered, so it wasn’t a late one. I headed back to where I am staying at the lovely Tish’s place.
After an early night I woke up, back home in Newquay and ready to tackle the next task, finding a home!
I have been looking at properties online while I’ve been away, which isn’t the best idea, because things I like the look of aren’t available now.
I contacted all the estate agents in town. Some are more responsive than others. The most responsive and efficient was Zoopla, who sent me notifications of new properties long before the Estate agents themselves, which rather begs the question, what are we paying a
Estate Agents to do??
It’s not the best time to be buying, just before the holiday season but it is what it’s is.
I have looked at a wide variety of properties, houses, new and old, flats, new and old, big and small, with views, without views, nice and not so nice. 😊 I felt it was Important to see a wide range of properties to really get an idea of what’s important to me.
It’s not the most relaxing activity, buying a home, viewings are the fun part.
I have seen a couple that I really liked, in fact the first place I viewed was a definite contender. A lovely large modern apartment, in town, with parking (parking is an absolute must in Newquay) it was great but very dark. I put in a cheeky offer, which was rejected, someone else offered much closer to the asking price, I debated whether to offer a higher amount, but on reflection I felt the property didn’t justify it. So the search continued.
I viewed approx 12 places and finally put in an offer on another flat that was accepted! Hooray. 🎉
There was apparently no chain on the vendors end, this has now changed a little, but hopefully shouldn’t hold anything up. It’s a lovely 2 bedroom apartment, with a balcony and stunning views across Newquay Bay, which will allow me to enjoy glorious sunset views!! 🌅🧡💛
In the meantime I have moved from staying at Tish’s place to staying at another friend’s house. I’m incredibly lucky to have such wonderful, helpful people around me.
I also now need to start thinking about jobs….😬
I spent a while updating my CV, which hadn’t been done since 2017! That took a while, I then had a CV that was 5 pages long! 🙄 With the help of Nikki and Nigel I’ve managed to get it down to 2.5 pages. It’s really hard being a grown up responsible person again! Having to think about buying houses, getting a job, paying bills, I’ve spent a few nights contemplating just sacking it all off and going back to Thailand for a few months, or years! 😂 However, I do want to stay here and settle for a little while. (I think! 🧐🤷♀️🤦♀️😃)
I love being back in Newquay, catching up with everyone, but I also see how difficult and expensive everything here is, it’s ridiculously expensive in the UK, much more so than SE Asia or even Europe. I genuinely feel we are all being ripped off. I paid £9 for a JD & coke in a bar in town and it was shitty generic cola on tap! WTAF! 😳
Whilst the rest of the UK has been baking in a heatwave, the temperature here in Newquay hasn’t gone above 24 degrees!!
In fact right now, I’m sitting writing this with the doors open, thinking I need a bloody jumper on! 🩵💙😂 Hopefully it’ll warm up soon.
I think that’s all for now.
Enjoy your week. Take care.
Books read.
Pompeii. Robert Harris. A fabulous book, made even better having just visited Pompeii!
Cuckoo in the Nest. Fran Hill. A really enjoyable read. Would definitely recommend.
A Man With One of Those Faces. Caimh McDonnell. A recommendation from Tracey, thank you! I loved it. So glad it’s part of a Trilogy, so I can read some more.
Hereandthereclaire.com 