Our lives here in Cornwall couldn’t be more different from the ones we lead in Sandhurst. In Sandhurst, we know the first names of the couple in the house on one side of us and we know the family name but not the first names of the family on the other side. We know the elderly lady over the road whose husband was a Polish fighter pilot on the Second World War and who died of emphysema about seven or eight years ago. We know no-one else. Our friends are people we know from work, footie and places away from home. No-one that we spend time with lives less than fifteen miles from us.

Here, we know all of our neighbours. They are all friendly, kind and want to get to know us.

One such couple, who live two doors along the street, are especially good friends now. Over Christmas we went to their house and had a wonderful evening drinking, chatting and getting to know one another. Last night, we reciprocated by inviting them into our home for supper. They walked the twenty yards or so from their home to ours, with their little boy wrapped in a blanket and his jammies on ready to be laid on our bed to sleep while we had a lovely social evening with his Mum and Dad.

We had long discussions of the benefits of being a real ‘local’ or someone without close ties to any particular community, the challenges of teaching, especially ‘difficult’ children such as the ones Iain teaches. They both seem born to teach. Their eyes light up when they talk about their jobs and their future plans. We also talked about the frustrations and rewards of restoring these old cottages in huge detail. They are having problems with their Rayburn at the moment, bought second hand and with a particular type of burner that is proving troublesome. Their experiences have helped us to work out exactly what we want. Now all we have to do is find it!!!

Becky is expecting her second baby and so I was being ultra-cautious about what to cook - it hadn’t occurred to me how difficult it must be if you are an expectant mum and a veggie as so many of our ‘protein’ ingredients are not recommended in pregnancy - nuts, soft cheese, raw eggs etc. So, after discovering the news this morning, a swift rethink of the evening’s menu ensued. I turned out to be being too cautious because Becky hasn’t omitted anything except alcohol from her diet. Ah well, next time the goat’s cheese then.….


We ended up with squash soup, spicy vegetable crumble and the chocolate that would, in other circumstances (raw egg), have made a chocolate mousse, was served on its own with coffee.

I toasted the cumin and coriander seeds in a dry pan, slid them into the pestle and mortar bought for me for Christmas by David and thought ‘oh yes, now there is a good shot’. It took me three shots only to get my pic of the day today - I wish it was always so easy!!! When I showed DM the pic, he had a shout at me and asked me if everything he teaches me goes in one ear and out the other - he keeps trying to persuade me not to use tungsten white balance and to set custom white balance when taking shots indoors without flash/studio lights. He always ‘shows’ me how to do it by flashing his hands around the back of the camera going you do this, then this, then this and it’s easy isn’t it? I am still trying to digest step one, he’s finished and I’m nowhere to be found, floundering around in step one or two. So, I was feeling pretty pleased with my pic and his only response? Telling me it was crap because of the fact that the colour of the pestle and mortar looks wrong!

Last year I was beginning to get better and enjoying my home comforts.