Well, where to start? I guess it should be from where I left off over two weeks ago, so much has happened since it will be difficult to remember; I'll give it a go, you may want to put the kettle on at this point...
Saturday 28th May : Leaving party. It went very well. Everyone turned up (eventually, some too late as I wanted them to be there from the beginning as they are excellent icebreakers, you know who you are), the food was said to be a success, beer very nice (Golden Jackal from the Wolf Brewery which I shall miss in Devon), had tearful goodbye with Judith who is a very dear, old friend, my sister came which I was very pleased about but had to leave early as her boyfriend had sunstroke, all in all a good time was had by most but it was perhaps a bit too mellow for my party tastes as keen blog readers may have already detected from my somewhat depressed and arsey post-party entry which has since been removed.
Sunday 29th May : An unremarkable day, I explored a derelict house with Kate and le ginge, said goodbye to Gareth and can't remember much else so must have been a bit hungover.
Monday 30th May : Went to boyfriend's dad's house for rain ruined barbecue, which was conducted in good British summer fashion in the garage. Very nice day in all, it was sad to say goodbye to everyone.
Wednesday 1 June : After a day of packing I went out with our friends and ginger Chris' new girlfriend for a curry. It was a good night in all and the food was fantastic but it was marred by the fact that the food was very late and no apologies or explanations were offered, confusion over who owed what, bad-math resulting in us waiting for non existent change when we had actually given the waiter too little money and then some casual racism from a member of our party who shall remain nameless. Sad to say goodbye to lovely Norfolk friends again.
Thursday 2 June : More packing by me and and injuring face by falling on to a keyboard. The PDSA didn't want our sofa as 'it wasn't up to charity shop standard'! - very insulted. I then went out with work colleagues for what was to be a drink, singular. But (you've guessed it) it turned into drinks - plural. It was all very merry but perhaps I was expecting to see more people, but as I said before the NU staff are mostly a bunch of utter c*nts.
Friday 3 June : Raced to finish packing before my parents turned up with the van which we loaded and managed to fit everything in, we were very pleased about this after having nightmares about my poor dad having to make two trips back and forth to Devon. Feeling absolutely shattered we returned to our messy, near empty house lamenting the lack of soft furnishings to comfort our aching posteriors. Whilst packing the van we had noticed a frenzy of activity from the students next door and realised to our horror that on the night when we had to get up at 3am they were having a huge end of term party - after all the hassle we have had at Onley St with them, this indeed on our very last night there (take note Ms Morrisette) is ironic.
We decided to wave the white flag in this final battle and conceded defeat by sleeping at Chris and Kate's. In order to feel less like middle aged gits we decided to take our left over party alcohol to the neighbours' house and I'd like to think that their evil student brains were for a second or two, touched by our gesture.
After a brieft visit to Chris and Kate's, where they were entertaining Dave (by food provision not juggling or lambada displays - although I cannot testify that this did not take place once we had left) we ate fish and chips off chipped plates, (which we then threw away - clever huh?) sitting on the floor. Then we attempted in our zombie like states to finish off the packing.
Back round to Chris and Kate's at 11.30 we went to bed where I managed to sleep for a grand total of 15 minutes before we got up at 3am. Unfortunately we didn't get to say goodbye as they never woke up so we crept out into the noisy Unthank dawn.
Saturday 4th June : Adam picked us up at 4.30am and we set off to Devon feeling the excitable giddyness I always tend to experience initially when traveling long distances in friends' cars. This soon wore off and I slept for a large portion of the journey. We arrived in Exeter at and retrieved the keys from the bints at the letting agency, drove to Silverton and arrived at the lovely, lovely cottage.
The rest of the afternoon was spent waiting for my parents to turn up then unloading the van, making tea, meeting the nice landlord who lives next door and trying in vain to get a mobile phone signal in the cottage. It transpires that my fantastic new vodaphone mobile phone is utterly useless in the village which is set in a valley. My dad whose Orange, brick like behemoth is much derided, was in fact winner so there's a lesson to be learned somewhere.
We went for dinner in the three tuns inn which is a typical thatched Devon pub in the village and serves great food and real ales which are brewed in the village and are quite sublime. Then home to collapse in sleep.
Sunday 5th June : My parents and Adam left early and the rest of the day was sleepy and hazy. The toastie maker was found and resurrected with promises to have toasties all the time cos they're great, which no doubt as with all toastie promises will be short lived.
Monday 6th June : A busy day with a trip into Exeter to sort boring things out. We found a good pub, The Well House which should usually have a view of the Cathedral but is currently draped in scaffolding. We missed the bus back to Silverton and were then subjected to a crap meal at a pub type thing called Chaucers which is in a fantastic building underground but is sadly lacking in pub credence by not having any decent real ale and trying too hard to appeal to twats. We then traveled home on the really scenic bus route which follows the valley of the river Exe and cannot fail to cheer anyone up with it's breathtaking beauty.
Tuesday 7th June : Stayed at home and worried about my temp job and my boyfriend's interview.
Wednesday 8th June : Started horrid new temp job in prefab-grey-horror on depressing business park in outskirts of Exeter. This is the punishment for the near perfect moving to Devon-living in thatched cottage-in idyllic village sense of smugness. It is actual hard work, archiving which involves carrying lots of heavy files and boxes and going up and down stairs which I shouldn't do too much due to the fact that my ankle is f*cked after a fall in the snow last year. I was miserable when I finished, my boyfriend was miserable as he got the job which is in a call centre, the one thing he did not want to do. We had cheered up by the time we got home due to happy-making bus route and the sun is shining so it's not all bad.
Thursday 9th June : I went to work which was painful and crap. Came home and had fish and chips from village chip van 'Chris and Chips' which made me smile. We walked these off by going and exploring a footpath near the cottage which led up a very steep hill to a field which provided stunning view of the village in the valley below. The sense of extreme happiness returned as we stood hand in hand on the hill with the church bells chiming in the distance, a hot air balloon floating above and the sun setting over the rolling Devon hills.
Friday 10th June : Work wasn't so bad today as I think they took pity on me and allowed me to help out in the office by reading through old copies of the Dorset Echo for an auditor to find any mention of the local councils. My favourite banal local paper non-story was the 10 page anniversary pull out special about when they found and unexploded WW2 bomb in Portland 10 Years Ago. There was an article about a Leonberger puppy which had to be wheeled around in a B & Q trolley until he had his inoculations and an article about a man who saw and took a photo of a mallard with 13 ducklings, wow that's real news.
I was also concerned about how scarily strict the authorities down here are on drug use. For example one paper lead with a story about the man who was arrested because he was carrying a bag of cannabis worth 10 English pounds (yes that's 10 not 1000). This surely is the amount of cannabis that most of us under thirty carry on us everyday just through scrag ends in the bottom of your bag and sitting on your sofa (it sticks to your bum).
Came home in much better mood, watched my boyfriend mowing the lawn and made goulash. We then went to the Lamb which is almost next door. This also has good beer and a nice relaxed atmosphere. Witnessed domestic violence in form of wife slapping which although cannot be condoned was very comical as the couple the ran out of the pub looking like they'd chin anyone who intervened and as if the wife was about to give as good as she got. She then returned alone into the pub, necked her drink, stared at everyone in threatening manner and left to puzzled looks all round.
Saturday 11th June : Got the bus to Paignton to go and visit the zebra I adopted for my boyfriend for Christmas. The zoo is really cool and we saw all the favourites the best of which were lemurs, elephants and the zebras of course. Paignton town centre is really crap but we did get to go on an open top bus to the zoo and then back along the seafront to Torquay which is much maligned but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was, especially in the early evening sunshine. Still very happy in lovely Devon. We were forced into conversation by an alcoholic at the bus stop who pulled my boyfriend to one side to tell him about a lady in Paignton who bought him a 30 quid England t-shirt and have him a blow job in the public toilet, I was not allowed to hear this first hand as I am in fact a lady.
Sunday 12th June : So here I am today writing this epic of a blog entry and I'm sure I missed a lot out. I am missing my friends especially Chris and Kate as we can't just pop round anymore, not really missing Norfolk as mighty as it may be Devon is more than compensating. We're going out for dinner again tonight to the Lamb which should be good and yummy and we are not looking forward to the working week but nevermind it could be worse, we could be at Norwich Union.
