A nice surprise!

A couple of weeks ago I went to London to go to the Princes Trust Rock Gala with my Dad and Sister, the concert was incredible, we had the most fantastic seats, such a spectacular night!

(Brian May...!!!)

After my family left I got to stay a few extra days with my best friend Georgie who is an au pair in Fulham, I went to see the new Harry Potter movie, by far the best of the franchise!! Georgie took me to see her favorite show at the theatre, Les Miserables, it was AMAZING!! I wept and wept, it was such a great performance, I'm looking forward to getting the chance to watch it again on the 25th anniversary dvd I have just ordered. We ate a LOT of great food, dinner at The Ivy after the theatre, lunch at Fortnum and Masons, tea at the Worsley...yum! A fabulous few days ended with ice skating outside the natural history museum on Sunday night followed by some warm mulled wine, much needed in the freezing London weather!

I returned home to a great surprise, Ted had come back from holiday and manged to lay the cement foundations! Woo hoo!!!

(Ted in his diggor)

(Paul mixing some cement)

Whats that coming over the hill...?

As I lay in bed I could hear a low rumble, intrigued I peeked out of the curtains and a glimmer of yellow, high-vis yellow to be precise, flashed before my eyes. Coming over the hill on his trusty dumper truck came Ted, ready to start digging!!

(a cow and a dumper truck...)

I was so excited and relieved to see the start of the project, getting a date where the ridiculously busy Ted could work in conjunction with Katharine the local archaeologist, who had to oversee any digging, was tricky to find, but luckily we were able to schedule a few days before everyone disappeared for the October half term holidays. It didn't take more then a couple of hours to see a real difference.

(hole)

(bigger hole)

(a digger in a BIG hole)

(done)

It seemed to take no time at all, and before I knew it there was a surprisingly large hole in the ground, ready for the cement to be laid...sadly this was going to have to wait however as the holidays had arrived and Ted was off for a well deserved break with his family. There was nothing to be done but for a few weeks but to sit and wait.

Woo Hoo I'm Building A House!

Last December (2009) I was unbelievably lucky and was granted planning permission to build a small house on a piece of my parents land on Bryher, in the Isles of Scilly.
Housing opportunities over here are few and far between, especially for young people, whether its high rents, impossible purchase prices, or simply nothing available, there really isn't much in the way of affordable accommodation.

This was in the back of my mind when, last September, I decided that if I was really truly going to be able to stay on Bryher and continue to run (or co-run as I am sure my dad would rather I said) my families business, I was not only going to have to find somewhere of my own to live, but also do something to wave the nagging feeling that my job, and now career, was more then an extension of every summer I have worked for my parents since I was 13... I needed to do something really 'grown up'.
I therefore decided to 'kill two birds with one stone' and embark on the exciting, scarey, stressful, and hopefully hugely rewarding journey of building a house.

(plot of land where house is going)

How exactly I went from deciding this at the end of September and getting planning permission by the start of December I am not entirely sure. I would love to put it down to my organisational skills, but as a world class procrastinator I fear my organisation and timekeeping leave something to be desired. I have to presume then that it was down to my determination and perseverance ... (perhaps I should slide over the fact that it is now 10 months on and we are only just starting the work ... quite possibly a contradiction of my declaration of determination!)

Anyway..... I was unintentionally distracted by rowing, running off for a month to Costa Rica to get a really great tan, more rowing, a busy(-ish ..damn ressesion) summer season and a little more rowing ... BUT ... now, in October 2010, at long last, work has started, and who knows, next year I could be waving in the start of the 2011 season sitting on my new decking overlooking Kitchen Parr and Tresco and Bryher channel.

(this will be my view on low tide)