after two weeks ...

Moving to a new area is interesting! Having always lived within the same two square miles, and therefore been very familiar with my surroundings I am finding it fairly amusing (at the moment - that may well change) that I don't know where anything is or where I am going. I have learned a few things, one of them is not to go off exploring without the satnav in the car! Got a bit lost but I can say that Beltinge and Reculver look very nice. I have visited a couple of toddler groups with Norah. Wow, not sure how shy people do it, (perhaps they don't?) not the easiest of places to go when you don't know anyone, even for extrovert me! Have met a nice lady who has a daughter Norah's age and a baby (guess which one Miss Noodle is more interested in?) though which has been good. I think maybe it's a bit hard as not knowing anyone gives me lots of opportunities to just sit and observe, the result of which has been seeing a fair bit of negativity towards other toddlers. The nice bit of this however has been watching Norah interact with new people and discover just how very much more confident she is than I had realised previously. Feels like we are doing something right for us which is nice. I have also discovered that tradesmen here don't exactly hurry up with quotations which is a bit frustrating. We are getting there with the work plans though, making compromises is becoming easier the longer we live here and determine which jobs just HAVE to be done and which are maybe not so important or we can do ourselves. While I know we are really lucky to be able to do the jobs on the house I am realising that my house and how it feels to me are more important than I had previously thought. What is really nice is that this house was chosen by both of us, I imagine that may be the reason that we both felt 'at home' here from the minute we arrived. It's really nice to be right in the town centre. During our trip to the shops and library today we bumped into two ladies from church and spoke to two of our new neighbours! All of them took the time to speak to Norah too, I'm kind of liking the slower pace of life here at the moment. There is a supermarket on the other side of the high street which takes about two minutes to walk to, so nice not to have to use the car so much, and sea front walks are still a big novelty. Looking forward to the warmer weather, although aparantly we are in for the wettest May in 300 years! Better buy a new umbrella!