Survival February

The title of this blog was the name coined by Caitlin (I think) in response to my February shenanigans.  The timeline went a bit like this:

mid January (1) - my car windscreen wipers failed and the car mechanic declared my much loved 2010 Renault Scenic pretty ill with a £1500 bill to get it through the next MOT.  So I start to sell it - there is a time to say farewell to everything.  I advertised it with all its shortcomings, but the key one, broken windscreen wipers (they alone were over £700 to fix) put off all the buyers considering we were on day ~30 of rain.  I discovered a world of really weird and unresponsive buyers - I think over 15 contacted me in a week.  General messaging was them asking if it was free (yes), offering a price which I agreed, asking when they could collect and then ghosting me.  The worse culprits were the two sets of people who agreed a price with me and said they'd collect the next morning.  Did they turn up?  Did they read any of my messages?  Argh to human beings.

mid January (2) - tried to organise full fibre internet for new house. All seemed to be organised, then it fell through after an engineering assessment of our local telegraph pole which needed sorting, so we suddenly had to find a partial fibre solution to tide us over.  And they couldn't connect us until mid February.

Fri 30 January - completed on house.

Sat 31 January: got keys. Tried to enter property in the pouring rain.  Long story short, our sellers had changed the locks and had forgotten to mention it to anyone including the estate agents who held a set of their keys.  All the new keys were on the kitchen table inside the property.  We had to call out a locksmith to break into the house we owned but had no evidence for.  Fortunately he believed that we were legit.

Sun 01 February: sold car!  £350 to a happy purchaser who drove it home with a rope attached to the windscreen wipers (I didn't ask).

Wed 04 February: our removals company packed up both our houses.  I forgot that I shouldn't have meetings that day and am being packed up around.  It was fascinating to watch JC's wardrobes being sent out through the windows.

Thu 05 February: final packing and move to Cullompton in the rain.  All went well, although it took the removals team over an hour to reassemble one of JC's wardrobes.

Fri 06 February: return to Ottery to do first coat of paint in JC's lounge and clean his house (we'd had a wall replastered with lime in December).  I sat in the empty lounge with my Mac using JC's still connected internet to do change of addresses, utility transitions etc.

Sat 07 February: drive to Weston super Mare to test drive and buy a car for me in the pouring rain.  Return to Ottery to do another coat of paint and more internet admin, which seemed endless.

Sun 08 February: unpacking in earnest.  This is our kitchen.  I am very in love with our walk in larder ;-)

 

Mon 09-Thu 12 February: back to working.  We both have to drive in (thank goodness I bought a car) as neither of us can work from home.  

Fri 13 February: internet at home - hurrah!  Somewhere along the line JC unpacked his play station.

The rest of the month involved fixing a LOT of snags with the house.  I can hear my Dad singing the Flanders and Swan song the Gas Man Cometh.  We had to call in the boiler guy (twice), electrician, tree surgeon, plasterer and the lovely next door neighbour who tried to fix our TV aerial connection.

I also snuck in a change of scenery with a weekend in Cardiff wedding dress shopping Round I.  And catching up with both girls, Mark and Roger.  Oh, and the rugby.

I came home to find JC had sanded down the kitchen.  So decorating the kitchen was how we spent the last weekend of survival February.  The kitchen breakfast room, with 4 doors, wood panelling and what seemed like 20+ corners to cut into, took a lot of effort but was great to finish!  Just the curtains/blind to do now. 

March may be less full on. Fingers crossed ;0(

London and mappy maps

17/18 January 2026

Last weekend, JC and I popped up to London, lured by the British Museum's exhibition on secret maps.  We stayed near Southwick and, on our way out on the Saturday, discovered this exciting place, Maths World, which I would have certainly dragged the girls to when they were young.  Or maybe I still could...?

As it was a last minute visit, I hadn't pre-booked a slot in Caitlin's diary.  Fortunately, she was able to jog past our hotel first thing, so we had a quick catch up on the South Bank.

We caught the Thameslink (my first time I think) up to the British Library for the Secret Maps exhibition.  As expected, it was fascinating and I enjoyed getting up close to maps I usually only read about.  

The exhibition was categorised into groupings.  First up was 'Imperial Secrets' showing how colonising powers from western Europe used maps as they conquered other nations, such as this 1946 map of British India with proposed borders for the partition.  

This is an extract of a beautifully intricate maps of Kowloon Walled City, before it was torn down in 1994.   

Then it was 'State Secrets' which demonstrated how maps since the 16th century have been used by governments to consolidate power and conceal strategically important information.  This excerpt, showing the River Exe, is from a 1540 map of the South Coast of England drawn for King Henry VIII in response to threatened Spanish and French invasions.  The atlas was produced ~1542 by John Rotz for Henry VIII - Rotz was a Franco-Scottish map maker and secret agent who shared French secrets with the English before switching sides and working with the French.

This 1558 atlas was commissioned by the English Queen Mary I as a gift for her husband Philip of Spain.   

Willem Blaeu's 1616 globe was probably the first publication to show Le Maire Strait, the passage under South America into the Pacific.  The Dutch East India Company has sought to keep existence of this a secret to protect its trade monopoly.

I was quite taken by this - lingerie made from WWII escape maps.  

Next were 'Secrets in Society' illustrating the dual role of maps as cartographic artefacts but also reflecting society values and priorities.   For example, there was a road atlas of apartheid-era South Africa that only showed towns and cities with white populations.  And this Spanish map, which simply refused to acknowledge the existence of Gibraltar until the 1944 edition. 

Finally, there was 'Personal Secrets' showing how mapping can publicise private lives.  

I am probably an old fashioned cartographer, but I do like my maps in chronological order so I can follow the journey of map development - having the maps themed didn't work for me as well as for others.  It was, though, still a really interesting exhibition.

We spent nearly 2.5 hours in there and emerged ready for a cuppa in their lovely cafe, before walking down to Russell Square to meet my aunt for more tea.  We had a lovely couple of hours catching up and then wandered into Foyles.  I picked Sebastian Faulk's latest, Fires Which Burned Brightly, which I'm looking forward to.

We had supper in a wonderful Indian restaurant, Chettinad, before walking 3.5 km back across London to our hotel.  

On Sunday we spent a couple of hours in the Imperial War Museum. 

I'd wanted to see their Emergency Exits exhibition.  It was a very sober affair as you can imagine (you don't go to the IWM for light relief).  It was absorbing to read the horrific stories of how brutal the colonial powers were as they exited the colonies they had controlled.  Absolute carnage.

A quick wander around the WWII section.  This Lancaster bomber must have been pretrifying to sit in and shoot from.

We collected our luggage from the hotel and, as we left Southwick, JC spotted this Low Line marker.  In fact, there was more than one.  It didn't seem like a survey related thing, and then we found the sign which explained all.

That is on the list for my next visit (Caitlin take note).

We trundled back home down the Waterloo line without too much drama.  There was a train replacement bus thing from Crewkerne but not a problem.

Christmas, New Year and a bit of snow

Wednesday 24 - Tuesday 30 December 2025

Christmas this year was a little different as Riona was working on Christmas Day so we adjusted the celebrations.  In anticipation Flo (the penguin Riona made me years ago) got into the festive mood.

On Christmas Eve, after working at mine, Caitlin and I hopped over to Roger's, admired the tree, and went up for Pinhoe carols. It was very nippy!

On Christmas Day, Caitlin was keen to have a Christmas dip.  The Exmouth swim looked a bit choppy, but we mainly avoided it because of the numbers of swimmers expected - neither of us had patience to get there an hour early to stand on the beach until the 'off'.  Instead we headed to Sidmouth.  The forecast was poor and the when we got to Jacob's Ladder the waves were the most energetic we'd ever seen so Caitlin, sensibly, just edged in for a paddle up to her shins.  

When we got back we found out about the tragedy at Budleigh Salterton, a few km east to us.  The sea is always is much more powerful than you think - take care!

Riona finished her shift which, apparently, was full of food and tidying up, and arrived chez Roger's around 2100.  Let Christmas begin :-)

Boxing Day began with a tree full of gifts.  We had a lot of fun opening them in between eating various delights from the Roger kitchen. 

On Saturday (27 Dec) we lazed around and did a jigsaw.  Riona and I walked to Sainsbury's for an Argos return which gave us both a much needed leg stretch. We then did craft stuff which apparently was Riona keeping me occupied - at one stage she said to Rog and Caitlin, "I am entertaining your guest here!".  

 

The girls stayed with me on Monday 29 Dec (Overcooked!) and on Tuesday 30 Dec they dropped me at Exeter St Davids where I started my trip to Luxembourg.  Despite Eurostar and the Channel Tunnel going belly up that day I managed to get to Stansted, and subsequently Luxembourg, without too much delay.

Wednesday 31 December 2025

The last day of the year and it was very cold.  JC and I did a 11 km circuit around Bettembourg and were delighted the coffee shop @9 km was open for coffee and warm up.

That evening we spent, as we usually do, courtesy of JC's cousin, Malou who wined and dined us perfectly.  

Friday 02 January 2026

We visited Luxembourg City today as the Christmas market was still running, unlike Exeter where it closes before Christmas.  The snow had started which was kind of atmospheric but also very slippy.  There is a cut off in age between finding snow cute (under 50) and finding it trepidatious (over 50).  I am sadly in the 'if I slip will I break something?' category.

Saturday 03 January 2026

There was snow overnight. 

We had originally planned to pop to Germany but figured the roads were dicey so we stuck to the safe option and just did a 11 km walk around Bettembourg.  It was pretty snowy - we had two coats on each - but beautiful.

I loved the bird tracks!

Monday 05 January 2026

Home day.  Knowing the roads would be more icy than usual, we left at 0730 and crossed the Belgium border in the dark.  

The bits of Belgium we saw glistened with snow and ice, and the sunrise turned the clouds pink.

We got to Calais promptly and were put on an earlier ferry.  I've never seen it so empty and perhaps we should always head home on a weekday in the future.  Roads were all kind to us and by the afternoon we were on the home straight.

Back to work and reality on Tuesday - holiday is over :-(