Aaaand relaaaaxxx…. But can I start with a near moment of meltdown? And then I’ll get on to the real stuff, I promise.
Today, we spent ALL morning and until 3 o’clock, doing the ‘last minute’ things before we move out of our house for three weeks. We’ll be trusting the builders and decorators to install a new floor throughout half of the ground floor, and a brand new kitchen. And because we knew at this point we’d be absolutely knackered, I deliberately chose something quick and easy from the Co-op for dinner. Pork joint in herbs. A big 40 on the front: cooks in 40 minutes. That’ll do nicely. Sort ourselves out. Shower (not bath). Cocktail on. Obvs. Then pop the pork in the oven while Mr CQ showers and sorts himself out. But no.
No.
Cooking instructions said in the oven for 1hr 7 minutes. What? No. It said 40 minutes, what’s going on?? 40 minutes is for an air fryer. WTAF? Do more of us have air fryers than cookers these days? Not only do we not have an air fryer, how could we expect a holiday cottage (more on that in a minute) to have one? So how is this the norm???
We’re knackered. Temporarily homeless (in a non-tragic way). Starving. We’re on our second bowl of cheese & onion crisps. We’ve had our first settling in glass of wine. And we’ve had cocktails. We’re now on another glass of wine and there’s still 45 minutes before the pork is cooked. And I’m ready for bed already. It’s only 19:23. So hey #Co-op, can we just be clear about what those massive big numbers on the front of your packaging are there for? Because I’ve been your number one fan for quite some time now, and I might need to just reassess that. Thank you.
But anyway, this should really be far more about the fact that today, we had to move out of our house for 3 weeks, while the builders do their thing to rebuild our kitchen and decorate the dining room. For the past two weeks I’ve been carefully moving things out of the kitchen and the pantry into the lean to or the shed. My booze is in the shed, with a big feck off padlock. My glasses are in the lean to. And today, everything that didn’t fit, is now in the blinking living room.
And now I’ve got that frustration about getting a space perfect, lovely, homely, and then all of a sudden it’s full of crap. The living room is currently full of the dining room and the kitchen, while the hall is full of the pantry. It’s clearly not really crap, but dislocated, it almost feels like that. I was going to share a photo of the absolute chaos that is now the living room, but in all honesty, it actually hurts to keep looking at that nightmare, so I didn’t want to put you through the same hell.
But. It will all be worth it in the end. It will.
So this is how it will work. Week 1, we’re in Midcraigs, to chill and pretend we’re not worried about what’s going on in the house. This week I’ve a hair appointment, a physio, a manicure and pedicure, my writers group, and on Friday, we drive to 285 miles to Manchester, ahead of our early flight on Saturday morning to Dubrovnik. We’re overnighting in Dubrovnik, then can board our small yacht on Sunday morning in anticipation of a little cruise around the Croatian islands for a week. There’ll be different swim stops every day, so I’ve upped my practice at Swim Class. There’s a whole pile of lovely to look forward to. And then, a week later, we’re back in this part of the peninsula, with a week in a teeny tiny off grid cottage that has no telephone, no television, no wi-fi, no nothing. It does have heating. It also has a log fire and beautiful views. The water comes from the stream so it has a whole pile of peaty loveliness. And, no pressure, but I’m expecting it to be heavenly.
And then, hopefully, over the weekend at the beginning of June, we can move back in. We’ll have a shiny new kitchen full of empty cupboards and drawers to fill with everything currently in the hallway. It’ll take a while, and I’m not gonna rush. This is my first attempt to get stuff in cupboards and drawers that are right, without thinking ‘where the heck does this go?’ It won’t be right first time, but it will be right eventually.
So until then, for these next three weeks, I’m really, really going to try to switch off and relax. I really am. It is MUCH easier said than done but I promise to do my bestest. I promise. It will involve lots of reading, writing and cocktailing, but do tell me what you would do for your reset. Please?
Cocktail Queen 