Setting up in Yarm

Last week was my first in the “cottage” in Yarm that I’ve rented. The main issue on moving in is trying to figure out what stuff I need to buy and what I can manage without - for instance thinking the kitchen reasonably well equipped it wasn’t until I started frying some bacon that I discovered I had no fish slice to turn it with – so had to cope with a wooden spoon.

The place has a large and a small bedroom. I at first tried the small bedroom with the single bed – but after a few nights decided I’d rather have a larger room with more solid furniture and moved to the large room with double bed. This has entailed buying two lots of bed linen – but thankfully there is a “Boyes” store within 100 yards where you can get all that sort of stuff at very good prices.

This weekend saw my first trip back to my flat in Reading. Leaving Yarm about 3.00 pm on Friday I managed to reach Reading by 7.30 in the evening – so not a bad run despite variable weather. My weekend comprised mainly of re-organising my flat back to the way it was before I went to India.

I also rooted out the rice cooker and slow cooker left over from my time in China to bring back to Yarm with me – so I can get back to the serious business of cooking chilli-con-carne at weekends.

I also collected the stack of books I’d got delivered to my mother’s – I had been going to take them to India but decided against it given the hassle one of our number had with the Customs.

So with my Economist, New Statesman, a couple of books on Nelson and the complete set of Flashman novels I shouldn’t be short of things to read.