Home is where the Bailey is

Bilbao port through the ferry window 

24 hours on a +Brittany Ferries Santander S.L crossing is a bit too long, especially when the boat is delayed. The first part of the journey wasn't rough but uppy-downy enough for me to not want to do anything more than lie on my bed occasionally groaning for effect! Fortunately I had a good audio book lined up - The Happy Hoofer by Celia Imrie, her autobiography - so I spent most of the crossing listening to this. Good news was that my queasiness meant we didn't need to buy any meals on board the boat and got by with what we had taken ourselves. A travel kettle is a must-have in this situation!

We're now at +Horam Manor Touring Park for the second of a couple of nights as we wanted to make sure our house was OK before giving up Bailey to the new storage place. It's a lovely campsite and busier than we were expecting. The showers are roomy with lots of hot water and the hardstanding pitches are a good size too. The grass area is very soft so we're glad of the hardstanding. I think we could be stuck here for several weeks otherwise! The staff are friendly and helpful and there's a small bookshelf in Reception. We took a stroll around the nearby fishing lakes this afternoon and I was delighted to see primroses and daffodils growing on the banks. We saw a brief flurry of peacock butterflies as well.

Primroses in Horam 

We visited home this morning and it is perfectly habitable although the central heating is behaving oddly and the television can't find a signal. There was a huge pile of post from just the last two weeks as well as the remaining important correspondence set aside for us from the previous months. A letter to me thanked me for my resignation (Huh? What resignation?) and enclosed my P45. So that was a nice Welcome Home from my apparently-now-erstwhile employer. Ironically, the company's name is BeValued! Neither Dave nor I felt particularly 'at home' while at home though. I looked around at everything I haven't missed over the last five months and was surprised at how much stuff I actually own. I thought I was far more minimalist than this. Perhaps being back in Polegate will grow on us as we get used to it again? As we drove back to Horam, Dave said 'Home is where the Bailey is' and I certainly concur. Bailey feels much more homely right now!