A tipple to celebrate

Gin o'clock! 

Have you seen these new tiny black gin bottles from Hendrick's? We spotted them this week and a Gin and Tonic in the blazing sunshine seemed the perfect way to celebrate finally undertaking the long haul back to Sussex in a hired van to retrieve those of our possessions that have languished in storage for two years. The excellent news, of course, is that both of Dave's cocktail glasses came through the experience unscathed! We shared out the 50ml of Hendrick's gin with another new find, Franklin And Sons tonic water, to create a very good drink. Franklin can easily hold its ground with Fevertree and Schweppes and I did like the gin which has a different taste to others I have tried. I learned that it is infused with rose and cucumber to give its distinctive flavour. And I kept the mini bottle which fits in perfectly next to my opera glasses on a bookshelf.

We hired a Thrifty van from Torquay for the move and spread the venture out over three days, staying with good friends for a couple of nights in Sussex. I can now add driving a large Volkswagen van to my skills list! This was actually a lot easier than I expected - I'd been dreading it! - along main roads and motorways at least. I was less comfortable in town though and now have a new respect for delivery drivers manoeuvring these vehicles all day. I did notice that the accelerator pedal was particularly high even after adjusting the seat as much as possible. I guessed the cab is set up for male drivers with generally larger feet so, if we were to hire such a van again, I would wear my heeled boots to lift my foot a couple of inches off the floor. On returning the van, Thrifty did sting us a £250 excess for obscure damage that we didn't cause so choosing to do the move ourselves didn't actually work out to be such an economical option after all.

My new bread box table 

At least we have all our stuff now and just about everything has been found a new home. My stripy tagine sits on an open display shelf in the kitchen and I'm showing off our fab new Joseph Joseph Prep Nest on another. Thanks Andy and Barbara - we love this! The arrival of the electric drill meant Dave was able to hang our beautiful new mirror and I found this wooden bread box at the Mare And Foal Sanctuary shop in St Marychurch. It's the perfect size to be a side table for my chaise longue! Art is going up, books are on shelves and our vintage floor lamp still works. Now we are just waiting for Half Price Bedz to (finally) deliver the beds to go under our mattresses today. It will be nice to be sleeping higher than the floor again.

Thanks for all your cards