Collections

24th August 2025

As I woke this morning, the sun just coming up, a gentle warm light from the east, the other side of the bed was empty. Before my gentle awaking was complete, the breeze picked up, almost immediately the noise of the trees and then the drumroll of the rain; a downpour, and then the smell of wet earth wafted through the louvre windows. It’s our first proper rain since getting back to Pollards 5 days ago. I know where my bed absentee has gone… it’s our first opportunity to check the collection of roof repairs and gutter replacements that have been done in our absence and he’s on it.

Since the collection of all our goods and chattels from my parents house the news from the shipping company has been sparse. We were elated to hear that customs have cleared our shipment without too much objection. Now we are not so naive to assume that Mr Customs officer’s Friday night Banks beer was in evidence, we may still have some negotiation to do, but at least it was cleared to leave the UK. The container was due to be loaded on 28th August, but that has now been put back to the 2nd Sept. After which it has 9 days tossing and turning on the high seas and after that a collection of hurdles at the port; wood inspection, fumigation, duty clearance to say the least; before it’s bumping past the infrequently emptied bin, at the top of the road, down to its new home. We are looking at mid-September at the earliest before we can get excited about unpacking our collection of goods. In the meantime we are collecting shipping emotions: patience and hope in equal measures and putting frustrations on a back burner.

So what progress have we made in the last 5 days since returning? We have removed a collection of tarpaulins from the refurbished bar, the kitchen furniture the sofas and patio furniture. All put in place to protect our stuff from the roof work, the bats and the elements. A full on hands in the air, all that hard work paid off, satisfaction moment, it’s all worked. There are no casualties to our stuff however we acquired two less fortunate collections. May I present a fraction of the dead millipedes swept up and the lizard eggs under the dining room table.

In our absence, (mind you I doubt it would make a blind bit of difference if we were here) the monkeys have been feasting on our mango harvest. They left me a present yesterday, a collection of green mangoes. Google helped me with a recipe and we had a green mango salsa, for lunch. To be fair some of them do seem to be ripening … fingers crossed.

Slowly we are putting the house back together with a mind to where all the new stuff will go. Walls to hang all those pictures, floors to put all the tables on, things to make this our home, all coming home.