Sometimes agoraphobia doesn't matter!

On Saturday morning, my protracted negotiations to buy another business seemed to be about to come to a successful conclusion. Lots of time and effort and a significant amount of money had gone into this. On Monday, I would sign the contract.

Then, out of the blue, one of the parties, the man who was going to manage the business for me, wanted more money or he would pull out of the deal. For me, this was a breach of trust and I was prepared to cancel everything. However, on Sunday evening, he was prepared to negotiate - tone down his demands. This led to me spending the evening in a mental turmoil, followed by a sleepless night. If I didn't buy the business, 10 people could lose their jobs. So should I continue with my plans to buy the business? But how could I continue with the purchase if I couldn't trust the future manager?

I lay on the bed, unable to sleep, unable to put the matter out of my mind.

By 4 am, I decided to pull the plug on the whole thing. I got up and sent texts and emails to all concerned and went back to bed - where I was still unable to sleep...

Little did I know, but it was to be the last time I was to lie on that bed.

Next day, three of Marie's friends arrived at our home. Apparently Marie had arranged a bedroom makeover. The bedroom was emptied, the carpet and carpet fitters arrived, the new furniture arrived and all was finished by dinner time. Marie's friends, happy with their work and ostensibly jealous of our new bed, went back to their own homes.

Our new bed looks a lot like this one...

...and believe me, it is very comfortable.

Suddenly I recalled a series of seemingly innocent conversations about what my ideal bedroom would look like/what my ideal bed would be... The bed above, the leather sleigh bed, with the curved head (ideal for sitting up in bed to read/watch the tv etc.), these were the features of my dream bed. All those conversations had been Marie's preparatory work for the makeover. She then put her own touches to it - for example, she had purchased leather bedside tables with tinted frosted glass tops which matched both our curtains and the frosted glass doors of our wardrobes - how long did it take her to find those?

Marie had been saving for this for some months - to give me a surprise.

It worked. I was surprised. And a very nice surprise it was, too.

What a wife! And what a lucky man I am to be married to her!

Medieval times and one good day at school

Because we had a medieval wedding (in my opinion taking a look at the page on the link is worth the effort), all things medieval have a special appeal to Marie and me. So, when we saw signs advertising a Medieval Fayre at a nearby village, we were both intrigued, and determined that we would have to attend.

That was 3 years ago. Due to its success, the event has become an annual event, but Marie has never felt able to attend.

The Fayre took place last weekend. Marie decided to go to her parents' house alone - by which I mean that she decided to leave the children and me behind. She didn't travel by herself, of course - her father adopted the role of chauffeur for the weekend. So the children and I decided to go and see what was on offer.

The event, held in the grounds of the magnificent Cothelstone Manor, was quite entertaining. The main attraction was the fighting and jousting team. They provided excellent theatre with their medieval fighting re-enactments and jousting sessions. For the latter they used some very well trained horses. Click below to get a utube sample of the action (not my work).

There was also climbing (that's Joseph at the top of that climbing wall), shield painting, archery, a medieval street and encampment, a falconry display, beer and cider tents, tea and cake tents, crafts, food, the ubiquitous bouncy castles and more.

Joseph and Orla joined in many of the activities, and below they are taking part in the pre-jousting parade.



The perfect weather and spectacular setting contributed to a very enjoyable day.

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Marie's agoraphobia remains little changed over the last couple of weeks. She has reached a comfortable (for her) plateau.

However, a week ago, she did make the effort to visit Orla's classroom. Now she's in "the big school" she's very proud of her classroom. It was wonderful to see the joy on Orla's face as she was presenting her mum to he teachers and classroom assistants.

Children, dogs & beaches

I love living near the coast. As do the children. Here's why...

During the past week, the children and I visited three different beaches. They're all within a couple of miles from our home. None of them are signposted or accessible by car; so the vast majority of tourists holidaying in the area don't even know they exist.

Firstly, we have the 20m waterfall beach. The waterfall flow depends on the weather. The kids love to stand underneath it, usually naked, but I forgot to bring towels on the day we visited here.

Then we have the surfing beach. Only good on windy days - not a very frequent occurrence here. I haven't tried surfing yet, but if Joseph or Orla were to want to have a go, then I'd join them.

Dogs love our sparsely populated beaches too. Collette's dogs are boarding with us while she's off to Turkey (with big sister Carla and their husbands). Dog lovers might enjoy the video clip. Here the dogs are frolicking in and out of the waves. Btw, there's a lot of wind noise on the video.

Sadly, Marie has never seen these beaches since they are inaccessible to her. But maybe one day...