Chapter 6 — #Houselife
- Andrew Jack
- Jul 25, 2024
- 2 min read
After our first days in Devon and Cornwall featured rain of biblical proportions, combined with a camping ground that could generously be described as “rustic”, a generous offer from cousin Graham and his wife Louise, to stay at their house, proved too alluring to pass up. So we temporarily abandoned #vanlife, and quickly settled into more salubrious surroundings that don’t require us to move eight different things just to access the fridge, or undertake a complex yoga routine to make the bed.
The past week has been spent relaxing…reading books, walking and biking the stunningly beautiful Cornish coast, indulging in pasties, cooling off in rock pools or at the beach, sipping G&Ts, and generally living the life of Riley. A man could get used to this.
The kids were beyond excited (and I have to admit, so was I) when we discovered that not only had the rock pool we were swimming in featured in one of their favourite TV shows, Mallory Towers, but that they were currently filming the next season at the local beach!
But while the house stay has been a chance to reset and recharge, it has also been a time of missing home, with a subtle longing for the community, structure, and familiarity of life in NZ. We’ve been away now for 3 months, which has paradoxically felt like it has flown by but also seems like a lifetime. Having said that, celebrating an English goal and/or win in an English pub may just about be the best thing ever. Pity about the final result, mind. Is football ever, ever coming home?
