Wednesday 3 October 2007

Following On

I don't remember that much of my childhood before South Wales.
Moving to Herefordshire was equally shocking.
My mother spent the entire time we lived in the mistakenly bought house, stripping seven layers of wallpaper off every wall and re-decorating. My father probably installed a blue bathroom (as he did in every property he ever owned), but I've managed to block that out. When the house was finished, it was put on the market and sold within the week, this time rather than a plethora of property, we had no-where to go.
We moved into a very old and grand hotel for six weeks and ate Gammon Steak and Chips every night for dinner (well that's how I remember it). My parents sank the odd bottle of Blue Nun or Black Tower and life was just tickety.
While we lived in the hotel, my parents desperately added the finishing touches (roof, kitchen, blue bathroom) to the cottage they had bought just before Dad bought the last house by mistake (instead of the dining chairs he'd originally gone to the auction for). Am I making myself clear?
I remember the electrician fitting the kitchen units and the decorators were called Harry, Harry and Harold.
Of course once we moved in no-one turned up with a pot of morning tea! We would leave our rooms in the morning and when we wanted to go to bed no-one had bothered to tidy up and waitress service was lousy. I hadn't seen washing up for months, it was terrifying.

The children all spoke differently again, and I couldn't understand them either. We went to school in the remnants of a blue Morris Mini-bus and were always so very grateful and awfully surprised to get dropped off within sight of our house each afternoon. We had pheasants in our field that made strange noises like they were choking and the wind howled through the woods behind the house in Winter.
Locals told us it was haunted..
Great, another fine mess we'd just gotten into.

6 comments:

Pig in the Kitchen said...

Wow, and after all that you STILL decided to let properties yourself? it all sounds rather unsettling, moving around is hard as a child...people say 'oh they're so adaptable', but I found it hard, and my children found it hard moving to France.
Still, what doesn't kill us...and all that.
Pigx

Elsie Button said...

my goodness, what a fruitful life you have led! i would loved to have lived in a hotel though, how exciting!

Tattieweasle said...

Felt for your young self so much - moved 14 times in my first eight years and had eight schools by the age of nine! (Army life for you!)
Love teh idea of hotle living though - shame it has to end....!!!!

Potty Mummy said...

So tell me; any blue bathrooms in your house?

Very funny Frog...

Omega Mum said...

If there's not a book in this I'd be very surprised.

Frog in the Field said...

Well Pig, I had little choice really, I fell too ill to work and had to retire when I was 26, so letting was a good way to bring money in with not much effort.

Elsie Button, it was very exciting living in a hotel

Tattie Weasel, 14 times!! My God, you should childline immediately, if not sooner

Potty Mummy, there are certainly not any blue bathrooms in this house, actually I have no houses with a blue bathroom.

Thanks Omega Mum, clearly you are mad, but very kind!