Tinkling the ivories

We have purchased a piano! whoop whoop. Dan got it from a man at work that was throwing it out. He won an auction, and we are now the proud owners of a Berry 1959 upright. I'm pretty sure it is the best 50 quid can buy! We paid some removalists to move it though, and I'm pleased we did, as it was super heavy. It took four of them to lift it, and I have got the impression it will now be residing where it sits for ever as I seriously doubt Dan and I can move it. Now we have to find a tuner...

Update on the House

Well actually hardly anything needs doing on the old place, as it has been refurbished wonderfully by the vendor, but it is the garden that need sorting. Sorting is the wrong word actually, as it is fine, it is all grass at the mo with a rather huge deck area, and a large concreted area. We are deconstructing a large pagoda trellis thing that was in the middle of the lawn attached to the edge of the deck. It would have been fine in a large garden, but it is a bit big for ours. Other things under consideration are:

Siting of the greenhouse that is to arrive from the parents in the next few months
Getting rid of the large concrete area and moving the shed
Deconstructing the big pagoda and seeding lawn where it now stands (or moving turf from another part of the garden where we will have beds)
Planting some stuff!!!!

It strikes me that I should take some photos actually to illustrate what I am talking about.

There is this wierd spikey plant in the front garden I have no idea what it is, but it has to go. I am thinking at the moment of replacing it with an acer. Other thoughts include where can we plant a eucalypt and where can we plant a magnolia. Mostly I am wondering how far they need to be from the house. Obviously I need to read some books!

Epsom ahoy

Yes we are in sunny Epsom at last, and it is a welcome move from Horsham I can tell you. Horsham is a lovely lovely place. To visit. Very strange to walk down the main high street at 6pm and see no-one else. It could have been 3am for all that was going on. Tres quiet. Also a mite frustrating as you canna just pop out for something. Nothing is open after hours!!!!! Just shows how much we have become city boys. So we have relocated to Epsom, and it is brill. Although there is still a tinsy problem with shops closing at 6pm or something, before we get back from work. And the added difficulty of us still being walkers rather than drivers. There is no big supermarket within happy walking distance (over half an hour carrying shopping is too much for me), and all there remains is a tiny co-op and a little Waitrose. I refuse to do my shopping in Waitrose as I am not loaded. There's no denying that we are now middle-class whiteys since we own a three-bed in Epsom, but Waitrose is a step too far. I've had numerous arguements with people about getting what you pay for and Waitrose being super spiffing, but at the end of the day I bet you get what you pay for in Harrods too, I still don't have the money to shop there.
The big reason for arguements about Waitrose, though, is the need we now have for internet supermarket shopping. We are going through the list trying them all, and doing a months worth of shopping, and buying the fresh stuff at the market, bakery and the co-op in between (by the way, is there a nice butcher in Epsom, does anyone know?). Waitrose does seem to have the accepted best internet shop (Ocado), but we are determined that the normal supermarkets must be able to do it too. Of course things have changed a lot since the last time we tried this (undergrad days), and hopefully they are better. I know of someone that ordered 6 courgettes and got substituted 6 cucumbers...
So far we have tried Asda (RUBBISH) and Tesco (GOOD). The main problem with Asda (apart from the fact that I feel like I am exploiting someone somewhere with prices that low) is that their site only works on Microsoft Internet Explorer (how backward can you be), it crashed and lost all our shopping, it took hours to order it all, and they didn't turn up in the time slot they said they would. So all in all more trouble than it was worth. Tesco's site was much more user friendly and although they had to change the delivery slot they phoned up just 20 mins into the original one and said the van had broken down and arranged a new time. Also, you can pick what things you want to substitute if they don't have what you want. The only downer is you have to pay for the substitute price, not the price of what you ordered. There was a tiny problem when I noticed they had added an Easter egg onto our order worth 5 pounds (as if I would pay that much for an Easter egg unless it was a Darryl Lee one). I phoned them up and they gave us the money back, so actually it all worked out fine. Next month: Sainsbury's.

Back in the Land of the Living!

At long long last we are back in the land of broadband hoorah! I must say the last couple of months without access have been particularly rubbish. In actual fact we spent one month living in Horsham (more of which, later) with no internet, and one month here in sunny Epsom with just dial-up. At least when you have no internet there is no expectation, so in a way that was easier to cope with. Dial-up really does suck your soul away though. A harsh reminder of life in the olden days!!!! I can't believe how much I have come to rely on the internet. To think that when I started university I actually had to apply for an email address (and that I did only because my brother told me it was a good thing to have!). How did we used to find out things before it was all there in the ether waiting to be tapped in to?