Home comforts have rarely been more welcome than when I was their grateful recipient for the first few days at the beginning of this week. Following a particularly croaky Sunday lunch with lots of family that I've not seen for a long while - alongside plenty of red wine, vegetable lasagne & flowers bought for the host at an uncharacteristically quiet Columbia Road en route - I accompanied the Bedfordshire contingent of our clan back home for a couple of days. Rolling into bed early that night with an almighty sore throat & the beginnings of a head cold, I nonetheless had a good feeling about the ability of home as a healer. The next morning meant a warm croissant in the bath with Beckett (the reading I have been grudgingly undertaking for university with very mediocre results i.e 40 pages of a mandatory 140) followed by a bracing couple of hours zipped & tucked into my old wax jacket & scarf walking dogs in the woods not far from home. It was over to my Gran's house for brew after lunch then back to the homestead to settle by the fire for the evening & catch up on newspaper supplements while my Mum got on with her Christmas knitting in earnest ('tis almost the season)
Tuesday was much of the same, honey granola eaten while perched on the edge of the bath waiting for it to fill & then a walk up into the town for a viewing of a cottage that my Mum has since bought(!) Mum has been trying to sell our house for a long while & just when she'd resigned herself to giving up again until the spring, everything fell into place. The new house is going to be much smaller than the one that most of us have inhabited for the last eleven years but change is good as is the pretty little courtyard garden, low ceilings (hello '70s futon in my room) & the fire being moved to the kitchen so we can keep warm while the kettle boils. For now it's a case of making the most of our very last Christmas in our current house & taking stock of the multitude of memories that have been made there. The afternoon was predictably spent secondhand shopping where I was lustily eyeing various homewares from wicker magazine racks to mid-century mirrors but was recurrently reminded of our bedroom here being at full capacity to say the least. I was already back in London by the time that offers were accepted & confirmed but our family had an anticipatory toast to the news alongside my favourite 'proper chilli' from Anna Jones' 'A Modern Way To Eat' that I had promised to make for my Mum for a long while. I was glad to have chosen a one-pot dish for the evening as its preparation was simple & stress free & I was so glad that my Mum - who has never knowingly eaten quinoa, bulgur wheat, black-eyed beans or puy lentils - sung its praises throughout the meal & beyond. 
I've been back in London for a couple of days, coughing & spluttering my way through aforementioned Beckett lecture, making a note of upcoming festive plans (work Christmas party is a'callin') & mostly feeling better. Oh & then there's the research for mine & Andrew's three year anniversary trip to Brighton this upcoming weekend...! We've not been away together for a little while so we can't wait to check into our B&B on Sunday & eat our way through the reams of vegetarian/vegan restaurants I've made a note of. I'll of course be back to blog it for you soon but...
Have you any tips of your own for the seaside town?
Have you been similarly snottily afflicted of late?
Speak soon - O.
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