Hello, High Halstow

11 Mar 2022 High Halstow, Kent, UK

We’ve finally moved! It’s been a longer than expected journey and the past few weeks in particular have been really very stressful, but at last we’re finally in our new home. One week in and we absolutely love it and are so, so happy that everything worked out. The new house has four bedrooms, a small study/office, is detached with a south-faci... Read more

Below Deck Challenge Update

31 Jan 2022 Upnor, Kent, UK

Well, we did it! I’ll admit, this wasn’t exactly the most challenging, er, challenge, but it has been an interesting exercise in understanding where we can actually save money if we really needed to. The ‘laissez-faire’ days of food shopping have been and gone in the Andrews household, we’re all about planning, meal preps and sticking to a shopp... Read more

The 2022 Below Deck Challenge

04 Jan 2022 Upnor, Kent, UK

Not taking credit for the name of this one, that was all Victoria. Yes, another challenge, this is the year of all the twos after all. As regular readers will know, we use YNAB to keep track of our finances, YNAB is great and it’s a very powerful tool for budgeting the future but it is also really useful for reporting on the past. We’ve been us... Read more

Coronavirus Update Two

02 Oct 2020 Upnor, Kent, UK

Well, so much for hoping that this would all be over by August…! Welcome to instalment three in the Coronavirus blog series. Since the last blog things were slowly beginning to open up following the original spring lockdown and while life certainly hasn’t been normal, it has become the ‘new normal’ to use one of my most disliked phrases. The rou... Read more

Coronavirus Update

10 May 2020 Upnor, Kent, UK

It’s been 50 days since I first posted about Coronavirus and it’s fair to say that in that time, the world has changed. 50 days ago there were 289 deaths in the UK and yesterday’s daily government briefing announced the total is now 31,589 - which puts our little island nation second in numbers only to the USA. Italy was at the centre of the cri... Read more

Coronavirus

21 Mar 2020

The past few weeks have been quite extraordinary. The current Coronavirus pandemic has begun to affect our lives in the way nothing like it ever has before - and I suspect that we’re very much still at the start line. on Friday (20th March 2020) in a live TV address to the nation the prime minister, Boris Johnson directed that as soon as reason... Read more

Lower Upnor Through the Years

28 Sep 2019

I came across some old photographs of Lower Upnor the other day and wanted to share them online. I’m not too sure when the older pictures were taken or by whom, but perhaps somebody will be able to help. They show an fantastic glimse into how upnor has changed over the last 70 or so years. This first picture (above) is the most recent, taken in... Read more

For the Lifeboats!

03 Jul 2019

As all of the very few people who read my blog will know, I am a big supporter of the RNLI. The charity has been close to my heart since childhood, I used to build lifeboats out of lego bricks, subscribe to Stormy Stan’s monthly magazine and became known as Lifeboat Lolly. I recall with glee the fantastic opportunity I had once to sit on the Atl... Read more

A Very Special Birthday

30 Jun 2019

Birthdays are always a bit special for us since we share the same day. Every year since Victoria and I have been together we have done something special on our birthday to celebrate. It seems like the level of birthday extravagance increases year on year, last year we went spent a weekend in Singapore, in 2015 we flew in a Helicopter over London... Read more

Mr & Mrs Jones!

28 Jul 2018

My Sister and Lomas (my new Brother-in-Law!) have been planning their special day for what seemed like a really long time - almost two and a half years ago! All that waiting is in the past now and is was clear that the planning, preparation and effort was absolutely worthwhile, their day could not have been better. Their ceremony was held at Al... Read more

April 2017 - The Missing Blogs

08 Feb 2018

April was a reasonably quiet month, Victoria and I began to welcome the warmer weather in our still relatively new home, and we managed to continue the trend of visiting Cornwall as often as possible! After moving into our home, it was quite apparent that the decking in the back garden needed to be sorted quite early on. The deck had somehow de... Read more

So long, Oysters

07 Oct 2017

This is a first, for me. I consider myself very lucky in that I don’t have any allergies to foods, medicines or anything else - at least, that I’m aware of. It does seem, however, that I have developed a problem with Oysters. I had hoped that recent post consumption effects were just coincidental or even very bad luck, but three identical instan... Read more

Our First Home

06 Nov 2016

Quite frankly I’m confused as to why this was not on the list - it has been one of the most exciting, stressful, rewarding and challenging things that I/we have ever done. As I write, we’re just over two weeks in and it’s only now beginning to feel real. Victoria and I had lived in a relatively small flat together for just over four years - alm... Read more