Happy Easter!

They really go for Easter here in Puglia!  Even Ikea is closed for 3 days this week!

Peppa Pig Easter eggs for £80!

Giant Easter eggs for £125!

Easter bunnies!  (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

There's the real Easter bunny.  Thank you Mr RR!

Time for tea

Yesterday was another glorious day here in the South East and seeing as Mr RR and I are heading back to Italy this week, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to treat my parents to afternoon tea and headed to the very special Gravetye Manor.

At the risk of being boring, as I'm aware there's been a floral theme of late, (I'll get back to photos of sea and sun-bathed Italian buildings soon I promise!) I couldn't resist taking photos of the beautiful blooms.

We enjoyed our tea inside in one of the grand lounges, but there was evidence some had enjoyed theirs outside in what could perhaps be the perfect English country garden!

After a difficult patch, I feel I'm appreciating spring more than ever before and I'm already looking forward to seeing our little town of Monopoli come back to life as it feels the warmth of the sun.  Ah!

What a glorious day!

It was an early start and from the moment I got up the sun put a smile on my face today!  Isn't it a treat to have such a boost after so much gloom and grey?  I love it!

It reminded me of this:

"Labial sunny - for lips and delicate areas"!!!

Hope today was a great day for you too!

Natural beauty

Is it a sign I'm getting old?   More and more I find myself cheered by spring flowers.  Simple things, eh?!

We hope to be back in Italy soon, but for now, but here's some photos from a lovely day in Richmond.

Beautiful Terrace Gardens

What a perfect place to rest

Sunny smiley flowers

Phew!

Today saw the 4th of our apartments on the south coast of England's sales complete.
That's 4 sales that I have managed to push through in the last 10 days!

We have been very unlucky: the worst storms in, apparently, more than 250 years caused a heartbreaking amount of damage to our finished, show-home style block of apartments.  Getting the repairs and redecoration done delayed existing sales going through by several weeks, and meant we had to put on hold the marketing of the flats still available.

How one of our beautiful kitchens looked

Kitchen out, plaster off: back to brick and starting to tank the wall

Wall re-plastered, kitchen starting to go back in

Now it looks like this again!
(Okay yes, its the same photo, but it really does!)

The fact that our 1 year finance agreement for the whole conversion comes to an end tomorrow, has meant the last week has been one of the most stressful I have ever had.  We're not there yet in terms of repaying all the money we've borrowed, but we are a hell of a lot closer now than we were a week ago.

I am so glad it's over!

I was in a new part of London today

No new boobs to show for it!

In the space of 5 minutes, I spotted Carol McGiffin, a little plaque that would have meant little to most of us prior to the film The King's Speech...

Wonderful story

...and the most elaborately-dressed transvestite I've ever seen away from a stage, complete with fluoro pink tights and fluoro pink eyebrows that were arched supremely at me when we made eye contact!

When there's an unexplained gap in other people's blogging, I imagine it's one of two things: either life got too busy to write about or life got too painful to dwell on.  Apologies if I'm being dramatic but things have been difficult here lately and it is easier to just be quiet.  Everything will be fine but I have to put my head down and keep driving forward.  Please bear with me.  Normal service will be resumed in time.

Perfect Day

One of the things about owning a property abroad is that everyone asks when you're next going to be out there!  It is a totally natural question, but you can't help feeling they're a bit disappointed when you say it won't be for weeks or maybe even - shock horror! - months!  Of course, having spent a year going on and on about the renovation, I understand it might seem strange not to want to be there right now and as much as we can, but the reality is, you can't live full-time in your holiday home!  Even though it might feel like a wonderful escape when you're there (which it is) and a shame to leave it empty when you're not there (which it is), life goes on and we feel we need to be here in UK for now.

On top of that, being the depths of winter, it's actually pretty cold and drizzly in Puglia just now!

Having got to know a small part of Italy, it is wonderful how much more we appreciate what has always been on our doorstep in UK.  Today was a beautiful day so we headed to a local park and I have to say, our little corner of England is so green and charming.  I'm no photographer but here's a little sample of our green and pleasant land today!

It all reminded me of the song Perfect Day by Lou Reed.  You know when a day is just right?  Lucky us!  Wonderful.