Claudia Spofforth

Friendly Northerners

2010-05-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast is for frost tonight for those of us lucky enough to live rurally in the north of England. What's that all about?! It's May goddamit. And the most surprising thing of all is that I am wearing copious amounts of foundation today due to burning yesterday in the garden. How are these things possible in such close proximity? I don't think anyone actually believes I burnt in the garden yesterday - it was pretty chilly I have to confess but I had Poppy on my knee for an hour or two at about midday and altho when the sun went in I was nesh, when it came out I was boiling. Let's hope it's less obvious tomorrow (the red face, not the sun).

Meanwhile, other exciting things that happened yesterday include people talking to each other. Our little road is very quiet in terms of vehicles but really quite popular for dog walkers, family groups out for a walk, cycling, running etc etc and we get quite a stream of people past the front door - so much so that we're seriously considering an honesty box for home made lemonade for the summer! Anyway, it turns out that people talk to each other here. Anyone who lives or has lived in London will know what I mean. Try and start a conversation in any public area and you're basically a weirdo. Not that I was ever one for considering starting conversations with randoms, far from it. If anyone struck up a conversation with me I thought they were a weirdo too. Anyway, we had three pretty lengthy chats (20 minutes? I reckon that's pretty lengthy between strangers) with passersby yesterday. These are nice people. Husband and 1 man have swapped numbers and agreed it'd be a good idea to meet up and discuss their business ideas further as they seem to be on the same page technically and creatively. Who'd have thought it?

Bad news of the day, there don't seem to be any decent pubs around, especially not in walking distance. Will have to open our own I suppose...

Cloud Lifted

2010-04-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

So the volcanic cloud continues to cause mayhem but my own personal cloud seems to have lifted.

I now realise that living in the hectic world of Hackney, and London in general, was not good for me. I lived there for 15 years and 1 week and now we're in the Cheshire countryside. I must confess I was apprehensive about living here - the original idea was Derbyshire - and I dislike the 'footballers wives' image. That, naturally, is an enormous stereotype. But back to the point. I never realised that I felt a constant pressure in London. Constantly surrounded by high buildings - you can see so much more sky here, even in Manchester - and so many people. Even at home there was a constant stream of passers by going by the window with all that that entails; shouting, general noise and the pace that everyone adopts just to get things done kind of rubs off and makes one do the same, rushing around to get things done and leaves little room for relaxation.

We were also aware that we were no longer using London for what we originally intended. We used to go out to bars, restaurants, clubs, theatre, cinema and all the rest but taking on a mortgage as first time buyers means you're a little strapped for cash (well it did for us anyway) and financially we could no longer do those things. And then we got out of the habit.

So I've been at work all day and here I am in my kitchen doing other things - I previously found I had to collapse in the evening but energy levels have returned somewhat and the pressure transferred from others on to me is no longer there in the way it was. I've resolved to not stress the little things, as they say, and take life as it comes.

It's not grim up north.

2010-04-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

So here’s blog post no 1. Where to start?...

My husband and I made the brave decision to completely change our lives by relocating with my job to the north west of England. I’m a production manager for BBC Children’s and have worked in the same building in London for 15 years. Today I write to you from my first day in a building in Manchester. I’m doing the same job but just from a different part of the country. In about a year’s time I’ll change my office location again because we’ll all be moving to Media City at Salford Quays.

It’s weird to think that only about 18 months ago I cried in front of my colleagues and peers at an ‘away day’ because I couldn’t understand how the BBC thought I could make a life changing decision that I wouldn’t then be implementing for another 2 and a half years. But, we volunteered to move early and here I am feeling almost evangelical about it (should I say that? I’m in the Religion and ethics office?!...)

I intended to start blogging with the actual moving day which was 1 April but far too busy and who the hell knew where the laptop was? And I’ve been very lame and not taken enough photos but I promise to try harder.

Firstly, the actual move and removals company were fantastic. We had this all inclusive packing and moving package and I asked the company how much we should pack in advance but they insisted we shouldn’t do a thing (did my smalls tho, didn’t like that idea). So I flapped around a lot the morning they packed until I realised we just had to let them do it and we ended up trying to keep out of their way as anything else and we were going to be a hindrance.

Points of note for the move day?... Poppy the Hungarian Vizsla vomited many times in the back of the car (poor little thing, she hates cars) but it was a hire car so that’s someone else’s problem!

Mark was so excited he barely slept the night before and had to have a stop off at the services on the way to stop him falling asleep!

There was no heating. Nightmare. We’d actually seen snow on the motorway verges around Stoke and we were going to be chilly. It was 5.30 on Thursday afternoon we discovered this and it was the Easter weekend ahead. Suffice to say, chilly until the following Wednesday but had an open fire and a dog who loves cuddles to keep us warm.

Added to that, a leak from the hot water tap in the bathroom sink that had sent water under the flooring.

Plus the septic tank looking highly dodgy with a big dead grass area in the farmer’s adjoining field.

But problems, shmoblems, no moaning from us when we had the most glorious countryside to be amongst. Let’s see, adjoining the side of the house there’s a field, climb over the back fence and you’re in a field, other side of the garden and there’s a field… getting the picture? The road our house is on sees more traffic from people out on a walk than it does cars.

And hey presto, unbelievably beautiful weather for the last three or so days – Mark has burnt eyelids from falling asleep yesterday in the noon sun. There’s been gentle ribbing about the notorious Manchester weather including a brolly as a leaving gift but I’m pleased to report no such horrors so far. I admit, it’s something that I’m rather worried about, I hate being in the cold and rain and hope it’s not too drastically different from the London climate.

We still have masses of boxes all around us because the property is so very unfurnished that there aren’t even any curtain poles, never mind about curtains and we don’t have any shelves or cupboards because all our London ones were built in. So shall have to cajole husband into fashioning some from bits of mdf or similar. But, importantly we have now bought our very first lawn mower and Mark has managed to mow the lawn about 3 times already. It is looking good tho, I have to give him that.

Once Upon A Time

2010-03-30T05:18:00.000-07:00