Sorry about the Jackie mistake. I did know, but somehow I always thought you'd marry Jackie. How's she doing by the way? It's actually weird being back in England, I notice peoples' accents! I've not got back in touch with many people yet but I've been so busy. I thought this rich stuff was the life of leisure, but I have all these people coming in, including a guy who's still moving stuff around from the sale. I am now negotiating about what repairs I'm actually allowed to make since it's a listed building. The government guy I've talked to is definitely public school, no sense of humour and full of academic crap. I tried to send him an e-mail and his server is down for a month! We had this absolutely bizarre conversation about the loos.  All I want to be able to do is pee at night without having to descend the stairs!  I guess the gentry can hold it together but the local curry house and a few beers had me making the Vindaloo dash, so I thought en-suite might be nice. Ann's been great though and I've been reading a bunch of stuff on architecture and landscape so I can talk Palladio with the best of them.

I don't think I could manage this without Ann here, there's so much to do and I can talk to her about anything. I called my Dad last week, we talked sport and I told him about the house, to which he said 'Thought you'd get a fancy new place.' My mother's travelling with Ken. The house is actually big enough to explore and I'm trying to get Ann to explore it all with me, if you see what I mean! The grounds are a mess and I'm still not sure what we own. It's a mile to walk to the village, which is really pretty. Upper Puckering that is, Lower Puckering is a bit of a dump, but they've got a great Indian. Looks like they might need some help with the cricket team, so I may be turning my arm when the summer starts.

Got to stop, Ann's calling me, from the sound of it I think she found something nasty in the woodshed!

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