It snowed on Boxing Day.  Just 24 hours too late for a white Christmas.  I was so disappointed.  That evening we went to see Alan’s sister and family in their new house in Rise Park, Romford.  It is such a nice place, so spacious.

Only two days at work before the weekend and they were easy days as we were allowed to leave early because of the snow.

Saturday 29^th it was bitterly cold but we felt we ought to start thinking about where we would live so we went to an Estate Agency in Westcliff. We were shown the plans of a house in the early stages of construction that did seem to be what we were looking for and was surprisingly cheap at £2875 (compared to areas near London).  There wasn’t time to investigate further.  It wasn’t sensible to put a deposit on a house we hadn’t seen, in a village we didn’t know which was such a long way from my Mum.  Perhaps we should have started to look nearer home.

Sunday 30^th and there had been a blizzard during the night and we woke up to snow 12” deep.  This day was to be the Blake family gathering but only the nearest could get to Alan’s house.  Alan and I played snowballs in his garden much to the envy of Rene’s two children who weren’t allowed.

January 1^st Man came to mend the TV.  Again!

January 6^th Alan and I went to see the house.  He told me a few days before that he had contacted the Estate Agent and asked for the house to be reserved for us.  It is one of ten being built and the only one not sold.  OK, perhaps I was cross at not being consulted but that was forgotten when we saw the house.  It was built only to the height of the downstairs windows and everything was covered with snow but we could see that it was to be what we wanted.

It was a complicated journey out to the village. A train to the station at Rayleigh and then a bus ride. We must have got off the bus near the end of the route because twenty minutes later we caught the same bus, with the same driver, back to the station.

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