It's been 17 days since I returned to the UK, and in that time I've noted that some things have changed, and some have remained the same. After an absence of two and a half years, some adjustment is inevitably required, I suppose. The novelty will wear off, eventually. For the moment, I'm relaxing into the UK in the same way you might flop into a large beanbag and note that somewhere deep in the

You might feel I was a bit unfair on the campsite in my last post. Campsites are not hotels, and some roughing-it is to be expected. And the campsite did have the bonus of being next to a beach:I implore you to recall that the above is, in New Zealand terms, a very average beach. Plus, it was so windy that after a 5 minute walk on it, we were forced to retreat, depressed. When we awoke the

The sun had finally broken through, and a lightness filled our heart as we set off around the East Cape of New Zealand, into a Maori heartland with few hotels and even fewer lunch stops selling anything but the ubiquitous toasted sandwich.This is not an urban area. There are no towns for miles, and miles, and miles. I'm not sure it even qualifies as rural. I think it barely qualifies as

About camping: as soon as the sun rises, you're slowly roasted awake. Or maybe that's just our tent. Anyway, come 7.30am I was battling for air, and decided to emerge into the dewy morn. The inflatable mattress had bestowed an unexpected pleasure by retaining its air through the night, and so as I boinged out into the open I felt strangely refreshed.As part of the no-plan plan, Cowboy had

This post is about toothpaste. I know! Steady-as-she-blows! The topic of toothpaste can hardly be said to be cutting edge blog material, but I have made a discovery and I must share it.First I would like to cast our collective mind back through the green mists of time, to when I was a young chickadee. I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog that I suffered through extensive dental issues*

Here at the Cottage, we love games. Specifically, we love board-games. Even more specifically, Cowboy loves Scrabble, because out of 499,256 games, he has beaten me 499,256 times. Victory is snatched from my grasp usually during the last few turns, when I will put down something like effete and score 12, and he will put down icky and score 57. We also love Pictionary, Articulate, and Blokus.