spot the difference

I love those competitions in magazines and newspapers where they put two (almost identical) photos side by side and then ask you to identify a number of differences to win a prize, I love the challenge and I love looking at details.

Here are some small changes I made in the kitchen, can you spot the differences ?

First I just swapped something round because I was always unhappy with the position of one thing.

You might notice it a bit better in the picture below.

Then I decided something needed painting because although I love all the wooden touches, one of the items is practical but not very pretty.

You can see it better here, where you can also see my new black kettle. Chronologically this all happened before I painted blackboard walls in my hall and loo. The desire to paint things black had been growing in me for quite sometime, so I started small and it grew and I think it's still growing.

Something very large also took place, can you see it ?

Now I'm sorry but there aren't any prizes for noticing the changes.
I really disliked the vintage black scales on the windowsill, somehow they looked out of place, moving them onto the microwave seemed to work much better.
The knife block was old and tatty, so I painted it black and that's when I decided to get a new black kettle................the old one always spilled when it poured so it was time for a new one anyway.

The biggest change was a new window........yes ok, there is more frame with the new upvc window than there was with the wooden one, but I hated all the tattiness of the old wooden frame, you can't really see it but trust me it was very untidy. The new white frame looks much nicer and cleaner.

Luckily I dissuaded the salesman and the surveyor from trying to persuade me to have a central bar down the middle of the window (giving me two large windows whose handles I could reach). No, I can't reach the top windows without jumping up on the side, but when I'm old I'll get a pair of steps out coz nothing is going to spoil the view of my garden...............

and I'll still be here when I'm old because I'll be paying for the window for the rest of my life anyway !!!

the Barrista, the Palaeontologist and the Hobbit

Someone I used to work with years ago, would often say 'change is not a good thing'.
I would always disagree........vehemently. Change is good, change means that life is moving forward, we all need to adapt to change because the world is ever evolving, ever changing.

The only changes I don't like are those where people move on, when they move out of my life.

Last September my favourite barrista Harvey moved on, moved to London to study music, left his Saturday shift at the café and left me bereft of the one person that could always put a smile on my face (and on the faces of many a young lady that visited the café !).
Harvey is caring, polite, clever, a complete one-off, gorgeous inside and out and a credit to his parents, and I miss him.

I encouraged his departure, I told him he should move away to study, even though there was a very good music course in our own town. I encouraged him, because I wanted him to broaden his horizons. I encouraged him because if you care about someone you want what's best for them (I'm not under the delusion that I had any sway in his decision), and so he left.

Parting was very sad for me, slightly amusing for him.
Saturdays just aren't the same.

David also left..........in November.

The prolific, grumpy old artist who worked next to the café had long talked of giving up his studio and moving away, moving somewhere quieter where there would hopefully be less chattering females, noisy children and yapping dogs.

He gave me a parting gift, a painting I had admired, he called it The Palaeontologist.

I love it, it reminds me of him. You can see the similarity between the man pulling the giant skull and the self portrait he drew on the front of the envelope of the Christmas card he sent us. Also he's moved from the South Coast to the quieter and more rugged north Norfolk Coast, and I could never imagine him away from a beach.

It's a miniature.

He gave me another gift.

We had been to see the first two Hobbit movies together but he knew he was moving away before the third film came out, so he made me a little version of himself that I could take to the cinema with me. I call him my David Hobbit.

He's also miniature, a miniature Hobbit with a white beard and an artists jacket covered in paint.

I miss David too, he was a friend and ally that I had known long before I started working at the café. He said I wouldn't miss him, but I told him I'd miss his grumpy face every morning, he laughed and kissed me goodbye (I think I could have been his 5th wife, should I have so desired !!!)

Whether I will ever see the palaeontologist again, I don't know. We've joked about getting a coach load of people together and going to visit him (officially he's given no-one his address, but he did draw it for us !) something I think he would hate and love in equal measure, but either way I'm sure the change is doing him good.

As for the barrista, he came back at Christmas and did a few shifts at the café.......... it was great, like old times. It also made me wonder why I had had such an adverse reaction to his departure; after all London isn't very far away and though his life will change and move on I'm sure he'll often be back to visit.

And my David Hobbit............well although my life may change, at least he'll never move on..............anyway, he's got to stick around for a bit, we haven't seen the movie yet !