I had a bit of shocking news this morning. I had an email from our rental agent in NZ saying there had been a fire in our Cassidy St property. 

Thankfully everyone is alright, but the fire apparently started in the garage and spread to the house. It’s currently not liveable and the tenants have moved out. Scary stuff. Now I have to try and organise an insurance claim from the other side of the world. 

It doesn’t help either, that we’re in a dead zone in the New Forest with no phone or internet coverage. But luckily we have our Starlink, which we usually only put out twice a day to check messages.

Anyway, that put a bit of a dampener on the day. So we spent most of the morning trying to find out more details. Barry knew more that the agent had told us, so that was enough to lodge a claim with the insurance.

After lunch we decided to go into Lyndhurst to do some shopping and find a toilet. But a Sunday afternoon in Lyndhurst was heaving, and it was all paid parking, which was all full. So, I jumped out of the car while we were stuck in traffic to run into the Tesco, while Mike drove around the block. Then, I jumped back in the car, and we got out of there, fast!

But we both still needed a toilet. So I navigated to a pub in Ashurst, about 10 mins away, which had a free carpark. Everyone was inside eating their Sunday lunch, so I ran in and went to the toilet while Mike ordered two Guinesses. 12 pounds for two guinesses! That’s $28 NZD! That was a VERY expensive toilet break.

But, we are enjoying our time in the New Forest. Apart from bad news from home, it is quite relaxing.