Got up this morning to lovely sunshine and headed off to the tourist office. There was a lovey lady and gentleman there who were Ashburton born and bred and explained where my old primary school was. It is still apparently the school. Went to take a look at it but it's changed. I recognize the playground and walls, but I'm sure the buildings are newer than the stone ones I remember.
Went up the hill and down East street to take some more pictures of my old house, No 27. It's the only one with a bay window. Lady inside the house waved at us and unlocked the door so we popped in for a chat. Her name is Judith and she has just moved in and had quite a bit of work done, opening up a big fireplace in the inner part of what was a kind of indoor sitting room that I don't remember even being there. I suspect it was borded up with some nasty 60s electric fire embedded in it. She'd leveled the floor - used to be a step up from front to back, then up again to the kitchen, but through the kitchen I could see the garden steps I remembered.
Since I lived there, the house became a shop selling antiques among other things. She had to apply to have it's status changed back to residential. Apprently the top bedroom where I used to sleep still has big beams in the ceiling but has had a velux window added.
The house dates back to the 17th Century where it used to be used for gaming. She showed us a door lintel in the alleyway where shapes of diamonds, clubs, spades and hearts were carved dating back to this time.
She also said that we were the second people to stop by that had lived in the house in the past. Recently a lady called Heather had stopped by to say that she'd lived there with her two daughters (Judith initially thought I might be one of them) for 7 or 8 years but this was after I had lived there.
Quite an extraordinary feeling.
Anna's house is lovely. It feels really comfortable and cozy and I keep seeing things that remind me of things I have - for example, I was drying my hair at the mirror and spotted a skull and crossbones pendant hanging on the wall. I have skull and crossbones earrings and a lovely pair of chunky silver skull earrings and well as a fabulous bat necklace. Wonder if Anna has one of these.
Clearly we have quite a lot in common. We must try to fix things so that Anna and her family can come stay with us, or in the house when we're away, to see if she has the same feeling about where I live.
Went to Paignton today - quite a laugh - and took the steam train sitting in the Pullman viewing carriage. That was absolutely brilliant and only cost an extra £1. You got proper armchairs and windows all the way round. Very luxurious.
We're off to try the pizzas in Ashburton tonight. Stephen is extremely adamant that we cannot bring anything into the house that might have even traces of meat in it - he's fairly serious about this sort of things, and absolutely loves the buddah's and statues around the house as he shares Anna's interest in the Far East. Again, he has many of them himself since he went to China with the school.
This is just really fun. Looking up old haunts. It's amazing how memories work and how familiar things seem.
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