Little by little

Well things are moving forward! We took a trip to Leeds to apply for NINs just after we got here, and guess what! They've come! This means we can register as freelance hippies (I believe this is the official wording). Yipeeee! I'm not a huge fan of Leeds but you can't deny it's got all the shops you could wish for, and the train ride takes you through some lovely Yorkshire countryside. I was glad to get back home to Hebden though. I'm surprised at how quickly I've reverted back into country girl mode.

Hebden Bridge train station. Doesn't make me miss good old Athis Mons station. Is anything ever ugly in Yorkshire? I sat on a bench waiting for our little train and felt just like a character from an Enid Blyton book. Except the fantastic five (or whatever they were called) rarely went on adventures to the jobcentre to be asked some slightly unexpected questions such as "have you always been a woman?"

We treated ourselves to some fancy Carluccio's coffees for having survived the jobcentre experience. Not that it was horrible really, the people were friendly enough and we got what we came for, which means France wins the bitchy bureaucracy battle over England. And now I live in England, so YAY!! Oh yes and last night I helped Boyfriend with his online registration to become self-employed, which took all of 20 minutes from start to finish. Take that, France!

If I had been in the mood for shopping I could have gone bananas and spent hours here, but I wasn't, and neither was my bank account (dear former employer: it's been 3 weeks, where the hell is my last paycheck???). The next big city will hopefully be Manchester, maybe when our first or second round of guests arrives (so soon!! Eeeek!!) because for now I'm quite happy just trying the local cafes and shops and then walking home via the canal. Am I boring you with my canal yet? Because you can't beat the canal. This is what happens at the canal:

The other night we took our sun-lounger over the wall and drank our tea by the canal. I even took the neighbour's dog for a walk along the canal the other day, just because I love the canal (and because I wanted to tire the dog out so it wouldn't spend the rest of the day barking. Yes, this is my most serious problem at the moment) It's such a hard life. Canal.

Next up I've got a proper little bunny house tour for you. Even though it's nowhere near finished I can't resist showing some of my favourite bits. Watch this space!