Back to Britain – October 2026 (Month 19)

Welcome to October 2026 – I’m typing this from my new home!

Moving House

When we first moved to the UK from Germany there was only one suitable property (because we are picky), which was the lovely bungalow in Beech Rise, at the bottom of Southgate Street in Bury St Edmunds. It was 150 square metres, with a huge front garden and a very large walled rear garden that was entirely private. We really enjoyed living there but the rental costs of £2,000 per month, plus very expensive council tax and gas bills to heat such a large property, meant that we were paying over £2,500 per month to live there. This was always a bit pricey but when Klaus started having work issues around Christmas last year we realised we needed to downsize/downprice in case he ended up out of work for a long time/permanently. The landlord had also originally said he thought he would sell the house in Beech Rise after three years so we were aware our time there was limited.

So I kept an eye on RightMove and we viewed a couple of places but didn’t have any luck with them – either we were too late to request the viewing and the place had already gone, or the landlord didn’t choose us, or changed his mind and tried to sell the property.

I had a RightMove Saved Search which checked for bungalows with parking in the south and south east of Bury; one day I decided to extend the search area a little and a bungalow popped up which looked really nice but was out to the west of Bury, an area that we didn’t really know at all. It was in the road Abbot Road which is a long road which heads west from Hospital Road/the Spread Eagle pub. We went for a viewing and really liked it. The location wasn’t as good as Beech Rise but was good enough, and it is a very quiet area with mostly bungalows, built in the 60s and 70s. After our viewing we told the Letting Agents we would like to live there and they discussed with the landlord and they agreed.

So we were to move house, at the same time as Klaus would be finishing working with the company he had been with in the UK for a year and a half and 20 years in Germany. It was all happening in October!

Lara visits

Klaus’s daughter Lara came to visit at the beginning of October during German Uni half term.

I was leading a Rambler’s Walk a few days after our planned moving date (which was the 9th October) and so I needed to recce the walk. As Lara was visiting we decided to do the walk with her and Lottie so collected Lottie and had a bit of a cuddle with her.

We then set off for Blackthorpe Barn in the car and did the walk. Towards the end we stopped off in Rougham church to rest our feet.

After the walk we had lunch in Blackthorpe Barn and met Lottie’s owners there and they took her home.

It was nice to have a break from the packing of boxes.

The House Move

On the 6th October we got the keys to the new house. This was Lara’s last day with us and so she came to have a look at it, and we brought Don Quixote as the first item to be moved.

I had unfortunately hurt my back lifting boxes several days before and had had to mostly stop packing. As Lara is young and fit we got her to put the boxes into the car and then unpack the car at the new house and put the boxes where I directed. She helped with three trips in the car to bring boxes to the new house (you can fit a lot in an E-Class). They were stored in the kitchen (I would be able to unpack these) and also in what would become my Study/Office as that would eventually have a sofa bed but at the moment had a good space.

Whilst we were doing the car journeys Klaus cycled over with his trike and his velomobile and I then collected my trike and velomobile, cycling over with them one at a time. There was not enough room in the sheds for the velomobiles so they were left outside with a motorbike cover on each – the trikes were in the shed which was good.

We then took Lara to the airport for her flight home, which was unfortunately delayed several hours so her mother had a really late night picking her up from Köln airport.

The next day was a day I might end up spending a lot of time in the new house as I was awaiting a delivery of a new freezer and dishwasher and also Plusnet were fitting a fibre broadband connection. I didn’t know what time in the day they were coming so prepared myself with a flask of tea, my iPad and a chair to sit on.

I used the time to start unpacking the kitchen boxes which also involved me being able to work out where things should go, which is actually quite difficult when you haven’t previously used the kitchen and you don’t know how the workflow will go. Still, I worked out some good options and started unpacking, storing the boxes in the conservatory to take home and fill with the next lot of stuff.

Fortunately dishwasher and freezer arrived fairly soon and I was able to plug in the freezer. The next morning I brought the contents of our existing freezer to the new house and they all fitted in (we were going from a very large freestanding freezer to an under-counter one, and had been eating frozen stuff for a month or so to reduce it).

The fibre broadband was also sorted out by the early afternoon.

The next day was the final day before the move and I had to pretty much finish the packing. Klaus was still working (he had the moving day off but no other time before) but he was also able to help me a little. Packing up all your stuff is quite a challenge, especially as my back was really dodgy so I couldn’t pick the boxes up and found bending over a bit painful at times. I worked to fill the boxes and then they were slid on a little wheely trolley thing to a space.

I had been doing so much packing over the previous two weeks (things like books, sheet music, winter clothes, kitchen items) that it wasn’t too awful a task to finish everything up on that day. We had the first of many take aways that evening as I had no inclination to cook, plus most of the utensils were packed away.

And then came the removal day! The removal company said they would arrive at 8:30am but I suspected they might come earlier and they did indeed, arriving at 8:20. Because of the narrowness of the road they had a smaller van so would need to do the move in two trips. They actually fitted the vast majority of furniture and boxes into the first van load and were soon unloading everything to the new house. We quickly ran out of floor space so I had to get them to pile things up in my Office.

Klaus went back with them to the old house for the second lot of furniture and I started making inroads on what had been delivered.

They were quickly back with the rest of the furniture, it was all unloaded and we were able to make our bed and put most of the clothes in the built-in wardrobes. The kitchen had a large area (which would eventually have a table and two chairs) where we stored boxes, Klaus’s office was choc a bloc with boxes of his stuff but we were in!

The next day, the first day after the move, was a Saturday rehearsal for the Bach Choir’s B Minor Mass. It was a lovely change of scene for me – to get away from unpacking boxes and sing some magical music. There were also cakes and savoury goodies to enjoy in the break.

Once I got home it was back to unpacking but I was making progress.

Klaus and I continued unpacking over the weekend, the pile of boxes eventually reduced a bit and I was able to flatten the moving boxes and store them in the conservatory.

On the following day my niece Hari came up with her partner to clean the old house as an end of tenancy clean. They did an excellent job!

The next day the British Heart Foundation were coming to pick up some furniture we had left in Beech Rise as we couldn’t fit it in the new place. Unfortunately they rejected most of the furniture as unsuitable but fortunately the landlord decided he wanted it and got his handyman to disassemble the office sideboard a few days later (we helped put the other furniture into storage for him). The new tenants, Americans, were moving in a few days later.

The following day was the Ramble I was leading from Blackthorpe Barn. Once again it was really good to do something other than box emptying. I had a good turnout of walkers and it was good to be out in the fresh air and have a 10km walk. There was a field edge with lots of quinoa growing…

Klaus and I had chosed a lovely kitchen table and chairs and these were delivered the following day and assembled by Klaus.

He was still working from home for the old job but was able to help with some of these tasks.

Church Visit in Horringer

I am part of the u3a Church Visiting group and the visit this month was to Horringer, the village in which the National Trust Ickworth Estate is located. It is also just a 4km walk from our new house along a lovely track, although I went by car to this visit as I didn’t yet know about the footpath!

It was a beautiful day and a lovely church.

The Rector gave us a talk about the church although she was relatively new there (18 months or so) and it was one of her SIX churches in the benefice! She introduced us to the cat, which belongs to someone in one of the local houses but considers the church its revier.

I loved this list of rectors – lots of Johannes…

They had also laid on tea and cake.

It was another lovely Suffolk church, there are so many gems like this around.

The cat made sure we all left on time.

A visit to Essex

As I said in the last blog post, Klaus resigned from his current company at the end of September and was due to finish work in the third week of October. As he had accrued holiday it ended up that his last day of work was Friday 16th October (and he wouldn’t start the new job until Monday 2 November so had a nice two week break between). He had to return his laptop, company phone and company car on that final Friday to the office in Essex.

Usually people hand back their cars and then are given a lift to the station to get the train home. Klaus preferred the option that I travel down to Wickford in our car and pick him up. As my sister lives 15 minutes from Wickford I decided to go and see her and wait for the call from Klaus to collect him when he had finished with all the handing stuff over and potentially doing a bit of work.

All the formalities were done surprisingly quickly and he was ready for me to pick him up. I was a bit shocked to discover they hadn’t arranged a leaving card for him, which I found very rude and unfriendly. He got on really well with most of the staff but the MD and he butted heads a bit so perhaps this is why. Whatever, I felt it left a rather bad taste in the mouth and it confirmed my happiness that he has a new position in a company which seems to value its employees more.

We decided to have lunch with Anna at a garden centre near Battlesbridge (she had just picked up her new car from Chelmsford) so we headed there and were rather surprised to discover there was a German Christmas Market on!

We enjoyed our lunch, followed by a cake course.

We had a look around and then bought a few things from the Christmas Market (Schokoküße and gebrannte Mandeln).

A visit to Germany

We were actually heading off to Germany that evening for a few days – this has been organised months before as we would be visiting Klaus’s father.

As we were already in Essex and the roads were quite busy we decided not to drive home before going to Harwich but hang around at a pub instead (I had foreseen this so we had all our luggage and the house was all shut up). This saved another hour of driving overall and we headed to Ardleigh, near where I used to live, and stopped at the Wooden Fender pub which I know is good. We topped the car up with diesel first as it is cheaper in the UK than Germany – and put £98 in – haven’t prices gone up!

In the pub we just had teas/coffees and then after an hour or so we had dinner followed by a very nice shared dessert.

Then it was off to Harwich and the Stena Hollandica. Once again the chap in the Stena lounge remembered us. They have improved their food offering even more.

This was an overnight crossing so after some food we went to bed. It was an early start the next morning and we were the third car off the ferry so were on the road fairly quickly.

The plan for the day was to drive to Mannheim where we had a hotel booked but we had arranged to visit chum Ralf on the way down. He is also interested in photography and had this rather unfortunately-named book on his bookshelf (“Hunde-Shooting” means dog photography).

He and Anke his wife had very wisely purchased some excellent cakes!

We shared these and had a good chinwag for a couple of hours. They had also supplied a breakfast before the cakes (rolls with cheese and ham) so we were very well looked after.

We then headed south to Mannheim which is a three hour journey, having already done two and a half hours from the Hoek van Holland to Ralf’s. The E Class excels in such journeys and was very comfortable. We didn’t drive that fast, sitting at around 100-120km/h, so the diesel usage was efficient (about 51mpg). We each had a bit of a go at driving faster – I got Carl up to 150km/h and all was fine – the car is designed for motorway speeds of 200 km/h but never gets anything like that in the UK, but we didn’t take it over 150km/h as it is a 12 year old car and we think might have a slightly worn bearing in one back wheel.

We arrived in Mannheim and our hotel was in a prime location – looking out over the water tower.

Klaus’s photo later in the evening as we were on our way to a Greek restaurant for dinner.

He also photographed the water tower and commented that the skies seemed really weird – plus we heard fire engine sirens. Turns out that the Steam Cracker had caught on fire at the BASF chemical works and the smoke and flame from that were causing the interesting colours.

The next morning we drove to Klaus’s father’s house with some goodies for him (beers from East Anglia) and picked up brunch of a few Pretzels. Werner also provided us with some food and we stayed a few hours with him chatting.

We went back to the hotel and I fancied a cake so we walked into Mannheim. As it was a Sunday most shops were closed but we did find the same coffee roasters that we had visited on our last trip and I had a very tasty Baiser Cake.

Klaus bought some of the coffee beans.

That evening we had a meal with his friend Michael and his girlfriend at a very nice wine restaurant. Klaus and I shared this wonderful Mediterranean starter.

It was lovely for Klaus to catch up with Michael who we last saw several years ago. He has had some health issues in the meantime but things are definitely improving. It reminded us both again though what matters – health and people, not work and career.

We stayed another night in Mannheim and then the next morning set off fairly early as we were driving to Kempen, back to our old home, but Klaus wanted to drop in to his old workplace on the way.

We stopped for breakfast cake at a motorway services.

We arrived at the company head office in Mülheim an der Ruhr around 1 in the afternoon. Klaus bumped into lots of former colleagues and they were all very friendly and chatty. We spent a long time talking to them and he was catching up with several friends.

Eventually we headed off to Escheln where we used to live, checked in to the room at Heskeshof Ferienwohnungen (they did us an excellent price again) and headed round to see Gudula and Frank. It was so great to see them again – and we also saw Poppy’s grave.

Gudula had made us an evening meal which was very good and we sat and chatted to them for ages. We miss them so much!

The next morning we headed off to Hoek van Holland for the day ferry crossing back home again. We are old hands at this and the day passed quickly. The food selection has improved, as I said before, and so we were well fed.

We got home to our new home and it did feel like home which was lovely.

Cake with Ching

I’ve been talking to a lot of people recently about how this blog used to feature lots more cakes. Since I did my big diet and lost 40kg I have of course had to be a bit more careful of cake input but it’s still a highlight of the week for me.

Chum Ching and I hadn’t seen each other for a while so we arranged to meet for lunch at The Shed in Sproughton, somewhere I used to go with Mum.

We actually met for lunch…

But afterwards I couldn’t resist a Red Velvet Cake.

Meeting Ching for cake was also a bit of a celebration of completing unpacking all my boxes. The one remaining thing was the delivery of a sofa bed and this was delivered whilst I was out with Ching (Klaus was at home to receive it). We built it easily enough and it is now a comfy chair in my office which will convert to a single bed when Lara comes to stay. The room has an en suite bathroom so that makes it very suitable for single guests.

Rougham Pumpkins

Last year the Bury Bach Choir got a load of volunteers to help with car parking for the Pumpkin Patch and later the Christmas Barn. I helped out on lots of occasions but unfortunately also developed plantar fasciitis as a result (which is still causing me issues now a year later).

We were asked again by the Rougham Estate to do the Pumpkins so I agreed to two shifts to help out, being aware that I had to be careful with what footwear I used.

On the first day I was helping people park in rows on the field, on the second day I was waving at people to make sure they didn’t drive in the Exit.

It was the morning of mega winds and I was standing reasonably close to a tree so I kept my eye on it to ensure I could sprint out of the way if it started coming down. It seemed rock solid.

Here is my view of all the parking taking place.

We received a lot of donations for doing the parking, plus a payment from the Rougham Estate, which has helped the choir funds. We will be doing parking for the Christmas at Blackthorpe Barn in due course but I will have to be careful of my feet still and won’t be able to do as many shifts.

I mentioned above that we had finished unpacking, the final job was to make holes in the walls for picture hooks for some of the artworks we have (that used to belong top my parents). Here is the lounge with the pictures hanging.

A Trustee of the Bach Choir

Klaus and I moved permanently to the UK in April 2025 and I decided I would spend the first year getting involved with things but not actually volunteering to do anything until I found my feet and worked out what I wanted to do.

This year I have trained as a Ramblers Walk Leader but I also wanted to give something back to the Bach Choir which had been such a wonderful source of friends and social activities. They needed more trustees of the charity so I offered and was confirmed at the AGM at the end of October.

I was immediately given the additional role of Hospitality Organiser which means I arrange refreshments for orchestra, soloists, conductor, sponsors and, for the Christmas concert, the audience. I was taking over this role from Mary Clare who had done it for three years and was no longer a Trustee. We arranged to meet at the café at the Apex (we would be doing a concert there two weeks later) and she would hand over all the information I needed.

So I settled down in the café with a cake thingie and Mary Clare and I went through it all. She was very helpful and I have all the details I need.

I think most of us can agree that I am reasonably qualified to organise cake things at the choir Saturday practices in future!

Doggie visits

Following our move we had missed seeing our doggy friends for a couple of weeks. I bumped into Aggie with her owners in town and borrowed her for a few hours, walking her home and surprising Klaus with a happy dog. The garden must be a real disappointment to the dogs compared to our previous one but the sofas are still comfy!

A couple of days later we thought it would be nice to take Lottie to Ickworth so we picked her up and took her there. Here she is being hesitant about a bridge (she has a bit of a thing about not wanting to cross bridges).

We dropped her off after our walk and then decided to walk into town. We stopped for a cream tea in town at the Cornish Bakery, sitting at the windows. We looked out and saw Lottie walking past with her owners! “Bury ist ein Dorf!” – we had bumped into both dogs we walk within two days.

Parkrun

As I hadn’t run for a few weeks and my back was still a bit dodgy after shifting removal boxes I decided not to run the Parkrun but to volunteer. I ended up with the job of Tail Walker which means I am the last person on the course – making sure that no-one gets left behind.

It was a beautiful misty morning.

Here we are approaching Wood Henge for the first time.

I was walking with chum Tim who was volunteering as a Parkwalker. We had to stop to help a lady who had a bad nosebleed and ended up getting lapped. Once the lady was well enough to carry on Tim went with her and I retraced the route backwards to try to find the last walker. I found her in the end and then Tim arrived having gone the long way round to confirm she was indeed the last. We had a nice chat as we walked round and I then ran home with a mixture of walking and jogging whilst Klaus did his longer walk/run around the park and then drove home.

Käse Sahne Torte

We have started having people round to visit in our new home. Chum Kate came and we also saw Christiane and Andrew and our new next door neighbours. For Christiane and Andrew I made a Käse Sahne Torte – but shockingly forgot to photograph it! Here is a photo of Klaus enjoying a slice later on (on a plate on his stomach) but it doesn’t show the full glory, sadly.

Christiane and Andrew brought us two little presents – home-made bread and a jar of salt, which is traditional in Germany. The bread was fab, we ate it all that evening with cheese for our dinner. They can come again!

It was also nice to meet our neighbours Phil and Jill properly. They were very friendly and had lots of information about the area.

So we are settling in to our new home and feel that it was very much the right decision. The landlord and landlady are very nice and they were both really happy the house is lived in (it was the landlady’s late parents’ house and has been empty for several months). We are enjoying living in a heat efficient home and are surprised how little the heating has had to be on although the weather has turned colder.

The two weeks Klaus had off was a great chance to relax before he would start his new job on 2nd November. Next month’s blog will report on his new job and also the Bach Mass in B Minor that the choir will be singing. See you then!