......................how to embarrass new neighbours without even trying!
The lady who is selling us her house invited us over for tea and cakes and invited some of the close neighbours round so we could meet them. Very nice too.
Conversation goes like this
One couple were telling us how long they had lived in their house, saying they had moved here from Essex and had found everyone very friendly.
Another couple had moved there from London and said how lucky they had been to find nice neighbours as they had friends who had moved into another Suffolk village and hadn't been made welcome at all.
First lady pipes up with "of course Suffolk people always say you have to have lived somewhere for 25 years before you can call yourself a local"
Second lady says " I think it might be even longer than that, some locals can be very ....you know... unfriendly"
Conversation turns to where we have lived before as we'd already said we were in Ipswich but hadn't been there long. So we explained that we'd had a smallholding over near the coast for the last 23 years and before that we had lived in the villages of Bacton and Cotton just a few miles away across the other side of the A140.
"Oh you are local people then?"
Yes - I was born in Stowmarket and Colin in Bacton. Suffolk through and through!
Subject changed quickly!
There is a moral here I think!
Many Thanks for hat comments - I'm still not sure. There were just 4 of us wearing hats or fascinators at son's wedding so it's definitely going out of fashion now.
Apologies for not replying individually to comments, trying to write a post everyday and reading everyones December posts seems to be taking up all my time!
Back Soon
Sue
