Lymington (for all those who seem to have problems remembering it, think lamington with a 'y') is a yachting town in South England — population: 14,000 — and will be our home for the next 19 weeks while Craig fulfills his stint as the overseas 'professional' for Lymington Cricket Club. Read more about the town here.
We arrived last Tuesday and quickly set up shop at our new abode — staying with the Hunts (the cricket captain's parents, their 21-year-old daughter and their cat Hollie). We have our own room, kitted out with new furniture and our own TV and DVD player (which clearly have been getting way-too-much use), and Mr and Mrs H have been been extremely generous and welcoming.
It hasn't been all fun and games though. Craig toughed it out on Tuesday, completing his first full day of work in three weeks, cricket coaching in primary schools. A couple of the kids didn't quite believe he was Australian though, one because he didn't say, 'G'day, I'm Auustraaalian mate,' and the other because he couldn't believe Australians spoke English!
Craig also had his first New Forest-cricket experience on the weekend, which he described as 'interesting', which was the most complimentary word he could come up with considering the wicket was greener than Al Gore, wetter than an episode of You Can't Do That on Television, and there were horses (yes, horses!) on the field!
Overshadowing all of this, has been the plight of the Punto...
Punts, as I (Lisa) affectionately call it, is Craig's 1996 Fiat Punto, and our wheels for the next four months. The relationship started off well, we first met Punts on Thorpy's (a former
Lymington player who owns a used-car dealership) lot in nearby Southampton, Craig instantly fell in love with his small, but endearingly-dodgy, new ride, and we were soon cruising the horse-and-donkey-filled roads (more about that later) of England. Less than 24 hours later, Craig and Punts had their first falling out when a warning light came up on the dashboard, Punts lost some serious power and did the car equivalent of 'letting one off' (er, in other words, it stunk).Of course Craig was thrown into his usual unnecessary panic — 'Great, we're not going to have a car', 'What if we can't go trippin' [road tripping]?' — and Punts was only driven for
essential trips to and from cricket training for the next two days. After two-and-a-bit days of non-stop worrying, we drove Punts back to Thorpy's (scary trip, that one), where we were immediately given the keys to a 1995 Ford Fiesta Sapphire (top of the line!). The relationship with the Fiesta didn't even get to first base — we weren't even with her long enough to give her an extremely-original nickname — as three hours later we received a phone call from Thorpy to say Punts was fixed and back in the game!Once he was reunited with Punts, Craig was back on top of the world! We are now fr
ee to go trippin', and are planning on christening Punts with a trip to Bath in the very near future...To be continued...
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