Our writers Rosie Paterson and James Fisher blogged for Country Life throughout the lockdowns of last year, when (one way or another) they ended up alone for the duration. Both used to the time wisely: they revealed the rules of cycling, ranked musical instruments (and not in a good way), shared tales of curious robins, video chat and little old ladies winching shopping through windows. You can catch up on all their columns here.
Now, though, our intrepid pair have moved on — one to become a home owner, the other, er, not. And now, they're facing the perils of living with parents as an adult, and the coming of winter. They have our sympathy.
| The means I will go to get out of domestic chores are, if I do say so myself, nothing short of extraordinary.Last week, I filled in my Aunt’s German passenger locator form, set up her NHS app (on an iPhone old enough for even Apple to have forgotten ever manufacturing it) and checked her into her BA flight. In return, she hoovered the stairs.The week before, I decided to put some distance between me and the topic of all household debates, the dishwasher. Around 800 miles, from here to Venice, Italy. You know what they say about distance. Heart growing fonder and all that.Post lockdown, Venice is even more glorious than ever. Clearer canals (no dolphins, though I was lucky enough to spot a crab), noticeably fewer tourists and emptier galleries, museums and shops.This year, La Serenissima is celebrating its 1,600th birthday — a milestone by anyone’s standards, but hopefully not one they felt compelled to celebrate with cake and candles. The city is, after all, essentially balancing on very old, flammable wooden stilts. At Aman Venice, a 16th century Palazzo turned hotel on the Grand Canal (the Arrivabene family, custodians of the building for more than 200 years, still live on the top floor), the fireplaces had been relegated to a purely decorative role.In 1571, the Venetian Republic joined a coalition of Catholic states and fought against the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto. It was the largest naval battle in Western history since antiquity.A carved wooden lamp that once illuminated the deck of one of the warships, tall enough to rival a modern day street lamp, stands in the hotel lobby. Frescoes by Cesare Rotta and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo adorn the ceilings of the first and second Piano Nobiles. There isn’t a dishwasher in sight. | Row 0 - Cell 1 | There’s something immensely powerful about watching a man sit at the piano and sing songs about his dead son for two hours. It’s even more powerful when that man is Nick Cave, who tragically lost Arthur in 2015.This was the first proper ‘gig’ that I have attended since That Thing happened in March 2020. Now, you might wonder as to why I chose to return to the live music scene with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Surely this should be a moment of celebration and joy, rather than melancholy reminiscence. Well you are wrong in two ways.Firstly, Nick Cave is one of the most talented and authentic musicians around. He’s everything Mick Jagger tries to be: an established and thoughtful singer and songwriter, as well as exuding the kind of charming arrogance that makes him the centre of attention without any effort. While Jagger has to practise his warbling struts in studios before any major tour, with Cave it is purely organic, as he almost haunts around the stage, enrapturing his audience.Furthermore, the assumption that these songs of Arthur were melancholic was one that you made, and not one that I wrote. This was a two-hour celebration, on a personal level and on a more macro one. ‘We’ve been waiting to come to London for a long time,’ said Cave. ‘It’s good to finally get here.’It is good to finally get here, wherever precisely ‘here’ is. All we know about here is that, after 18 very long months, it is a long way away from ‘there’. In the past few weeks, I have been to see friends, I have been to see family, I have drunk pints at the bar and been to a club of the night. Here feels very normal, so normal in fact, that there were times last weekend where a whole day was passed with friends without mentioning ‘there’ once. Instead, we talked about Brexit. Some things have longevity, but it feels like maybe this pandemic isn’t one of them. We can but hope.But in the spirit of that day at the pub, this is going to be the last piece in which I reference ‘there’. It’s ironic, really, considering this column was born out of an isolated madness. But, as Nick reminds us, things that are born out of tragedy do not necessarily have to reflect them. We needed there to get to here, but now we are here, we need there no longer. |
Rosie and Jim: The seven rules of cycling that no cyclist will ever tell you
Rosie Paterson and James Fisher share the truth about cycling, and wonder how it is that March was simultaneously 28
Rosie and Jim: The 10 rules of throwing the perfect beach picnic (N.B. You're going to need a unicorn)
This week, Rosie shares a series of tips which in now way reflect bitter personal experiences, while James reminds us
Credit: Realimage / Alamy
Rosie and Jim: 'Haven’t you heard? All of the cool 18-34 years olds now live with their parents'
Living with parents, living through winter, and negotiating the joys of the Winnersh Triangle... Safe to say that our columnists
Rosie and Jim: 'While the rest of England celebrated the return of the pub, I celebrated the return of the hairdresser'
This week, Rosie finally heads back to Devon while James finally heads back to the pub.
Rosie and Jim: 'They realise there’s no Uber, the postcode takes you into the middle of a muddy field and the local Waitrose is 600 miles away. Then they come straight back again.'
Our columnists are back and have been finding somewhere to live, with wildly varying degrees of success.
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Why are humpback whales flocking to the UK?Humpback whales are typically infrequent visitors to the Cornish coast, but this year they've been spotted in increasing numbers in the South-West, the Isles of Scilly and as far up the Channel as Sussex.
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Classical style meets fun and flair in a seven-bedroom manor in CornwallAt Polstrong Manor, the current owners have combined period charm and elegant modern interiors to create a flamboyant country home 10-minutes from the beach.
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Rosie and Jim: The time I bought a house that came with a 'free' catThis week, there's an editorial health warning on Rosie's column for those suffering from SAD, while James tells a delightful tale of an unexpected lodger who he found in
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Rosie and Jim: Spectacular nature, bitter cold, fantastic parties and the utter misery of flu — the love/hate affair with AutumnRosie and Jim just can't agree on autumn — and the division is so deep that they can't even agree on whether to capitalise it.
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Rosie and Jim: 'They realise there’s no Uber, the postcode takes you into the middle of a muddy field and the local Waitrose is 600 miles away. Then they come straight back again.'Our columnists are back and have been finding somewhere to live, with wildly varying degrees of success.
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Country Life's top 10 blogs and columns of 2020, from wise owls to the invention of toilet paperYou'll scratch your chin, nod in recognition and quite probably chuckle out loud at the most-read columns from the Country Life website this year.
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Rosie and Jim: 'Why was I always so busy? How did I cope when I wasn’t busy at all?'Our writers come to the end of lockdown, one with a Zen-like sense of acceptance, the other with a trip to Italy. We know which we'd rather copy (sorry James).
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Rosie and Jim: 'I did not miss this. I did not miss the pain'This week, the phrase 'be careful what you wish for' comes back to bite both of our corona-correspondents.
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Rosie and Jim: The 10 rules of throwing the perfect beach picnic (N.B. You're going to need a unicorn)This week, Rosie shares a series of tips which in now way reflect bitter personal experiences, while James reminds us all to take care of ourselves, and each other.
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Rosie and Jim: 'While the rest of England celebrated the return of the pub, I celebrated the return of the hairdresser'This week, Rosie finally heads back to Devon while James finally heads back to the pub.
