It's been a really crazy few weeks. At the end of April I'd been looking at houses online- wanting to move back closer to the Peak District, where I'd been in university, but still close to North Wales, and wishing we had a store in the area so I could move without leaving the job I love. I wanted to be close to mountains and rivers so that there would be plenty of opportunities to play, and get away from the city, taking up to an hour to get to work with a combination of driving and cycling. I sighed, realising it wasn't to be, and deciding I'd just have to see where life takes me. 

A week later all stores received an email announcing new stores due to open, including Bridgemere. I applied, had an interview, and here I am under a month later, sat in an empty shell of a new store, living less than four miles away in a quaint country cottage. 

And what a challenge it's been to get here! My car has been rather unreliable lately- it doesn't like starting. It made a horrendous noise one Sunday afternoon & I decided to leave it at my mums to go to the garage later in the week. That meant, having just moved back to the Talbot Green store, cycling the 8 miles to work. Thankfully, Pete my better half, was on early shifts in the Cardiff city store and able to pick me up after work each night so I only had to cycle one way. This was a relief as by this point I was spending every evening looking at houses online, as we wouldn't have time to visit the area before signing paper work and moving in. We eventually found a beautiful 2 bed cottage less than 4 miles from the new shop, surrounded by fields and open countryside. 

My dad took my car to the garage, and the alternator belt fell off on the way, so thy replaced it, cleaned the engine & did an oil change. However, the problem of the car not starting still stands- its chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-cough splutter-chug-chug-chug-cough splutter... then eventually it starts. As time went on it got worse, until this monday when we had to bump start it by rolling it down the hill. Coming home from work was harder... thankfully Nick was around to give me a lift home! 

Pete had spent the day driving to our new place to drop off a van load of stuff, and came back at half 10 to drive me to talbot green to try to stat the car. We tried pushing it across the carpark to bump start it, no luck. We tried towing it behind the van to bump start it, no luck, we pushed it again, still nothing.... we gave it the longest run along from the far end of the car park to build up speed, and eventually managed to start it! 

We were obviously quite concerned about the car by this point, and parked on a hill to hope for the best for moving day. Once it started the car went fine... but by the time we got here the alternator had died on the van. So we made it to the new home in the middle of nowhere, with no internet, very little phone signal, and no vehicles that would start without a lot of encouragement, but we felt happy, and ready for a new adventure. 

I'm really looking forward to meeting the new staff team tomorrow, and getting bridgemere store up & running!