Just as we were about to set off for Bristol after breakfast to see Owain's new flat we had a power cut, a rare thing. Clare had an immediate text message notification on her phone to say power would be restored within an hour, but I didn't. Funny, I thought the service providers had both our mobile numbers. It was only twenty minutes before the lights came on again in fact, as happened last time, when the first thing we knew was that the legacy mains connected alarm system started sounding. That has now been consigned to the dustbin. The power was off for twenty minutes last time this happened, and blame was attributed to a squirrel cooking itself on the neighbourhood power transformer. Same again I wonder?
We found our way to the city end of Fishponds Road without difficulty, a lot easier than the rented place Owain is now forsaking for a place of his own. The co-ownership housing estate of 105 flats, where he's at last a home owner was very recognisable and easy to find. The entire block is surrounded by security fences with digital locks, and interior access depends on both a wireless key and a pass-code for each floor. A legacy from earlier times when this was an area with a dodgy reputation. It's a long standing inner city multi-racial, now in the throes of slow gentrification, like other districts of Easton, with house prices rising steeply. Owain was fortunate to find this place, just at an affordable rate on his salary. His flat at the end of a clean and tidy long carpeted corridor on the first floor overlooking the inner courtyard of the complex with a well tended green space and trees.
Already he's made a lot of progress with cleaning and redecoration. This morning his new oven was delivered to go with the hob installed for him by an electrician friend last week. Clare joined him in the task of painting the skirting board of his lounge. He gave me a brief tour of the district when we went out to hunt for takeaway coffees. Later on we went for lunch at Tali, an Indian restaurant in St Mark's Road which we've visited before. Nearby is the former Parish Church, a Victorian church in the Romanesque style converted now into apartments. The former church hall was converted long ago into a Mosque, and after a recent makeover has acquired an attractive dome and beautifully tiled exterior walls. A spelendid example of environmental uplift, even if the legacy church architecture next door stands as a reproach to the failure of the Church of England's mission in an artisan working class community. It's not much more than a mile from where he was born in the old St Agnes Vicarage back in 1978.
We're so happy to see him securely housed, able to settle and make a home of his own at finally. He is impatient and ambitious to get as much done as possible and soon as possible and understandably. A young lad raised in formative years in Geneva, with apartment dwelling friends, has ideas influenced by Swiss interior design. He's waited a long time to have the freedom to put them into practice!
It was nearly six by the time we got home again. After supper, I spent the evening making a video slide show with commentary of the photos taken on our visit and uploaded it to You Tube for other family members to see with Kath just now in Spain, Rachel and Jas in Arizona, June in London and Rhiannon in Kenilworth. I reckon a brief preview will be of interest to them.
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