By the time you read this we will have been in Coltishall for a year. It seems to have gone by very quickly and, perhaps surprisingly given the working hours, very enjoyably. One of the most frequent questions we've heard is “Settled in yet?”, closely followed by “I bet you wish you were back in Florida !” whenever there's some bad weather. Well for the record the answers to those questions are “Pretty much” and an emphatic “NO”.

I think the settling in process probably goes on indefinitely! We still have a pile of boxes that haven't been unpacked, and there are still an awful lot of things we want to do, both in the shop and in our living area, but, yes, we are pretty much settled in. We've been made to feel very welcome here and had a lot of very complimentary comments about the shop, which is very gratifying. We must be doing something right, but I am always pleased to hear your comments and suggestions.

And would we like to be back in Florida ? Not for a moment (well, ok, just occasionally we miss breakfast by the pool!). It's difficult to describe the changes in going from a large American city to a village in Norfolk , but suffice to say all the most important things are better here. So there aren't 10 supermarkets, a mile long mall and three DIY Superstores that make B&Q look like a village hardware shop within a mile, but then the children don't have to cross a six lane highway to get to a nearby friend's house. Every morning when I'm doing my paper round past the common and down Anchor Street , I look at the river, breathe in the air and know exactly why we came back.

I suspect the passing on of Miss Girling has been touched on elsewhere in this issue. As a newcomer to the village I didn't know her very well, but will miss her nonetheless. It was amazing to see her two or three times a week, walking from her house to the Post Office to collect her pension and buy bread and provisions, always polite and prepared to stand and wait her turn like anyone else. It was a privilege and inspiration to have known her.

Steve Haines Subpostmaster