It is wonderful. I honestly love it. It's such a tiny village, it's like living surrounded by family. Of course, it will only take one episode of breaking and entering (or, really, I suppose, just entering) for us all to lose the secure feeling, but, for now, it's like living in St Mary Mead.
The passenger told me about taking the shopping home in South Africa.
1. You park outside your house, car doors still locked, look all around for suspicious loiterers.
2. You get out of the car, lock it, approach your front door, inspect for damage, look around again for anyone about to jump you.
3. Unlock the front door, open it, look inside, listen hard.
4. Satisfied there are no intruders? Close and lock the door.
5. Walk down the path, looking all around for loiterers.
6. Unlock the car boot, take out shopping, lock the boot again.
7. Look all around AGAIN for loiterers, march smartly up the path to the front door.
8. Unlock and open the front door, fling the shopping through it, step inside and close and lock the door.
If there are additional shopping bags that you can't carry all at once, repeat steps 5-7 as necessary.
Taking the shopping home in the Lake District village:
Drive home, park outside house, grab any perishables, saunter up the path, unlock and open front door, walk through house to kitchen, put kettle on, forget about retrieving rest of shopping until you've had a cup of tea.
She does lock her doors though, which we agreed wasn't overly cautious.
