eptivity

Greetings, Internets, and SURPRISE: we’re thinking about moving! To another part of England!

Sometimes we get into these conversations with people regarding whether it’s better to buy or rent (general consensus of people who are not us: buy! buy! buy!), but here’s what we’ve just realized about ourselves: we can’t buy because moving is our hobby. Some people buy art or trek though the Himalayas; we move house.

We’ve lived in our current house for 1 year and 8 months, which is longer than either of us have lived in one place since moving out of our respective parents’ homes 10+ years ago. For me, that’s 13 moves, two different states, and two English counties.

And now we’re moving to Chesterfield, the largest town in the neighboring county of Derbyshire.

You may want to pronounce it like this:
Der-bee-shy-er

But it is in fact pronounced like this:
Dar-bee-shur

The incredulity we encounter when we insist that the Kentucky Derby is pronounced how it’s actually spelled, if you can believe that, is roughly equivalent to the incredulity we level at British people who insist on calling that one band “Zed Zed Top.”

Anyway, so Chesterfield has this going for it:

This here spire atop Chesterfield Parish Church of St Mary and All Saints was built in 1362, and the story is that though the twist was intentional, the lean (9 feet, 6 inches) was not, probably a result of a lack of skilled craftsmen following the recent Black Death.

Though many Chesterfield businesses have a representation of the spire in their logos, the borough coat of arms managed to restrain itself thus:

Wait—what’s this motto written across the bottom here? “ASPIRE“?

Oh, Chesterfield! Two of the most delightful heraldic supporters ever and a pun? You’re all right in my book.