We're Here!

Over three weeks since my last entry! Well, it has been a busy time - SO much packing at the old house, and then when we moved here we had to wait for our ADSL line to go live, which it did yesterday. In the meantime I'd been using someone else's unsecured wireless connection to check email but I didn't want to linger on it for too long. But now I'm back and it feels great to be connected again (and that's in spite of problems with Demon over the past few days but let's not go there!). It's also really great to be here in Tonbridge. The move went pretty well although the van probably wasn't big enough in reality. The lads said they'd never seen it so full and Derrie and I both had our cars full of stuff. Still, we got here and we're gradually getting things sorted. We've found a brilliant local electrician who's already sorted out some things and he could redo our kitchen (which is much needed) - he's recommended colleagues for the plumbing and carpentry - so that's the main project for when we come back from holiday. We've also ordered new french doors for the lounge and a new front door and hopefully we'll have them in about three weeks. We've had the leaky guttering at the back fixed, have sorted out a vet (thanks Elizabeth) and a GP, and Derrie's been busy in the garden. It's just a shame about the giant Tonbridge slugs - any advice anyone? Oh! Despite my concerns there's been no more contact from Mrs S. who bought our old house. That's a relief.

Nicky and Hattie have settled in amazingly well. We brought them home from the cattery on the Saturday after the move and decided to ignore the advice to keep them in for two weeks. Neither had any difficulty knowing where home was. One thing that is disappointing is the complete absence of birds so far in the back garden - hopefully they'll discover our feeders soon but the seed cakes have been up for days with no interest whatsoever. They used to be gone in a flash in Anerley. Oh well, hopefully we'll be discovered soon.

Talking of holidays it's been awful to see the devastation of the recent flooding in the Midlands and to think that we were boating on those rivers - the Warwickshire Avon and the Severn - last September. We've been so lucky down here although parts of Tonbridge that are near the river are also prone to flooding on occasions apparently.

So Many Books, So Many Boxes...

Our penultimate weekend in this house - I still can't believe it really. We've made a start on the packing this weekend - what a lot of books, and I mean A LOT. And they are SO heavy. I started to feel a bit overwhelmed yesterday by all our stuff but as Derrie said, it's not that different to packing for a boating holiday. And I have that down to a fine art - everything but the kitchen sink. I don't know what the cats make of it all but luckily they seem pretty relaxed so far, which seems amazing really. Overall I think we are pretty organised. We've contacted most of the people we need to inform about the move, including BT and Demon. That's very important, we can't be computerless for too long! And living in Tonbridge looks like it will be quite a bit cheaper (in terms of insurances and utilities) which is good.

I'm in the middle of a very good book at the moment, Eye Contact by Cammie McGovern, which is about a young autistic boy called Adam. It's a thriller really and very hard to put down. And during the week we watched Housewife, 49 (on DVD) in which Victoria Wood plays Nella, a depressed woman living with a domineering and somewhat cold husband at the start of World War II. She starts contributing to the Mass Observation Study as a way of trying to cope with her depression and it made me think about how things don't really change but are just reinvented, I mean, she was really doing the equivalent of a Blog. Derrie always makes the same point about online shopping, remembering his local grocery shop when he was a boy which always delivered - but for free, not a £5 surcharge!

July Already!

I've just back home from visiting my Mum in Lincolnshire - another showery, breezy couple of days. I know we're so lucky compared to lots of parts of the country but it would be nice to have some warm sunny weather and the sort of balmy summer evenings for sitting outside with a glass of wine, or two... Anyway, it felt important to fit in a visit before the move and I think the weekend went pretty well, although my Mum's health doesn't get any better. I've come home to a load of boxes, delivered yesterday morning by our removal company, and next weekend we'll make a start on the packing. It's been great this week to get letters from the estate agents and our solicitors confirming everything - we particularly liked our solicitor's which emphasised that we are now committed to selling and our buyers to buying. Well, that's all right then.

We've Exchanged!

Contracts were exchanged this morning. Phew! What a relief! It's so wonderful to feel that we're almost there, after all the trials and tribulations of the past few months. It has been a long haul, given that we first started talking about moving at the end of last August, over dinner at Pizza Express in West Wickham. Luckily our house in Tonbridge is only about a fifteen minute walk from the local PE - that'll be handy! Anyway, we've let everyone know who needs to know (for now) and, and there are some useful sites on line to help us - I think http://www.iammoving.com/ is really good. I've also booked my two weeks off work, well two weeks and one day actually. I'm so looking forward to some time off, even if it is to move, and hopefully we might actually have some dry sunny weather by then. It's got to get better soon, hasn't it?...We've booked to go and see the other show Mikron is touring with, Married to the Job, the Saturday before the move - they're performing in Cranleigh, Surrey so it shouldn't be too difficult to get to. And a break in the middle of packing will do us good I think.

Despite the variable weather at the weekend we had a day out in London on Saturday, with lunch at the World Food Café and then a long walk along the South Bank from Waterloo Bridge to beyond Tower Bridge and then back to Westminster Bridge and Victoria - the latter bit is very familiar from my five weeks of radiotherapy up at St Thomas' last year. The weather was pretty good for most of the time we were out. We love being by the Thames and are glad that when we move it'll still be easy to get into town, about forty minutes by fast train into Charing Cross.

Almost There

We've at last got a completion date - Wednesday 18th July - and contracts should be exchanged on Monday morning. The annoying thing is that we could've been moving on 5th July but our buyers' solicitor is out of the office all that day having hospital tests, apparently. He has been a bloody nightmare to be honest, the cause of all the problems so far....but never mind, at least the end is in sight.

Yesterday we had some respite from the whole moving thing. It was 'our' Mikron show over in Bourne End near Marlow so we made a day of it and it really was exactly what we both needed. I think we both switched off completely from all the worries about the move. The journey was pretty good and we got over there by mid-afternoon. After sussing out the venue - The Bounty pub - we walked the three miles along the Thames Path into Marlow and had a late lunch/early dinner at the Pizza Express there (we love Pizza Express!). Luckily we were still in PE when the rain came, and the next shower came at the end of our walk back so we were able to take refuge in the car. And during the actual show not a spot of rain fell - Dan said it wouldn't! The show was brilliant (as always with Mikron) and it was such a fab venue. It would be lovely to boat on the Thames but I know the manned locks would get to us and that I'd be worried about hitting a fibreglass boat, because, of course, we'd want to be in a narrowboat. Still, it did make me think about September and the two weeks we've got booked on a Kate boat from Warwick. We plan to do the Leicester Ring. Out Kate boat last year was really good but this year we've got a slightly older member of the fleet, Stephen. It'll be so good to be afloat again!

Still Waiting

Yet another day and still no news about exchange of contracts. It is driving me mad! Our buyer phoned earlier - I always dread it when she rings and almost regret exchanging phone numbers. She always sounds even more stressed than I feel. I hope she doesn't keep phoning once the move's happened, I can imagine her ringing to moan about the house. I might need to change my mobile number!

It's been very wet this evening and the forecast's not loooking great for Thursday and Mikron. Still, we live in hope - and we don't often let the weather get in the way of us doing things. It has been a disappointing June so far - although not quite as bad as one a few years ago when we were narrowboating. It rained for virtually the entire fortnight and we've never been so cold boating. Towards the end we were keeping the stove going constantly. During the second week we ended up on the Severn in flood so not only was it the coldest boating holiday we've done but also probably the scariest - along with the time on the Bristol Avon when that was in flood too and I thought we were going to go down a weir. I wonder why we like boating so much....

Back to Work

The weekends seem to go in a flash. I guess the good thing is that the working week flies too - at least, I think that's a good thing, not that I dislike my job, it's just that I've always liked my time off better. I find myself looking forward to retirement, even though I'm only 48, and I'm envious of my retired friends. It's so nice to be able to do what I want when I want to do it and I'd like more of that. Yesterday's walk was great, almost eight miles, good weather, and we coped pretty well with all the climbs - I'd love to have more time to walk. We could do some of the National Trails. One of the things we're really looking forward to about moving is being near to some lovely walking country - if we move soon we might actually be able to do some evening walks but there's still no news of a completion date. Every time the phone rings at work I hope it's Derrie with good news. Maybe tomorrow...

At least this week is a short one at work as I've Thursday and Friday off (although I need to go to a meeting late Friday afternoon but fortunately it's being held at a venue close to home). We're excited about Thursday because we're going to Bourne End near Marlow to see the wonderful Mikron, a theatre company which tours by narrowboat. Check out their website at:

http://www.mikron.org.uk/

We've sponsored Thursday's show, one of the things we've done this year to mark our Silver Wedding, which was in April - talking of time flying, where did all those years go? It's a mystery really. Time's such a strange concept. Anyway, Thursday's weather will hopefully be okay and we can make a day of it with a walk and a picnic before the show. My friend Maggie is seeing the same show tonight at the London Canal Museum - she's into making lace and that's the theme of it. I was really chuffed when she said she'd booked to go along. I hope she's enjoying it.