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.