First post, wireless at that!

Every move has uncertaintly. This one had a high risk ratio as we were moving into a village, without knowing much about it. We were also moving to a house which hubby had doubts about and I really liked from a size point of view. To throw some further "entanglement" into the equasion moving with two kids is never easy, either pre or post move. Whenever the kids dont understand anything I just mention Schrodingers cat to myself, chuckle, then get back to reality. Moving is something akin to this.

Move went well, mainly thanks to team of expert movers. I will put their details as a link. They were fabulous, very easy going, removed doors, pivoted furniture like they do it in their sleep. It took me two weeks of packing boxes from 7pm to 10pm at night and then the whole of the day before the move from 7am to midnight to pack boxes. I stopped counting at box number 152 as all I was writing was "stuff from garage /eaves / which we have not used in 10 years. I reckon about 175 boxes in total. Movers cleared the house of boxes and furniture within 3 hours. Thats stopping for two tea breaks as well.

I went out with the kids and had a good day out. Went back to the house for 2:30 to meet Alex who is an oven cleaning guru. He transformed carbon covered grime into sparkling fresh new like oven. Had to keep the kids upstairs for fear of them getting near the chemicals. My fav bit of the move came next. Once I had read enough books to them, sung all the songs we knew, I took out some chocolate and we ate in on the floor of our former bedroom. Boy counted out the pieces so we all had equal amounts and Madam did her best to squeeze as much chocolate into her mouth as possible in one go.

The new house is great. I wonder when it will morph from "new house" to home?!!!

Its wierd going back to the old house as I dont miss it. Whenever I turn the corner into our new road I feel insanely happy. Everyone is so friendly. i had not even turned the engine off earlier when Shirley from accross the road came to introduce herself. It would seem that the average age is 60plus. They all like their alcohol though. Mentioned to Shirley about my Mount Gay Rum adventures and she muttered approvingly.

I love our ensuite. The shower cabin reminds me of Morks egg cabin and our bedroom itself is large. I wont mention the boxotpia which resides around the house. am not rushing unpacking the boxes as we need to move some furniture around.

Kids love the house, the boy shut Madam in the airing cupboard telling her, "you have been naughty, in you go". All I heard was the sound of muffled sobbing "Me not been naughty". Kids keep using the upstairs landing as a mini athletics track, holding races.

I have managed to unpack most of the kitchen and the kids room. Clothes in the kids room were unpacked amid a game of hide in the built in cupboard and shout "its spooky". I gave up after about 20 mins as I had pins and needles.

There are some nice items to go on the snagging list, one being that their is no stopper to the top drawer of the dishwasher, so, when you pull it out, it falls off.

I think thats it. We are very happy, but extremely tired.

Reaction to the house

Took the kids to see the house yesterday, after checking that their room was big enough to play hide and seek in, they then ran round the house like loonies. I guess a house devoid of furniture is an exciting place for kids. Whilst the sound of scretching kids filled the air hubby and I tried to talk to the landlords. Practically impossible.

Boy then announces he needs a poo. Take him upstairs, landlady desperate to show me something upstairs, follows. At one point, boy is on the toilet yelling "I have finished, wipe my bottom", meanwhile Madam is jumping up and down like Tigger in one of the bedrooms screaming look at me, and Landlady is carrying on talking to me about the rubbish collection rota. I am trying to pay attention to landlady hoping she does not tear up the rental contract. Helpfully there was no toilet brush......

Also, I have ascertained I need to put the kids out on a Thursday for collection and the neighbours two doors down have rubbish the same age. Sanity, what sanity?

circa 6 miles with two kids

We did the undercliff walk from Brighton to Ovingdean yesterday. Kids loved it as they got to run around, balance on the mini walls and match the screetching of the seagulls. It was a glorious day. We watched the boats and tankers as we ambled along to Ovingdean, had a paddle in the sea. Consumed ice cream and walked back. Really was a perfect day out.

Suitably Smug

My shares have soared again. Also, this article caught my eye. as I mentioned it months ago on my blog.

People watching, is the way forward........

Letters

Have written several letters over the past few days, LM, Eva, Granny, Aunty. Am finding it hard not to repeat items in the letters on email. V nice actually writing a letter though and knowing its going snail mail.

Quick update

My business cards have arrived, I designed them last week in order to help me remember my mobile number.

Got outbid on ebay for jumper, bid £20, ah well, no biggie, there will be more opportunities.

We have had to order new boxes, but removers are now booked in. Can start to do the periphery bits now.

Am going out with a friend for a meal tonight, will be good to get out and not have to play box tetris.

Kids want to see house. Boy thinks that everything can be resolved by saying we are moving to a larger house....sadly this does not mitigate the kids slooshing hot chocolate and cheese everywhere.

the house move is on

we move in 9 days time. scary, exhilarating and fun all rolled into one. A bit like eating fugu. Bring on the fugu!

What price for a jumper?

Madam has a cashmere jumper as her security blanket. We have been regularly harvesting the "big bit" for small "bits" for her to carry around. Big bit resides in her bed until she is ready to go to sleep. Bit looks after her during the day. There are 9 incarnations of bit. All bar two went missing today.

I am fairly resilient when it comes to finding her bit, we have dug it out of a pile of grass at Kingston green, dredged the bottom of the bin, scouered our hedge, climbed hedge, fallen into hedge, muttering incoherent curses whilst Madam looks on, either laughing with her head tilted back or having minor melt down.

I have turned the house upside down for bits today. I can still only find two. Hubby wants me to harvest big bit. Big bit is dwindling, therefore following yohoho inspiration, have logged onto ebay, found green cashmere jumper which is remarbaly similar (RRP £145) and have placed a bid. Question is, what price is a good price for my princess's happiness and my sanity?

Answers on a green cashmere postcard please!

Box number 35 come on down

I ordered the boxes from a company called madforboxes. Should have been mad from boxes. I pack therefore I am.

The Circus

We had a ball, we had ringside seats, just needed to smuggle Madam in as an under two year old. In the end it did not matter as she ran through ticket inspection, straight into the big top.

We sat down, our fiends sitting at the back, as very wisely they knew it was going to be loud! The acts were really good, clowns were the best, me and the kids could loose ourselves in the churlish humour.

At almost half time the seats next to us were taken by one child in a wheelchair and two adults with kids on their laps. Turned out it was Jordan's aka Katie Price's kids with either nanies or Granny. They were incredibly cute and well behaved.

My kids loved it, Madam clapped and went ooooh all the way through, she was very captivated by it all. The boy looked at me sternly when the Wheel of Death came on and told me it was very dangerous. Quite.

Met up with our friends during the interval and after the performance. All in all, a great afternoon.

New fangled cooking

As I have packed most of the crockery, made a wonderful recepie discovery today for pork fillet.

Tenderise pork fillet, brown in butter with 2 cloves of garlic. Set pork aside, deglaze the pan with white wine, bring to boil. Throw in some fresh rosemary and thyme, throw in rice. Put into the oven for 45 mins. Lovely!

I threw in green beans near the end as well, could also work with adding olives?

Box number 25

So far I have played 3 dimensional tetris (putting the books into boxes!) this was great fun. Then I have played Deal or No Deal with the boxes. Finally I sat on them whilst I talked to my aunt on the phone. Numb bum from box 25, have clearly not loaded enough soft items in there.

We have had a sweepstake at home as to how many boxes we will end up with. Hubby thinks 76. I think 83.

Watch this space.......

Public Viewing

I am well used to the kids being around me pretty much 24/7. I read a book about the French Royal Family having members of the public watching them eat and this memory came into sharp focus yesterday.

Let me set the scene, after a bad nights sleep, I am having a shower, kids come in, firstly Madam throws in a toy into the bath. Looks me up and down and asks why I have not yet passed her back the toy. Boy comes in, pulls Madam away and tells her to come and play as I am having a shower. I smile appreciatively.

M points to various bodyparts of mine and tells me what they are. Mutter words of encouragement and tell her she is clever. Boy then wants in on the act and adds a few adjectives to my bodyparts. Getting marginally irriatted by the words my son is using, wobbly, big fat and huge! Try to turn his attention away from myself, I tell them to go find a book and I will read it to them upon exiting the shower. Turn around to try and ignore them.

And this is only the start of the day.

An update for E

Hello my dear friend here is a quick update for you:

1. I am taking the kids to the circus today. Should be great fun trying to keep them still, we are ringside, so I have threatened to sell them as a doubleact to the circus should they not behave. In true A household style, hubby has refused to buy a ticket for Madam, so I have to pretend she is under two years old.

2. 40 more packing boxes arrived this morning. Guess what I will be doing this evening once the kids are in bed????? In signature organised style I not only have a spreadsheet detailing box number, contents, room to be put into and whether its essential for us to have it within the first 2 days of being in the house. Each column sortable.

3. In between packing boxes I dyed my hair last night. Ran out of boxes, switched to Mount Gay Rum and tumbled into bed. Woke up with the same amount of grey hair, so have decided to lower the mount gay rum dose and up the leaving on time with the hair colour next time.

4. I have a cunning and secret plan that if the rum should run out, the box marker pens will be a brilliant subsitute.

5. Motto for today is: smile, survive and pack if my life depended on it.

Hope the apartment is taking shape and that you have a good time tomm in NY, am thinking of you.

Cod and Chips

I am currently having a break from packing the house up. Desperate to escape the tangle of bubble wrap, boxes and packing tape ends which are strewn across the house.

Ran round the cash and carry like a loonie woman this morning buying packing implements. I was somewhat overawed by the sweet aisle which has ended up with me packing large cod and chips. What?

Well, justification for the sweet aisle is that we need energy when moving boxes around (half of Rowntrees output should do it!) and secondly, as I was uberexcited I accidentally picked up fish and chip paper instead of tissue paper.

So there I am wrapping the kitchen items, injecting humour by telling myself that it’s a large haddock and chips. Hubby is convinced I am at the end of the loop of a very large and long loop the loop.

I have been keeping the kids informed of the fact that we will be moving. I keep a poker face when I tell them nonchallantily that Mummy and Daddy will be looking at houses. The information and subsequent questions are met with a breezy lighthearted response that any North Korean news reader would be proud of.

Kids are desperate to view houses. Last time I took a child along to view a house, he turned the oven on, tried to jump on a bed and the viewing was abandoned after 10 mins due to the oven stinking the kitchen out.

Now to go and do battle with packing a large savaloy, extra chips and onion vinegar!

Quick Summary

Lots of things have happened in the great bog random smelting pot that is our family life. Had a fairly boozy goodbye lunch (for me!) with Evova at Ockenden Manor. We managed to have some tea before a really lovely lunch with pimms and the obligatory glass of vino. I wont mention the crazed masochistic wood pigeon which decided to amble on the downside of Ditchling Beacon, in the thick fog. He bounced off my windscreen and was luckily ok.

Very very sad to say goodby to Evova, she is one of three people I speak to on an almost daily basis.

Anyways, needed a first daytime nap following boozy lunch and then found myself making coffee, turning the heat up higher and higher. It was probably only a minute before the machine would have exploded before I realised that I had not put any water in!

Lastly, I was pruning the lavendar out the front when I heard a scratching noise from next doors roof. Look up and next doors cat is sliding off the roof, lands with a thud and carried on as though its all part of some master plan. After my recent incident with cats, I did not even bat an eyelid at this one.

We may officially be homeless if this continues. That or I may have to spend a month on Hungary. Shame.