26 Sleeps

oh my god. how did it get to 26? how on earth are we going to manage to do everything?

never mind. best not to think about it, eh?

the rental agent was round today - he took a lot of pictures - he said they are for their/our records as much as anything, and he won't put the ones of the playroom looking like a bomb site on their website.

he agreed that the attic study is NOT a bedroom, not in anyone's imagination!

Quirk is off to the vet for a final set of vaccinations tomorrow. I havne't heard back from the pet export agency, so I'm pretty much resigned to having to do the paperwork. I will fill out the request to DEFRA tomorrow and send it off, then phone the Chilean embassy and bed and plead for them to explain to me in very simple terms what I need to do, because I am confused.
Bill's got someone round looking at the 748 just now, and the 750 is on ebay and selling. We'll have to face up to selling the car soon.

26. oh dear.

27 Sleeps

Today we were at our first going away party. At our friends' across the road, two families we have known since nursery days. In fact one of them we met originally at ante-natal classes, but didn't see them again until they moved in across the road. Which was one of the best things that ever happened in this neighborhood.

Off and on all day we have been tidying and packing stuff away - the rental agency is coming to take photos tomorrow.

We had some light relief though, we went to Howdenhall police station for Doors Open Day. The boys got to sit in police cars and fire engines, and even be "locked" in the cell part of a police van. oooh!

Herceptin tomorrow, so at least I'll have a couple of hours when I have no choice but to sit down and relax!

28 Sleeps

hiccup!

either I can't count or we've missed a few... but actually, we've only missed one. I never posted yesterday, but yesterday wouldn't have been 31 sleeps as you might have been expecting, but 29. We've decided that leaving on the Monday just isn't going to work. We have 96 hours to sort out the paperwork for Quirk, and if we end up having to do it ourselves (because we really really can't spend £1,600, we can't afford for 48 of those hours to be wasted on a weekend.

Also, and just as important, we think we'd go nuts siting waiting over that weekend. Or Bill would be here in the house trying to paint or otherwise sort things out, and I'd be trying to entertain the boys, all the while getting more and more wound up by whether I'd accidentally put the passports on a slow boat through the Panama Canal (I assume it will go through the Panama Canal).

So, we're leaving on Saturday 25th, hopefully with Quirk on the same flights as us. 4 weeks from today.

32 Sleeps

you know, in the absence of a proper post, becasue I've been ebaying my socks off for the last hour and I'm tired, I give you this. Where we (and hopefully Quirk, if shipping her doesn't bankrupt us) will be staying for our first 6 weeks in Santiago.

Looks alright, eh?

33 Sleeps

today they boys and I went shoe shopping in the morning - amazingly all three of us got new shoes. and at outlet prices too. i don't know how difficult it will be to get shoes for them in Chile, we've been told that Bill will struggle to get trousers and shoes, so I decided that since both boys have very wide feet and high insteps, i would get them some shoes to keep us going for a while at least. if we are lucky these will do us until Christmas, and we will hopefully being going up to the US then. but we might have no trouble at all with shoes. who knows?

you know, we hardly know anything about this place we're going to live in for the next 5 years. and actually, I'm kinda enjoying the fact...

34 Sleeps

what did we accomplish today toward moving? I'm not sure there was anything. oh, yes, we freecycled my old breastpump and all its bottles and attachments. but even so, it wasn't very big. the recipients very kindly gave us a tin of low caffeine but still proper espresso coffee. that was lovely. we shall try it when the current packet runs out.

was there anything else?

i had my last parent council meeting at preston street. i was very sad, and i burst into tears when they gave me a very (very) big bunch of flowers. there is a photo, i will upload tomorrow.

we have had an unbelievably expensive quote from an agency for shipping Quirk to Santiago. so maybe we'll be doing it all ourselves after all. unless anyone I know wants to go into the pet export business??

35 Sleeps

after a positive visit to the oncologist today, I'm feeling much more positive. i have to get him the address of where to send my referral. and soon...

i phoned a pet export agency today - we've decided that the paperwork is too much like hard work, so we are going to pay someone to do the angst.

Quirk will go into kennels when we start packing up the house, and will follow us out about two days after us. the more I think about it, the happier I am about that. I don't think I would have enjoyed sitting on a plane knowing that my probably miserable cat was within 20 feet of me. it will still worry me, but it might not feel quite so awful...

lots to do. oh yes.

36 sleeps

we have realised that we don't have a lot of time to go and see all those places we've always said we should go to sometime. today it was the turn of the scottish mining museum. it was really worth the visit, we enjoyed it, although there were bits that N found scary. and believe me, when an ex-miner is telling you that, "as you went along you just let the roof fall in behind you" you can get a pretty good picture of the claustrophobia...

Last night Bill and I went out, we tried the "Oriental Fusion" restaurant in the Omni centre, which we've been meaning to for ages... It was ok, service wasn't great, but the food was pretty good, we had some sashimi and sushi to start, then some tempura and some grilled mussels - they were really garlicky, really good, but there were far too many of them, and they were also brought out at the same time as the sushi, so they got cold. they weren't so good cold.

then we went to the conan doyle, and I can't remember what it was called when I first moved here, was it something about picardy place?

then we went for a walk, and laughed at the drunks, and the hen and stag parties...

and today I am tired.

37 Sleeps

we've been birthday shopping today. *that* will maybe be a more interesting process in Chile. buying for the father-in-law, which is hard at the best of times. But the boys have got him a map of Chile, which he can use to follow us round.

we took another huge box to the charity shop. we have to go to different ones each time, or they will probably show us the door. i decided i couldn't face ebaying all the fabric, so I have kept some, and a whole bunch went to the charity shop. I hope people still buy fabric from them. Also a huge bunch of patterns, some of which were vintage. but i'm never going to use them, so they might as well go.

we drove very gently over all the speed bumps...

not quite 38 sleeps

well, I managed that quite well, didn't I? the second day of my supposed posting every day for 39 days, and what happened?

oh well. it was a busy day yesterday. i walked more than i have walked in ages. i was really rather sore by the end of the day, but i'm sure it will have done wonders for my heart function, and with that test coming up on tuesday it needs all the boost it can get.

i had the final of three removal companies round yesterday - this one does pets as well as belongings, so it would be great if they are chosen. i also remembered that we have 4 bicycles, which i had forgotten to mention previously.

in the afternoon N and I went to the nursery school for the leavers' visit, and also the story sack launch. our author this year was Simon Puttock
who I liked a lot. we like his books too. of this year's story sacks, the ones I like best are the Simon Puttock one and the Eco-schools one. must find the pictures.

then in the evening, I listed all the magazines I haven't yet been able to part with on a sewing list... if I get no bites there, I'll have to try elsewhere. might try the destashing comm on ravelry.

39 Sleeps

if i can count, and I believe that I can - it's 39 sleeps until we leave for santiago, all being well. hopefully there will be no drama worthy of a john buchan novel in the meantime, but I'm going to try and post here every day for those 39, because i might want to look back on these days and laugh, someday...

I thought I'd set up a new blog for the purpose, maybe even convince the family to take part?