Movin on up

Well, here it is .... At long last...The day I have waited so long to arrive.  All is packed.  I just have to shove my duvet into a teeny little bag and shrink my pillows and deal with a load of big things that were too difficult to pack such as the kids.

I did not sleep well. I woke at repeated intervals throughout the night.  At 3am I tried to book a limo from Toronto Airport. Not as bonkers as it sounds as I am actually going to Toronto.  Then I watched a really crappy tv prog then I counted boxes to get me to sleep.  Dawn is now rising over Roehampton and I realise this is the last time I will see the church spire from my bedroom window.  Ben was christened in that church.  Actually it is obliterated by a tree that must have grown a great deal this year as the other trees have been cut down.

I just got a scary message on my phone about reading the meters. Thank God they reminded me.
I must remember to get a Happy New Home card for the new people.  They kindly sent me one.
And now to Kent to live happily ever after.

What a mess

Oh dear, I still seem to have masses of clutter despite packing non stop all day.  Ben produced a lovely girlfriend and between them they packed up all the paintings.  Hooray.  Still twenty tons more crap to go.  Tomorrow will be non stop all day til the small hours then a few hours sleep before the removals vans arrive at the crack of dawn.  I am stupidly over tired and mt boys are pretty damned useless.  They have suddenly developed wondrous social lives having been right Billy no mates for months on end.

I am going to have a long soak in the bath and then pack up my bathroom.

Oh what a night

What a wonderful party.  We had about 60 people and when we had had enough of them it rained so they all went home or stayed for dinner.  It worked out really well.

Although I didn't drink I had a monster hangover.  How did that happen? Maybe just über tiredness.

Moooooving

I must pack the cow.  I must pack everything.  Packing is on hold for now as we have to prepare for our party.  I am excited.  A party.  Zipperdy do dah.  I must iron the bunting and buy a crisp.  I had my hair done in anticipation - streaks but I can't see any streaks.

My boys have not bought themselves a house so, much to our horror, they are coming to live with us.  The whole point was to move house and get rid of them.  I suppose they can have the top flat.  I was wondering what to do with it.

I am dreading our move.  Not because I don't want to leave here but because Mr Smith will be away and I want him to help.  He isn't actually all that helpful.  I wish he would deal with his stuff rather than leave it for me.  I wish he wasn't going to America.  I feel exhausted.  What I need is a nice party  to cheer me up!

Yorkshire pudding

We went to Yorkshire for the weekend to annoy my mother in law and steal her furniture.  Most successful.  We also acquired two elegant high backed wooden chairs from an antique shop and bought a carpet at auction.

I was catering prefect over the weekend and decided we would have healthy pud in the form of peaches and strawberries but then there was a request for meringues and cream with the strawberries on Saturday then crumble on Sunday.  So we had gorgeously fattening delicious puddings and I had four helpings of peach and strawberry crumble which was just gorgeous.  I took myself for an enormously long walk in the evening to try and combat my vast lunch.  Oh it was good.  But the calories!

And now boys and girls the great big pack will take place.  Actually, it can't really because we have two weeks yet before we leave and we are having a party next week.  I will finish my lame little change of address card and get it printed.  Then unless I want to hold a Quilting Bee at Terminal 5 I have to finish Lauren's wedding quilt.

Arty cardy

I was trying to paint a picture of Mulberry House to use as a change of address card but it is taking ages so I decided to make a little collage out of fabric.  The first hazard is all my fabrics and sewing kit are packed up somewhere amongst the mountain of boxes.   I used what I had lying around but it really isn't very good.  I want to find a few flowery fabrics to make the garden and mulberry tree.  I was hoping if I made it quite large when I photographed it there would be a fabulously detailed brilliant little picture but it hasn't quite worked like that.  Maybe I will go back to the painting.

Off to Yorkshire today to annoy my mother in law. We will shop in Barnsley and maybe look at some antiques in Rotherham on the way.  The reason for our visit is to see what furniture we can steal from mother in law.  We need a dining table and chairs and anything else we think she doesn't really need.

I want to restore our house to something a bit more 18th century.  It is a dreadful mish mash of modern horror with hideous light fittings, awful B&Q wallpapers, ghastly curtains and terrible finishes.  We need a plasterer and a carpenter; the electrician we can provide.  It is handy having a son with a skill; maybe I should have had more.

Panic over

Oh thank you God for best friends and worst enemies.

Marvellous Marian rang because her telephone wasn't working and she needed to try to her new one so picked me to call. I told her of my predicament trying to find a house sitter and she came up with a name.  My worst enemy at college, Lynda B.  I didn't dislike Lynda B but we just came from very different backgrounds.  In fact I was bowled over by her intelligence despite lack of education.  She had travelled around the world as a stowaway, done a building course, got pregnant, raised a son on her own, tried to form reconciliation with her dreadful drunk mother and found God.  She is actually very nice, very reliable and sensible and comes at this from the right angle.  She wants a seaside holiday and I want a house sitter.  Perfect.  I couldn't leave my house in more capable hands.

And now I can sleep.

Pop Up House

The John Soane Museum has to be my favourite museum in London.  It is so lovely in every respect.  Whole walls open to reveal other rooms and the Rake's Progress lives behind the Election which folds back like a giant tryptych but better. It is most Alice and quite delicious.  The Rake wants to make my new house like this with many a pretend bookcase revealing secret rooms.  I like it as it is.

Final demands

The house sitter demanded train fares for the whole of Britain, food allowance, a bicycle, tv in her room and £250 a week. I just ignored her. Then I told her to go poke it.  I don't think she sounds a bit nice.  I want this, I want that.  No way Jose.  So it looks as though all our things are going to be stolen while we pay a small fortune for doggie to reside at kennels.  Today, I will try to get onto the agency.

And now, dear reader, I have got our house into an almighty muddle.  Mr Smith is being difficult and refusing to pack so much as a sock and the digusting smell of cardboard boxes is driving me bananas.
I am doing quite well but it is still all such a mess. I am tempted to fill all the shelves and cupboards again.

My weight is dropping.  But then I eat enough to keep a fly alive so that's hardly surprising.  We have a party in two weeks.  Maybe I could be thin for it?  A bit ambitious I know; ok then just a bit less fat.  My very skinniest friend is coming.   She is even skinnier than the Lovely Claudia.  I call her Callista.

Today culture is planned for Smiths.  We are going to the John Soane Museum at Lincolns Inn to look at the Hogarths.  I will take the rake with me.  I wonder if Mr Smith might like to join us. Oh no, he is going for his curry club lunch.  Open all the windows.

Flying carpet

We bought a carpet for our new house.  It is lovely.  We also bought a sofa.  It is absolutely gorgeous - duck egg blue and very very squidgy.  Oh happy me.  8 weeks til delivery.  This is my sofa for my room with my things and my library and my dog....not on my new sofa.

I am having extreme difficulty finding a house sitter.  The one I am now in negotiation with charges enormous money and wants train fares, food allowance and a bicycle.  Rather demanding! I don't mind paying her train fare from her house to mine but I am not paying for her to travel from her present job to her house then from there to me. That is asking too much.  I think I am going to turn her down.

I am having a weekend of no packing but I am not enjoying it because 1. We have stupid cardboard boxes everywhere but they are all the wrong size and 2. Mr Smith is here with a clipboard.  Go away.

Housey housey

Mr Smith is taking me shopping.  Don't get excited, it will be for a vegetable and some bog paper.  We are not allowed any new things.  We'll see about that as there is a carpet shop I am particularly keen on.  We will need carpets for our boards.

I am still looking for a house sitter whilst we frolic around Canada for a week.  The big fat Canadian wedding is the main feature.  I cannot tell you how much I do not want to go.  I want to move into my lovely new house and enjoy it.  Anyway, in the meantime I have to sift through the good, bad and homeless.  I am being a bit racist because I think a black person might have a hard time in our seaside town.  I don't want to inflict that on anyone.

Now to read tales of woe to Mr Smith about awful house sitters who help themselves to the booze and invite all their mates round.  There must be heaps.