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We did it, we have sorted, tidied, cleaned, packed or dumped everything we own over the past few weeks and finally, dust free and shiny our house passed into someone else’s hands.

It’s a little bit surreal sitting in the same road we left nearly 18 years ago, our Fairy Godmother lives over the road from our old house and so really we’ve come home!

The next step is to complete on the business, nobody knows when that will be, the paperwork is monstrous and I’m not that patient.

We have a lot of sorting and settling to do but we’ll start tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.

We can be a little bit excited now!

A much better day today, we are almost done, we have filled over 30 bags of rubbish and are on first name terms with the people at the tip!

Lucky has his computer set up but no internet yet and we have some clothes, Sunny is content because he’s being spoiled rotten, I’m slightly peeved at how very quickly he changed allegiance.

We have to complete at midday so it’s an early start to try and get everything out in time.  I’ve stopped crying, being a wimp and am wearing my happy hat again – not a great fit at the moment but by the end of this week it will be perfect.

What an awful day, I didn’t realise it would be so emotional. Lucky and I started the day by handing our cat to his new owners. Well that set the tone for the day, we were so upset.  Trio will be spoiled rotten but it was still very hard because we love him. It went from bad to worse after that, I didn’t know where to start, everywhere was utter chaos and I was in tears.

Luckily an angel popped in, hugged me, organised me and calmed me down.  The house should be empty and shiny by the end of tomorrow.  It’s hard to leave when the garden looks so lush and lovely and I imagine I’ll be just as upset tomorrow.  As was pointed out to me, change is hard even when it is chosen.

We are much cheered now after our Fairy Godmother cuddled us, cooked us a chilli and gave us popcorn with nuts in!

We moved out today, sort of, I think I have my toothbrush and my pants, I’ve definitely got the dog!

Most of the furniture has gone into store but R had the most disgusting job today; about six years ago he filled a freezer up with fish then forgot and switched it off.  The fish defrosted and the smell, oh god it was horrific, he sealed the freezer and ignored it. Well today he had to deal with it, six years of decomposing fish, I was afraid the environmental health people would think we were trying to dispose of a body, it was so disgusting and R was covered,  I feel quite sorry for the people at the tip!  I made him take his clothes off before  he came into the house.

I couldn’t let him touch the beds after that so we called it a day and moved in with our Fairy Godmother!

There is so much dust, so many cobwebs, the house looks naked, the blank spaces where the pictures used to be like so many white bits on a tan. I can’t find the computer and if I could there’s still no WiFi.

This is our last night here and we had to get  the garden chairs in because there’s nothing to sit on, I’ve cleaned the cooker and packed the kitchen (not the coffee machine) so we had to get a take away.

One thing I’m taking from this move is that we have far too many belongings. I think that from now I will do my best to keep only things that are essential. It will take some serious persuasion to encourage the others to do the same though!

 

I bunked off yesterday with the fabulous Lady B, we had a lovely lunch after driving through the downs looking at the bluebells.  She set me on the path to recovery and showed me were to send all the charity bags of clothes I had.  I left the house a complete wreck and she put me back together over a fishcake and a fricassee!

The wifi and the television were switched off today by mistake so Lucky had to come out of his bedroom, it was nice to see him.  I was a little worried that he might burst into flames if he went out in the daytime but he seemed fine  He took Sunny for a walk gave the cat a hot water bottle then spent the rest of the day playing on his phone.

The furniture is going tomorrow and I’ve taken the first of my belongings over to the Fairy G’s house.  Having removed several loads of rubbish the entire procedure is looking slightly more manageable.  I did my last haircut here – quite a memorable one at that, little H had his long golden locks cut and looks like a grown up boy now – turned off the heating and the water and shut the door.  I will miss my little studio more than the house I think.

We haven’t done any proper planning further than next week but I’m pretty sure that it will all fall into place, we have set the ball rolling and I can only hope the hill is not too steep…

 

Sunny got his passport today,  he had a rabies injection and a health check, the poor little man was shaking and when the vet offered him a treat for being a good boy he hid his head under my arm.  He has recovered and is very proud of himself now.

We lost our cat a few weeks ago, it was when it was really snowy and Lucky thought he was dead, we got him back today and he looks awful, it looks like someone shaved him and he was really hungry.   He will have to live in the chicken house until he is better so he can’t run away again!

I have been learning Greek on an app since we made the decision to go to Corfu for longer than a holiday (56 days ago)  and I can now ask quite confidently for a firmer mattress, someone to dance and say dinosaur.  Only slightly more useful than my friend Frankie who went to Germany armed with one phrase: My grandfather’s ear trumpet has been struck by lightening.

I am nearly invisible behind mountains of belongings in various stages of packing, we have charity and recycle bags, tall piles up to my eyes of things for Greece, things for storing, and at least 12 don’t know piles.  This time next week this will be somebody else’s home, I hope they have as ‘interesting’ a time as we have had and they don’t mind that the neighbours have a garage band!

I must remember to redirect the post.

The two a.m. trip to the airport would have been far more manageable had I realised that Stansted was nearly in Cambridge!  We left at 2.30 and got back at 7.30 we drove there in the fantastic thunder storm and back with the dawn, Thing two slept most of the way there and Tinkerbelle slept most of the way back.  He’s safely in a forest in Latvia now learning wood stuff.  I forgot that he hasn’t got a home to come back to and I feel like a dreadful parent but I expect that will wear off.

I’ve emptied his bedroom and packed the stuff he didn’t realise was there and filled loads of bags for recycling, we just have to pack his woodworking tools and he will be sorted.  Lucky did his own room and is superbly organised, ready and back on the computer!

I keep bursting into tears because we are leaving, I want to leave and I am so excited to be doing this but I can’t help feeling emotional when I look around and know that our children are grown and that this chapter is over.  I do know that if we don’t do it now we never will, and anyway we have to go, we’ve signed the contracts!

We have loads of electrical wires and chargers in a box, I have no idea what they are for or what to do with them, is there a home for broken laptops?

I estimate that I have 14 loads of washing and drying before I am ready to go.

Are we supposed to fill in the holes in the walls, will they look worse with polyfilla or holes because we have no time to repaint.

I’m feeling totally overwhelmed right now.  This has been such an emotional roller coaster and today I’m on a downward swoop.  Thing two is off to Latvia tonight leaving his bedroom knee deep in rubbish with no clear definition between the keep and chuck piles.

I went to see my darling Dad and each time I see him the realisation that the person before me used to be that funny, energetic, passionate man, hits me and I nearly break. Dementia is a bastard.

The reckless one has bought all the food for a bbq which was delicious and a fitting way to celebrate our actual last weekend here. Now there’s a massive thunderstorm to clear the air but the boys don’t care they’ll sit in the outdoor kitchen until morning for the last time tonight.

Hope it clears up by two am because tinkerbelle and I are driving thing two to the airport.

Today I took my last exam, I am now super-qualified with a proper piece of paper to say I can work anywhere I like!  It has been almost seven and a half years since I decided to become a hairdresser and I have loved every minute.   I wonder if they need hairdressers in Corfu?

The house is getting steadily emptier which makes it easier to disassociate from it, although this morning when the sun was shining and the blossom had come out, all the birds were singing and the squirrels were running up and down the trees, I looked out of the window and wondered what am I doing?  All my memories are here; the day my Dad walked all the way from his house when it was really hot and got in the paddling pool with all his clothes on.  The birthday when Lucky knocked his wobbly tooth back into his gum and ruined his day.  When the Tringalings made a three act play in the garden.  When thing two set fire to the woods with a home made flame thrower made out of antiperspirant…..

Anyway the sun is out and that makes it summer so we are having a bbq, with pimms, it’s the law.

Just waiting for our Lala to arrive for a last visit with her godparents at this house.