Month: March 2018

Packing started for real today, our lovely ‘A’ came to help me because we were all working and he has beautifully packed the kitchen and dining room into boxes, sealed and stacked them ready to take to store.  I asked if he had written on them and he replied ‘Yeah, some’.  Unpacking will be interesting!

It’s very distracting going through your belongings, everything is looked at and discussed and everything has a memory.  Do we keep the tea sets from our grandmothers?  We’ve never used them but they’re very pretty.  Oh well I’ll find out whether we kept them when I unpack and find out what was packed in which box.

The dog has been ill  and has been laying on the sofa moaning and groaning convincing everybody he’s terminal for the last few days,  bearded nephew was here with his dog,  we suggested a walk, Sunshine heard the word and made an actual miraculous recovery leaping up and jumping about like a spring lamb – I’ll never believe him again.

We’re going on a picnic tomorrow and it’s been raining for what seems like the last month.  I think I’ll wear my thermals, roll on spring you’re running late!

I feel that at this juncture it is only fair that I explain the reason for writing this journal and the spelling of the title.

When we decided to sell our family home  we had nowhere to go and no clue what we were doing or why, simply an amorphous idea that things could be different.  As time went on proposals were put forward and a plan was formulated, however,  remembering why you made particular decisions is sometimes difficult;  my Darling Dad has dementia and I wish I could remember everything for him but I can’t, so to ensure that I never forget what we are doing and why I thought I’d write it down.

With regard to the title, I wanted to call it a serious midlife crisis but  all the midlife crisis (singular and plural) web names were taken,  so I used a phonetic spelling which only works in the plural, which, considering my motto of;  people only take notice if you get it wrong, seemed entirely appropriate.  Thus appeared a ‘series of midlife crices’.

On a personal note, ten days into spring and I have hay fever…

Decided to tackle the larder today, I like to think that I organise it every six months but in reality some of the stuff at the back had been there since we last decorated.   It is really strange some of the things that we buy, they look like a good idea in the shop but we never know what to do with them when we get them home.  Why did I think I needed  seven different types of paprika?  We are going to have to eat everything in the freezer and all the tins before we go – I’m not sure what I will be cooking with six cans of chickpeas, four cans of black beans, pineapple chunks and some  coconut milk.

As a bit of a bonus I found lots of half empty bottles of alcohol and in the spirit of not wasting anything, (I do like to care for the environment)  I shall do my very best to finish them all over this weekend, I’m pretty sure they’ll all be in date, and since child one left home, not watered down.

 

We were supposed to exchange contracts on the house today but in our inimitable style, after making third time lucky and thing two sign a contract agreeing to leave the property, (child one having gone already) we forgot to sign it ourselves, and, because it is a  bank holiday on Friday  we can’t move for another week. Our solicitor already thought we were totally irresponsible and now he has absolute proof.  Still it gives us few more days to organise ourselves.

In the meantime I have become an expert in vacuum packing things, clothes, blankets, cushions, flamenco dresses and I haven’t seen the cat for a few days…

On a more positive note I booked off next week for moving and now its not happening so I’ll have time to get my legs waxed.

Third time lucky child went to work this morning, his first job for ages.  We were planning a standing salute to wave him off but owing to the change in the hour at the weekend we were still fast asleep when he left at 6.20 am.   I must explain that at 21 we know he should be working but as the third child we had lost interest in nagging and anyway he sits unobtrusively on his computer all day so we forgot he wasn’t earning a living until we decided to move.

Child one and thing two already have jobs so all we have to do is empty their bedrooms while they’re at work, I’m sure they’ve noticed the sold sign and skip outside the house.

I must remember to get the dog a passport.

You know those days when you wake up and it’s that kind of grey miserable weather so very traditional in England?  You have to get up go to work again and you wish that you could be somewhere else, doing something different?  You spend evenings talking over that last bottle of whatever you didn’t use cooking and decide to sell up and go away forever, to somewhere the sun shines and the sky is blue?  Where nobody wants anything from you, where the food grows in the ground or you buy it in a market, where you don’t have commute, where the daily grind is the walk to the beach or catching your own fish for supper?

Well we are going to do it.  We are selling our house, selling a business, handing in our notice kicking out our kids, taking the dog and going.