Movin' Out...

Since the last post, there's been more charity, more dump, thought I'd spare you the details!

In the words of Billy Joel, we're "movin' out" and we're starting today...

A final leaving party...

Having accumulated so much wine at our official leaving party, we've had to have a couple more to get rid of it... A "don't bring a bottle" party if you will... This time our neighbours in Glendor Road. In order of upload! Peter...



Lisa, Esme's mom...


Rob...


Stuart, Esme's dad...


Hilary, Kathrine and Sue...

Goodbye Esme...

Ellie's best from Glendor Road and from school... One and the same, Esme Blacklaw-Taylor...
Also here tonight, Esme's sister, Sophie and brother Hugo...

More goodbyes for Ellie...

This time it's Mia and Joseph on a cold windy day at the Lagoon park in Hove...

Circus, circus...

Ellie's last date with her boyfriend Edward at Zippo's circus on Hove lawns...

Same old, same old...

Dump and charity shops! The only added excitement came from doing it in the lashing rain today! The only real problem seems to be that the piles of stuff are not getting any smaller.

In an effort to see as many friends as possible, each day is broken into pieces! Apart from the packing, the days are given over to seeing that Ellie fits in the maximum number of "playdates" possible, and the evenings are carefully divided between friends in an effort to see as many as possible!

On Monday this week, my teaching "mentor", Andy came round for dinner and did his bit for the Glendor Road wine lake. Over the last 12 months he has helped sharpen (as if it were needed) my cynicism and sarcasm and introduced me to more retro-80s style music that I can cope with!

Last night it was Gary's turn and a highly mediocre two hours of snooker occasionally touched by rather fortuitous brilliance.

Tonight, it's MC's turn with her leaving meal from work. She's just walked in, so now we are both jobless, in one week, we'll be homeless too! All good fun.

He can stand...

Caught on film for the first time today doing his new balancing act is Thomas. It's getting very exciting now - sure he'll be walking and covered in bruises within the week. Now he's crying in bed, so I'll be off...


Villa lost to Manchester United today which was to be expected.
At least Birmingham City (the blue and much less successful half of Birmingham) faired even worse losing to the blue (and much less successful) half of Manchester, LOL.

It's my birthday...

36 today, hurrah! I got a pair of Oakley square wires with blue glass which are rather fetching and a cool football cake, Ellie made me a lovely card with shiny stuff on it and we're spending the weekend with my parents in Birmingham before returning to Hove and the packing tomorrow.

Gonna build a Henge...

Whenever I think of Stonehenge, I think of Eddie Izzard's Dressed to Kill video, there's a transcript of it here. Search for Stonehenge and read on. What on earth's a henge is the crux of it all and, of course, no one knows. Still after the abomination of our journey to and around Southampton I thought it was a jolly impressive pile of rocks. By the way just found out my reading glasses are indeed still in Southampton, but the nice people at Robinson's International (who are supremely professional if you ever need to emigrate) are posting them to me. So without furhter ado, here's the henge:

What a day, a reminder of a reason for leaving...

Took the MG to the removals warehouse today - approximately a 65 mile drive. The first 29 miles took me 80 minutes. An average speed of just over 21 miles per hour, ridiculous. Bring me the empty roads of Canada please! When I finally got to Southampton, I discovered that road signs are just something that happen in other places... The most help I saw simply said "The WEST". Obviously I got well and truly lost and am just very tired tonight! Bed!

Oh and I left my reading glasses at home (visiting Mom and Dad in B'ham), or potentially even worse - left them in the MG, LOL. Not a great day all in all, apart from the two hours we spent at Stonehenge, that was good, pics tomorrow for that.

M'baby is leaving tomorrow...

The first member of the family is leaving tomorrow... Here she is... She was our first (and possibly most expensive and petulant) child to date - and still can be. Even so, she's going on the boat on her own...

Another goodbye...

Everyday we are starting to say goodbye to our friends in the UK, this is us with Anna and Tim. Anna is Ellie's Godmother and now they have their own bundle of trouble coming in March 06 - what better news to leave with! Congratulations to them, what great parents they will be.

I do at least have a "document" signed by both of them committing to come to Canada to visit!

It's not easy on nights like tonight, but none of us blubbed, but that's because we'll see them again possibly b4 we go. Tim manfully worked his way through a whole bottle wine by himself (which is a requrement at the moment for all visting friends as the export taxes are absurd). Anna has obviously resorted to extreme measures to avoid the current (enforced) "getting it down" regulations and has chosen to spend £300k over the next 18 years (source BBC Online) - an extreme policy, well, I love her anyway.


Tim also helped with a couple of glasses of Polish Vodka - I managed to slip the bottle into her bag before they left!


Hohum.

Good news...

I let my house today, so the mortgage is now going to be covered for the next nine months.

Also my equity release is done, so I'll actually be able to afford to go!

This is where we're going...

Nova Scotia, described as cross between Cornwall and Scotland, sound perfect. We'll see in three weeks time - if everything is on schedule, we will be boarding the plane!

Shrinking to do list...

My to do list is shrinking a bit now...

1. The movers are paid for (painful!), definitely coming on 30th/31st August.
2. The plane tickets, hotel, car are booked, definitely leaving on 5th September.
3. All the important paperwork is in order.
4. We have a canadian bank account.
5. Most of the electrical stuff is sold or spoken for.
6. Most of the rubbish has gone to the dump or the charity shops.

Things are coming together now and with 3 weeks to go, we are possibly a little ahead of the game! Still way too much to do though.

I have an evening off at Komedia (Brighton's live comedy club) today, potentially the first time I'll be saying goodbye to some friends.

READ IT: "Every Dead Thing" and all subsequent John Connolly books. Well written, original and exciting.
DON'T READ IT: "The Da Vinci Code", badly written, transparently designed to be made into a film, ridiculous "super villain". Just one of the worst books I've read in ages.

Family Decorating...

Finished decorating the kitchen now - so thats about 4 rooms in three evenings and a morning... All the family were keen to help out when the ladder came out.


Our boiler broke this week too, a nice £500 bill before leaving! It should be white, clean and dry in the middle rather than black/brown, dirty and wet.

Busy, busy...

Countless trips to the dump and charity shops (run by extras from Little Britain or League of Gentlemen I think) this week have seen the house become increasing empty.

Having decided to let our house now instead of selling it, I realised on Wednesday afternoon that some DIY was required - now all the pictures and mirrors are down the holes are patched and in a remarkable fit of energy we have repainted the lounge, dining room, kitchen, hall and landing. Pretty good effort for two days IMO. So it's starting to be de-personalised but it looks very rentable.

I lost my COPR form this week - just about the most important piece of immigration paperwork imaginable - this about an hour after booking our one way tickets. About an hour later after much panic, cursing and calls to the Canada Embassy I found it exactly where I put it in order to keep it safe until the big day. Putting things in safe places (and forgetting them) is something I do frequently. Actually, just forgetting stuff is something I very good at...

On a different matter, I have just enjoyed (dare I say "yet") another day of bliss courtesy of the English cricket team. I'm almost ready to believe we might just do something special this summer. Still lets not count any chickens with the good English weather looming over Old Trafford...

Bedtime I think - need to finish the kitchen in the morning before play resumes at 10:30!

20% Off...

Having reconsidered our timescales we have decided to leave for Canada a week earlier. This gives us extra time to find somewhere to live and get ready for our containers to arrive... It also means we have 20% less time to complete all the stuff we need to here before going... Hmm...

Four weeks tomorrow we'll be on the plane.

Teddy Bear Pain...

The most difficult job so far was faced this evening - sitting Ellie down with her 100 Teddy Bears (so she's accumulated 25 a year since birth!) and explaining to her that not all of them would be making the trip. The blow was softened somewhat by us find space for all of her toys.

So there they are - well, Kenny was mine still - we nearly halved the number in the end and the lucky ones have been vacuum packed and prepared for their "cruise" to Canada. All of Ellie's friends in the street have now received a new cuddly toy to remember her by, these I toy are the lucky runners up. Tomorrow Hove's charity shops will bulge for the first time.

Emigrating will be just like going on holiday with the children - just on a bigger scale. A big container will arrive (instead of a suitcase) and Ellie and Thomas' toys, clothes and other bits and pieces will be packed in. Then there will remain a small corner into which Marie-Claude and I can pack our lives... Lives, I hasten to add, that have been going on significantly longer than the kids!

Currently Watching: Sky Sports Ashes Highlights (of course), will I ever get tired of this! A two run victory series level.
Not making the trip: The Bob the Builder Doll rucksack, he's going to a new home over the road with Sam!

Shredding our lives away...

After a day in the loft, now it's a morning of destroying the evidence of our lives! Shredded are the payslips, credit card bills, receipts etc. We are generating bags of waste paper and boxes of recycling. The charity shop trips will start on Monday as I have abandoned further forays to car boot sales.

Back in the loft now as the cricket is not quite progressing as planned!

Currently listening to: The Killers, Somebody told me
Staying in the UK: (sadly) The Young Ones: Oil, Boring and Flood, just to much hassle to play it on a US VCR

What I'm leaving behind... (The Gift of Time, part II)

I was once again granted the dreaded "Gift of Time" again this morning but rather than lounge around with the TV, I grabbed my camera and wandered off to the beach... These were taken about half an hour ago...

Done for the day...

What a mess - the house now looks as follows...
Coming with us...

The Landing

The Loft

More Loft

Office

And this stuff won't be coming! The ratio is all wrong (ok I'm a maths teacher!)

Yet more loft...
A smaller pile...

Currently watching: A Bear's Tail and the That Peter Kay Thing
Most definitely not on the boat - these must be bad, the only four CDs I'd rather throw in the bin than write on a customs form:

Lofty...

So I've been in my loft all day, in spite of England semi-achieving against the Aussies... I have catalogued over 200 CDs and 200 books for my B4 forms (no this is not completely necessary, but is very useful for potential claims). Sitting here running through my mind are the following:

1. Still haven't sorted out an off shore account - Nationwide seem to have the best deal
2. Still haven't freed remaining money from my company accounts
3. No word on Canadian bank accounts
4. What will I do with my house? No one interested in buying it - need to rent it "toute suite"
5. Hmm, so I need a change in my mortgate agreement if that is going to happen!
6. My containers leave the UK on about 5th September...
7. And will arrive in Halifax on about 3rd October...
8. During this time I have to leave the UK, fly to Canada, buy a (big) vehicle, get to Halifax and find some where to live or incur a further $1k shipping storage charge.
9. Should I take "mould and mildew" insurance - NO!
10. There should not be a 10 until next week!

So now to the wardrobes... Let's see how much crap clothing I can chuck out. It's a very cleansing and pleasing experience.

Really it's not that chaotic - but it does seem that way!

Listening to: The Darkness - Growing on me
Definitely not making the trip: Savage Garden CD

The gift of time...

After four years (with Ellie) and 13 months (with Thomas) I have now been trained to wake up at 6:19AM every day - even when they are still asleep. Yes, I have been granted the gift of time by my children. How thoughtful of them, I can enjoy a cup of tea, breakfast news and a walk on the beach before the sane part of the world get out of bed.

Still - when they reach their teenage years and start sleeping for England (or possibly Canada!) I will start hoovering at 6:19AM...

Here we go...

This is the family...

Me (Mark)

MC (Marie-Claude)

Ellie

Thomas

So, just over a month until we move to Canada. The movers are booked, the house is ready to be let. time to start sifting through all of our junk and catalogue the bits we're taking with us...

Currently watching: Monty Python: The Holy Grail
Definitely not coming to Canada: Eagle Eye Cherry CD (apparently "Album" is very last millenium)!