Moved

Nearly 6 months ago I posted that we were moving, well that was when we had the offer on the flat (appartment) we have had some major hiccups on the way but finally yesterday the contracts were exchanged (for those not familiar with the UK process, the two parties solicitors have to be entirely happy with everything before they will exchange contracts and when the contracts are exchanged the "completion" date is set - date for money an keys to exchange hands). The buyer had previously given his notice for the place that he was living in September believing the contracts had exchanged and was expecting to move October 21st - I informed him five days before that, that contracts had not yet exchanged and he'd better stay with kind friends for a while. The buyers solicitor continued to come with a number of new things each week or so, seemingly unable to think ahead or read the information sent to him/her.

Finally the estate agent said that the buyer was expecting to exchange contracts by mid-November and complete the 2nd December. Then I heard that the buyer had handed in his notice (again) and needed to move this weekend.

Last Sunday a number of wonderful friends came and helped us move our furniture and most belongings into storage as we have not yet found a suitable (read affordable) place to live and would not be able to sign for any contract till we had exchanged contracts on our flat in case the buyer dropped out at the last minute and we were left paying a rent and a mortgage!

So yesterday after we had exchanged contracts we immediately completed (their solicitor had baffled ours once more by transferring the money but not informing them or asking to exchange and complete!)

Some very kind friends are hosting us until we find somewhere to live, it's far from an ideal situation however we have a safe warm place to stay with understanding people who genuinely care for us.

As you can immagine the past week has been hectic with clearing out the last things and cleaning the flat etc. But we are very happy that everything is now finished finally!

Norwegian Massacre

I am struggling to find words to express how I feel about the massacre in Norway. Being half Norwegian, I have been raised with a respect for peaceful politics and a strong belief in government, the royal family and the people being ONE people despite having differing opinions. An attack such as the one of Friday suggests there are Norwegians who have such unbelievably different views. Such a tragedy.

News

On Friday, we waved goodbye to PLB's "best friend" - the other little boy that lived in our building, they have moved to another area that is some distance away. It was a sad time as I realised that there are unlikely to be any other children in the near future in our building with only studio and 1 bedded flats.

The next evening I picked up a voicemail from our estate agent saying that we had an offer on the flat, so I called yesterday morning and had to turn the offer down as it was too low, a few hours the agent came back with a higher (final) offer that was our absolute minimum so I accepted - Yippee we're moving!

We don't know where we're moving to yet and my head is spinning with all the jobs to do before we move out but we are so happy to know that soon we will live somewhere a little bigger and we will not have a mortgage or be indebted to anyone any more.

Osama Bin Laden

I very rarely blog anything remotely political but I just can't avoid it this time, - Osama Bin Laden is dead and already buried at sea - sounds fishy to me (sorry I couldn't avoid that pun). So he will never stand trial for his alleged crimes (I say alleged as we are supposed to be Innocent till proven guilty), no one will risk having his identity challenged. If I have found the right Abbottabad, that is about 1,500km to the sea, obviously by helicopter I assume to the nearest American base to be identified then off to the nearest ship? Any way I guess the cause of all the current terrorism is now dead so we are all safe and will never need to worry about Islamic Extremists again right?!?! Or as a senior US official warned "the possibility of revenge attacks had now created "a heightened threat to the homeland and to US citizens and facilities abroad".

Neighbours

In the end of November/beginning of December I started to realise that I have taken for granted how pleasantly quiet our neighbours have always been. I have only once in 5 years until that point been disturbed by neighbours noise (a party in the flat opposite they didn't turn the music down till 10 PAST 10pm! - not that it was extreme but it was loud enough for me to hear well inside my flat). Then anew couple moved in next door at the end of November and I RNG had to BANG on their door on New Years eve (yes I know it was New Years Eve and it was Friday but it was 11pm and shaking our living room 3 rooms away from the neighbouring wall plus our baby was asleep), they didn't have the guts to open the door but the music did get turned down. One day some time later the music was so loud that I took PLB (as protection), wrapped in a blanket with his teddy and dummy (pacifier) and knocked on the door, the woman opened and was very apologetic "I'll tell him" - I didn't even need to explain obviously. Then yesterday I was just about to put PLB down for a nap and the music was extreme again so I got PLB again - I didn't bother with the blanket this time, and knocked, then I banged, then I BANGED then I BANGED so hard that the door flew open and the woman was just near the door looking startled, the dog pounded out. Next time, though I hope there will not be a next time, I have decided that if a reasonably loud knock is not enough I will call the police as I don't want to be accused of breaking and entering or anything.

The same new residents argue VERY loudly regularly - our bathroom neighbours with their flat and I sometimes find it necessary to sing to PLB so that he doesn't hear the offensive words that one cannot help hearing (especially since he copies anything that he hears). One time the two of them spent an hour arguing in the communal entrance hall despite people coming and going even a mother with a little 2 year old wasn't enough to embarrass them into retreat into their own flat.

The sooner we are able to move to a quieter place the better.

On another note, our computer has got MAJOR problems and I am nervous that it will completely die soon. One problem that seems to have occurred is that my RSS feeds have not been updating so today I finally (after about 2 weeks) got suspicious and went onto some of my favourite blogs and discovered loads of posts so I will need to find time to catch up when I can and delete and re-do my rss feeds I think.

Reply

Remember the letter that I sent to my local health visitors? Well a couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from the head of the local health visiting team (the letter had been passed around all the health visitors then on to her), to thank me for being in touch and to say that she had check out what I had said in my letter and it was all correct, and as of that day the phrase suggesting that a child should be drinking 500ml of cows milk per day was going to be removed from the 1 year review!

The manager said something to the effect that "these things are put in there but until they have been tried and tested we don't know if they are any good" - my paraphrasing. Umm... I will refrain from further comment on that matter!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone.

I generally do not make new years resolutions firstly because I believe that if I am going to make a major (or minor) change and have decided firmly on it then I can start on whatever day I have decided and not wait for some specific date. I also try not to allow myself to get over-whelmed with trying to be perfect, I could probably think of one hundred things that I want to change/do differently/do better etc. Instead I prayerfully try to change the most glaring/most important things first and once again as soon as I have decided in my heart to change something then I will try to do so.

I do however like most people I think try to reflect over the past year and determine to do better this year. There is something about the new year and a fresh calendar that gets us thinking about all the things that we need to change.

I was very happy this year to have finished catching up on things after RNG and PLB had been sick - both are fine now and I didn't catch it - thank you all for your kind wishes.

When the sun set this past Friday, all the washing and ironing had been done and put away, the flat was tidy and comfortably clean (not spotless but clean enough to be comfortable in), and the food was almost all ready. I was therefore able to start the year on the right foot.

I have made a few decisions that are along the lines of some kind of new years resolution:

I have signed myself up (at the encouragement of Cassandra) for reading the Bible in 90 days, - starting today.

Well all you Christian's out there that have ever decided to set aside any portion of your day to read or study the Bible will know that regardless of the time of the day something(s) will happen that will disrupt your plans. For me, I set the alarm at 5am - I wanted to get up before 6 as if the alarm goes off around or after 6 PLB wakes up and wont go back to sleep (remember he doesn't have his own room as we only have one room -bedroom/living room/dining room/study all-in-one). So at 4.40am PLB woke up and didn't get back to sleep till 5.40! But that left me with 45 minutes before he woke up again at 6.25am which was time for me to get up anyway. I managed to get about half way through the reading by that point (I am a slow reader). Later in the day I managed to do the rest of the reading during PLB's two naps - along with the 3 items of ironing from yesterday's laundry and some tidying up and other odd jobs. I have been trying for 2-3 months to get up earlier to have my devotional in the morning before starting my day, however PLB seems to be very light sensitive in the morning and turning the light on wakes him, - thankfully that is not so in the evening.

I have also decided to try one new bread recipe per month (starting yesterday with flour tortillas) and one or two other new recipes per month.

In addition I have decided to do my best to reduce our electricity bill and general bills (phone/Internet/food etc.) this year too.