Driving in the snow

Reader, when I left you last time I was about to set off on an intrepid adventure through the snow... I'd fed the tired and grouchy children and was hoping they would all go to sleep...

One out of three wasn't bad.  The other two bickered happily as I set off up the motorway toward Glasgow.  It was really very snowy, and the motorway was down to two lanes, but I found a speed I found safe at, which seemed popular with other sane people too, and all was well.

Kenny had advised me to go a different way to normal, and I had set up the satnav on my 'phone accordingly, but then, in Glasgow, my phone happily chirped 'GPS lost', and started drawing circles on grids. The traffic was awful, and the children were properly fighting, and the littlest one had woken up to tell them to shut up, and I was joining in too, and we still had the Tall Ships CD on track 1 because the little one likes it, and then, I saw a familiar sign, and I followed it.  Oops.

The trees looked like this!  Although the sky didn't.  This pic is from here

It wasn't too bad.  It was incredibly beautiful.  I could just about see where I was going. The trees weren't like Christmas card snowy trees; they looked to have been blanketed in cotton wool.  Some numpty overtook me, and then was stuck in front of me for a long time, probably unaware that the children were hurling abuse at him (which seemed fair).  We briefly got up to 15 miles per hour.  The numpty turned off to go to a golf course (can you even play golf in the snow?), and the children started hurling abuse at each other instead, so I threw chocolate at them, and got a bit shouty.  Anyway, the road got better and we got up to 30, and the children were very fed up that it was taking so long to get anywhere. And then, down we came, closer to the sea, and we drove out of the snow, and into the green.  It was like walking through a door.

Next time I'll tell you about getting into the new house... Promise.

Leaving rainy town

Just a partial update I'm afraid - more will follow.

The children and I spent Friday morning finishing off packing up the house (me), cleaning (me), and watching inordinate amounts of TV (the children).  We were all tired, emotionally wrung out, and wishing that the whole thing was just done and dusted... which may have made for a little more ahem, grumpiness than usual in our household... but packing is very very boring, and saying goodbye to friends does totally suck, and I completely agree with the children on that.  

One little problem.  Snow has come to rainy town!  I mean, obviously we have had snow before, in fact, there was snow on the ground the day before, and to  give it its due I have never known snow to hold rainy town back.  They know the value of grit (as do its residents, which is why it's always running out), so I wasn't particularly worried about getting out of rainy town.  I was worried about getting past Glasgow!  Kenny had called to say I shouldn't bother coming over because it was snowing too hard, and I could come the next day, but at that point I'd virtually finished packing all their belongings, so they had nothing to do but stare at the television (even their sledges were packed).  I'd also cleaned everything so they were getting their heads bitten off if they so much as looked at something with sticky fingers.  We had to get out.  

Goodbye no1, we'll miss you

I checked the roads.  It looked bad, but not too bad.  Was my journey strictly necessary?  Yes.  Yes it was.  But first we went out for farewell lunch at Arietes, where we saw some friends, unexpectedly, and shared brown sauce satchets.  It was gorgeous.  I hoped that food in their tummies, and a poor night's sleep would send my little darlings straight off to the land of nod.  I'll tell you all about the journey next time.

We gone got a house!

Just a quick update to let you know that while I have spent the entire day (apart from a delicious tea and chat at a friends house - thank you Lisa and David) hobbling about, packing, and cleaning, in a desperate rush to get all this done so we can get out of here tomorrow (that's just me and the weans, so the men can get on with the fetching and carrying)... The very lovely Kenny McKee has been in seaside town buying school uniform (I hate school uniform, don't you?), and picking up this little beauty!

He's also been for a look around the house, before our stuff arrives to mess it up.

Here's the kitchen... you'll have to wait for other rooms!

Meanwhile, to give you an update on my ankle.  It's still sore, but a lot better than yesterday and I finally have some bruising (in lots of wierd places).  It's still swollen too, but I can move all my toes now.  Thanks everyone for your concern and your help.

Down to earth with an ouch!

I have been packing like a packing demon, and we are all incredibly excited about the impending move.  Today our money left our bank and went to our solicitor (who wanted more, naturally, so we gave her more).  I have more empty cupboards, I've had a lovely goodbye coffee with lots of friends, and even got hugs off the owner of the cafe (the little girl is REALLY going to miss going there to see all the animals), I've taken down the curtains and lampshades, rolled up (some) rugs, and it is all coming together.  Feeling good about things, and then this little chap popped by to join us for lunch.

We often see him (I'm guessing it's a him, I might be wrong) at lunchtime, and the little girl loves to watch the bird while she's avoiding eating any vegetables.  I have been trying to get a photo of him for AGES, so was very pleased he consented today!  

After lunch we went to the tip where the nice man (such a nice man, with an awesome amount of statistical data about the sheer quantities of rain in rainy town) helped me put stuff we're not taking with us, that's of no use to anyone else, into skips, and then the little girl had her nap, and I got lots of admin and packing done, and was all in a rush to go get the big kids from school, carrying a waking little girl to the car, when she arched backwards, which she does often when she's waking up, but this time, I lost my footing on the steps in front of the house and I fell.  

I don't know what happened in the intervening period but I did ensure I put her down as slowly as possible, but face first, on the snow, and I ended up lying on my back on the snow.  I couldn't quite reach her, but she was lying on the snow, which, as I was doing it too, seemed a bad plan.  It was cold, and it was melting.  So I barked at her to sit up, which she did.  I don't know what I did to my ankle, but it was hurting A LOT, so I was trying to figure out how best to move, and how to help the little girl, and if I was going to be able to drive, and what would happen about all the rest of the packing, so it seemed the best idea to continue lying in the snow, and get the little girl over for a cuddle.  She came.  She was worried about me.  She tried to hoik me up.  I sat up.  It hurt my ankle.  I had to stand up, and there was going to be nothing dignified about it.  She wanted to help me, but I was in too much pain to do that.  So I stood up.  It hurt a lot.  I hobbled over and locked up, and then got the little girl in the car.  I didn't seem to be able to move my toes properly, but the best thing to do was go to school.  A friend went by in her car and gave a cheery wave.  I waved back.  So I went to school.  It hurt.  A lot.

At school the little girl was worried about me, so she wanted to get carried.  I carried her and went to wait for the other kids.  I was in lots of pain, and I was so worried about how I was going to get everything done.  I cried outside of school.  That's not the worst bit, though (although that was excrutiating).  People saw, and people were nice to me.  So I cried more.  I didn't want to.  Urgh.  

Anyway, one of the other Mums, who is a nurse in A&E, was called over to inspect me.  She had to help me get my sock on and off, which was embarrasing, and painful (although not as painful as it was when I was trying to do it).  She prescribed frozen peas and sofa time and regular standing up.  Thank goodness.  So, I sat on a sofa, while my kids sat on a different one (to make sure they DON'T TOUCH THE FOOT), and we watched a terrible film, while they ate biscuits (easier to reach than the fruit below apparently).  I did make them a proper tea as well, but they were all magnificent.  The boy changed rubbish bags, and did lots of carrying, the big girl got everything organised so everyone had their own space and all homework would be dealt with (mainly by me 'saying, no, we won't bother doing that, we'll be gone before its due'), and the little girl drove everyone potty.

I'm hoping that taking to my bed will give me a near-full recovery come morning, and I can finish getting everything packed tomorrow.  Anticipate radio silence.

Thank you to all my friends for coming out this morning, and looking after me this afternoon.  I'm really going to miss you.

I think we're making progress!

Hello all, apologies for sporadic postings but I'm sure you understand how busy I am, what with packing, and lots of annoying admin!  Yesterday I had to drive into our local big town to sort out lots of bits and bobs, and didn't have much time for massive quantities of laundry (washing machine is now unplugged), packing, and generally stressing.  I was very lucky to have a friend who offered to feed the children (and me - delicious cauliflower cheese soup), which gave us all a much needed break, and one less job to do.  Thanks Gillian!  Hopefully we can return the favour when she and her son come and visit us in seaside town.  I know my boy will miss hers horribly, they are both funny, bouncy, smart, gaming, longish haired little stars.

The great news is, it feels like all this work is finally paying off.  We have lots of cupboards that are mostly empty, but as of yesterday we have our first emptied cupboard!  And we have a lot of packed boxes!

Today I'm starting off with a load of change of address letters, while watching Julia Donaldson cartoons with the little girl, and then we're going to pack up the kids rooms.  Bring it on!

I'm also putting together a cleaning kit which will be the last thing to leave the old house, and an essentials kit which will be the first thing into the new house.  So far, in the essentials kit I've got: 

• Toilet roll
• Towels
• Soap
• Washing up liquid, and 
• Coffee

What else should I put in there?  Any handy hints?

Yet more admin

Yesterday was spent in a hungover blur of packing, and today I have been busy on the computer, trying to change address, redirect mail, and generally have a technological nightmare.

This is my world at the moment, and I'm not over keen, although I must focus on the good stuff that's around the corner.

I've discovered that one of the reasons I'm having trouble is that my new address is not on the Royal Mail's PAF (the who's who of addresses) as yet.  This means I can't set up a redirect, or get lots of companies to believe that the house exists.  Sigh.

So I have taken up the baton and emailed Royal Mail to let them know the address needs adding.  They wanted to know which houses it was next to, and I haven't a clue if it's sequential or evens/odds, and which way it goes anyway.  Normally I'd try to work it out from Google Street View (another one of my favourite things on t'internet), but we're not on it yet (I've told them we're there too).  Our street isn't even on Google Maps yet.  This is an incredibly new house!  I'm feeling a bit nervous about it.

Apart from the house I'm in (which is about five years old, and is what converted us to modern houses) I've only ever lived in older houses, so I've never had all that 'settling' and whatever else goes on in brand new houses. I'm more used to old house problems, like terrible insulation, crumbling plaster, and holes in the roof!  So, what have I got to look forward to?  What should I look out for?  Is the NHBC 10 year thing a bit like a warranty on a washing machine - i.e. you can expect the thing to break the day after it runs out?  Tell me your tales of new houses... and I'll get some packing done.

Go!

Kenny got a call this morning and we will be moving next Friday!  So we've been going mad, packing stuff, arranging things, and being VERY EXCITED!  I can't believe we've only got a week left with our friends in rainy town (which isn't rainy at all at the moment, but has been sunny since lots of snow settled on Saturday, more snow forecast tonight!).  I wish we could take them with us.

I also can't believe it's only going to be a week until we live in seaside town!  It looks rather small in the picture above, which I've taken from Ayrshire Bed and Breakfast Association's website, but it's the biggest town I will have lived in for a long long time!  It's got a train station!  And a swimming pool!  And shops!  And ice cream!

I've run out of parcel tape, and while Kenny's out getting more (and getting the children) I thought I'd give you a quick update.  A week is a bit mad, but I'm sure we'll do fine!  EXCITED!