Sigh of relief

The move went well - very well.
Miraculously the "Please don't park here on Monday morning" signs we borrowed from the council actually had the desired effect, and weren't nicked by students.
The men arrived on time and packed really quickly. Thankfully none of them expired due to the high altitude (3rd floor flat) though we did make lots of cups of tea.
We arrived at the new house just as the other people were leaving, so we didn't need to worry about the keys, and the removals truck turned up within another 5 minutes.

We were worried for a while as the gap meant for the washing machine appeared to be a crucial couple of millimetres less than the width of the machine, but after some pushing and shoving it went in eventually.

It still hasn't sunk in. We were in the town today, exploring, and we remarked to eacj other that it felt more like we were on holiday at someone else's house, but with lots of our stuff. I guess it'll feel more like home when we get to the stage of being out at work and then come home.

Comedy Timing

I booked an appointment with the Dentist's today.
It's for 2.30 !

(well, it made me laugh)

Google Earth

It's great for procrastination and time wasting, as long as you have a beefy net connection :
(of course, these references only count for as long as the images don't get updated.

head to Dallas Fort Worth Airport, and look at the westernmost runway

(32 53 21, -97 03 17)

now either it was very busy that day, with identical types of plane, or the satellite actually tracked some planes taking off.

just start with that plane on the runway at the reference above, and go directly north, there'a another one half way along the runway.

Then check the next door runway to the east - the same plane type seen at
32 05 04, -97 03 01 (shadow at 32 55 12, -97 03 15) is also at
32 55 02, -97 03 01 (shadow at 32 55 57, -97 03 20)
32 56 23, -97 03 01 (shadow at 32 56 46, -97 03 25)
then further shadows (but no plane) at
32 57 37, -97 03 29 and 32 58 34, -97 03 36

there's another guy on runway 32C, on the Eastern side of the airport.

bits and bobs

well, less than a week to go.
Thankfully, we're paying the removal company to do our packing, so things aren't as manic as you might expect, though there are still lots of bitty things to be done before we move.

last night I finally got round to sanding the corner off the front of a kitche door, so it doesn't bang against the handle of the new oven we put in about 2 months ago.

There is still no news about the conservatory in the new house, and we're still concerned about making sure there is space outside the flat (in a narrow, one-way street) for the removal vans to park. "no parking" notices tend to be ignored, and cones seem to miraculously either disappear, or get turned into goalposts in the park nearby

That shrinking feeling

We went to see what will be our new house last night, so we could measure up for things like furniture and curtains.

As expected, it looked a lot smaller than we remembered, but when measuring we discovered that there won;t be enough "under counter" space to fit a dishwasher, and we'll have to get a skinnier Fridge than the one we were thinking of getting. It's a good job we didn't go mad in the january sales.

The good news is that things are progressing well with the conservatory problem, which we discovered had been becuase hte council had told our vendors the same thing on 3 different occasions, only to tell them something else the 4th time. If the correct information had been given the first time, everything would have been sorted by now. *rolls eyes*

Happy New Year 2

New Year was more fun.
Traditionally a group of friends have gathered for a few days over New Year. It becomes more important as various members of the Group move away from Edinburgh, and the group gets bigger as people in the group get married (to "oustiders" !!) and/or have babies.....
This year, as last year, we were in Arbroath, in Hospitalfield House (shown) for a few days of eating, drinking, celebrating, walking, praying, playing, chatting and generally being together.
I didn't manage to win the late night Hogmany Poker Session, losing all my chips at around 3.30 am, but at least I wasn't 1 of the 3 people who lost everything but were able to come back in with some of the "left-overs". I also avoided joining in the game of "Axis and Allies" that seemed to span across a full day and a half....

so now it's "back to work", and back to moving house.
We've had 2 sets of removal people in do do quotes, neither of which were particularly impressed by us being 3 flights up on a narrow 1-way street. We sign off on selling the flat tomorrow (hopefully). There is still a bit of a holdup with the conservatory in the new house, but that shoudl be fixed soon.

Happy New Year ?

Happy New Year to All !

my apologies for not blogging more frequently recently, I swing from thinking I should blog everything that happens, to thinking that nothing is important enough to be worth blogging but at the same time not so important to keep private.

Christmas for me was strange. One of my aunts died on the 20th, and the funeral was early on Christmas Eve. Lots of smiles as well as tears as we remembered her.
Then K and I drove down to her folks for Christmas. It was the first time that I've had Christmas without any of my immediate family there.
Doc and Prof (as I will call my 'in laws') always invite other people, usually international students for Christmas lunch, so we enjoyed the company of 2 Chinese girls and a Turkish guy, which turned out to be good fun and very educational for us all.
The downside was that this meant that present opening didn't happen until the guests had gone at about half 5 !
This was made even worse by K not liking the clothes I bought for her. Ah well, she can pick something else she actually likes, and I'll add the relevant details to my "never buy K a....." file. :)