The beaver is a proud and noble animal

Click on the picture to see a bigger one.
You'll see just how close the new flat is to work.

Things are finally settling down for the house. I've contacted the agent and we'll be allowed to install a Sky dish provided we take it down and plug up the connection holes if the landlord doesn't want it there after we leave. Normally, we'd be asked to give a bigger deposit but since we've already done so because we want a cat, that's ok.

To date, I've already :

• contacted BT to get a new phone line
• scheduled the Sky installation
• updated my insurance policy
• informed Cambridge City Council (for tax)
• informed Cambridge water

I still need to :

• inform Natwest
• inform National Geographic
• setup a mail forward from Royal Mail
• update my mail forward from Canada Post
• inform IG, Caisse Populaire, McGill, Solutions Bancaires

We get the keys to the property on the 1st of march, and as soon as that happens, we're going to start prepping and painting. If all goes well, we're moving on the 4th of March. Next weekend will see us going to Leicester and Ikea, where we are scheduled to buy about £1000's worth of furniture. Yay, Ikea!

Here's hoping everything goes well between now and then.

The Katygirl and I have started packing boxes for our impending move. We're meeting the agent on tuesday to get the last paperwork that needs to be done for the house in Hinxton. Apparently, it's owned by the Wellcome Trust (who also own the campus where the EBI and the Sanger Center sit on), so they're happy that campus people will be renting the house. We're one final credit check before signing the last of the contract. Things are progressing in a positive direction and barring any unforseen trouble, we should be able to get the keys for March 1st. After that, it's a question of doing some cleaning and painting and we're set to move.

As part of the packing process, we've been putting stuff aside to go back to Leicester and to go to a charity shop. We're already up to 2 boxes of charity stuff, mostly old clothing and bedding that hasn't been used in forever. We're also starting to take stuff off the walls. The place is looking a bit barren now. We even packed away the fridge magnets, which turned out to be more of a chore than expected. I don't know what's wrong with that fridge, but damnit, some of the magnet backs had melted and bonded to the fridge door. I mean, WTF?

On a completely unrelated note, the landlords have paid a visit to our upstairs neighbours. We both would have loved to be little bugs on the walls for that meeting :) I know it's bad karma, but still. We noticed coming back from town yesterday that they've nailed stuff to the walls, which is a serious no-no here. I wonder what sort of hell will break loose. In the meantime, they're still well on their way to drive us nuts. Katy thinks they're taking the mickey, because nobody needs to walk or talk that loudly. Buttmonkeys.

I've make bagels this weekend, as well as a shrimp and chicken curry, and I'm making another maple syrup glazed ham tonight. The usual :)