Had pancakes for breakfast, managed to build all of the bookshelves and emptied out a few more boxes. At this rate, we should be ready for Katy’s parents’ visit in two weeks.
Tag: slice of life
What we’ve been up to in our holidays :)
We’ve been living at Katy’s parents since early June, when we moved out of the house. It’s been “sold” for almost a month, but the buyer’s solicitors have been singularly incompetent, or rather untimely. Apparently, all the paperwork is ready but their solicitor is on holiday, and the replacement person has only been there for 2 days out of 7 and apparently there’s nobody in their secretarial pool to type up the report that the buyers need to get. Oy. If we’re lucky, we can exchange contracts tomorrow and then complete next week. If we’re lucky.
In the meantime, I’ve bought myself a new camera and I’ve been playing with it quite enthusiastically :D
Things we’ve done so far:
1. held a birthday party for Ben’s rabbit
2. Visited the Abbey pumping station
3. Spent the day at Skegness (finally, after 8 years of hearing about it!)
4. Generally tried to keep the Bean and the dog happy
All in all, we’re knackered :)
All pictures and more here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/leicester_jun_2013
Well, that’s that.
I’ve sorted through 8 years of desk clutter, sifted through a mountain of files and said goodbye to everyone. We picked up Bean’s last things from nursery and… that’s it. No more campus. The movers have emptied the house. The pets and the child are in Leicester. The walls are bare, and if you’ve ever seen our home, that’s saying a lot! It’s no longer our home. It’s just a nice house with lots of good memories. I’ve had my last driving lesson and my last guitar lesson. We had to cancel Liz because Katy was under the weather, so we weren’t able to say a proper goodbye to the evil PT woman. It’s getting more and more real – we’re moving on to the next adventure. I’m a bit shell shocked right now. I’m going to miss my friends and colleagues, and very much so the comfort of the familiar. The little things, like chatting to Dave the butcher, getting a sausage from Sausage Lady and Sunday lunch at Scottsdales. I’m hoping we’ll find new friends, favourite shops and little gems to visit. It’s going to be part of the process. It’s something I’m looking forward to, but I’ll admit to being a bit scared about it as well…
End of an era
It’s Bean’s last day at nursery today and his favouritest bus driver in the whole wide world juggled the rota to be sure that he’d be the one driving this morning. That’s just… fantabulous :) He’s really made an impression on everybody. Sally, his nursery key worker, was all choked up when he gave her a box of chocolates (and then proceeded to tell her off because she had to share them with everybody!)
I love my Bean.
Last chance to feed the fishies
We went to Scottsdales yesterday, for what will probably be the last time in a very long time. We had a nice lunch. I had a moment with the parrots, and then Bean fed the koi. They have some new really big ones and now there’s one that Bean named “Red Charlie” to replace the original Charlie, who now lives somewhere in a pub garden pond.
Good times, indeed.
Blast from the past
I just rummaged through all the pictures on my phone and posted the good ones. It mostly covers what’s happened in the last 2 years or so, but manages to capture the essence of what we’ve been up to:
– lots of pictures of Bean on the bus to/from campus
– pictures of the animals
– trips to Scottsdales, Palmers, Wimpole, Audley End, the beach
– BBQs with friends and family
– just random stuff
All pictures here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/random_phone_pictures_2013/
Things are moving waaaay too fast
Jaysus, my head is spinning! We have approved quotes for removals, and we’ve contacted estate agents and solicitors for the house sale. The property isn’t even officially on the market yet and the agents have contacted us about a lady wanting to view the property this weekend!
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
The dirty part is over now
Our house was originally built with electric storage heating. Along the way, one of the owners had it converted to gas central heating. The cowboy builder that did the work was more than useless. None of the pipes were lagged or clamped, and the floors were put down willy nilly so the whole of the upstairs was one giant, creaking jigsaw puzzle that would clang and bang like hell every time the heating came on. We finally decided to get that sorted.
This meant that all of the floors needed to come up, which was a pig of a job and had to be done in two steps. We had to break down all the furniture in Bean’s room and the guest bedroom, then get those rooms rebuild and re-carpeted. Then, after rebuilding all the furniture, we had to do the same thing to our bedroom and get that done, and then re-carpet the halls, stairs and landing as well.
While we were getting that done, Katy, Bean and Poley had to go to Leicester because we’d have builders coming and going all the time. It’s been hell on Katy, with all the driving and child/dog wrangling (all the while being ill). The good news is that it’s all done now, and the house is plush and quiet.
The Bean on the Bus goes “Jingle Bells!!!”
Bean was a happy boy on the bus this morning. Not only was his favourite bus driver back on the route, but his favourite person (John Overington) was on the bus as well!
The new facts of life for the snowflake generation
Bill Gates once gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2: The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters.. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.