Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)

foxgloves

Ditto me! Had never heard of 'Pocket Dragons', had to look them up & can honestly say I don't think I have ever seen one before! @EssexHebridean - You do know I just live in the garden shed with a box over my head, don't you?! Sounds like your packing is cracking on apace & it must all be getting really exciting now.
F

milann

I too had to research pocket dragons. They’d passed me by too. As had some little ghosts that people were queuing around the block for in The Shambles in York…..I didn’t quite get it….the queue was so long staff had to manage the queue 😵‍💫

badmemory

I didn't know what they were either.  It turns out I took some to the charity shop last week.

Blackcats

when we helped my daughter move last year, the removal firm wouldn't take the tv's.  Worth checking if yours will.  We kept back a duvet and wrapped tv in that and transported it in the back of our car.
I hope you have a good weekend 

beanielou

milann said:

I too had to research pocket dragons. They’d passed me by too. As had some little ghosts that people were queuing around the block for in The Shambles in York…..I didn’t quite get it….the queue was so long staff had to manage the queue 😵‍💫

Blimey.  I must live on another planet as I have no clue.

EssexHebridean

Boodedoo said:

De-lurking temprarily

We have moved a LOT in the last 51 years (18 addresses spanning not only the UK but other continents too.) 
I would strongly recommend a box that goes with you that contains bedding, duvet, pillows and nightwear (if worn) and make your bed up as soon as the removal guys drop it in place - while you still have lots of energy.
Doesn't matter if the rest of the room is a tip as long as at the end of a long, exciting but exhausting day when you have utterly run out of steam you can just climb into a freshly made bed and zonk out :-)

This is SUCH a good tip! We're planning a "grab bag" which will have our washbags, stuff for overnight, clothes for the following day, and anything else we might want to know exactly where we can lay hands on it come the end of moving day, and yep, bedding is also going into that too! The suggestion to prioritise the actual making of the bed I shall definitely add to the list - that's a brilliant one.

Thanks to everyone else for stopping by as well - love the split between people who knew about the Pocket Dragons and people who didn't! I got given a couple as presents a lot of years ago - so I have some of the very early ones when they were a subtly different shape - and then they just got added to. They went through a brief spate of being VERY collectable a few years ago - and I debated selling them then, but decided against, and to be honest I've never regretted the decision. One used to sit on my desk when I was in a spectacularly toxic job some years ago and could always make me smile even when in reality I was closer to just sitting there in tears!  They're been through multiple house moves with me already, and I will actually rather enjoying dusting each one before wrapping, then getting them out at the other end ready to go in place. 

Moving stuff:
MrBoss is back from holiday today so he will be looking at our files today and hopefully telling us that he can see no reason why we can't exchange just as soon as our buyer is back in the UK and has transferred her deposit to her solicitor. We're aiming for a moving date of 1st September which seems that it ought to be achievable - get those fingers crossed again please! Once I have that confirmation from MrBoss that all being well he thinks that is achieveable I'll ask the removal co to pencil us in pending confirmation once we have exchanged. I've been beginning to mentally plan where certain things need to go in the kitchen now - one of the things I will really miss is my "grid" - essentially a metal rack that currently holds all our most commonly used utensils. It was a wedding present and has been used pretty much constantly ever since - so well over 20 years - and it will seem very odd not to have everything hanging up like that. I'm still vaguely hoping it might be possible to find a space for it but sadly I can't quite think where! So I've earmarked a drawer which will take utensils, worked out where the tea & coffee making stuff will go (that pretty much defines itself as there is a neat little section of worktop off to one side which the sellers currently use for that very purpose - it will easily take the kettle, coffee machine and coffer grinder.) Also identified homes for cutlery, pots and pans, and baking trays/roasting tins etc. Need to start a proper list of all the storage type stuff I want to buy where we don't already have things that will do the job...I've never had enough kitchen storage space in the past to merit use of such things - it's always been about just fitting things in where they will go so a choice and the ability to organise things so they're easy to access for example is all new to me! 
Also started a list on the Big River site of lots of odds and ends I want to remember where I found them - I'll want a worktop saver for under the coffee machine & grinder for example (MrEH is prone to spilling and not wiping up!), and various other things. I've also decided that there will be a few purchases made to make cleaning easier and quicker - a steam mop as the new house has a LOT of hard floors of various types, and a few other bits. 

MSE Stuff:
- I took the decision over the weekend to fully cancel the accommodation I had booked for next weekend's Eastbourne Airshow - so should have the remainder of that money coming back to me. Working out actually getting it to the right place is a little trickier as the refunds are going to the CC so I'll need to balance off against money from elsewhere - it's all doable though. 
- Grocery spending over the weekend was done between Lil's, and T's, with a small extra cleaning stuff spend at Bee-n-Emm yesterday too. Total spend was £40.82. Qualified for the free bakery item at Lil's next week so will be extracting max value from that in the shape of a sourdough, and my scratch card gave me a £1 off halloumi voucher so I'll be making the maximum use of that too I suspect. 
- MrEH's car insurance has been charged this morning, mine will probably be tomorrow. 
- MrEH popped out yesterday afternoon to fuel up his car - we opted for filling it up as prices seem to be on the increase. Wasn't totally empty though so £45 spent.

Other than that it was a nice chilled weekend - a few boxes packed utilising those we had. (The removal company ones are hopefully arriving tomorrow) Some packing stuff gathered together so we know where that is. a bit of sorting out in the garage, and some packed boxes moved out there. Plenty of recharging of batteries after a busy few weeks. 

Food is roughly planned out for the week - we had a macaroni cheese bake with black pudding chunks and chorizo Yesterday - that was delicious. I also batch cooked spicy ragu - made 4 double portions and 1 single so one double one is out for use, the remainder have gone into the freezer. That used the remains of the bottle of chipotle sauce I mentioned last week - the one we got free from the GFS years ago! While digging through the freezer I found the wild garlic pesto I knew I'd made earlier in the year and had been unable to find too so that was a win. Tonight will almost certainly be the ragu with a tin of beans thrown in and served with rice. Tomorrow is going to be the usual tuesday couscous salad - almost certainly with halloumi. I've got some ham in the freezer that I will probably take out to use in omelettes for wednesday (with cheese and mushrooms too) and then might well do risotto on Thursday with cooked sausages from the freezer, some of the pesto stirred through and whatever mushrooms are left in the punnet. 

Happy Monday all - here's to a good week! 

Cheery_Daff

Exciting to see it all getting closer! Love that you're planning exactly where things will go in the kitchen. When we moved, so many things went wrong with the process that after an initial flush of enthusiasm, I refused to believe it would happen at all until exchange - and consequently had 9 days to buy a second car and figure out what on earth we were going to do with several acres of fields 😂😂

RelievedSheff

Not long until the move now. How exciting.

Can only echo the excellent advice about prioritising getting the bed sorted first. We have always done this and always appreciated on that first day in the new house at the end of a long day.

jwil

How exciting, not long to go at all!

PennysIntoPounds

Fingers crossed for you!
My other tip would be research where the nearest chippie and decent pub is in case all you want/can cope with is a pint and some calories before crashing out 😁