3 weeks and counting...

I'd like to be more prepared than this, but really, I'm not

We had our meeting at RR on Tuesday and finally got told that the secondment paperwork was mostly all sorted and that we are good to go. They wanted us there for the 1st June, but we have put it back a week, primarily because of my eye appointment. So we leave a few days later!

I should be scared and quite frankly worried by the fact that it seems that we have done nothing much to prepare for this move, but it seems that it'll all be taken care of. They asked whether we would like a trip to Berlin next week to go on the scouting tour and see where the shops, doctors, schools, parks etc are and to try and secure an apartment, but there seems no point when we will be moving there just the following week. An odd thing to say perhaps but we have the option of moving into a serviced apartment for 2 weeks and doing the tour and apartment search then.

So the reason for starting this blog has finally arrived and yet now it's here I'm not really allowed to talk about it. The deal is really quite good and I am really happy that a lot of the worry has been taken out of things for us. We'll get a lot of help once we get there, so it should be a pretty smooth transition. Mind you, I always say things like that and of course it's a mess.

So since Tuesday we have arranged medicals, sold the garden swings and toys, read a lot of documentation, each had a sleepless night, sat and watched a whole evening of tv when afterwards we both felt we should have been doing something, had letting agents round to visit, got the car cleaned and ready for sale, and been to Woburn Safari Park.

The trip to Woburn today was great. We took ages getting there because i missed a signpost and we ended up about 20 miles away, and once we got there we had to scoot round as fast as we could so that we could race back for the first letting agent. No hanging around and taking photos from the front seat for us! Especially not as I left the camera in the boot and then couldn't get out of the car to get it in case I got mauled.

But it was great, and we got tickets for £1 each as it was their 40th Anniversary, so I am pleased that we didn't spend £52. The kids weren't too pleased about the whole being in the car thing. they had already sat for 2 hours and it didn't seem like fun sitting in it even with giraffes walking past. So kind and creative parents that we are, once we scooted out of the safari park with no stopping, we headed back on to the M1 and took them to the services and let them have a little stroll round WH Smith. I even let them both touch a Turkish Delight, and then it was back in the car and just back in time.

Tonight I am planning on retiring to my bed to read a folder full of boring Word documents and attempting to put them in some order of critical priority. There are forms which should have been with the removal company 4 weeks ago. Ah well. All this though after I start going through things for anything that we can take to the dump. We chose our container size (1000 cubic ft) and I didn't think till later that that's just 10 ft x 10 ft x 10 ft. Stevie thought it was adequate, but I don't think he knows how much stuff I have stashed in every corner of the house.

Goodbye curtain finials that I never used, goodbye lots of towels and bedding that I would have got rid of eventually, goodbye lots of Stevie's stuff that he'll never notice...