Home Sweet Home

Hello have you missed me?


Well I am finally settling nicely into my new home with the kids. Its not all gone smoothly but we are here and feeling very much happier.


In the end I had to upgrade to a 7.5 tonne lorry and drive it myself!! This was initially scary but was quite good fun on the motorway. I had a great loading crew in Hastings and in fact got away earlier than expected. The journey was pretty awful due to the worst traffic for a long time on the M25 meaning I reached my parents' house after midnight. My kids were so pleased to find mummy had appeared during the night...


It felt really strange getting keys to the empty house on the Saturday. There was still the smell of fresh paint as they had touched up all the walls etc. My lovely landlady and her parents had left me house warming presents including a bird feeding table, wine and biscuits. Being in a house that wasn't cluttered or in need of a string of unfinished DIY to be completed felt heavenly.


My unloading crew of aunt, uncle, cousin plus his lady made short work of unloading the furniture and re-assembling them. The empty house was soon looking like a home as beds, chests of drawers, ladderax and book case all came in. My aunt had a the job of unpacking all my books and that made me smile as some had been languishing in boxes for 7 years!


The kitchen proved to be a minor problem as the storage is much less than my previous one. Half of the crockery and glassware had to be packed back up and taken back to my parents. On the Sunday night we emptied the remaining boxes into my parents' garage so that the lorry could go south on the Monday.


My dad accompanied me back down and helped to move the remaining wanted items to the ground floor. We eventually got my allegedly fixed car from garage, loaded it up and headed north on the Tuesday lunch time. 


We were finally able to move in on the Wednesday and since then have been getting ourselves sorted and finding our feet in a new town. We have also sneaked in a long medieval weekend down south combined with a transit van to get the last of our possessions from Hastings!


The kids and I are starting to make new friends through our new church and with the neighbours in our close. Most of the neighbours are young families so we fit in quite well. Being able to cycle out the front and draw in chalk on the road is really appealing to the kids.


I probably won't get the house finally sorted until the kids are both at their new schools but we are able to have room to play, cook and relax. The amount of paperwork involved in moving house when in the midst of a divorce and on benefits is horrendous but hopefully its all nearly done.


Looking forward to our new lives up here in a lovely house close to my family and making a fresh start for us all.


Sorry for lack of photos but laptop failure means I'm still not fully back to speed ;-)