New Arrival

We have a new arrival in the village. After a departure of 17 years, we helped to move Mum closer to us today. She'll now be within an easy walk from our house which is great. The girls are already talking about cycling over to Nan's house some time soon.

The day started with the arrival of the removals company at Mum's then current bungalow in Ardleigh (see extra photo) early in the morning. They'd already visited to pack most of the belongings the day before, so today was  about moving those packed boxes and larger items of furniture. The men didn't seem to be in a rush to get going: I think they were on their third break when news arrived confirming that the sale was complete at around 10:30. Just as we were leaving, at around noon, the new owners arrived, which saved the bother of exchanging keys and locking up for the final time.

My sister and her friend were on hand to help with the move into the new bungalow. They cleaned, emptied boxes and arranged belongings, whilst I re-arranged the kitchen, helped empty even more boxes and re-assembled furniture, directing the removals men as we went.

The most stressful part of the move was the task of reconnecting a phone line to the house. Fortunately for us, that particular difficulty was in the hands of the BT engineer who maintained a professional manner throughout, but his frustration towards the end of the afternoon was beginning to tell. Its fair to say that it was one of those jobs which should've been straightforward and therefore was doomed to go wrong at every step. Thankfully, he prevailed through failures in the existing cables, a lack of space in the available junction box and cars parked in the way of hoisting cables (with the minimum of help from me).

By evening time, we all relaxed with a takeaway and a glass or two. Tomorrow, back to work...