Month: May 2007

We’re in the new place, surrounded by boxes. The phone’s still not connected (hopefully this will happen on Thursday or Friday via a new phone number), the computer’s still in bits and we will have no broadband till next week at the earliest 🙁 . I can’t see why it takes BT 2 weeks to set up a new phone service over existing cables to an existing customer (via a reseller, but even so it’s not rocket science) and then an extra week to put broadband over the top. Sorry Marcus (and Michelle) – it’s not your fault, but I can’t see how it’s more than a bit of keyboard bashing by an engineer who doesn’t have to leave an office given that it’s all computerised these days. Fortunately for me I have access at work :).

My father in law came down to help us move which was much appreciated. Unlike last time he helped us move he didn’t have to help pull phone cables across the road, but did do much bed dismantling / mantling and after much struggle and a new angle grinder 🙂 we got the climbing frame into pieces small enough to get onto the lorry. (Don’t worry – the only things destroyed were the rusted up nuts and bolts holding the bits together, plus some skin off our knuckles.)

The removals people were quick and thorough and made the people we used for the previous move look like amateurs. The only gripes are that they have labelled boxes in a sometimes random way (2 books plus a lot of other things in the same box -> labelled “books”) and dumped more than we had hoped in a big pile in the extension rather than in the kitchen etc.

We’ve managed to get the kitchen and another room box free, and also managed to keep the Kentwell stuff from being buried so that we could go to the 3 line whip open day on Saturday to have costumes inspected. Katy and the children all pass muster – I have nothing apart from the correct material to make my livery :(. Father in law helped here too with the loan of bowls, shoes etc. which will make life less stressful.

I’m sure that there’s loads more I could / should say but that’s it for now. Oh, there are photos on Flickr, including K and L looking cute and Tudor.

We’re moving next week. The spare bed is now dismantled, some things are packed but there’s still a lot to do. Fortunately we’re being packed as well as moved, but a lot of sorting and throwing out beforehand will make life easier before and after moving. We used to have two climbing frames (yes) – one is now in the garden of K’s namesake and other is in smaller pieces than before. Dad helped me drill out the nuts and bolts as they were too rusted to budge. He also dismantled the Wendy house in the rain that he built for the children, so it can come with us. Mum’s given the gardens a thorough haircut and tidy. As they sat down for too long in their lightning visit they also had to read stories and play chess and Top Trumps.

On top of that we’re busy worrying about costumes and other paraphernalia for Kentwell. Oh, and deadlines at work and visiting customers from Germany and colleagues from America the week after the move.

What else have we been doing? Katy has discovered some more games – Addemup, Blooming Gardens and Fowl Words (it has some weirdness in its dictionary, but it’s still worth a go). L’s been stung by a wasp, but cuddles and Anthisan made it better.

We bought A a Tummy Tub (glorified bucket for bathing people her size) and err… everyone helped to give her a bath. She survived! Afterwards L created a game of repeatedly throwing a little balloon into it from about 4 feet away. The tub opening is about 1 foot and she scored surprisingly often. J discovered its use as hat.

I’ve helped my children’s education by introducing them to Ivor the Engine. I watched the video for the first time, and it was a little bubble of contentment. A was asleep on me, and the others curled up next to me on the sofa watching utterly brilliant, magical, gentle stories about steam engines and dragons and choirs, where people use bach as a term of endearment and say bore da to each other.

We had a lovely surprise visit from the full set of Frabjous people who bought us chips for tea and so can come again.

I was walking along with L this morning and, out of the blue, she said the following. I’m trying hard to remember it correctly.

L:	People go into buildings in the morning and go up in lifts. They go up to get stars for their tea.
Me:	silence while I try to get my head round this and also see if it’s going somewhere
L:	People don’t like freshly-baked stars
Me:	Because they’re too hot? They have to let them cool down?
L:	Yes

This evening I popped to the corner shop (a Co-op) and then voted. In the space of half an hour or so there were quite a few interesting things:

• The end of one of the aisles, from floor to ceiling, was full of Polish goods. There are three aisles, plus stuff on the walls, so that’s quite a large amount of shelf space. Also, it’s not Halal, or German or even kosher – it’s Polish. I spoke to one of the cashiers and it’s permanent and not just a promotion because it sells well. There are quite a few Poles, Lithuanians and so on in the area, and it’s nice that the Co-op are making money out of them, I mean making them feel at home 🙂
• Near the voting station (the Scout Hut), there was a 20 foot deep hole in the ground and the sound of rushing water. The hole was so deep that it needed metal reinforcements up the sides to stop it caving in. Tops the Porticos’ little pot hole. 🙂
• At the voting station I was introduced to Grays Vote Compactor. It wasn’t something from Star Wars, but was a piece of plastic a couple of inches wide and two feet long, like a big ruler. It was nicely rounded and even though I wasn’t properly trained I was allowed to test it for weight and balance. Because the ballot box is sealed and the only slot is tiny, the election officials can’t stick their hands in to squash the ballot papers down, so they have a specialist bit of kit to do it. No dodgy machines or hanging chads, but proper bits of paper scribbled on with a pencil stuffed into a big metal box by an over-sized ruler. Makes you proud to be British.