Almost at the end of my tether

 Sue of A Simpler Life made a very good suggestion yesterday - have a day off of all things moving, reset your mind and feel invigorated to re-start the moving madness.  So that's what we're doing today....well, kind of - we're doing just things we want to do today.  We shall be going over to our new home - and it certainly does feel like our new home now, every time we go there.  We'll be taking a few more things - including the Christmas tree....I've decided we will be having that up, even if we don't put up anything else.  On the way to the new place, there's a bakery which sells lovely filled rolls and hot things, so we'll pick up something for lunch (saves me making sandwiches).  Whilst I'm not enjoying the process of packing and emptying this place, I am really enjoying unpacking over there, with every bit making it our new forever home.  Oh, and it will be our forever home.....we have a year's introductory tenancy, at the end of which we are, provided we haven't shown ourselves to be tenants/neighbours from hell(!!), granted a lifetime tenancy.  Which is immensely reassuring.

I certainly need a day free from stress - BT have cocked up yet again.  (For overseas readers, BT is British Telecom, our landline phone and internet providers).  11 or 12 days ago, we, well husband, rang them (getting through to them on the phone is a challenge in itself) and arranged the changeover from this house to the new place.  When he came off the phone he said that it was a trainee young lady (my heart immediately sank at this) who didn't seem too sure about some things and kept having to go and check with her supervisor.  However, he said it was all arranged, they would be sending us a new SmartHub through the post and a supervisor would be ringing us within a couple of days to check that everything was ok.  Well, neither thing happened - no SmartHub delivery and no phone call.  So husband rang them back yesterday, putting it on loudspeaker so I could hear (he did it at a very inconvenient time though, just as I was getting lunch prior to him having to take Betty to the vet).  It transpired, after several minutes of being put on hold, that the order hadn't gone through, it appears the trainee hadn't completed it.  So a new order had to be put through yesterday and it now seems we will be without landline or internet services for 3 days after we move in - all due to their incompetence.  I am furious but am trying to ignore that problem and focus on other things - it's yet more hassle and I am just TOO BUSY to cope with any more.  I am looking at it with the view that 3 days without internet or landline phone will actually enable us to get settled in properly, without interruptions.  It's a bloody nuisance that our mobiles have little or no signal there, but I guess we can always get in the car and drive a short distance if we really need to use the phone.  Oh and just to reinforce their incompetence even further....in the summing-up email I received from BT yesterday evening, they've made a(nother) mistake in the products in our package deal, so that means yet another phone call to them to put it right.  I despair.

We went to the farm office yesterday to pay our final rent, still having heard nothing from the landlord.  I'd decided to stay in the car - just in case I felt the urge to give him a piece of my mind....we still want our deposit back, after all!  As it happened, the landlord was just coming out of one of the barns as we drove in, so he saw us and came over.  When husband got out of the car, the landlord grumpily said we'd chosen to move right in the middle of one of his busiest periods!....it was just as well I stayed in the car as I'd have been sorely tempted to tell him we were moving at our convenience, not his, and in any case he has an accounts clerk to sort out his office stuff!  He also said he'd have settled up with us once our final December rent standing order went through.....which was just as I suspected, he was hoping to get the entire month's rent from us, hence why he'd kept quiet and didn't reply to my emails!  Just as well I cancelled it then, and paid in cash the amount I'd calculated we owe until the date we move out, as I'm sure we'd have had a bit of a fight on our hands to get back the overpayment.  Although we've enjoyed our years here and made some good friends, we're glad to be moving out to what is increasingly seeming like the perfect home, with lovely neighbours and support from what the neighbours say is a fantastic caring housing association.  Incidentally, our deposit is held in a legally protected deposit accounts scheme and the landlord's (very nice) office clerk has assured us she will do everything in her power to ensure we get the deposit back by the end of December at the very latest.

I am just so tired of everything being a problem or a hassle - I wish I could click my fingers, go to sleep and wake up on the 14th December, the day after we've moved in.  Last night I just cried.

I do feel more positive today though, despite having woken up ridiculously early again.