YES!!

 We've got it!  More tomorrow x

To be absolutely clear....

 I just need to make something clear about the bungalow viewing, as it may have been a bit ambiguous so far and I don't want to inadvertently give anyone the wrong idea.  We haven't actually been offered the bungalow - what we've been offered is a VIEWING.  It does mean we're the Housing Association's first choice to be offered the letting, but nothing is set in stone until we've seen it, indicated we'd like to have it, and then the Housing Association will conduct some background checks on us and get in touch with our current landlords for a reference.  Only then (assuming that all is well, and I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be) will we actually be offered the letting.  The H/A do these checks as they obviously don't want problem tenants, understandably.

Yesterday we cleared the small bedroom/my craft room of the accumulated junk, and packed away most of my craft stuff, it now looks like a proper bedroom again.  My small craft desk, which husband extended for me a couple of years back with some pine at the back and one side, may or may not be going with us if we move.  Like a lot of things, it depends on the available space - I won't have a dedicated craft room, but there may be room for it in my bedroom - it's painted white and could easily pass for/be used as a dressing table.

Today Betty is going to the groomer, and we're going to take a car load of stuff to the tip.  We're going to buy a new kettle to take to the new place, if we get it - as our intention will be to go there a few times a week before we actually move in, taking odd bits of furniture, boxes to unpack and curtains etc, we'll need to make coffees!  We have a spare fridge in the utility room, we'll take that too, along with crockery and cutlery - fortunately, I've got spares.  We'll also probably take a spare toaster and the air fryer.  But I'm getting ahead of myself again....we haven't got the place yet!  We are both getting quite excited now, and it's good to make plans.  Even though husband keeps coming up with ideas, and I have to bite my tongue and not say "Yes, we already discussed that yesterday".  I have noticed the past few days his short term memory has suddenly become a lot worse, which I guess is down to his brain currently being just as full of stuff as mine is.  I'm just glad he's as enthusiastic about this possible move as I am.

And I am enthusiastic about it - which has surprised me somewhat.  The location isn't ideal - it's in the opposite direction from where we'd prefer to be (nearer the caravan, it will add about 30 mins to our journey there).  Which is no big deal really.  And we'll still have to drive to get to the shops or GP, but the shops are nearer than here, the GP is a similar distance I think, and there's a small hospital fairly close too.  But it's a nice area, a village rather than a town, population around 850 and not heavily built up, and we both think it will suit our needs, now and in the future, very well.

Not panicking....yet

 I did a bit more sorting out upstairs yesterday - husband was having a tired day and went to bed, which was fine, I could get on with sorting without his questions every 5 minutes.  He's got no idea what we should keep or not, even if it's fairly obvious - well, obvious to me anyway - so I get asked all the time, which tends to slow things down a bit.  I'm going to finish sorting the small bedroom/crafting room this morning - I shall be packing all my crafting things away, realistically I'm not going to be doing any crafting of any kind this side of Christmas - I'll be too busy!  So I won't be making Christmas cards this year, if we send any they'll be bought ones....although I think I may have a few handmade leftover ones from last year.  With the price of postage going up and up, I'll soon be stopping sending any by post anyway.  Speaking of which, the postal service round here is atrocious, has been for months, we're lucky to get a delivery a couple of times a week.  Shortage of staff in the sorting office apparently, but they've been saying that practically all of this year.

For the next few weeks, we'll be eating out of the freezer every day - it's nearly full, what with doing a freezer shop a couple of weeks back and all the batch cooking and freezing I've done recently.  Obviously, we had no idea we might possibly be moving house so soon, and we can't move with a full freezer, so I must plan on eating up as much of the contents as possible.  I've got some fresh veggies to be used today, then it'll be all frozen veg from Monday onwards - there's loads in the freezer, along with all husband's meat and my fishy or veggie things.  So my shopping bill will be next to nothing for the next few weeks - great, more for the moving fund.  Husband rang our heating oil supplier on Friday, to find out how much credit we've got with them - nearly £300 apparently, and we've got more than half a tankful of oil, so won't need to buy any, so we'll be asking for that credit to be refunded.  Husband said he may try selling the oil to whoever wants to come and get it, some of the locals might be interested, most of us here have oil fired heating.  When we moved in here the tank was empty, so we have no obligation to leave it half full.

As some of you have suggested, I may try ringing a few local furniture charities or housing associations, to see if any of them wants to come and take some of our surplus furniture - that'll save me having to photograph and list things on the local FB selling pages.  I've got a number for a local Man & Van who has a Luton-sized box van - well, husband informed me that's what it's called, and the size will be suitable for our downsized amount of furniture, especially if we can manage to take a few items of furniture (such as a couple of armchairs, chests of drawers, packed boxes etc) over in the car in the days/couple of weeks leading up to moving day.  The Man has loads of very good reviews on FB, glowing recommendations actually, so we'll be ringing him as soon as we know for sure if we're moving.

It all seems to be coming together quite nicely and, whilst I've obviously got a brainful (and lots of lists) of things that need doing, I don't actually feel panicky or overwhelmed.  Amazingly.  But there's still time!!  And no doubt I will feel all that the nearer moving day gets.

What an idiot!

 The nice letting agent man who rang us on Thursday asked for 3 forms of ID for each of us, one of which had to include our photo - good job I have the Government Voter Certificate with photo I applied for last year, seeing as I don't have a driving licence or passport.  So I spent yesterday morning getting out all the relevant things, taking photos of them and then uploading them to my computer.  Anything like that takes blimmin ages to upload, seeing as our internet here deep in the country is sooooo slooooowww.  Having done it - eventually - and emailed everything to the letting agent, it ONLY THEN suddenly occurred to me that I could have simply sent the email and photos from my phone, bypassing the step of uploading them to my laptop!  Duhhh!!  Sometimes even I'm surprised at my blondeness (although I'm no longer blonde!). 😂😂😒.  And then just to illustrate how much of an idiot I am....we were having prawn cocktail on jacket spuds with salad for dinner, I mixed up the Marie Rose sauce in a bowl, then started adding the king prawns to it....before I'd cooked them (I bought them raw).  😱 OMG!!!  So I had to fish them out (thank goodness I hadn't thrown all of them in and hadn't started mixing them in with the sauce) and rinse them off under the tap.  What an idiot.  I can only blame my lack of sleep the night before, and brain overloaded with stuff to do.

In the afternoon we tackled the two large bedrooms - mine was mostly done anyway several months ago, so not many clothes to bag up for the charity shop.  However, I did manage to condense a few things - I have 3 tall narrow antique pine chests of drawers, each of which had one mostly empty drawer.  I did a bit of rearranging and condensed the clothes into 2 of them, leaving one chest empty.  Depending on the space available in the bungalow, I may keep it, or get rid of it.  Husband's room was much more complicated - he hadn't sorted out his clothes back when I did mine - or only a few anyway.  His big wardrobe was stuffed to the gills, mostly with clothes he hasn't worn for ages or no longer fit him.  He mostly wears polo or rugby shirts - he had at least a dozen polo shirts hanging up in his wardrobe, none of which he'd worn for months and months (he generally wears the same 3 or 4 ones which never actually make it into his wardrobe, being simply left in a pile on his bedroom chair).  The ones in the wardrobe included 3 brand new ones, never worn, that he bought probably back in the early Spring.  He is such a hoarder, simply because it never occurs to him to sort anything out.  We got it done eventually, his wardrobe - which we will be selling as it's much too big for the bungalow - is now almost empty, the clothes he's keeping have gone into his chest of drawers (having drastically condensed the contents) and a large lidded plastic box.  We now have another 2 bin bags of clothes to go to the charity shop, and a couple of bags of of stuff to go to the tip - holey socks (why does he keep them?!), baggy shapeless boxers (ditto), some old toiletries, broken bits and pieces.  

Husband suggested that he start sleeping in the small bedroom - my craft room but it does have a single bed in it - so we can dismantle his double bed and that will make room to store packed boxes.  That's actually a good idea.  I'd decluttered my craft stuff ages ago, but the room has gradually become a dumping ground again over the past few months, so that will be the next room for us to get stuck into today.

He did make me laugh yesterday.....we'd been discussing what to get rid of and where we could potentially put things in the bungalow - depending on the size of the rooms, of course.  Husband then said, in all seriousness, that we shall need to work out where we're going to put the TV (it's up on the wall in our current house).  So we know where his priorities lie!! 😂😂

More good news

 The other good news to start with:-

Our neighbours arrived home from hospital yesterday evening - with their baby girl.  We've not had chance to speak to them yet, think it's best to leave them to settle for a couple of days following their no doubt traumatic experiences in hospital following the birth.  We're just happy that mother and baby are ok and home.

Thank you all for the lovely comments.  I'm typing this at 03.10 in the morning - predictably, my mind's in a whirl and I've been lying awake for the past hour or two, I'll try going back to bed in a bit.  If we like the bungalow when we go to view it next Tuesday, I'm now thinking it may be best to try and move some time in December, before Christmas.  My brother and family moved house from Surrey to Cornwall a week before Christmas some years ago - if they could do that, I'm sure we can manage to move just 15 miles fairly quickly!  I expect it may be difficult to get a removal firm (or more likely a local Man and Van - well, 2 men) around the Christmas/New Year period, so the earlier we are ready to move in December, the better.

So, assuming we say yes to the place - and I see no real reason why we'd turn it down - it's going to be a massive flurry of planning and activity for the next few weeks.  I shall have to start listing our excess furniture on the local FB selling pages - I've already told husband we'll be selling it cheap, much to his disgust.....but he did understand when I told him we need it gone ASAP, and won't manage that if we advertise it for the sort of prices he'd like.  The stark reality is that we will be downsizing, there'll be 2 or possibly even 3 rooms less in the bungalow, so we cannot take excess furniture - we'll have nowhere to put it and won't need it anyway.  And whatever money we get for the stuff will all add to the moving fund - we've got enough savings for the first couple of months rent and the removal firm costs, but we'll probably need new carpets or rugs, and curtains, possibly the curtain rails and things like lampshades.  We'll need to get a small dining table set as well, our heavy oak one with matching 4 chairs will be far too big. I've already started making a list of excess furniture that can go.  Fortunately, when I had that decluttering spree earlier on in the year, I got rid of all my excess kitchen equipment, so at least that's one room which won't take long to clear.  And we've already got a load of boxes, currently flatpacked behind husband's wardrobe, and a big roll of bubble wrap, so can get cracking on packing stuff straight away.

Husband said yesterday that we'll have to start making several trips to the tip - erm yes dear, I've been telling you that for months!!  And we'll be starting this weekend!

Right, having had a mug of Horlicks, I'm now going back to bed.  I'm now very glad I did all that batch cooking and freezing, it'll be such a help, I won't have to spend ages preparing and cooking dinners every day so it will free up time for me to get on with more important things.

Gobsmacked!!

 One of the two bungalows I put bids on last week had 255 bids at close of business on Sunday night, and our bid was ranked at no. 53 on the list, meaning there were 52 people with more priority in front of us - so no chance, in reality.  Or so I thought!  This morning I noticed that our ranking had suddenly changed to......No. 1.  Yes, first on the list.  Must be a glitch in the system, I immediately thought - how can they suddenly discount 52 people in the space of just a few days?  Of course it's entirely possible that several people have dropped out - but not all of them.   I put it out of my mind, which was fairly easy as I was very busy in the kitchen, and was sure it was a mistake anyway.

But then at lunchtime we had a phone call from the Housing Association - saying we were indeed now first on the list and offering us a viewing!  I was almost rendered speechless with amazement.  We're going next Tuesday morning - how exciting!

It's a small detached 2 bedroom bungalow, with an attached car port and drive.  It has an open plan front garden, and secure walled and fenced back garden.  It's air source pump heating - which I know very little about, having not had it before.  It also has solar panels on the roof, which should make the electricity a lot cheaper.  And there's a wet room bathroom, so no more having to climb in and out of the bath to have a shower.  The property is currently being decorated, hence why we can't go until next week, and will apparently be ready for occupation from the 20th November!!!  Assuming we like the place, however, we shan't be moving in then - there's no way we'd be ready to move in less than a fortnight, the very thought of that brings me out in a cold sweat.  

It's in a small cul de sac of all bungalows, so a retirement community (there's a community centre with resident warden nearby, she takes care of any worries the residents might have).  It's in a village about 15 miles from here, near to Minehead - so although shops and GP aren't in walking distance, they're closer than we are here.  And there's a bus service through the village.  All in all it sounds just right, but we're reserving judgement until after we've seen it next week.

Making life easier

 Having had the boiler serviced yesterday morning, I decided we'd go shopping straight after lunch, as that now gives me 2 clear days to do batch cooking and baking.  I've got the fortnightly shop down to a fine art now and was very pleased with the cost - less than I was expecting.  And I didn't even write a list this time - but did the shopping mindfully and only bought what I knew we needed (although husband did sneak a packet of chocolate oaty biscuits into the trolley, not that I objected!).  I was going to buy a couple of packs of ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, but told myself off for being so lazy!  It's so easy to make pastry after all, although I do buy puff pastry - even the TV chefs rarely make their own.  I want to make some sausage rolls and mince pies and freeze them for Christmas, within the next week or two, if I don't get time to do them today or tomorrow, or run out of energy.

Speaking of Christmas, husband's decided he wants a large gammon joint, so he'll have plenty of leftovers for cold cuts, or fried with egg and chips, and I'll probably make him a couple of pasta bakes or risotto with diced bits as well.  And of course there'll be lots of lovely stock for soups, and I use it for cooking cauliflower, Brussels sprouts or cabbage in.  I'm going to make the mock turkey thing from Carolyn's wartime recipe blog for me - you may remember I made it a few weeks ago and it's delicious.  I'll put chopped apricots in it and glaze the top with cranberry sauce, just to make it more Christmassy.  Here's the link if anybody wants it - I highly recommend it whether you're vegetarian or not - use veggie sausages if you are, regular meat ones if not.  Incidentally, I didn't bother with the parsnips for turkey legs, and I cooked it in a loaf tin rather than freeform on a baking tray.

So the oven is going to be working overtime today and tomorrow, I shall be baking around a dozen potatoes and a big trayful of Mediterranean style veggies.  2 kgs of chicken thighs (Betty eats them, deboned of course, as well as husband, and even I have a bit of chicken very occasionally, in a stew or pasta thing).  20 sausages and a trayful of back bacon.  Husband has been asking for cake again recently, specifically ginger cake - I'll make him a dozen ginger muffins instead of a large cake I think.  I'll do a trayful of individual Yorkie puds as well.  All of this will be portioned up and frozen for easy meals over the next few weeks and much less cooking for me.  I'm becoming less and less keen on cooking every day - it's as much the decisions about what to cook, as well as the actual cooking, I just don't enjoy it as much as I used to.  Having a stock of ready or partly cooked things in the freezer will make life so much easier, and it'll mean that I don't have to actually cook a meal every day.