Fallen on our feet

 We handed in our registration forms at the GP surgery, have to await a call from them now (good luck with that 😂, although they have got our email address).  We also registered Betty at the local vets, who seem lovely....they actioned the registration very quickly, by the time we got home I'd already had a call on my mobile from our previous vet, asking for permission for them to release Betty's records to the new vet.  Got a refund from Toolstation for the misdelivered towel rail, and ordered a new one - which they assured us we would be able to collect from them today.

Husband put the TV up on the wall, freeing up space on his much smaller desk.  He also put up some more hooks for me - in the kitchen for mugs, tea towel, oven gloves etc, and hallway for coats.  Just the new towel rail to go up in the bathroom, along with hooks on the back of the door for dressing gown, and then pictures to go up on the walls.  We must apologise to our neighbours for all the drilling noises, don't want to get off to a bad start with them.  So all the necessary jobs are nearly done now, just a few boxes still to unpack.  None are urgent though, so can be done at my leisure.  And yesterday afternoon, for the first time since moving here last Wednesday, we did nothing - went for a dog walk around the local area, then came back and all of us simply sat and rested for the afternoon.  Husband watched - well, dozed off in front of - the TV, of course, Betty slept and I played a few games on my laptop and read the papers.  It was a nice, restful day.

There are 2 sheltered housing estates here...the small close of 11 bungalows and one flat where we live (the flat is on top of the community centre) and a larger complex of 26 bungalows and a warden's house just the other side of the community centre.  We've definitely got the best area - our little close of bungalows is a 'normal' cul de sac with bungalows each side of the road, some detached, some semis, all with attractive front gardens, some of which have driveways or car ports.  The other, larger complex looks just what it is - a sheltered housing complex of terraced bungalows in a square shape, surrounding a green space....most of the bungalows there don't have a dedicated front garden, they're communal areas of grass or path, although some of the bungalows have pots of shrubs beside their front doors.  None of them have parking spaces or drives, those who have cars park them in a residents parking area at the start of the complex.  I wouldn't have liked living there, it would have felt too much like an old people's estate.  Which, of course, is exactly what it is, as is our close - but it doesn't feel like that here, thank goodness.  I'm guessing that the larger communal bungalow area is for people with more complex health needs, especially since there's a resident warden for that area.  

There are some lovely old houses and cottages in the lanes surrounding our bungalow - and I mean really old, 1800s by the looks of things, converted chapels, forges and the like, with very thick old stone walls, great big chimney breasts, small windows.  And a stream running through the village down to the main road and beyond.  It's all so pretty here, we've really fallen on our feet.

Best points (and TV works, hooray)

 Good news!  The TV is finally working.  I set husband up in front of youtube on the computer, watching some 'how to' videos to do with satellite tv/freesat systems, and he found out what he needed - another part to buy, cheap enough at just £15.  He got it, set it up on the satellite dish and hey presto, it worked.  Thank goodness for that, he was doing my head in going on and on about it.  I'd like to say that we now have a working landline phone too, but sadly not.  At least I now have wifi calling enabled on my smartphone - I have no idea how that works, but apparently it does, according to both my friend and the BT engineer who called last week.  I haven't needed to make any phone calls yet, but no doubt I'll have to ring those idiots BT yet again in the next few days, if our landline still fails to work.

We've got a few things on this week - today we have to go and get a refund from Toolstation, for the towel rail that, for some obscure reason, they delivered to our old house (rather than us collecting it from the shop, as they told us we would need to do) - so it now could be anywhere.  Also to drop the registration forms into the GP surgery.  And look for a towel rail somewhere else.  Tomorrow it's the Christmas buffet thing at the community centre here, hosted by the lovely housing support officer Hannah, who we've just found out is leaving, although she's bringing along the new person to introduce to us all.  And it's an opportunity for us to get to know some of the other residents here.  Wednesday morning, first thing, I'm going shopping for our Christmas and New Year food, and lots of cheap veggies....I don't intend to go shopping again until some time in January.  And I'll be on a cost-cutting drive from January onwards, to build our savings up again.  Moving house is an expensive business.

So what are the best points about this place?  Well, for a start, the peace.....as I said yesterday, it's really very quiet here.  The shower room is wonderful - not having to climb in and out of a bath to have a shower is such a pleasure, and the water pressure here is so much greater than it was at the old house, so it's bliss to have a level, powerful and hot shower.  I'm still not keen on the much higher toilet (raised up on a plinth), but dare say I'll get used to it.  My bedroom is lovely, bigger than my previous one and with lots of built in storage space, and room for my craft desk.  Husband's room is smaller, but he has plenty of built in storage too, he's content with it.  Nice big airing cupboard, which is currently full of moving boxes which still need unpacking, but none of it is urgent (although I needed my address book for Christmas cards yesterday and realised it's packed away in one of those boxes).  I like both the front and back gardens, both low maintenance (the front lawn is mown by the Housing Association's contract gardeners) - I've discovered there are bulbs beginning to pop up in the back garden, so it'll be nice to see Spring flowers next year.  There are some nice shrubs in the borders too, and a rockery with alpine plants right in front of the kitchen window.  I can't wait to get stuck into the garden next year, I'll be putting some pots of flowers and shrubs out the front as well as the back.  And the neighbours we've met so far, especially the ones next door and the old chap directly opposite us, all seem very friendly and welcoming.  We both think we're going to be really happy living here....Betty seems to be settling down too.

It's so peaceful

 It's still one problem after another here - still no landline phone and husband cannot get the TV working, even with the new freesat box he bought - no signal with either the outside aerial or the satellite dish.  Neither of us knows why - well, I wouldn't know anyway, any kind of technology but especially TV stuff is beyond me.  He'll just have to get a man in to sort it out - eventually, when we've built our savings up again.  In the meantime, we can watch TV on our computers.  I'm actually not bothered about having no TV - although I was glad to watch Strictly on my laptop, and even more pleased that my favourite couple won.  As for the phone - I just despair with BT, they've smashed my already extremely low expectations.  Incompetent idiots.  Husband expects me to sort everything out, which is very draining and does my head in when tech stuff is my weakest point.

We bought a towel rail for the bathroom on Friday, from a popular DIY place.  They didn't have it in stock, but said it would be in their store for us to collect next Tuesday.  Fine.  Except yesterday I had an email from a courier company - one with the most terrible reputation for incompetence - saying that they would be delivering the towel rail to our house in the afternoon.  Eh?!  And then they sent another email, with a photo of the parcel....having been delivered to OUR OLD HOUSE!  Words fail me sometimes.  So now we've got to go back to the DIY store and get a refund and find out why they arranged for it to be delivered (and to our old house, despite husband telling them we've moved), having already told us we would have to go and collect it from their store next Tuesday.  As for the parcel - who knows whether it's still outside our old front door?  Or how long it'll stay there?  We're not going back to collect it, it'll be a 34-mile round trip.

I'm having a day off of unpacking and rearranging things today, my brain's frazzled and I need a day of rest.  I actually slept well (for me anyway) last night, so don't feel as physically tired today.  I have to fill in the forms for both of us to register with the local GPs - certainly a lot more forms than I recall doing the last time we registered with a GP, 11 years ago.  Everything is so complicated nowadays - or perhaps I'm just so much older!

There is almost total peace here - we thought it was quiet at the old place, living in such a rural area surrounded by farmland - well, despite there being twice as many houses around us here, it is very nearly silent.  I don't just mean now, at 07.30 on a Sunday morning, but anytime.  And being a detached bungalow, there's no noise from next door neighbours either.  Our little close of just 12 bungalows doesn't have any through traffic, obviously (and some of the residents are housebound or don't drive), and the lane which the close opens onto, which has several large houses, also has very little traffic.  The lane goes up to a main road, I guess about 200 yards away from us, but traffic noise from there is so quiet I can barely hear it....although that might be one of the advantages of my partial deafness!

I went to the freezer shop yesterday and got an obscene amount of ready meals - although most of them are relatively healthy ones - so the freezer is now nearly full again.  Well, 2/3 full.  This week I shall go and buy a lot of fresh veg - most of the supermarkets are doing their annual big reduction on Christmas lunch type veggies.....potatoes, carrots, parsnips, sprouts, red cabbage, that type of thing.  I'm intending to get several packs of each and have come up with a plan for keeping them - the car port, which the kitchen door opens into, is very sheltered but obviously very cold.  I'll layer all the veggies in one of the large lidded plastic boxes that we now have several of and are now stacked in the back of the car port.  I'll put paper - which we also have lots of - in between each layer, put the lid on and keep the box near the kitchen door in the car port.  I reckon they'll keep for several weeks that way.  We'll go shopping Wednesday early morning, and that'll be the last time until January.

Getting some semblance of order

 Good morning everyone....as you can see, we're back online - just.  A BT engineer turned up out of the blue late yesterday afternoon - BT had told me no-one would be calling, we didn't need an engineer, we could set it up ourselves.  They really don't know their arses from their elbows - but I'm not complaining (well, not about the engineer at least), as it saved us - well, me - from having to try and muddle through it, with newfangled equipment that I knew nothing about.  The landline phone still doesn't work, however.  Being without internet and home phone, and with mobile phones that are effectively useless here as there is next to no signal (except for the odd minute or 2 a couple of times a day when the signal suddenly kicks in, very briefly) was very disconcerting actually, it felt like we were completely cut off from the world for 3 days.  And even the TV wouldn't work - trying to connect via an outside aerial here is virtually impossible, according to our next door neighbour, much to husband's horror.  I know absolutely zero about TV technology so was unable to help him - and with no internet I couldn't even google or look for some help on Youtube.  He's now going to buy a freesat box and connect via one of the 2 satellite dishes on the roof.  Or so he hopes.....he knows very little about it but is nevertheless confident it will work!!  Oh, and BT, despite knowing our moving date, sent the equipment to our old address - so we wouldn't even have got it had it not been for the mail redirection I'd set up.  Useless idiots.  It's been a catalogue of errors with them from start to finish.

The move wasn't without problems....you know that breakdown I was sure I was going to have?  Well, suffice it to say I did - the culmination of weeks of stress trying to organise everything, coupled with a heaped up shitload of stress this week just broke me.  And that's all I'm going to say about it - we're here, and that's the main thing.  My bedroom here is, like the old house, an oasis of calm (despite there being a lot of boxes awaiting unpacking behind the wardrobe doors, but at least they're out of sight).  The second most important room for me is the kitchen....which I have tidied and rearranged and cleared several times now....but husband keeps cluttering it up again with tools etc (well, he does have several jobs to do around the house).  The trouble is, he spreads all his tools and paraphernalia over every available surface, and then doesn't clear it up unless I specifically ask him to.  And I walk in there to get a meal prepared and all I can see is his junk everywhere, and I can't even get to the cupboards or cooking appliances because of all his clutter.  It drives me nuts.

Oh, and we didn't declutter and downsize enough - we still have things that I'm struggling to find places to put, I think more stuff will have to go to the tip or charity shops.  I know it'll all get sorted and straightened out eventually - I just hate living in a mess, it irritates the hell out of me.

I have to go shopping today, to fill up the freezer, and husband needs to buy some brackets to put up a shelf I desperately need in the kitchen, which he forgot to buy yesterday when we were in a DIY shop buying some essential things.  He claimed it wasn't his fault he forgot to buy the brackets, because I didn't remind him.....except I DID remind him, whilst we were actually in the shop!

I've enjoyed reading through all your 3-foods-only choices this morning....I laughed at the 'Steak, steak and steak' choice!  

And I want to say a big THANK YOU to one of my USA readers for sending me - from America, and this from someone I've never met before and am likely never to meet - a wonderful gift....a metal wall plaque with a beautiful dragonfly and flower design painted on it, and a well-packed box of 4 assorted cheeses - how absolutely wonderful.  Thank you so much, B.  Oh, the cheeses are all sourced from this country, they weren't shipped from the USA, in case you're wondering.  I was delighted and overwhelmed by her kindness.  We've also had some lovely flowers from husband's daughter, and a nice selection of both New Home and Christmas cards, including from some of the neighbours, introducing themselves, how thoughtful of them.

Betty was so well behaved on moving day, she stayed in her crate in the car port, watching all the goings on without a single murmur.  She was a bit anxious the first day or two, but is settling down now - she knows where her bed, toys, food and water are, and knows to go to the kitchen door to tell us when she wants a wee.

I will take photos once I'm more straightened out, I promise.  

A little game

 Something to make you ponder and keep you interested reading everyone's ideas, until I'm back online.

On FB the other day, I saw a post asking what would be people's choices, if they could only choose just three food items to eat every day for one week.  

After some thought, I decided on two choices:-

EITHER 

1st choice

1.  Mature Cheddar cheese

2.  Cox's apples

3.  Good sourdough bread

OR

2nd choice

1.  Fresh salmon steaks

2.  Crunchy roast potatoes

3.  Steamed Brussels sprouts

So come on everybody - what would be your choices?

PS. It's your own choices, not mine 😉

Quick update

 The landlord arrived on time this morning for his inspection, he was actually surprisingly nice.  Was very complimentary about how we'd kept the house in good condition and made some minor improvements (which we actually did for our own comfort - with his permission).  And - best of all - I had an email from the Deposit Protection Service this afternoon, confirming the process for repayment of our security deposit in full is underway and we should receive the money back into our bank account very soon.  So he came through for us in the end, good on him.

We're all set now for tomorrow morning.  😁

Last day

 Yet more evidence of husband's hoarding tendencies yesterday.  On one of the kitchen worktops, there's a plastic box about 10" square, holding husband's current meds.  I went through it yesterday - not only are his meds in there, including some out of date ones, there were also some of Betty's old meds from years ago, when she was having a phantom pregnancy just prior to her being sterilised when she was just a year old.  But the worst thing was husband's prescription slips - the ones you get given with your meds order.  Now, I always keep my current (new) one and throw out the old one when we get the new meds....I was under the impression husband did the same - it was what I'd told him to do after all.  But obviously not - there were literally dozens of his old ones in there - why he's kept them all I have no idea.  Seems like I have to keep a check on literally everything he does from now on, he just seems incapable of throwing anything away.

Yesterday morning husband did 2 more tip trips, he assures me there's just one more needed - the old recliner chair plus a couple more bits from his garage.  After lunch we loaded up the car again for the final bits we ourselves were taking to the bungalow - Betty's cage which lives under the stairs here and has a big soft bed in it, it's her safe space (we never shut her in there, the door is always open so she can get in and out of it as she pleases).  She also has a bed in the dining room which is going with us tomorrow (tomorrow!  It's tomorrow we move!!!), and of course she sleeps on my bed every night.  The cage is temporarily in the back of the car port at the bungalow, Betty will be going in there tomorrow (with the door shut) whilst the removal guys are unloading the van, so she doesn't get in the way or be tempted to run off and can watch what's going on whilst she's in her safe space.  As soon as they've put all the appropriate furniture in one of the bedrooms, we'll shut her in there with water, food and the new chew toy I've bought her.  I'll obviously check on her regularly and take her in the garden for a wee.  As we've now cleared the house of nearly all the small stuff and boxes, it's really only the big furniture, kitchen appliances and TV stuff left, so I shouldn't think unloading will take very long.

The landlord finally got back to me late yesterday afternoon, he's coming round for his final inspection this morning.  Better late than never I suppose.

Today is all about cleaning here, and then having a relaxing evening prior to the big day tomorrow.  I've got a couple of plastic boxes ready for throwing any last minute bits and bobs in, and a laundry bag for our towels and bedding (we've got new bedding freshly washed and waiting in the bungalow).  Cheesy scrambled eggs (with bacon for husband) and sourdough toast for a good hearty breakfast tomorrow, as it may be a while before we get to eat a late lunch - although I've got cakes in (bought, not homemade!), I expect the removal guys will be glad of them.

Can't quite believe it's here, it's been a hell of a busy, mad, stressful 4 weeks, and I am SO glad we have been able to move so much stuff over there already, get it all unpacked a couple of boxes at a time, and get carpets, curtains etc in place.  It's certainly made things easier and, hopefully, a lot less stressful tomorrow.  All rooms in the bungalow are ready for the furniture to be put straight in place.

Thank you everyone for all the lovely messages and support, you've all kept me going when I felt like I was crumbling, and even made me laugh....which I really appreciate.  I'll be back posting again as soon as I can, see you on the other side!!  xx