Simon and I officially began our long distance relationship.
We’d been friends for awhile, but according to the scrapbook I dug out when I was packing, we chose today as the day to make it official.
2 months later he came to San Francisco for us to meet.
2 years later I packed up my life and moved to Belfast.
3 years later we were married.
8 years later I gave birth to Adam.
Happy 10 years, my love. Here’s to hundreds more.
Well, at least the downstairs…Adam’s D&V has returned and Simon has joined him. sigh
This is the view out our front window:
I have taken advice on how to deal with roses and am eagerly awaiting, strong clippers at the ready, for the flowers to die so I can cut that sucker right down! There are 3 others out there as well, but this one is the most beautiful.
The front room itself:
To anyone who has ever been to my flat, yes, the computer is in the exact same place. If we didn’t have a computer in the front room, Simon and I would never see each other. The TV is just over the right of that 2 seater. So it is pretty much the same layout as the flat, but slightly less floor space because the flat was totally open plan and here we have walls and doors!
The dining room:
You can just barely see the back garden through the big glass wall/slider there. We are having a small problem as there is no key for the slider so the Estate Agent is working on that for us. Not that it’s a huge issue at the moment, of course, since it’s pretty much rained from the moment we’ve moved in!
And, yes, the laptop is in the same position as the flat as well. Did I mention? No computers downstairs, no seeing my husband and vice versa!
The kitchen:
Do you see what that is down there on the far left? A tumble dryer!!! I can now do all of our laundry in 2 days instead of it taking a week! We also have a drying line but, as I said, it’s been raining the whole time we’ve lived here so it hasn’t seen much use yet. There is also a line up in the garage but right now the garage is full of boxes of books.
And here is the back garden, with Adam, for scale 🙂 :
It is completely fenced in so once the weather improves, in 4 or 5 months, I’ll be able to open up the kitchen door and, key willing, the slider and he can just run around while I do stuff in the house. I think at 3 he’ll be okay to do that with frequent checking!
So that’s the downstairs. Let me get some more boxes unpacked (2 Fridays in a row Simon has taken the day off to help me do that and we’ve been scuppered by illness) and I’ll do the upstairs!
Anyone who follows my Twitter (@tee2072) knows that I had intended to make honey balsamic chicken on Monday. My fatal flaw was forgetting that I had used up the honey on Sunday glazing a gammon.
I was going to have it with Champ and cauliflower cheese and so the cauliflower and the spring onions have been staring at me, slowly going brown.
Well today Adam and I have been stuck in the house while the boiler is being repaired and so I decided to make soup!
So I sweated down an onion along with the spring onions, added the cauliflower, poured in a pint of vegetable stock and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Then I warmed 1/2 cup milk in the micro and added that as well. I seasoned and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.
I then gave it a blend with my stick blender et viola! Nearly Rotten Vegetable Soup:
I think it needs a better name…
I realized I haven’t really described the house, so I will do that in a few days, with some pictures. ::waits for the sounds of fainting to stop::
Everyone okay?
Anyway, we are more or less moved in but, of course, not unpacked. A lot has been unpacked but the office and all of our books still need sorting out. Hopefully this weekend a lot of that will be finished.
So we are settling in and Adam is having the time of his life, with stairs to climb and a big back garden and a park nearby. And the bus! He gets to ride the bus! Who knew the bus was so much fun?
And do you know the best bit? Imagine, if you will, a bus full of commuters, just before 8am. I climb on and turn to help Adam up the steep stair and say ‘Go on, go sit down over there’ and put my Metro Card on the reader. I turn to join him and every one of those tired ‘OMG is it only Wednesday’ faces had lit up with a smile as my big boy climbed up on a seat all by himself and settled in for the journey.
Living in the ‘burbs is grand.
I think. I’ve lost count.
Adam’s contribution to the big house move was a fever on Saturday, diarrhoea on Sunday, vomit on Monday, and diarrhoea ever since.
We went to the GP on Thursday who said his ears were red and gave us some antibiotics. Which seemed to make the diarrhoea worse. So I’ve stopped them. Feel free to name the next super bug after me, okay?
This mornings wake up nappy was overflowing with pee and full of poo. The poo was soft but not the liquid we have been having. I’m seeing if he poos again in the next hour and what it’s like. If it’s like it was this morning we won’t go to the GP. If it’s still liquid then I’ll ring. If he doesn’t poo again, I’m going to assume the antib’s did indeed make him worse and call him done.
No other symptoms, BTW, once the fever passed. He’s not pulling his ears. He’s eating as normal. He’s drinking. He’s just got runny poos.
And the reddest bottom ever.
So the move started around 825 last Friday morning when the packers arrived to begin, well, packing. 🙂 Adam and Simon had left at 8 to get Adam to nursery and Simon to the Agent’s to sign the lease and get the keys.
I gave them a quick tour of the flat and they were pretty wide eyed when they saw all the books. Although the booker/estimate guy knew about them!
And so the packing began. We own, thanks to a certain relative coming to stay and getting ill and leaving them behind, about 10 suitcases, so I packed our clothes myself. Besides, would you want a big burly packing man to pack your lingerie? Me either. 😉
Around 930 Simon rang from the Estate Agent saying they wanted a full months rent and then we’d pay the partial month rent in the middle of November. This is not what the Agent told me when I asked a month ago, but we had the money so, okay! I was amazed they actually took a cheque for it. In the US first month’s rent and deposit has always required a bankers cheque, in my experience. In any case, Simon finished up with that and headed up to the house with some things for Adam’s room. The plan was that he and Adam would go up on the Saturday before the movers and get him at least partially settled.
So anyway, the packers and I were packing. Simon was sorting the new house. Adam was at daycare.
Around 12 Simon got back with lunch for us and the packers took their lunch break. I had been chatting to one of them, as they flew through the packing, to see if they thought it might be possible to do this in one day. It was finally determined, no, they couldn’t, because the truck they brought was too small. They had been loading the truck as they packed, so they were 99% sure they didn’t have enough space and all those books are very heavy and the truck was definitely sinking on it’s tires!
So they finished about 430. At around 5 Adam got home from nursery and was like this: O_O at the empty flat. He ran from room to room for a bit before realizing that almost all of the previously off limits and locked cupboards were wide open. A small boy never had so much fun opening and closing doors!
The next morning we got up and finished the bits of packing we could do. At around 830 the movers arrived again and Simon and Adam took off for the house. We finished the packing and I called the taxi and we headed off.
Adam was having a great time in his new garden:
When the trucks arrived Simon and Adam took off again to explore the neighbourhood while I directed the unload. By about 1130 it was done. We were moved in to our house.
The past week has been fairly hectic, not helped by Adam being ill with D&V and ear infections for most of it, including not sleeping well. There are some maintenance issues that need to be sorted, but the house is pretty much perfect.
There has been one amazing side effect, for me, in all this. I have always sworn I didn’t want to own a domicile. I do believe I’ve changed my mind. To the point that I am pricing houses in the neighbourhood…
So we’ve moved. Big post about that in the works.
Then Adam had a fever. Then D. Then D&V. Then D. And now D and a double ear infection. And he’s not sleeping well either due to the aforementioned D, V and ears or because it’s a new house and things are different and his schedule is wrong as due to the D, V and ears as he hasn’t been to nursery all week.
To say I am tired is the greatest understatement in the universe.
Not unpacked, of course, but getting there. Most important, my broadband is hooked up!
I have tons to do so will try and do a longer post about the move etc over the next day or so. Just wanted everyone to know we are alive and in the new house!
And, for your viewing pleasure: