Limbo

We are still heading forward, inching towards leaving..but with no definitive end in sight. Our first date was to be 1st December but that edged towards the 5th, then the 6th and now maybe sometime the week following. We still have a lot of jobs to do and our progress has not been helped by a sudden early snowfall. Snow by the coast is an uncommon event (although we seem to have had a fair bit over the past two years). Autumn has only just gone and suddenly we are in the middle of winter as this street scene shows.

This rose is doing its best to survive under the heap of snow! It's the earliest snow for 17 years but at the moment in the South East seems to be confined to Eastbourne for some odd reason, as Hastings and Brighton are clear.
 I must admit I didn't think we would have to deal with snow again and it has thrown us a little. Never the less we are getting there although the logistics of loading up, tidying, cleaning, handing the keys to the estate agent, manhandling the cat into his crate; and driving down through France through what is likely to be winter weather does fill me with some panic! Ian's IBS has started to play up in anticipation.

So, I am half moved out and half here. I am in limbo. My mail is now being redirected, my car is currently on EBay looking for a new home, we had farewell drinks with friends here on Thursday and have a family Christmas tomorrow and then technically we are gone..only not quite!

Warm and furry

We called in to see Ian's mother the other day while we out her way, and she decided that I might find her sheepskin footmuff a useful addition to our French home. With nightime temperatures of -12 at the moment by the land this may be the case (although I can't imagine us ever having time to sit still at the moment). In the meantime Mandi the cat has found a use for it as a bottom warmer!

Changing times

It's now just 4 weeks since I left work for my new life. I am amazed at how much we have managed to do since then and my everyday life has changed beyond all recognition. I have gone from spending 40 hours a week sitting on my backside to days of physical activity. We usually get off to a slow start as neither Ian or I are morning people, but once activated we work hard until about 7.00 p.m.when we stop the hard work but then I then cook dinner if I am not too sleepy! I pack boxes, lift things, paint, hold screws in place, shop, wash, clean etc etc. and the most interesting thing is that even after only 4 weeks, my body is metamorphosing. My rounded shoulders are gradually opening up, my feeble arms are getting tiny muscles and my legs can leap upstairs without noticing. Of course this change is not pain free, and my body feels worse than it used to after a day of mountain biking, but I am optimistic and convinced that this will be a temporary thing. I even enjoy the odd bit of computer work that I still do, as it is a nice rest. I can definitely appreciate how unhealthy my previous life was.

Post script

It certainly is a dark month in more ways than one! Condolences also to Shirkaholic.

Virtual death

Even in blog land death is not far away:

I learned from my blogging friend The Chairman that The Irascible Fairy has died. Readers of his blog will know that he has been ill and in fact he hasn't posted for a few months. I only knew Richard through blogging in that strange kind of friendship where you share secrets with someone that you don't know at all. I never met Richard but I think if I had, I would have liked him. He taught me a new word...."coruscates" It means to give off or reflect light in bright beams or flashes.. to sparkle.

In his profile Richard wrote this:

I dream. I am falling endlessly through a blue and cloud flecked summer sky. Around me the music soars and coruscates.

I can imagine that wherever he is, he is coruscating now.. In memory of him I plan to use this word as often as possible!

Fiona, from Two Sheila's and Dog, posted that her mother died yesterday. I send her and Richard's partner Gavin my condolences.

Onward

The strangeness continues as we progress slowly through the process of packing and decorating. The work on my house consists of two steps forward and one step back. The backward step involves Ian finding some electrical or plumbing abnormality that  requires fixing at once. The latest discoveries have been a leaking lead water pipe, a leaking radiator, an unearthed lighting circuit.. the list goes on. I go out to Screwfix or B&Q to buy more plaster/electric boxes/plumbing bits etc and Ian continues with the repair. We are progressing but I can't predict what we will uncover next and what other jobs we will need to do so although the day that we depart for France is looming, D day is still uncertain!

Disorientation

There's something about working 9-5, five days a week that means that you never have to think about what day it is. Life follows its regular, routine pattern; you get up, go to work, your day is organised for you, you come home, wait for the weekend, when your time is your own, but mostly you wake up around the same time anyway. It is quite freeing not to have that structure anymore, but yesterday I truly forgot what day of the week it was and although tomorrow is Saturday, for me it will be the same as Friday,