Keep the change

I had underestimated the time it would take to get sorted this morning so my plan to bake bread didn’t happen but I did manage to pack lunch for everyone and chivvy people into getting ready to leave the house.

We were meeting Julie and co at Slindon, scene of many a woodland walk over the years but Dad had asked us if we could collect five bags of sand and drop them off at his tenant’s on the way. I managed to forget to pick my phone up which gave us a false start and then Ady took a phone call from Bacon (letting agent – can you tell why we chose them?! 😉 ) to say they had a viewing booked for 4pm today. Eek! That threw our plans into chaos rather so a quick mental rearrange and a phonecall to Julie to say we were running half an hour later than planned and we finally got going to the builders merchants to collect the sand. We dropped that off with the tenant, having got stuck waiting for a digger which was blocking the road and then got to Paul who we have bought the Pajero from to pay him (which was our mental rearrange as we’d planned to do that after we’d met Julie but then realised we’d need to get going once we’d seen Julie to be home and clear away evidence of sneakily living in the house).

We did that and were actually ten minutes early to meet Julie so took the opportunity to fire up the little stove and kettle we keep in the car and make a cup of tea :).

Julie & co arrived and we had a walk in the woods and then up past the farm where Julie used to stable Honey the pony. We bumped into some fellow HEors who we both know but I don’t think had previously made the Goddard connection between us – it is funny having so many mutual friends so many of whom have never seen us together and therefore have not necessarily realised we are all the same Goddards.

We had our picnic in a playpark we used to regularly pause in but have never had to share with other children before :). Lovely sitting in the sunshine watching our children be the Big Kids in the park :).

Back through the woods with plenty of pausing for chatting or playing and marvelling at the bluebells out in March particularly as bluebell season is rather an in joke for Julie and I with her twice insisting they would be out and arranging a bluebell walk in April when they had yet to bloom.

We parted at the carpark and headed for home. A quick tidy up of sleeping bags, clothes and stuff in the kitchen and bathroom and we left to go out. The agents have a key and we wouldn’t really know what to do with ourselves if we were here so we thought it was better to leave them to it. We walked into Lancing to try and tax the car but the post office man said we couldn’t do it until Friday 🙁 We had a look in the charity shops and supermarkets picking up a few reduced food bits and then walked home again chatting about puppy names, crocs and other such unrelated stuff.

Back at home the kids played in the garden while Ady and I tried to work out some timescales as we’ve had a confirmation email from Rum to say yes, get the static delivered on 25th and come before that to stay, we are desperate for you to arrive and don’t need to wait for it to all be proper and formal. Hurrah to that! 🙂 🙂 Getting our heads round that is tomorrow’s task, planning the route, working out where to stay etc. And chasing the static and booking the ferry… Lovely, goal driven stuff to get on with 🙂

Having taken back the Rubbish Vacuum Cleaner we debated options for replacing it and I suggested either a rechargable dustbuster style one or a carpet sweeper. Ady checked Argos and we found a carpet sweeper for a tenner with rave reviews so reserved on. Up to Sainsburys for strong flour as I’d run out and not realised and some cider to toast having a moving date and Argos to collect the carpet sweeper. We bumped into a Home Ed friend, Nikki, in Sainsburys who was thrilled to hear how our adventures were going and commented on how much weight I’d lost 🙂 Nice to hear 🙂

The carpet sweeper is fab, delightfully low tech, actually works and will of course be suitable for our off grid static too. Best of all is how enchanted with it the kids are to the point they have done the carpet sweeping everywhere in the house 🙂

I made pizzas for dinner, baked a loaf of bread and had a bath and Ady introduced the kids to Home Improvements which he has a full boxed set of DVDs of.

Looking forward to a couple of days with no particular reason to leave the house and hoping for some good feedback from the letting agent from todays viewing too.