Since the last posting we’ve been treading water to some extent.  Moving house for many people can be quite stressful as you don’t realise how much ‘stuff’ you’ve collected until you start to pack things.  As we haven’t had a formal home for 11 years for us it was easy.  We don’t have many personal possessions like clothes, nick-nacks and furniture……our world fits into a single garage with room to spare. 

In August we had a visit from Tony and Brenda which was great fun, hey, it always is when we get together.  They had never visited Bristol before, so it felt quite strange for us being tourists in our own town.  We caught the bus and wandered around the centre, listened to the choir practicing in Bristol Cathedral, visited Cheryl’s old school and Bristol Central Library where the little swot spent much of her time, walked over the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge and had a fine lunch in The Commercial Rooms on historic Corn Street.  Like a lot of people, we live on the outskirts of town and rarely explore the city centre these days so we discovered things in hometown Bristol that we didn’t know existed…………..and now we’re leaving!

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We took another trip down to Seaton to visit the house again and get some instructions on how the heating works, how to operate the AGA and where various switches were.  We had great weather making this another BBQ trip, superb walking along the coastal path and enjoying the masses of blackberries that we have this year.  On the way home we dropped the caravan off at the new storage compound which will be its new home for the winter. It was meant to be a quick stop but the owner, a delightful old boy with a Devon accent as thick as clotted cream definitely wanted to chat so an hour and a half later we were on our way.

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We had another ‘sibling lunch’ with Neil’s brothers and sisters and their partners.  Whilst the food was mediocre the company was superb.  We met in the historic Highwayman Inn that Neil frequented when he was in his late teens.  In those days if you wanted to impress a girl this was one of the country pubs you went to. 

It was also time to get all things medical done before we move.  We won’t have much time in Devon so getting eyes tested, an MOT at the doctors, flu and pneumonia jabs for the old pensioner (AKA Neil).  We’ve also started the process of changing our address on memberships and less important things.  Do you know how many things you have to change?  We have at least 50!!   If there is one good reason not to move house it’s the number of addresses you have to change.  To make it all worse, the financial institutions are particularly anal about the process and the timing of the changes.  ‘Jump through this hoop, skip through that hoop and provide your inside leg measurement’ before you can even start the process.  

The final planning for the packing concentrated our minds plus the general logistics of what goes where, when it goes there and the question of will everything fit into the removal van and the car.  They do say that to help stave off dementia keeping the mind alert helps, well moving to a new house certainly ticks that box. 

Just a day before the move we had a visit from our old friends from Sydney.  Chris and Viv were on their annual trip to the UK to visit friends and family.  It was a flying visit as this time Chris only had two weeks, so we really appreciate them fitting us in.  Neil has known Chris since the early 70’s but nothing much has changed other than a little bit less hair and a few extra inches on the waistline.  Weather was amazing, 20C and blazing sunshine which for mid September was quite unusual.  It has been a BBQ summer and who else to have one final al fresco meal with other than a couple of Aussies!  Of course, a few beers were sunk, the wine flowed and the reminiscing brought about lots of laughing. 

This is the final blog entry to bring chapter 11 to a close.  It’s been a different year for us with most of the time spent in the UK focused on finding our new home.  Chapter 12 will follow as soon as we have moved and settled in.  It’s definitely a new phase in our lives and we are looking forward to being in our home and settling into our new community.