We missed the boat.

Today a ship set sail for Vancouver and it had none of our belonging onboard (big sigh), yes we missed the boat! Our belongings are still in a state of semi-packed chaos in various rooms (including the garage) of my mum's house. Packing is HORRIBLE! Eugh! I don't like it! And we don't even have that much stuff left to pack! Our once cosy and cluttered three bedroom home has been whittled away to a few piles of books and clothes and DVD's ( which I keep telling Neil probably won't even play in Canada). I don't know what has happened to both of us but we both seem too lethargic to do anything constructive towards our move. I just want to go to sleep and not wake up until it's time for a big and happy farewell party knowing that all the silly and sentimental possesions are well on their way and all we have left to do is catch a plane. Oh well, we better find out when the next ship leaves.....

Inside 5202.....

This is the hallway with the door to the basement first on the right and then the closet door. The den is just around the corner if you turn right instead of going out the front door.

You've seen this view before, yep its the living room again.

Here's a new view, from the stairs loking through to the kitchen.

Now this is our bathroom.

And finally our bedroom.

Little Rufie is a cutie!

Meet Rufus! This new addition to the family is Kate and Paul's newly adopted little kitten. Aaaww!

And here are the proud parents outside their lovely new home in Upnor.

Packing

We started packing our boxes ready to ship sometime this week. It was a scorcher of a day and the only place with enough room to see what we were packing was the weeny little garden of my mums house. We got pretty hot and bothered and eventually gave up and went to the pub but here is some evidence of the absolute and utter chaos that is currently our lives....

Doog, as usual, was doing his best to get in on the action or just plain get in the way!

Eeerrr... as you can see, our worldly goods don't amount to much anymore. Mostly books that we'll probably never read again and photos that we won't want to look at in Canada for fear of blubbing uncontrolably.

Neil getting stuck to some tape.

Doog in a fetching bubble-wrap jacket.

Doog steals some tape.........

and won't give it back!

When we couldn't take any more we took a stroll across the green down to the pub. "The Ship Inn" is one of four pubs in the village of Upnor. Not bad for a pretty tiny little villiage! The ship is on the river front and does the best food out of the four.

This is me sitting on the wall opposite "The Ship". In the background is the river Medway and in the distance the other shore is St Mary's Island where we lived up until we decided to sell everything we own and move in with my mum until we move accross the planet (why are we doing that again??) Our old house is the white blob on the right. We can see it from my Mum's house but up until now haven't really missed the place. We kind of miss it now though, it was a nice place to be in the summer.

Arthroscopy 2006

Here are some very blue photos from the day of my knee operation. They were taken on Neils phone and haven't come out too well but I thought I'd post them on here anyway.

The arrow helpfully points to the bad knee, I guess it's so that I didn't accidently get a Kidney transplant.

What a beautiful gown!

Drip.

This lady took some of my blood. I think she thought I was a little weird for asking Neil to photograph it.

RECAP.

Well I thought I would add a few quick photos on here so you can view all the sequence instead off scrolling down the never ending blog!

Just a quick update.

7 weeks and 6 Days to go ;)

Letter of resignation is DONE and ready to be handed in.

Bank accounts all set up in Canada.

Packing all boxes for shipment today.

dog all ready to go, Cage all set up, rabies done, passport done.

House almonst complete, sort of......

Level of nervousness is hitting 7 on the Nervousness scale and this scale only goes to 10!

Sophies Knee healing well. :)




Sooooooooooooooooo we will keep updating more often now as things start to happen.....

Dont forget there is a photo gallery which will also be updated with more photos.

8 WEEKS TO GO!

I cannot Belive that the house is almost ready, It feels like it was yesterday that I was in Canada sitting all my interviews and tests! It is not long until we leave, well to be precise it is 8 Weeks 1 day! Oh my god. There is very little to do now, I think we have done quiet well.

I have put some house interiour pics on here so you guys can see... I hope its not to boring for you all.



These two pics are looking at the staircase from the living room.

My what lovely concrete!

Our driveway has been poured and seems to be setting nicely. The cream coloured boarding has been completed on the front and it looks like we're just waiting for some shutters around the windows and the railings on the front porch. Oh and the proper front door which will be solid wood with four windows. Is it just me or is it always sunny in Beaumont?

Shcnitzel, Wine, Wedding and Rain....

Simon and Anne get married, Mosel region, Germany, 20th May 2006

My cousin Simon married his lovely girlfriend Anne in Traben-Trabach in the Mosel Valley in Germany on the 20th May. I went over for the weekend to join in the festivities with my Mum and Dad, my brother Dan and his girlfriend Mary-Jo. Neil, unforgivabley stood me up at the last minute due to work commitments(!?). He really missed a good weekend and he knows it! It was a beautiful place, a very quaint German town set astride the Mosel river and surrounded by vineyards. We did our best to sample the local wine and managed to taste quite a few varieties in the short time we were there! Due to my current knee problem I was struggling around on crutches which proved to be pretty difficult when wearing heals, trying to look elegant and trying to cope with rather steep, cobbled streets. It was a very mixed gathering, Anne is German and so most of her family were from Germany, my cousin Ben, Simons brother, lives in Luxembourg and he and his Portuguese wife traveled over by car. My Aunt and Uncle and other cousins and of course our little group all flew over from England, there was a lady from Canada and Anne's mother and step father who flew in from Nashville, Tennessee. The ceremony was carried out half in German and half in English as were most of the speeches! Just after the ceremony a large loaf of bread shaped like a figure of 8 was placed over the heads of the bride and groom (one head in each hole!) and they had to eat their way through the middle and then kiss eachother...Bizarre but really quite an entertaining addition to any wedding I'd say! Anyway here are a selection of piccies from the weekend, I'll try to post some more on the gallery when I get a chance......

Mr and Mrs Lyon(x3) and families

Rainbow over Traben-Trabach

Simon and Anne getting married.......Actually I think they were already married by this point.

Bride and Groom during the giant pretzel-eating competition!

Me and my Pa.

My mummy and those wretched cobbles!

OUTSIDE ALMOST DONE, EH?

A few more pictures on the progress.....
Looking good now eh?

Looking Good!

Things are looking good with the house now. The siding is almost done and the stonework on the front of the house around the porch and garage is almost complete. Just 2 months and 13 days to go ....

What no letter box!?

Across the street from Neil and Sophie's red house. Notice the big brown metal box there on the curb? That is the post box. In Canada you don't have a letter box in your door, you have a pigeon-hole thing in a box like this at the end of the road. This way Postie doesn't have to go far in the freezing cold. Luckily for us our post box is just across the street. Oh, it's also where you post letters too. Very handy indeed.

Oh look! another photo of our house, now you weren't expecting that were you!

What a gorgeous view of the back yard! So pretty.

This our "MAN DOOR!"in the garage. Sounds good eh?

Hasn't our siding man got a good tan? Looks warm in Beaumont.

Red Siding

The siding is on the house. Not quite finished yet but you can tell it looks good! For the last few months we've had a few funny looks from people when we say that we are having a red house. Well, now you can all see that it's not so odd after all. In fact I think it looks really, REALLY GOOD!

In other news, Neil's dad Dale has come over from Malta for a visit. As we don't currently have a house for him to stay in he is at Chris and Annie's for the week. So far we have been over every day and BBQ'ed. Their house is amazing, an old cottage out in the sticks with the most beautiful garden you could possibly imagine. We've been watching the bunnies and the pheasants wandering around while we scoff burgers, sip wine and listen to some more of Dales tales.

Oh I forgot to say that my dodgy Knee has returned with a vengeance! I have a loose piece of bone knocking around in the joint and generally causing me a little trouble. So, I'm back on crutches, well crutch actually as I don't really need both. I'm booked in for an Arthroscopy (err... not sure that's the right word?) on Thursday 25th when they are planning on sticking a little camera into my right knee with the hope of spotting the pesky loose bit and bringing it out. It's a general anesthetic job but I should be in and out of hospital in the same day and with a bit of luck back to normal walking within a few days, we'll see. I'm supposed to be off to Germany for my cousins wedding this weekend, oh how very elegant I'll look hobbling around with my stick!

Preparations for the big move all seem to be in hand. We've got a stash of packing boxes arriving today sometime and Neil has enlisted the ever helpful Dale to help us sort out what needs packing and what still needs ebaying. We still have two rows of three airplane seats available if anyone is interested?? Doogy is acclimatizing to his travel crate, He's been sleeping happily in it for about a month now. We've not tried him with the lid on yet but he defiantly knows that it's his bed. I'm actually quite jealous of the amount of space he'll have on the flight over to Calgary. If only the airlines stipulated that humans must have enough room to lay down and turn around too!

My Mum has booked flights to come over to Canada for a visit. She and Winnie will be arriving on 25th October and staying for a full 10 days which means they'll be with us for Halloween and my birthday! Its good to know that when we say goodbye in August (sniffle, sniffle) that it won't be long before we see eachother again.

Kate and Paul have finally signed their contract for The Boathouse in Upnor and should be able to move in in a couple of weeks. Miss Jerry Lee is going to love it there, she'll have a cat-flap once again and no more noisy traffic. Also she'll be near her ex Mummy and Daddy again so hopefully we'll be able to see her a bit more before we go.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

We have our visas! Yeah!
We actually got them last Thursday but it wasn't until we got them home that we realised they had spelt my name wrong. I was distraught! The visa was for a lady called Sophine?! Anyway Neil saved the day by queing for 5 hours the next morning at the Canadian High Commision where they stamped both of our visas CANCELLED WITHOUT PREJUDICE and issued us some nice new ones. So now we're all sorted and ready to go and become permanent residents of Canada, Yipeee!

GUMBALL 3000

OH MY GOD!! I got to go to the starting line of the GUMBALL 3000 in Central London.
Unbelievable. I saw all the stars and the cars.....
I wish i had a spare £40,000 to enter! Oh and a fast car. Oh well mabee next year. Hehe
So take a look.....








SO COOL