It's rolling quickly

Like a fast moving train it's gone really quickly. The week started and ended like a blinking light bulb. Only 6.5 more blinks to go...
Scary, sad, worrying etc.

We've accepted an offer on the house and it's really sad. It's really hard. Sometimes I sit and wonder what on earth I'm doing. I had a lovely home, a great job, my family close by and my best mate 2 minutes away. That's what number 14 represents and it's very hard when someone stands in your kitchen and says "I only bought it on Friday and I'm already thinking nets". You remember the first few weeks that you spent in your new home excited about the prospect of finally owning your own house as you removed the revolting nets from the window and made the house your own.

When they say of course we'll rip out this carpet and you remember that not even 12 months ago you'd managed to save £5oo to pay for it. When they walk around your home and cheerfully point out that you haven't yet removed that picture or that ornament.
It's still my home and I have to let go.

It represents so much more than bricks and mortar and it's not easy. I want it to go through quickly because the quicker the knife falls the sooner it will all be over. Sooner I have to let go.

Number 14 will be the dream for a new young couple and they’ll fill it with their hopes and ideals. It will hold as many wonderful memories for them as it has done for me. It’s a wonderful home with a brilliant spirit. I am really happy and excited for them and I understand.

If you're reading this you might think that I regret what's happening. I don't. I can't wait. Part of me wishes that I could take my best mate, my cats, my job, my home and everything I love about England with me in 6 1/2 weeks, but I can't, and I guess if I could then it would kind of defeat the object. We'll have a great adventure and when we get back we can buy a new house, a new bubble to feel safe, secure and happy in. Two minutes from my best friend's house and down the road from my family. I can pick up where I left off and I'll have had a new enriching experience to remember for the rest of my life.

Believe me tying me to a chair and not letting me go sounds tempting some times but nothing amazing ever comes easy...

For the fans...

Span you'll love this...

We're on the move.

Well today we have opened a bank account in Oz, been to Costco to set the cats up with enough food to last then for the next few months and moved all of our personal effects to my mothers; including the cats.

Hendrix is like a kitten in a whiskas treat shop, mewing and exploring and leaping about. Stan, on the other hand is a little more reserved; infact terrified and it has taken him an hour to get out of the bottom of the wardrobe. I keep thinking " Well it's nearly 10pm we better get home" except we're not going home...

Where will you be?

Where will you be in 40 years time? Who will you have lost? What will you remember?
Who will carry it all on?

This is beautiful..




In the end, what really matters?

Introducing the new lead singer of Jesus Was A Gent..

Mini Jones....

Oscar is the latest arrival to the gang and is currently in training as the new lead vocalist for the Rock sensation that is Jesus Was a Gent.

It was really nce to see Gerin again and to meet Kate and Oscar (Cool name)
They have just moved into a really nice flat in Cardiff and little Oscar is absolutly 100% muchable.

House For Sale.

My goodness it's been over a month since I last contributed to this blog. Shocking. I can only appologise to the three people who read it ;)

The reason for this absense is perhaps more permisable. I'm leaving for OZ in 9 WEEKS!!!! OMFG!!

The last month has been the most tiring and overwhelming 4 weeks I think I have ever experienced. This "trips to far flung countries" has created more of a blur than a colour!
Don't get me wrong, I don't for one minute regret the decisions that we have made or the time scale that we have chosen to work to. I do however, have a right to feel absoloutly knackered.

Believe it or not it is also possible to feel nothing about such a big event. Everything HAS to be done and as a result you don't really have time to consider how you might feel about it. When you've invested as much time and money into something you can't allow yourself to get setimental about your home or the things you are going to leave behind and, in those moments where you fear that on DEC23rd you will tie yourself to the bottom of the bannister and refuse to go because it's so god damn scary, you have to remind yourself that even though you will be thousands of miles from all of the things that are familiar and true in your life you will also have an amazing experience. Your friends and family will all be exactly as you left them when you return and your conversations might even be filled with different quips. LOM might find himself asking "So you've lived in Australia have you?" instead of the usual because I will have something else to talk about. (he's already slipped in a "are you going somewhere then?" quip more than once this past week.)

People keep telling me how brave we are. This fills me with dread because I don't feel brave and I'm not even sure why I need to feel brave. If I thought about it too long I'd end up panicing that there was something that I'd forgotten that was really very important. Instead I've come to realise that that phrase says a lot more about them and the dreams that they once had than it does about anything that I'm about to do. At the end of the day LOF and I are about to do something really exciting and wonderful and if we can get through the planning and preparation for all of this then we can do anything!

We've made several important decisions this month. For example, we've decided to sell the house. No, this does not mean (as many of colleagues think) that we have decided not to come home. It's just going to mean that we don't have to worry about tennants recking out beautiful home or the rent not being paid and our mortgage going into arrears. It is a massive decision though and I am sure that Matt was quite surprised when I agreed without a second thought. He is having sleepness nights though over what amount of money we should ask for.

We're also offering the furniture to the lucky home buyer. This is to help reduce the cost of storage at £80 a month. A big box in a field is £80 a month.

I've cancelled the TV liscense, the broadband, the telephone etc. so in a few days the family Woodward-Clarke are moving into my mums. (I've promised Matt that I will buy him a a pair of earplugs so that the early mornign Saturday disco doesn't wake him up)

As for staying in OZ for a year? I know it's going to go one of two ways either we'll miss home like crazy and come home in 6 or we'll stay longer than a year. I've been at Shenley nearly a year now and it only feels like a few weeks!

Appologies to all those I work with at Shenley for the emergence of my sewer mouth. My hysteria seems to have brought about the regular use of some rather nasty obesenities. I was heard to say "That's getting right on my knob" the other day - it made me laugh though due to the apparant lack of one of those appendenges. And when I was setting up Year 8s disco the other day. I thought I was in a room full of adults and said lots of rude words only to realise one of the year 8s was sat very quietly in the corner of the room!!! :o Shocking isn't it.

If I am not myself it is because I am so incredibly busy that I'm very sleepy. I'm still me and I'm still happy I'm just not as bouyant as I normally am.

Blast from the Past

We went to a wedding at the weekend. Have a brilliant video of LOF but he won't let me put it on here :( So please ask and he'll have to watch you watch him over a cup of tea! ;)

Matt (and Bogus) went to uni with this lot... ( i was there too but in a tag along capacity as I never got the A levels....)
and it was Kate and Dave's wedding. Needless to say they were both extremely happy. Dave got the Blues Brothers ( 'a tribute to' of course) to attend the reception (he was little obsessed with them at uni) and everyone had a great time. Especially after we'd managed to to evade a certain person's company....

The wedding was themed around diving and they had the most amazing wedding cake. Check out the dangling fishes! (NEMO!) and the sting rays on the bottom layer. LOF did point out (rather un-tactfully) that they'd forgotten to add a certain aussie hero on the bottom layer..











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