done

It is done. We moved out yesterday, shifting all the boxes and bags in 90 minutes with the help of our friend Ruth and later also Sonja. At that point, 11:30am, Bronwyn had to head to school. She was playing music for the matinee of the pantomime that she's been practising for these last weeks. Meanwhile Hayley, Nick and I returned to the old flat for final cleaning, concluding with Nick and I washing, waxing and polishing the wooden floors throughout. (There isn't a square inch of carpet in the old flat—just lino and wood.) Then finally, it was all done.

We turned out attention to sprucing ourselves up, and headed out to Bronwyn's school for the evening show of the Pantomime. Bronwyn's playing was good. The sets and costumes were impressive. And I can honestly say I've never seen a Pantomime before...

Nick and Hayley's new place is nice, and quite spacious... for a couple. Currently, there are four of us here. So it's cozy. With Nick and Hayley, Bronwyn and I have been playing at move-in, like guessing where the dishes might be supposed to go after you dry them, re-pressurising the central heating system, and bleeding air bubbles out of the radiators. The lounge is a bit of a mess at times, but once Nick and Hayley evict the squatters in a couple of weeks things should look considerably more sensible.

If the eye of the hurricane is quiet, so is the eye of the move... That sudden stillness between shifting out, and getting technology connected at the other end. While BT made the generous offer to send an engineer round in about a month to connect a telephone, Nick has located a cable company who will do phone and internet together this Thursday... That still amounts to six days without the internet (at home). I'm in withdrawal. I can get a fix at work, but it's not the same. Meanwhile, for emergencies Bronwyn and I both have our mobiles still.

As for the old flat, tomorrow we return the keys.