MACINTOSH MONDAY

Currently Hannah and I are sitting in Heathrow airport enjoying some fine dining before we fly off to the sunny state of California. We found saying our goodbyes over the last few weeks has been pretty painful. The last two days of saying goodbye to family has probably been the hardest. But then this morning we had to say goodbye to someone who doesn't understand whats going on and has no idea whats in store for him. Yup Macintosh was totally oblivious to all things as he went about his morning routine of chaos, including a few stand offs with the cat! After some snuggles and a walk we were finally ready to say goodbye to a then very sleepy beagle. 

As we piled everything into the car we looked back at the house to see his little face up at the window, tail wagging looking at us. That image will be burned in our mind over the next month as we are separated. But don't worry this isn't the end of Macintosh mondays as Han's parents are looking after him and will provide us with plenty of stories and photos to fill the blog. If you wish to appear of Macintosh monday feel free to pop into the Kebles and get your photo taken with Mac. 

We'll leave you with yet another photo of his adorableness as we go back to living luxuriously in Heathrow (well Cali too!)

A

                                    

SAYING GOODBYE TO HUGO

Hugo was our faithful car. He had been with us from the very beginning of our married life. We bought him in the June before our wedding after Andrew's preious rust bucket finally gave way. We pitched up to the garage to get him and Andrew had typically forgotten his driving licence so I had to test drive the car, with Andrew, my dad and the garage bod in the car. I was so happy with this arrangement....NOT! Once we finally bought him I had to look after Hugo for the first week. It was blissful being able to drive around wherever and whenever I wanted. 

Hugo has taken us to so many places; moving us to our first home, holidays in the Lake and Peak districts, weddings of friends spread throughout the country, picking up Macintosh for the first time and many more. 

We will miss you Hugo, we intended to have you forever. Enjoy your new owners and get them safely to all destinations please!

H 

                 

SAYING GOODBYE TO LINCOLN

It's been hard saying goodbye to Lincoln and to all the friends we have made here over the past three and a half years. We spent 9 days here sorting out all the last minute things, packing and saying goodbye to all our friends. Those days have also been filled with lots of lovely food, dog walks and generally enjoying Lincoln.

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to. 

H

BLEAK HOUSE

Welcome to Bleak House!

On Wednesday and Thursday this week our entire house with all its contents was packed up either into a shipping container bound for America or into storage. We spent the entire time half watching the dog to ensure he didn't escape through either of the open doors and half ensuring the correct items were sent to America. I mean it would be pretty frustrating if we ended up with all our useless storage stuff in California rather than the useful bits!

Here are a couple of photos of the packing process. Note the dog sleeping peacefully through it all without a care in the world!

It was a bit chaotic but when the final truck left on Thursday afternoon we realised just how empty our house is! Andrew and I are living in the house for the next few days, until we march out, so we are essentially camping in the house. We are using the smallest amount of stuff ever, which was all borrowed from my parents. 

Here are a couple of photos of our very bleak house...

Yup it really is that bleak. Thank goodness its only for a while. Oh and yes we are moving to a hot and sunny place. I shouldn't really complain should I?!

H

RETURNING TO FACTORY SETTINGS

Now that our move date is less than 20 days away we are busy returning our house to 'factory settings' ready for the march out. Factory settings means all nails come out of the walls, the garden is neat and tidy, the whole house has been cleaned and most importantly all the walls are magnolia. 

When we moved into the house back in 2010 I really got fed up with the magnolia walls everywhere and asked Andrew if he would help me paint a feature wall in both the bedroom and the lounge. He agreed and after much discussion we finally agreed on the colours; a green for the lounge and a duck egg for the bedroom.

This week my Mum has been staying up helping me to repaint and sort the house to return it to this factory state. It was surprisingly quick and we managed to complete it in one day. Here are some photos showing the room back to its original state. 

Next challenge is to get the rest of the house emptied and tidied, but before that I'm off to the rubbish tip to remove some junk! No prizes for guessing whose junk it is! 

H 

DEPARTURE MINUS 9 HOURS AND COUNTING!

Tomorrow at an unearthly hour I must leave home and head west again. Once again I have finally finished packing last minute with a load of help from Han, ok she did most of it. It shouldn't be that hard because after bringing so much chocolate home I didn't have much room for anything else!

Today we went for a great long walk with Mac down to the local village and Mac loved it! I'm really gona miss the lil fella. I am so impressed with how he has learnt to chill out and become slightly more obedient. That may be something to do with me being away. Hmmmm. There's no one here to feed him under the table.

It was great to see family and friends again over Christmas, even though it was a bit of a whistle stop tour but I have some funny photos to capture some of those memories. This last week was especially crazy as the some water entered the fuse box in the car. Its an odd moment having your neighbour tell you your car's going crazy. She wasn't wrong; the car looked like Herbie the beetle all the lights were flashing and the windscreen wipers were going (this only occurred when you turn the ignition off though!). Eventually after a lot of fuss it got fixed when driving to meet friends We had to have the heating on full blast!! It was hotter than Florida!!

So now I'm off to bed before we drive to the airport. I'll check in once I'm on the other side of the pond. Heres a few wintery snaps of the walk. Goodnight!

A

GOODBYES

So as I prepare to move I must also come to the inevitable goodbyes. Being a 'mildly emotionally constipated' bloke, it is something I find odd at times! Maybe some of you will agree; long term goodbyes are just weird and they usually ends up with the same old phase "see you later" but with a look in your eye that says 'I don't know why I just said that as we all know its gonna be ages before I next see you'.

Plus I have to hug a load of people I never normally hug on a day to day basis, leading to me just hugging everyone, including the people who do not like hugs. Maybe there should be an engineer's fix to this, a procedure that covers all the ponderables and leaves me with no worries; a flow chart of some sort maybe. I'll add that to the ideas list maybe one day.

Well best finish this packing, but let me not get started on packing! And yes the observant will notice I've just started packing for 6 months and I fly tomorrow. This is normal...

Ok well maybe leave the packing for abit. It might disappear and in the mean time I think I'll have a brew from one of my fav teapots.

A