Last night of normality

Here's a view of our office tonight, it's the last refuge of things that won't be packed tomorrow or Friday when the packers arrive. They're due to come here for 4 days and "wrap and pack" everything, and on the fifth day - next Wednesday - the 40-foot container will arrive outside and they'll load all of it into that.
That's the plan, anyway. So this evening we've been trying to clear the ground a little in some rooms so they can find something to do tomorrow. Stranglely, perhaps, we're going to tell them to start in the most-used room, the kitchen.  We've borrowed some crockery and cutlery from my mum, stuck it in a cupboard in the kitchen and stuck a note on the door of that cupboard saying "Please do NOT pack anything from this cupboard". That should do the trick. Everything else in a cupboard is fair game, though not everything on the worktops... there's no reason for us to take a toaster, kettle or microwave, whilst they might just work over there, we've got to have some fun buying new ones, with the right plug on!
It's proving quite difficult to balance everything at the moment; Olga and I are flat out with work commitments, partly by coincidence and partly because we need to get some jobs done before we go. We're also busy trying to cancel things, arrange things, sell things, buy things, pack things and throw things away. Danil has got in on the act by deciding tonight at midnight that he was bored sleeping in his own bed, so he's watching nursery rhymes on our eee-pad in the TV room while I write this post and try to get some more work done. Olga's committed to giving some online training tomorrow morning to three Kazakh gentlemen at between 10am and noon, and the packers are due to arrive between 9 and 10am. I've applied for a Canadian American Express card this evening, as we already have UK ones, and they tell me they'll just transfer our credit limit over to the new card, using our rental address (with owner's permission) but still they want a phone number, which I don't have...
So, I thought I'd get myself a Canadian SkypeIn number, that would work. Nope, the Canadian authorities haven't given Skype the correct license to do that yet, so I've had to use an American number, from Grand Falls, Montana. At least the number will work, if AmEx need to call me, it's not like I've lied..
That's typical of what we're going through at the moment. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel rushed up on us, and we've gone from feeling calm and collected about the whole thing to wondering if we'll sleep during the rest of July.
I think things will look quite different tomorrow, especially in our kitchen!

Lara Graduates from Reception

It was Lara's summer production today at school, and "Graduation" ceremony. She had even made her own mortar board hat, and was given a certificate. Her last day will be on Friday, although she has two birthday parties to attend before we fly to Calgary, so it won't be the last time she'll see her school friends:

The production was "The Gingerbread Man", and Lara played the part of the Old Lady. She was very confident, so those trips to drama and musical theatre classes have paid off!
When I told the admin lady in the school office that Lara wouldn't be returning in September, she was very disappointed: "Lara? Do you have to take her? She's lovely! Can't you take one of the naughty ones!?"
So, two more days of Reception, then it's time to prepare for Grade One, although we won't know where until we've found a house to buy over there. Olga's had some chats on the phone with an estate agent in Calgary, and we'll be viewing potential properties the morning after we arrive. There's no time to waste!

Oh, and that reminds me of something else Lara said that made me smile today - she said elevator instead of lift. We're planning on immersing ourselves fully in the culture, which means adapting to the language, so no more talk of estate agents, it's the Realtor from now on...

3 weeks to go...

It's all getting a bit exciting now!
Today I finally realised that the packers are coming next week to start, well, packing. Thursday to be precise.
Two weeks from today the container will arrive to take everything away, and three weeks from today we'll be flying from Manchester.
Wow. Most things are done though, there's not really much we can do at the moment - we can't pack anything, that's what the packers are coming to do. We can throw things away that we won't be taking, or sell things - we've made a profit on some of the baby things we've sold on eBay, so well done to Olga for buying it so cheap first time around!
Hire cars are booked, Sky has been given it's notice, but strangely very few service providers seem to want 30 days notice now. Most of the insurers & utilities providers have told me to call back nearer the time when I tried to cancel services with 30-something days to go.
Prospective tenants have been visiting the house, hopefully they've seen past the chaos that's going on. It can't have been as bad as when we viewed this place last year - there was a motorbike in the kitchen.
We'll be resigning from work soon - our last working day will be August 6th, with a new contract starting between our current employers and Olga and my new Canadian companies on August 7th. We're going straight on holiday for 10 days though - there's so much to do on the other side, not least buying mobile phones, a house, a car...
Lara was sweet today. She told me she couldn't get to sleep; I assumed it was because of the heat:

"No, Papa, I'm too excited!".
"What about, Lara?"
"The move!!!!"

She really is taking it very well, there doesn't seem to be any apprehension on her part, she really does seem to be excited about the whole idea. She doesn't seem bothered by having to start a new school, in fact we think she actually wants to be able to ride on a yellow school bus every day!

I had to do some shopping at Tesco on Monday, and it dawned on me then that I only needed one tub of butter (not the usual 2-for-1 offer), one small tomato ketchup, only one large kitchen roll... all those things that I've just bought in bulk before without thinking ("They'll get used eventually") aren't needed any more.
That was weird.

A Day Trip to London

I like making these video albums set to music, so here's another one.
On Saturday 6th July we got up a silly o'clock (4.15am) to catch an early train to London. The weather was brilliant, we went on the London Eye, had a picnic in St James' Park, walked past Buckingham Palace, went to the Natural History Museum and finally visited the pub near Notting Hill Gate where Olga worked 10 years ago while she was living in London.

A wonderful view of Bury (yes, it's true)

With three weeks left before we leave, on Sunday Olga, Lara, Dan, the dogs and I set off up Holcombe Hill, overlooking Bury, Ramsbottom, Rochdale and down into Manchester and beyond.  On top of Holcombe Hill is Peel Tower, a monument to Sir Robert Peel, and in my now 39 years, I've never been to the top - until Sunday. Lara raced up the 173 steps to the top, I was a bit more careful with Dan on my back, while Olga waited outside with the dogs. It was well worth the climb, and a lovely thing to tick off my "must-do" list. Afterwards we recovered with a drink at Ramsbottom Cricket Club.