Today carpets have been laid in the last of the spare bedrooms and in the dining room. When we moved in just over three years ago the latter was decorated in sludge on most of the walls and feature wallpaper with huge turquoise and shiny gold flowers on the chimney breast. I thought feature wallpaper was a hideous mistake that was had been lost in the mists of the past but it seems to be a big thing up here in the North-east. The floor was a nasty quality "oak" laminate. The room is now transformed with soft cocoa-coloured walls, aubergine where the feature wallpaper was (for practical reasons), thick and bouncy aubergine carpet and aubergine curtains. It no longer echoes when you talk. I almost want to stay. Just the sitting room – currently full of its own furniture plus that of the dining room – still awaits new carpet.
I have spent the day trying to work out the value of everything that is going to be shipped for insurance purposes. I am shocked to discover that I have £200-worth of ordinary storage jars in different sizes. Not only can I not remember what I paid for various sets of glasses, but many of them were presents or inherited. For example, what kind of value do I put on my mother's rather unusual art deco pearlised cocktail glasses?
Yesterday Mr absent and I carried the heaviest bedroom furniture in the world down two flights of stairs to install it, obviously temporarily, in a different bedroom. Today we are having trouble raising our arms above shoulder height and turning suddenly.
I still don't quite believe all this is really happening. Am I really going to fly away from this country and settle halfway across the world in exactly one month from today? At my age? Well, yes absent, you are and you'd better get a move on with that insurance form, income tax return and returning the dresser and sideboard to the dining room.
Watch this space (or not if it bores you).
Things you find stressful that other people don't notice.
How do you acknowledge Easter.