Last day of (UK) work

Today is the last day of UK-based work for both of us. Stuart is in Appleton de-artexing (technical term) a couple of ceilings, and I am in the office trying to tie up as many loose ends as possible.

It hasn't really sunk in properly that I'm not going to come to work here any more, and everything seems a bit surreal today.

We're both still really tired - Stuart has had a hectic week of working as well as travelling up and down to Birmingham again, and we're both feeling a bit disoriented and worn out mentally from constantly being on the move between places. I dream of a night in my own bed - then realise I don't have one at the moment (or rather I do, but it is in pieces somewhere in a warehouse in Worcestershire!). I'm not sure either of us has had the chance to recover properly from Saturday night's festivities, and our nomadic lifestyle has meant that we've been staying up later than usual, drinking more than usual and getting up earlier than usual.

The last week or so may have been tiring and disorienting, but our friends have been utterly wonderful in offering us beds and meals, storing bags and boxes, and providing a washing service. Everyone has been so very kind and generous, but we'd like to say special (huge) thank yous to Allison and Q, Sarah and Dave, and Virginia and Ben for the beds and delicious meals, and to Allison, Sarah and Wendy for washing services (I would think that washing my sweaty gym kit would go beyond the call of duty for anyone, so I am extremely grateful that it hasn't had to fester in the back of my car!).

Our bags and belongings are now scattered between Wallingford, Harwell and those that we're still carrying around with us on a daily basis, so one of tomorrow's tasks will be to collect them all up into one place and check they are all present and correct.

The news from Italy is that all the paperwork for the mortgage has been sorted and is all ready to go for the meeting on 9th May. Phew, what a relief!

I will be going into the local branch of my bank today to ask them to make the transfer of funds to the seller - it's quite daunting being responsible for sending such a large sum of money! We need to do it now so that by the time the meeting comes around we have proof of sending the funds and the sellers have proof of receiving them.

Tomorrow's to-do list is pretty long, although we can tick off the job of taking Stuart's car into Oxford to sell because Ben is going to take it off his hands and use it as a runaround for the dojo. It's a bit less stylish than the current Can Do truck, but should trundle from A to B quite happily :-)

Other things we need to do tomorrow include visits to the bank, the post office and the council offices (to return a garage key), as well as various bits of admin/paperwork and trying to get everything in order.

We're inviting friends to join us for a drink at the Brewery Tap tomorrow evening - we're hoping to see lots of friendly faces, but not so sure I like the idea saying our goodbyes!

~ Helen