The famous Alexander McCall Smith at this signing at John Lewis department store. He was charming and lovely. And has enormously bushy eyebrows. 

AND the super deluxe bonus, Alexander McCall Smith in my hood for a signing of his new Edinburgh-based books! 

Monitoring the progress....  

Our front entrance! Note the garden location down the stairs...  

The happy helper Mum Val with her grateful son 

Mark's pop Tim making a flower basket for our front stoop 

In the National Rent a Van ... headed to the promised land. 

The long and winding road on the A1 to Scotland 

At our good bye drink up with the Cambridge crew. I was deeply overserved this night and even barfed. Out with a bang. 

the fun of dis-assembly! This is Project Cambridge Exit 

10 initial reactions

1. We do not have broadband or a TV signal until next week making it 10 days sans connections. Am forced to Dial UP! And monitor my online time as it is 4p a minute!
2. We have an awesome home. Front stoop complete with in-law created hanging flower baskets. (my first!)
3. Back garden for table/chairs/laundry line
4. conservatory for total tea time with book and watching the sky
5. SEAGULLS! We are in the urban city, but no so far from the Firth of Forth, so instead of pigeons, we have literal squawking seagulls laughing and swooping.
6. Within 2 blocks: health food store, wine shop, Indian, Tapas, 3 pubs, Thai, Italian, Take Away joint, Coffee, 3 news agents, John Lewis & large shopping center, Fishmonger, award-winning butcher, florist, cute paper/cards store. WHAT MORE COULD A GIRL ASK FOR? Ok, a bookstore/library & a Bobbi Brown or Aveda store and a yoga center and a gym, but still... not shabby.
   
7. Despite a funds freeze, we have a small amount allocated for home decor -- and bought a great stripy rug for the l room. And god help us, we are going to Ikea today.
   
8. Promise to post photos as soon as I am organized.
   
9. We also have a power shower that makes you glad you are dirty.
   
10. I have to find a job.
    

finally here

• sorting, piling, taping, boxes, moving trucks, sweating, loading, cleaning, painting, cuts, bruises, so very dirty
• driving, tired, maps, more sweating, so very bleary
• stanley knives, rubbish, packing materials, bubble wrap, dumps, so very tired
• unpacking, assembling, washing, drilling, list making, so very weary
• choosing, deciding, head scratching, imagining, so very puzzled
• seeing what's possible, loving it, showering, so very clean
• walking to internet cafe to write, so very hopeful
• recovering and sighing happily, so very cheery

counting down to Edinburgh

we are on the hole filling, painting over the mess phase... we each have a bag of undies and clean clothes to live off of. Fridge is clean and food free. We have granola bars and take out menus.

Have to wrap the couch and the bed and the tea bags... movers come (I am being optimistic) tomorrow noon and load us up. Then we clean up the remainder of the house and get in the car and climb north for 3 hours. Stay in cheap roadside hotel and get back in the car at Oh:Dark Thirty Wednesday morning to continue the journey 3 1/2 more hours to sign the lease at 10:30 a.m. in Edinburgh. Movers to come to new pad with stuff at noon.

Fingers crossed. New home awaits!

I'd post

a photo of all the boxes I am crowded behind, but we already packed the cord that connects my camera to the computer. Mark, sans job is totally a dynamo with this packing business. I am literally left in the dust, weakly protesting that we don't need to pack up the bathrooms yet as we have 7 more days to live in this house. I can't complain -- he is really doing all the heavy lifting. I am still in the musing stage where I have to consider all my cosmetics and decide which lipsticks are not going to make the move with me. Mark has lists and schedules and time tables. I am clearly not in charge. It is lovely. Even if it is rushing my esoteric approach to packing. And things are getting 'ungrouped' which is a pet disturbance. ("The pillows all have to stay together!")

So I am hanging on to shreds of what is normal. And redefining that word hourly.
Next week at this time, we should be in our car driving part way to E-burgh for our Wednesday morning lease signing and key getting and mover meeting.

Now to ride the wave and throw out what is no longer serving me. Like old eyeliners of my life.

Add Lex in the middle for Charlie's Angels shot. These gals are not only brilliant, but beauties.  

Libby, me & Ulrika. Coach girl power when as we pow-wowed and reunited at Libby's London house for a day of sharing and eating Lurpak.  

summer summed up

Retiree Mark on Parker's Piece (a.k.a Parkers Posey) as we await the 6:00 p.m. opening of Mai Thai restaurant so we could use our (no lie) early bird coupon.

This photo is the wallpaper of my (new) flash mobile phone. I look like a proper savvy career girl again. Or at least my phone does.  

let the packing commence

Starting, um, Saturday!

I just can't seem to want to give up shades of normalcy. Once the first drawer is emptied, the first box created and taped and filled, we will have no more room to walk or breathe. I love normalcy. I loathe chaos.

So I am lalala, Ican'tseeyou to the giant stack of packing supplies in the corner of the living room. (if you face the TV you can't even see 'em!) And taking today as Throwing Away Magazines. It seems safe, makes room and is painless. (relatively, if anyone remembers my 10 year collection of Vanity Fairs in my Quebec House place, you know it ain't THAT easy)

Movers come July 25.

Plenty of time.

lalallalalalalalalala

mark's 2 cents

Mark adds:
- sunny days biking along the river
- discovering cute pubs

And I am adding:
- hanging laundry on our line
- the countrified blue blood Cambridge village types rather than the townies with their king cans of 10:00 a.m. lager who scared me

( I have to make him read this by the way, he claims he ' knows' what is going on in my life, so he doesn't need to read my blog. See how wrong he is??)

things I'll miss in Cambridge

1. watching the treetops and bird activity from the office window
2. biking midday to Cambridge market and looking at used books and fresh fruit
   
3. sessions at the complementary health center with my acupuncturist (and first mother of greenie) Laura
4. the predictability of the overly friendly butcher and the consistently amazing chicken breasts
   
5. living on the dead end with only foot traffic, bike traffic and people turning around in their cars who don't know it is a dead end
6. finding people resting, reading, hanging on any of the many greens at any time of day
7. the library -- order online, pick it up in person, badda boom badda bing
   
8. walking into any class at the gym and knowing someone and being friends with the instructor
   
9. the occasional booze fueled fight in front of our house, giving us front row seats to our morbid curiousity
10. the International store where I could discover ingredients I never knew exisited and I could count on for everything I ever needed for Indian or Thai cooking
    
11. daily Sainsbury trips
12. stretches of time with nothing but dinner to plan
13. my first home in the United Kingdom
14. familiar faces and casual acquaintances at the gym
15. actual friends and cheery souls who made the gym our second home
16. the bumpy, buggy bike path to the gym, where you pass a military training field full of bunnies
17. number 2 bus down Mill Road
    
18. No suits
19. Picturehouse Arts Theater -- for its bad lattes, its tasty cakes, wornout couches and ability to help us feel part of the cool culture, and the steady diet of essential film for 2 years
20. CB2 -- bloody mary, lamb burger lunches
21. annoying owner lady at the noodle house
22. our nearly nonexistent but friendly relations with our neighbor Chris
23. the gas fireplace -- nice for a quick ambiance shortcut or a warm up
24. our parking spot -- crooked and hard to get in, but always there
    
25. the place where we made it all come real