Landed!!

Finally here in NZ. Stayed 2 nights at a motel and are now homeless due to football match taking all the bookings. Vanessa has bought a car, a Holden Cruze which is a Corsa sized 4x4, they are refurbing the alloys so have got a Toyota Hiace on free loan from the garage, we may be sleeping in it tonight! But it stinks of smoke, urghh. People are lovely, can't do enough to help. Bit chilly when the sun goes in but nice otherwise. Beach is fantastic!!!!!!!!!

Money running out, photo's to follow when we have a roof over our heads.

Singapore

...was great. Beautiful, clean, fab food, friendly helpful people and lovely weather. Our hotel overlooked Raffles, and we had a great view of the skyline. Updates when not on PAYG internet access and photos to follow.

EDIT: photo's above. The red roof's are of the Raffles complex from our hotel room, the far right square of roof is of the famous hotel. C didn't get to enter as was wearing shorts but V did!

Blurry image is of C on the phone to Paul Muldowney...my last call in the UK, but not my last text, eh Strawb. Also Alex enjoying the aquatiuc centre on Sentosa Island.

Boxes everywhere!

Tuesday 20 September. The packers, Crown Relocations, have spent two days boxing up and packing everything, and I mean everything. Nothing is loose, its either in a box or wrapped in paper. Every room is stacked to the ceiling with boxes. They return tomorrow to load the container and crate up the motorbike.

Diesel was taken off yesterday, he didn't seem too happy about his crate but Airpets were courteous enough to phone last night to say he had settled in nicely. He's got to have some jabs and stool samples taken before flying to join us in about 4 weeks.

The kids are understandably excited, Alex is particularly hyper at the moment and the pair of them are a constant barrage of noise and running around. So thankfully they are staying at the Grandparents tonight.

We are exhausted.

Unfortunately the buggeration over exchange has meant that we have missed the opportunity to go to Cambodia. So thanks Fennemore's solicitors, your ineptitude IMHO has cost us lost wages, the kids education, lost sleep and also this chance to visit the temples of Seum Reup. Oh yeah, and £200 of malaria tablets.

Instead we are spending 4 nights in Singapore, flying out tomorrow evening with a special trip to the airport.

Exchange at Last

After a very stressful day indeed, we have exchanged contracts. Talk about cutting it close to the wire thought - I was on the phone cancelling the removal firm when the solicitor rang to tell us. We will update our plans over the weekend when we've had a chance to draw breath.

Will it Happen?

Today is the day when we will (hopefully) find out if we are going to exchange contracts on the house. Watch this space!!

Still Waiting

For the seond time we have been told that we will not exchange contracts on the house this week. Neeedless to say we are pretty hacked off. Chris has been to the solicitors and estate agents and told them that if we do not exchange by close of play next Friday we're taking the house off the market. The plan then will be to have a long holiday in New Zealand to investigate the best place to live and then come back and put the house back on the market. So, we shall see!

What a bummer!

Well, we didn't manage to exchange today so the shippers and Airpets have been re-arranged to the week after next in the vain hope that we will exchange next Friday. Watch this space!

We haven't left yet!

OK - we are supposed to be exchanging contracts on the house tomorrow (Friday) but as of yesterday, we still have no confirmation from our solicitor that everyone is ready to go. The frustration has really set in now. We have the shippers provisionally booked to come in next Tues, Weds and Thurs. Airpets are provisionally booked next Monday to take Diesel (the dog) off for his enforced 25 day stay and we haven't yet booked our flights!

We also decided to take a holiday en-route to iron out some of the stress of the last few months, and ease us into our new life gently - we will need it! As soon as we exchange, we will be booking a week in Siem Reap, Cambodia and a couple of days in Singapore - I can't wait.