After a 3 month break....

So tonight is the end of our 9 day holiday and it has been a crazy busy week. As everyone knows, it started with picking up the keys for our new home on Friday afternoon. So off Joni and I go to the estate agent, every bit of documentation we could think of in one hand, id in the other. We walk into the agents and say its Joni and Fiona to pick up the keys and..... they just hand them over. No questions, no form signing, just here is an envelope, have a nice day.

And then it was a very short drive around the corner to our new home. And no exaggeration, we just walked around the whole house, just looking and smiling, twice before we were capable of doing anything else. Eventually we got it together and bounced off to my parents to fetch the essentials (airbed, TV, champaign) and spent our first night eating fish & chips and sleeping on the living room floor. Can't say I slept very much.

The next day passed in a whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm as a whole load of people turned up once again to help us move. I promise this time it will be for more than a year! I suspect even a free MacDonalds wouldn't get them all to help again if we declare we are moving again before 2015! I am particularly grateful to the guys who stuck around after our first BBQ and found a final wave of energy to t tidy the living room at 10pm. I'm sure the beer had nothing to do with it!

Basically all we did for the next four days was unpack. We lost an entire day (and a few years off my life I suspect) to an IKEA wardrobe. Special mention must go to Tim who came round every day to drill holes, build furniture and generally be the man about the house. He left his tools which was definitely a big mistake. Today we managed toll makes a fair cockup of hanging a spice rack but it's fine. The last guy left us half a tin of kitchen paint.

On Thursday we spoke up early but we realised if we didn't get away for the diy soon we were both going to lose it, so we went to Chester zoo and it was amazing, if a little cold. We then went home and Joni got really really drunk in or house for the first time. It was a good day.

We spent the rest of the weekend making sure the house was ready for us to go back to work. We've reached a pretty good stage now. Nothing more really needs doing, just the odd little job it would be nice to fix. Strangely I'm really looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Tomorrow marks the official start typo the return to normality for me and Joni, and I couldn't be more excited.

All for one....

Following the success of the 2011 Bond Marathon, I think I have decided to embark on a new mission in celluloid. And it starts with spotting a DVD case at Tim's house, and getting a free book with my Nexus. These 2 things lead me to fancying watching The Three Musketeers. So we searched it on LoveFilm and got the longest list of films I have ever seen. At least 15 three musketeers films, and that before you reach the barbie version!

So that is the mission, To watch as many versions of The Three Musketeers as possible in one year, to try and work out why it is the most over-done franchise ever, and if any of them are actually any good. I will also attempt to read the originals book to find out what the story actually is.

So, I started this mission with the 2011 version, staring Orlando Bloom, Matthew Macfadyen and a whole load of other fairly famous people. This was a fully American version and it was given the Steam Punk treatment (for anyone who doesn't know, Steam Punk is a style which is set in the 19th or 20th century but with some 'modern' technology. Think the Robert DJ Sherlock style). In true American style everything was over the top, and all the writing budget was spent on lavish sets and dresses with some seriously tight corsets. But the plot just about held together and the acting was only a little over the top. And it was pretty enjoyable to watch. The biggest mystery to me was probably what Mas Mickelson was doing in this film, and why they bothered to put so much effort into setting up for the sequel which clearly was not going to get funded.

So first up was a typical American action film, but one of the better ones. Next Maybe to go further back in time... 

Solicitor-cide - is it a crime?

So on Saturday I agreed to buy the house for like the 10th time, and I suggested the date of the 12th for moving. The seller, being the total arose he has shown himself to be over the last 53 days took the best part of 4 days to get back to us and said... No. He suggested the 26th. I have to confess at this point I somewhat lost it. Actually,I lost it quite a lot. In a corridor at work. People in the next office heard. Vicky from marketing came to ask who had pissed me off.

I told the estate agent in no uncertain terms that the 26th would not do, and if he couldn't do the 12th, I can do the 11th. This time it only took 3 hours to get back to me - would the 19th do? The 19th will do, thank you.

And there, I thought we finally had it. We even celebrated a little. There was pizza and pop. And then came morning. And that quick call to the solicitor to organise the signing....

Yeh.

That.

Only my solicitor has gone on holiday all week. Without telling us. And the person she has left in charge is a full scale idiot. She had no idea what was going on with our file and couldn't get proper access to our solicitors stuff until the secretary was around. Most annoyingly, despite me calling 3 more times she didn't return my calls so I still cant confirm when I am moving. So I can't book my time off work. So I still cant sort my work diary out and confirm with my boss what I will be up to in a fortnight.

Not. Impressed.