Still ill

But we had a restful weekend and I think we're all on the mend. J stayed home from work today and we're just relaxing. Toby and I made cookies the lazy way - premade dough. Toby 'helped' which means he came in, scooped up a ball of dough, then dashed off to eat it in the living room. Wouldn't get too many cookies made using the Toby process but the dough does taste good.

We've just about decided to put the house on the market in April. We're all away to various places in May (me and Tobes to Texas and J is off to Australia, Arizona and Texas) and we thought it would be a good time to do viewings while we're away. I really like the estate agents we're going with. They've sold this house eleven times. Sounds like a lot but that's over a hundred year period remember. They're a nice, established firm with a lot of integrity. Some of the agents here are just so incredibly rude. I don't want to have to deal with a lot of attitude along with all the stresses of buying and selling at the same time.

This will be move number eleven for us and eleven is my lucky number. Our previous moves have been:

June '92 - Moved into our one bed apartment in Austin. Hired a Uhaul which I had to drive since J didn't have a US licence. No one lost their lives though my brother probably wished he was dead when he turned up five hours late to help us move. Luckily my temper has mellowed (slightly) over the years.

Dec '93 - Moved to England with $500, no jobs, too many of my clothes and very few belongings. God bless youth and ignorance.

June '94 - After bouncing around from J's parents house to a friend's house, where J and I slept together on a twin bed for two months, we moved into a furnished two bed flat in Cambridge. When Nikki visited us she thought the building was condemned. We were so broke we had no TV or stereo but I managed to buy a transistor radio by saving cereal box tops. Woo hoo!

June '96 - Decided to move to the country and lived in a beautiful 250 year old cottage in Stow-cum-Quy. This was our first unfurnished home and we spent quite a long period of time with lawn chairs in the living room and the TV on the floor. Within a year the lack of central heating and abundance of Ninja-trained mice drove us back into Cambridge.

July '97 - Moved into a two-bed almost brand new flat in Cambridge. This was the start of one of the happiest times of our lives. Jenny and Kieran moved in across the hall and we spent many evenings meeting up at the Seattle Coffee House, riding our bikes through Cambridge and just hanging out. It was a lovely, gentle time of life.

January '00 - The Millenium brought big changes. We moved to a tiny one-bed flat in Barnes in SW London. I changed jobs and was deliriously happy. Six months later we had the offer to move to Tokyo.

January '01 - Off again, this time to a one-bed flat in Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo. Just down the road from the Imperial Palace. What an adventure! Very hard work at times but made some very special friends and came back to England a year later pregnant with Toby. Yes, he can say he really was 'Made in Japan'.

March '02 - After six weeks of staying in a hotel in Cambridge and looking for a flat there we decided that our place was still in London and moved into a lovely two-bed flat back in Barnes. Loved that flat and I think we've tried to recreate it as much as possible in this house. Even the fireplace we bought is the same!

March '03 - Growing restless for a place to put down roots. Barnes was lovely but really not quite right for us. We visit George and Tim in Chislehurst and after seeing the price of property here we move into a three-bed flat and start looking for a home to buy. The flat is on the second floor (that's third floor in American) and J almost cries during the move, it's such hard work. After this we decide to always use a moving company to do the work for us. We were in this flat for just over six months but Toby took his first steps here and we had his first birthday party in this flat. After almost ten years, Mom and Dad visit again and this is where we're living at the time. So much to happen in such a temporary place.

October '03 - We move into the first home we've owned! A tiny but lovely two-bed Victorian terraced house in Chislehurst. We virtually gut the place and renovate from top to bottom so it's well and truly ours. Once the dust settles we realise that we miss London and decide to move back into town. Good lord.