17:00 It's been a bit of a messy day here so far, to put it mildly. Our daughter Sarah, plus husband Francis and their 9-year-old twins Lily and Jessica are staying with Lois and me in our not-big-enough-for-six new-build home in Malvern, after their return from their 7 years in Australia.
They need to find somewhere semi-permanent pretty soon, because all their "stuff", in its containers, is on its way by sea from Australia, and Sarah finds online that it's currently in the Bay of Biscay, heading for the English Channel - still on board ship, not in the water, as far as we know haha!
YIKES!!! It's nearly here !!!!!
YIKES (again) !!!!!!
This morning, Sarah rings the shipping company, SevenSeas, who, she says, has provided excellent customer service all along. She finds out that even after the shop docks in London, it will take 2 weeks before it's fully unloaded and then after that, customers are entitled to 2 weeks' free storage at the port of entry, and they can also even pay for additional storage after that if they're not ready to receive the stuff.
Big relief all round, which is nice. The family need some good news for a change!
a typical Seven Seas shipping company vessel
the family need some good news for a change - my goodness!!!!
The shipping company of course need to have an address that they can send the family's stuff to after its arrival in the UK, and therein lies the problem. Sarah and Francis have agreed to sign the lease to a rental home nearer to Sarah's workplace in Evesham "from around the end of May", but the rental agent and house-owner have yet to fix a precise date for them to move in - unaccountably to all of us.
What is wrong with these people?!!! What's their problem?!!!!!
some typical houses in the street near Evesham
where the family are planning to rent a house
In the meantime Sarah and family have been staying with us at weekends, and renting an Airbnb during the working week.
The result of all that is that most of today is taken up with Sarah and Francis deciding where to stay next week from Tuesday onwards, and also whether it would be cost-effective to buy a big family-size tent rather than rent a holiday chalet or similar. This is a three-day weekend, as Monday is the traditional May Bank Holiday, and Sarah won't have to go in to work.
YIKES (again) !!!!!!
While Sarah is researching Airbnbs, camp-sites, tents etc online, Lois takes the twins out into the back garden and sprays the girls with water from our new garden hose which they absolutely love!
Sarah does the research online, while Francis
brushes Jessica's hair
Lois sprays the twins with our shiny-new garden hose,
while Francis grabs a cup of coffee on the patio
Lois and I keep out of the way on the sofa: and we decide
to tackle the "Enigma" puzzle in this week's Radio Times
13:00 Today is our son-in-law Ed's 48th birthday, and, as I always think on these occasions, you know you're getting old when your children and their spouses are approaching or even reaching middle-age - yikes (again again!) !!! Later, our daughter Alison posts this charming picture up on social media.
Ali writes: "When you have all the candle numbers
but none of them match! Happy birthday Ed!
Lois and I got Ed a bicycle repair kit for his birthday present, it's a Blackburn Unisex Adult Tradesman Bike Multi-tool. And he's going to be taking it with him tomorrow when he does his charity bike ride to London and then on to Essex - we don't know the details!
Ed's birthday present from us - looks complicated doesn't it - my goodness!!!
Ed with old friend Jonathan outside Buckingham Palace
on a previous year's charity bike ride to London.
Ali, Ed and their 3 teenage children go for an early morning dog-walk at Frensham pond, which is nice.
our grandchildren Rosalind, Josie and Isaac
on the family's early morning dog walk today at Frensham Pond
14:00 After lunch Francis goes off into town, and later we hear that he has bought a family-size tent at a bargain price, plus some airbeds and sleeping bags, so it looks like they've decided the plan for next week. They'll probably continue to come back to us on Fridays for the weekend, although it's possible that Francis will stay on at the campsite to look after their camping stuff till the following week. So we'll see!
20:00 Against my better judgment I agree to join Lois, Sarah and the girls in a round of the board game "Scotland Yard", in which one player plays Mr X, a fugitive from justice, and the other players try to track Mr X down through the streets of London, and bring him to justice.
My opinion is that it's too late to start the game now - it can be extremely lengthy, to put it mildly. Luckily, in a rare coup for me, my character, Mr Red, nabs Mr X just north of the river at around 9:30 pm, which is a pleasant surprise.
It knocks out the evening, however, although pleasantly enough, admittedly. My goodness!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!
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