23rd March 2013

Still so very cold and no sign of any change. Really frustrating as we cannot get anything done on the allotment until the ground temperature picks up. Over the next week it will feel like -7, many parts of the country are covered with snow so we are at least lucky to survive that.

Last weekend we went to our first function up here since moving. It was a St Patricks Day event and was with Andy and Janet Moyle. I met Andy at a school event and it turned out that Helen works with his wife Janet, at Greyfriers Primary School.

Anyway we went along, a little unsure what to expect, as it was a large gathering. At first I thought it would be difficult, Kirsty was a bit whingy and it was like a party with people standing around drinking.

However once the food was served we all went and sat down in a large room and stayed there, playing games, singing songs ( I mimed of course ), and just chatting. It was really comfortable and before we knew it 4 hours had passed.

It would be nice to think that we have now made some friends up here and in fact we have been invited back for a BBQ in May.

I was over the allotment the other day. I had divided a fuschia and was taking half of it over on my bike, when I turned up I found a massive tire mark in one of our turfs. I stood looking at it for a few minutes and must have looked suspicious as I was approached by 2 policemen who were patrolling the park. Obviously I explained who I was and we chatted for a few minutes and it was nice that they investigated.

Earlier this week I was not well at all. The rest of the family have had a sick bug and I thought it had finally got me. I went to bed Monday night and was so cold that I was shaking. The night was disturbed, hot and cold, aches and pains. For the next few days this continued but I was not sick. I had no energy so house work took a back seat, but it did not last long and by Thursday I was back to normal.

The old owner of our house, Graham, was in the area Thursday and it was good to see him and hand over the post which had accumulated. We chatted for quite a while and I finally asked him how much they would have sold for. He said lowest would have been 180k, but that would have been a push. He said they had a buyer the year before but they mucked them around for 17 weeks, so took it off the market and put it back on when we were looking. Before us they had someone interested but they had not sold their house, so we timed it just right.

Whilst he was here I asked him how to get the top of the toilet off, when he asked why I mentioned the slight leak in the pipe work and without hesitation he offered to repair it free of charge. I will of course pay him something but that just shows what nice man he is.

We are off to Downham Market today to buy some dining chairs off our friend Sarah as the ones we have are just too uncomfortable.

3rd March 2013

What a lovely day I had today. Not a great day weather wise, we woke to an overcast day but not too cold for the time of year.

We had toast for breakfast which we had in the conservatory. There was no rush we had nothing planned, so we took our time and watched the birds feeding on the bird feeder.

We then got the washing out onto the line and I then went off to the community allotment. It is starting to get to the busy time of the year, loads of digging to do but so much easier than last year when it had not been touched for a while.

I was joined by Felicity and her dog Dickens. She kept me company and we chatted whilst I dug over one of the vegetable plots. Just before I was due to leave and return for my roast dinner which Helen was cooking, Herbert arrived from church with his dog Hugo. Further chat took place and Felicity left us, Herbert went home to change and I began to tidy up.

At this point Simon and his son Sam came over and we had a brief chat before Herbert arrived again. At which point I had to go as my dinner would be ready.

I got home 5 mins late, but dinner was nice and after this we took ourselves off to Brancaster beach. It's a lovely drive up there and so relaxing. There was no car park attendant so that was a bonus. When we got to the beach we noticed the sea was a long way out. Equipped with our wellies we started walking towards it. We got halfway but the little estuaries were getting deeper. We walked for abut an hour before returning home for tea and cakes and a play in the garden.

So nice now the weather is getting warmer, I love it up here, everything is so accessible, calm and peaceful. Wish we had been able to move earlier but we are here now.

1st March 2013

It's exactly a year ago today that we met our buyer of our house in Enfield. 12 months ago they came round for their first viewing and on the 2nd March came back for second look and then put in an offer on 3rd March.

We are getting ready for Kirsty's 9th Birthday. She is very excited already and we have booked a party for her at Frankie and Benny's next Friday. She has 6 friends definitely coming, although as normal we have had to do some chasing.

On Saturday the family and Marion are coming up for the day and we are going to have fish and chips.

Have stripped the gloss paint from the hall, sanded down and waxed the wood. It looks really good and was helped by the purchase of a sander. Only found out later that I had a sander in the shed which still works.

17th Feb 2013

Weather has turned a bit milder at last. Today is a lovely sunny day and we have brought some bedding plants which Helen planted in the front garden.

The trees are budding now and Spring cannot be far away.

It has been warm enough to sit in the conservatory for the first time since about October.

Yesterday Kirsty and I planted a cherry tree in the back garden. There was two reasons for this.

Firstly we need some shade at the front fence. It is very open there and nothing to block the sun in the summer.

The second reason is that Kirsty and I planted a cherry tree at our old house in 2009. We had to leave it behind and only saw it grow for 3 years. The blossom on them is lovely and we all liked the other one.

Yesterday will also be remembered for a lovely afternoon with old friends. Kelly, Sam, Max and Pearl got the train up and we had lunch at Prezzo followed by tea and cake back at the house.

The weather was nice enough for me to give them a tour of Kings Lynn, through the park and town and use some of recently gained knowledge of the history of the town.

Looking forward this week to mire visitors. Caroline and Matthew are up Monday and Tuesday, and then on Thursday and Friday we entertain Julie and Ellen, before a weekend in London so Kirsty can see Kara and Helen can go to book club.

A busy week ahead but should be good.

11th Feb 2013

I normally don't mind the cold but today I just could not get warm. I don't know if the wind chill is more severe here in Norfolk but just doing the school run I could feel it through my jeans. Surely milder weather is on its way, the cold seems to have been with us for ages.

Helped out at Kirsty's school today. The reception children had a trip to town to see the Chinese dragon dancing to celebrate the New Year. They needed helpers and I had nothing else planned for the day.

The children and staff went on the coach and the helpers went in 2 taxis. We got there quite quick but had to wait for the coach. When it arrived the helpers with children on the trip were given their kids to look after. I had Alfie and Jessica. Lovely children they chatted away to me and seemed quite excited by the trip, Alfie particularly liked the Bus Station.

The dragon dancing scared some of the children, others loved it. It must be tough teaching that age group. They are so young and seeing some of them crying made me realise how difficult it is for teachers.

Some of those who did not like it, did have their picture taken so they could not have been that scared.

Once we got the children back in the coach the helpers then had to wait for the taxis to pick us up.

At this point I made a wording issue with a tweet. I had mentioned the trip and also stated we had been left waiting for a taxi.

The school head saw this and asked why we had been left in town. By the time we'd got back to school the office mentioned he was on the phone to them. It seems that he did not know we were getting taxis and thought we had been left in town.

It has taught me to word my tweets better in future and I sent a message to him and an email to the office to apologise for any confusion I may have caused.

Other than that it was a good trip and I enjoyed helping.

Looking forward to the next week. Half Term will bring many visitors including on Saturday my old work colleagues - Kelly, Max, Sam and Pearl. We also have Caroline and Matthew up for a couple of days and then Julie and El at the end of the week.

5th Feb 2013

It's 12 months since we put our house up for sale in London. This time a year ago the blog really took off and reading it back I can see what stress I put myself through, for at least 3 months.

In the end everything has worked out well. Helen had regular work, whilst still having some time off a week and not having all that awful planning and marking to do which took up so much of her free time.

The kids are settled into their schools, both have a group of friends, have joined clubs of various descriptions and both love their new bedrooms.

Me, well I could not be happier. I think I am more relaxed, less short tempered with the kids, have much more time for them and I really love the new area, the beautiful places and the quiet way of life up here.

Having lived in the house for a while it has become apparent that it had not been decorated as well as we thought.

It looks like a quick job was done to spruce it up. So I am finding little things to do.

Upstairs I have replaced all architraves and removed the gloss from door frames. The wood is now a wax finish and this will make future decorating easier.

The walls in the landing and stair well are now yellow, I hated the brown which was there.

I have put a patio in the garden to take trampoline and swimming pool, put coping stones on top of brick wall to stop any further damage.

I lost my job end of Nov 2012 so looking for something but not going back into Corporate world. Will keep looking for something appropriate.

The community allotment should take off again soon as the weather improves. I have done some work on the Compost bins though in the cold.

Otherwise I keep myself busy cleaning the house, washing, ironing and shopping. I get to do little jobs round the house when needed and when weather is good I get to explore this lovely place on my bike.

How different it was this time 12 months ago.

12th September 2012

So we have been in Kings Lynn now for a while and our new house for a few weeks and what are my likes a dislikes so far.

Likes are in no particular order:

Sitting in the conservatory.

Having so much space

Kids having nice bedrooms.

The quiet

No problem parking

Watching the birds feed

Helen less tired and much more happy

Schools are close

Traffic is less

Get to places easy

Beach is 20 minutes away

Shopping is good

House is lovely and nicely decorated

Not having to worry about noise we or kids are making as we are detached.

Not having to worry about who might move in next door because we are detached

Slower pace of life

Kids are happy

Dislikes are in no particular order

Being away from friends and family

Noise of music from garden over the back when they are in pool – too far away to hear music but all we get is the thud of the base.

Not knowing anyone yet.

So as you can see the likes far out way the dislikes.

Helen has had all sorts of problems registering with agencies to get supply work. Lets go through the issue. A few months ago she contacted Key Education Services and Norfolk Council.

She provided them with details and then met them in early August so we would be registered by September.

Key would provide her some work but not much, the council was important as once registered there she could go round herself to local schools.

Key worked quickly and got both references needed and all was good.

Norfolk Council however were not so efficient. They received one reference back but the email to Helen’s last Head teacher bounced back. They did not tell us this but instead posted a reference to the school. Only on us chasing did we find this out, obviously the head did not get this until they returned to school in September. Had they contacted us we could have checked the address. It was also not helped by the person dealing with it being away on holiday until start of September and no one else had access to his emails.

Anyhow last week the head confirmed he had dealt with it. This week we ring to see if they have it back and they still have not got it. They rung the school and emailed the reference request. School confirmed they had it. We emailed the head asking if he could turn this email round quickly, he then replied strangely – “this should have been faxed I will check”. So now we do not know if he will email it, or fax it and if faxing does it go back to head office or to the people we are dealing with.

So at this time the Council registration is in limbo and we just do not know when it will be cleared and so much time has been wasted.

Back to Key. We rung last week to check to see how that was going but they had forgotten to request the CRB from Norfolk Council. They said they would do this. Today finally we have confirmation that Helen is registered with them.

During all this time another Agency Ranstad were pestering Helen to register with them, as they had loads of work in Kings Lynn but few staff. We did not want to pay for another CRB but they were so desperate they agreed to pay it. Last week Helen went for interview and filled in forms.

Yesterday we rung to find out how it was progressing and the rep there said they were waiting for Helen to return application, she told them she filled this in on the day. After checking it seems she did and they had mis filed it. The apologised and said they would email out reference requests immediately. Helen spoke to one of the people she put down for a reference that night and they confirmed nothing had been received. We will be chasing this to find out why.

So at the moment Helen is registered with one out of three of the Agencies. The one is the last one on the list of importance and once again it has been a painful process.

I think Helen has learned what I already knew. You need to chase, chase and chase with these things. Treat everyone as being incompetent and you will not be disappointed and you will not waste days and weeks when thinking things are progressing when in fact they are not.