The move went fine, although it took a concerted effort on the part of my mum and Aims to get the painting done to a live-in-able standard (I was meant to be painting too but was too busy faffing round and opening boxes at random in search of things like toothbrushes, shampoo and clean pants - next time we move I'm packing an "essentials" bag that's easily recognisable!!) It's still nowhere near finished, but all of the rooms have had at least two coats (except the red spare room, which has been started but has a long way to go). The kitchen feels very much like home and, now I've unpacked the CDs and the curtains have been hung, the sitting room is feeling more homely too. The cats are loving having a garden, and the sight of them squeezing their fat arses through the small catflap has caused much amusement.

On a less good note*, though, we're still without internet at home and will be for at least another week if not more. To make matters worse, my ISP have cancelled my old account, so I can't even access my webmail via school. Grrrr. In fact, changing broadband from one address to another has been the most annoying and time-consuming bit of the whole house-moving thing. I suspect that the account cancellation means that all email sent to my demon address will bounce - sorry. Contact me for an alternative email address if you need one.

Off now to cut and stick wedding photos into an album. After all, there are UCAS references to write, lessons to plan and a classroom to get ready: why worry about school things when there are other activities in which to indulge?!

* Can you tell from my grammar that I've not been writing regularly or even having to form complete sentences? I've no idea how I'll cope next week when the kiddies come back and need teaching!!

Google says, "Major changes such as starting a new job, getting married or moving house can challenge our abilities to cope." Ah well, that explains a lot.

We move today. Everything is in boxes, apart from the computer (obviously, or I'd have to be in the box too, and they don't make removal boxes in my size), the cats and the kitchen. We ran out of time and into the "paint or pack?" dilemma: the kitchen was left to last because a) I don't know what's lurking in the depths of those cupboards; and b) there are more breakable things there that need packing properly, not just following the chaos technique of packing. All the stuff that Rob packed while I was in South Africa is neatly taped into boxes and labelled with its destination room. The boxes I've packe, on the other hand, were just filled with contents scooped off shelves at random and stuck in any available spot. No labelling either - I like to think of it as adding to the excitement!

Anyway, two nice mena nd a van are here - must go and pack.

So far I've painted two t-shirts, a pair of shorts, the bottom of both boots and the tops of my hands. I've also developed anti-freckles and have a far greater collections of grey hairs than I had at the beginning of the week. I ache like a bastard and I'm sure I'm hallucinating because of the paint fumes. All good clean fun, hey?!

(I've also painted a few walls and ceilings too)

The flat decorating is in full swing. Yesterday, two men from the maintenance department came to sort out the dodgy plaster; and my mum popped over to help paint. She also brought a stepladder for us to borrow, which is a good job or the new paintwork would only happen between ground level and six foot high. So far, the "completed" list consists of: the walls in the sitting room; and the bedroom ceiling. I've also given the bedroom a complete coat of Brilliant White - there's no way we're having a brilliant white bedroom, but no other colour would have covered up the garish yellow that was already on the walls. I think the builders have finished grinding bricks in our back yard, so my next job is to remove the brick dust from the kitchen and to give it a coat of brilliant white too. Before then, though, I deserve a bit of a sit down (I would have a nice cup of tea too, but the kettle's at the new flat - doh!) so I'm going to upload the photos from my phone... I've not done a phone-cam-dump since before the wedding, so goodness knows what's on there!!