Still feeling sorry for myself!

Here we are a week on from the onset of my lurgy...and I'm still feeling a bit less than special. I've been on leave this week, originally to give me time to get on with "stuff", but I'm not getting as much done as I'd hoped...mostly because I can only do about 10 minutes of activity then I have to sit down and get my breath back/cough up a lung. Still...I'm getting there...just v..e..r..y... s..l..o..w..l..y!!

I had my final haircut with my lovely hairdresser, Dave, yesterday. It has taken me years to finally find someone here who can cut my hair beautifully...and now I'm leaving him! What am I thinking?? Who is more important here...my husband or my hairdresser?? Luckily for him I've decided my husband, but it was a close run thing I can tell you!!! I'm wondering whether it's possible to do a Posh and fly Dave out whenever I need a trim....

Stephen managed to get a laptop set up and running on our WiFi network for Mum, so she'll be able to logon, e-mail and Skype when she's here. There was a little weeny bit of swearing when he was trying to set up the printer drivers, but I applied beer and it seemed to make it better!

We're still getting used to our rather sparse looking house. It's a bit like camping! We're sleeping in the spare room, but have cases of clothes spread over the floor of the master bedroom, and piles of cosmetics in the bathroom/spare room/master bedroom (it takes a lot to look this good you know!). Downstairs we've shipped the sofa from the sitting room, so have replaced it with the bed settee from the day room. It's a lot smaller and, quite frankly, less comfortable, but we're coping. Might go and treat myself to a beanbag at the weekend as I think I need something squishy to sit my butt on!

Shipping....

What a fun few days we've had!! About 2 or 3 hours after my last post I got a horrendous sore throat (I think I relaxed after my massage and the lurking germs went "get her - her defences are down!!"), and by the time I woke up on Thursday I had a rather fine temperature to match... If there had been some way of harnessing the heat that my body was generating we could have sold it back to the National Grid and used it to light up Malvern!!!

On Friday I was, if anything, worse! And this really was D-Day! The packers were coming in the morning and the stuff we were taking had to be separated from the stuff we weren't....I couldn't stand up unaided, let alone lift things from cupboards, so we called in the cavalry. Mummy Margo to the rescue! I croaked a few instructions and off Mum and Stephen went...

They seem to have got it all correct - the stuff I was expecting to go has, and I don't think I'm missing any stuff I was expecting too stay here, so success!! Oh, apart from the one thing that does seem to have disappeared - the kitchen roll....I'm sure I'll find it in a few weeks, carefully wrapped and packed and delivered to Alexandria!

Stephen tells me the packing crew were terribly polite and professional. I didn't get to see them as I was locked in the spare room with a bottle of lucozade and some painkillers. There may have been a spot of deja vu going on when I wrote the last post! Who would have guessed that I really would lurk in the spare room til Sunday and let Stephen deal with them!

Cars, Colleagues and Cadogan Tate

Stephen and I went for a drink with one of our American colleagues last night. Wally was giving Stephen advice on cars...and it didn't take long for our proposed purchase to go from practical/basic (a Ford Escape), to practical/luxury (a BMW X3 or X5) to impractical/fast (a corvette). A 'vette would be fun, but we need something we can fit the shopping in, so I might have to steer Stephen back down the road he's just travelled! Gosh, I can be so cruel...

We had the surveyor from Cadogan Tate, the shipping company, come round to assess how much stuff we were taking at lunchtime today. I was impressed by his ability to look at a piece of furniture and convert it into cubic feet! I was also impressed by his knowledge of shoe designers!! He explained the process of packing, shipping and customs and how long it'll be before I can expect to be reunited with my ballgowns (surface freight) - which is back to 4-6 weeks and shoes (air freight) 1-2 weeks. We have a packing crew coming at 9am on Saturday to pack up the surface stuff - which is going to be interesting as I don't do mornings (as you all know!) and being nice to people before 10am or I've had a cuppa (whichever comes first!) is difficult for me!! Perhaps I should let Stephen deal with them on arrival and I'll skulk in a room until I'm feeling less grumpy!!! (probably Sunday.....!) Finally, when the packers have done their stuff a 20 foot ISO container is turning up to take it all away...

Moto is here tonight to massage our tightly knotted muscles and work his "Moto Magic!"...unfortunately for me, Stephen has grabbed the first session so he can watch the football, which means that I'll be trying to relax whilst listening to Stephen yelling at the TV and swearing a lot! Alcohol may be required...not sure whether its for him or me though!

Mild panic sets in...

Well, it was back to work this morning - and it was a busy day! Trying to juggle moving continents and working full time can be challenging, so I'm planning to take some time off next week. I was going to split the time off over this week and next, but this plan was changed after a phone call with the moving company who are coming to ship our stuff to the US. They are now coming to "pack and load" on Saturday rather than at the end of the week...which means I get a couple of more days of mild panic that I'm taking too much/not enough/the wrong stuff... The great news is that they told me that it takes nearer 4 weeks for our surface freight to arrive, which is better than the nearly 6 weeks I had been told. This means that our furniture will arrive at about the same time as we do!

Stephen has decided that he needs to get a new passport as his is looking rather tatty...bless him for deciding this NOW and not a few weeks ago!! We need to get this done before we can visit the Embassy for our interview, so he rushed off to get forms and photos today and has an appointment at the passport office in London on Thursday. Annoyingly his passport photo looks rather good - mine makes me look like an extra from some bad zombie horror film!!

A great weekend - but now down to work!!

After finishing work at lunchtime on Friday (I'm going to miss that!) Stephen and I drove down to Farnborough to meet with the International HR Manager to go through allowances, tax and visas. The company does its utmost to ensure that you are taken care of when your are seconded - it's all very generous!

From there we went to our hotel and I had a good soak in the tub before we headed off to meet Amanda and Owen for dinner. They are just back from Washington, so it was good to get the lowdown on places to visit, things to see and on the more practical aspects of moving. Stephen has known Amanda for a long time (he even managed to turn up at the Washington office on her first day there!), but this was our first meeting - although I've heard so much about her!

We were up early the next day, and headed round to Kent to meet up with Janice, Nigel and June (Stephen's mum). Janice and Nigel live in a fab house by a river, so after an afternoon scoffing delicious food and quaffing champagne and wine it was down to the river for a bit of a boating trip...

Two men in a boat... Stephen and Nigel, the intrepid explorers, off to tackle the river rapids....whilst the ladies tackle another bottle of wine!

There was almost a marital when Stephen wanted to play golf in the morning...but crisis was averted when I used my "wife voice" and he realised I was serious about there being a lot to do at home. I suspect that Stephen thinks the magic moving fairies will sort out all the stuff to do with the move!! (and they probably will....now where are my wings and wand???) So after breakfast on the deck watching the ducks and swans paddling about we headed home.

How is it possible for grass to grow so quickly? I got home to grass which was approaching knee high (on me - ankle length on others!!) and I swear it was nowhere near as long when we left on Friday! Within 10 minutes of getting home I was hauling the mower about and pulling out weeds, so its all looking rather lovely now...although I do need to spend some more time out there!! Then it was onto the house - throwing stuff out, deciding what to take, what to leave...think I've got it down now!!

What to take?

I spoke to the UK part of the relocation company today to find out about shipping our worldly goods to the US...and got a bit of a surprise at how fast they can mobilise!! Basically someone from the shipping company is coming early next week to assess how much we need to ship, and then on Thursday or Friday they are turning up with packing crates and a big lorry to take it all away!! The good news is that they will pack everything so I don't need to do that, but I do need to decide (and VERY soon!!) exactly what we want to take with us....

So I've spent this evening going round the house assessing what furniture to take and e-mailing furniture rental companies in the US for quotes for the rest. And remember that I'm doing this without actually having set foot in my new property! I just hope that I've judged the scale correctly and that we don't end up with huge furniture in weeny rooms!!

The Sparks are going to Washington!

Well it's really happening...The Sparks are going to Washington!

We went to DC on our hectic "look-see" visit a few weeks ago, and after 5 non-stop days of looking at houses, furniture, cars, visiting the office, having dinners and soaking up the atmosphere of Old Town we decided that we could probably put up with a couple of years living in Washington!

We've just found out that our offer to rent a lovely house in Old Town Alexandria has been accepted, and we're just waiting on the lease paperwork to come through. We've not actually seen the house in person...we got our relocation agent and some friends to look at it for us. This is taking the concept of "personal shoppers" to the extreme!! Everyone told us it was lovely, and it certainly looks gorgeous in the photos.

Now we just need to get on with the practicalities...deciding what furniture (and other bits and pieces) to take with us, packing and shipping it all, sorting out the house at this end...and the million and one other things that I've not thought about yet!! And all to be done in around 4 weeks....it's going to be hectic!