Day Zero: Moving-in Day

A team of removers arrived in an articulated lorry. They unloaded, and unloaded, and unloaded (300 cubic metres) all our worldly goods, and then had to call in additional help. They left at tea time, and we are treading water in an ocean of of cardboard boxes. We also have telephony and broadband, and hot water. I already have council tax, water and electricity bills to pay, and the requisite forms to register with the local GP. It is strange that a simple statement such as "I live in Elham" appears to be made up of a multitude of confirmatory components, without which there would remain some uncertainty.

A time to scatter stones

10:17 

The removers are busy removing the final items of furniture, boxes of crockery, and disability-related equipment. At the moment this feels like moving-out day - although, interestingly not quite yet moving-on day - that comes a little later. Ecclesiastes 3: "A time to scatter stones."

13:06

The removers have gone, and all our possessions are trundling southwards in a lorry and articulated trailer. The house is empty and quiet. Soon my wife and daughter will be following in the wake of the lorry. At some point today BT will sever telephony, at which point I am recalled to all centuries prior to this. Once the estate agent has checked over the house and I have returned the keys, I shall close the door for the final time, and drive away. Crossing the Tees to the west of Darlington, I shall have left County Durham and the North East of England. 

End of Book Three.

Cooking pizze in a wood-fired pizza oven

Last night we sat beneath a starry sky, keeping warm in the 'afterglow' from the pizza oven: I cooked wood-smokey pizze in a real wood-fired pizza oven - a culinary first for me. Sadly, I did not prepare a vegan pizza for me, so only my wife and daughter benefited from the wood-smokey flavour.

It was an intensely summery activity: sitting outside beside a warm fire counting the stars as they twinkled into existence. Small pleasures. However, I resisted the temptation to inflict my ukulele playing on the immediate neighbours - I reserve that pleasure for when we move into our new house in Kent where there are no immediate neighbours on either side.

Less than a week to go

In less than a week we shall emigrate almost to France. I have forebears and relatives who emigrated variously to New Zealand, to Australia, to the United States, to Canada and to France; in addition to many former colleagues who emigrated to Australia. Even my father made it as far as Cornwall. Somehow, given all that context, emigrating to Kent really doesn't sound especially adventurous ... and yet, is that a television advertisement for Hovis bread I can hear, or is it simply nostalgia upsetting my tinnitus?

We have asked to transfer our membership of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) to East Kent Area Meeting, and will mostly attend Canterbury Friends Meeting. Folkestone Meeting is closest, but meets only fortnightly, and I am told is a small meeting. Ashford Meeting is also only small. Canterbury Meeting, which I have attended several times, is similar in size to Durham Meeting.

Good Energy

Moving house has presented us with the opportunity to select a new energy supplier. It has long been a matter of deep principle to me to distance myself utterly from nuclear power, and to move away from electricity produced by fossil fuels. I am happy that Good Energy both supports micro-generation and has its own wind farm.