Maleah has just received an envelope full of letters from her future classmates! How exciting! We’re still reading through all of them, but they are very sweet! Most of them tell her about different activities she could do at school! Brilliant!
We also got an email from Nanouk’s future teacher, telling us, how welcoming and friendly her class is, so that’s good news, too!
Also been tidying up the garden (soo many leaves everywhere) and still writing Christmas Cards, which is always a treat after hard work: Writing a card, a cup of tea and a biscuit - that’s my time to calm down and enjoy the Christmas feeling!

Every Sunday on Cbeebies we watch Katie Morag. What a wonderful life! And all she wears are wellies and a skirt (and a think jumper). Although, funnily, it’s always sunny in Struay :o)
Life here is getting more and more hectic. So many things to do still and so many people we’d still like to see, but we’re slowly realising, that we won’t be able to see them all, before we leave - although: six months is not that long a time! We will probably be back before most have noticed we’re gone!
Slowly starting to realise all the things we still should do! “Small things” which will take a long time anyway like sorting out all the pin boards we have, with loads of small scraps of paper on them, which once were put there because they are important... so they can’t be chucked without looking at them...
We had a wonderful birthday party for Nanouk and eight of his friends with a treasure hunt through the neighbourhood and making our own pancakes with loads of different delicious fillings, which was also a little bit like a goodbye party!
We also had good friends here for the weekend, who will come and see us in Orkney and it was exciting to talk about our plans there together!

Both our children say the thing that worries them most is missing their friends here - and Maleah added that she’s a little scared about her first day at school, which I can very much understand!
But we know they’ll be alright as soon as they’ve got to know their new class mates!

That’s all for today, I've been at the computer since six and I have to get the children up and to school, then head for the gym and hand in my membership for the next six months, then I have a friend coming over in the afternoon, then a school meeting, then taking the children to chess - and it’s probably going to be one of the more relaxed days in the next two weeks, just too much going on - AND I want to start on the cleaning/sorting.... AND then there are the Christmas cards which won’t write themselves and the presents... But, I’m not complaining! We’re enjoying most of it (not the cleaning and the sorting) and we are so much looking forward to starting our big adventure at last!

Got our new TV yesterday and Matt managed to install it straight away, moving shelves and rearranging cables! Now it’ll be much easier for M&J to watch some good old BBC!

Also phoned my new friend “Lady L” from immigrations and received the wonderful news that the permit for M&J will go through! Very happy!

Trying to sort out my accident-insurance, which is normally paid by my employer, but not for the 6 months when I’m on unpaid leave. There are different options for different grades of accidents and I need to decide what I want ... But I guess that’s always the case! Luckily my health insurance will cover everything concerning illnesses no matter where I am, so that’s one worry less...


Now off to buy some chocolates for Lady L & Lady B from immigrations, never know if we’ll need their help again! And to have my blood checked to make sure I’ve got enough iron for our adventure!

Slowly getting more and more excited - but also wake up very early most mornings, remembering all sorts of things we still need to do! Hope that’s just a phase and will not continue till we leave! 5am is just too early for me!

Having problems with our doorbell! Been difficult ever since I ordered a third extension so we would also hear it in the basement. But then, suddenly the upstairs ones didn’t work either. So, in the end, we decided to buy better ones. Matt put them up, tested them, and we were happy. But, a day later, they stopped working. Matt then tested the button in the fridge and even in the freezer. Always worked perfectly! But as soon as we put it outside, it stopped working again! Annoying! Now we’ve sent it in to be repaired. Weird enough for us to have a post-it at the door telling people to knock (which we normally don’t hear anyway) but would be much worse for M&J if people just walked in! So we’re hoping for the new one to arrive soon - and especially to work!
Also we’ve got our car back, all mended - and even with the ads back on nicely! So happy about that, too!
Still need to phone my health insurance to make sure we’d all be covered while in Orkney. Matt has just ordered an extra-insurance to cover everything while abroad, but I think mine should cover that anyway...
Introduced my replacement at the parents evening at school last week, about which I was a bit tense, as the main teacher of the class in which I teach is away on sick-leave, about which the parents aren’t happy. But, luckily it went well and most people were interested in the project!

We’ve also been in touch with the local paper. They are interested in reporting about our adventure! We thought, they’d write maybe one or two pieces, thought we might even get four or so, but they would like us to write one a month. And inbetween write about M&J, to “get both sides of the story”. So we will see how that goes. But it’s quite exciting!
Snowing here, which covers the whole street in a wonderful winterwonderland coat and everything seems calm and happy! But it still doesn’t let us forget that there’s still so much to do and ONLY FOUR WORKING WEEKS LEFT!
Next projects are getting the doorbell fixed, getting health insurance fixed and buying a new TV for M&J (We had a family reunion last week. My aunt was complaining that her TV was soo old and people were making fun of them for having such an old one. I asked her if it was a big old tube set. She laughed and said of course not THAT old! Well, ours is ... We can’t see football scores on it or read any subtitles. But as we watch on the projector most of the time, it has never bothered us... When I won a voucher for an electronic store a month ago, we both agreed it was a sign, that it was time to replace the old monster .

After having explained to M&J in length why the Swiss system is so good (all official things are done locally, as it’s nearer to the people) we’re experiencing some difficulties with M&J’s application for their stay here. Apparently it’s different people who are in charge of the applications from people with different surnames. Whenever I called, I told them our guests names started with a B. Now somehow the lady who is in charge of L is charge, as M’s surname starts with an L.
Difficulty is, that she has no idea about all the things I discussed in length with “lady-in-charge-of-Bs”... We’re back to explaining, that “no, they don’t want to stay for three months only!” and “no, they don’t need a Swiss health insurance because they have an English one - but, no, they have no receipts of their payments because in England Health Insurance is free”...
After some arguments she promised to look at it all again with her boss - so we’re hoping this will clear things up. Also, “lady-in-charge-of-Bs” only works Thursday afternoons, Fridays and Monday mornings, which is a good thing for her and her family (I’m assuming) but quite annoying for us when we’re trying to contact her...

Apart from that, all is going well. We’ve ordered our Christmas Cards and added the link to this blog and our address in Deerness, hoping we’ll receive some letters while we’re there - and also, maybe some more people who read this blog. Actually I don’t know who and how many of you are reading it, which sometimes seems a little weird, just writing “out into the open”, but, hopefully you are enjoying reading this, whoever you are. And, still hopefully, this blog will get even more interesting once we’ve arrived in Orkney!

So, that is all for today, another week is over, and there’s only five more weeks of school/work left before Christmas - and our big journey!