This is our last blog entry from Switzerland. After the packing and tidying madness we enjoyed a few very nice days at our families celebrating X-Mas and my mother-in-law's birthday. Today the madness flashed up again, but only for a couple of hours. We had to clean what hadn't been cleaned and obviously pack the car. Luckily there seems to be the same amount of baggage in the car as when we test packed it, even though we added a bit more stuff. It seems my packing skills have improved in the past few days ...

Tomorrow morning at 5 AM we're heading off for Amsterdam, where we'll catch the ferry to Newcastle. It's a 17 hour crossing and we hope the waves will not disturb our inner balance too much.

All that remains is a last trip to the attic to store the remainder of what has accumulated again to be stowed away. Then it's off to bed for a hopefully deep sleep!

Our life is quite unbelievably turbulent at the moment!
Got an email this morning saying we’d won a night in an incredibly lush hotel (for when we get back), high spirits, so I’m off to buy a “stamp” so the council will empty M&J’s wheely bin, and when I get out of the town hall I have a flat tyre! Arrrgh! My bicycle repair man is not in (probably on holiday) so now we have one worry more! Packing is getting along, but tempers are rising and as the weather forecast for our travelling day is not too good, we’re a little nervous about that, too! Especially about the ferry not leaving or arriving on time and the journey being very stormy...
Whisky’s empty, so no consolidation there :o) But, luckily our lovely neighbour will mend my tyre for me, our kids can go to their grandparents tomorrow morning, to give us another extra half day and the sun is shining! Also, we got some good feedback for our newspaper article, so we’re happy about that! And also happy to have this unbelievable opportunity!

Ok, back to packing!

We are very busy: Packing, sorting, seeing a “few select people” for the last time and had the interview with the reporter today! But actually just wanted to post this warning from the Orcadian:


More later...

Matt has started gathering things in the living room we’re intending to take! But he has only ticked about half of the things from our 2-page-list!! Don’t know how we’ll fit the rest into our car! Ok, many things are quite small - but there is one large item still on the list “all clothes”!
Also our whisky bottle is nearly empty - maybe half a glass left each - how will we get through the last 12 days? Who would have thought we'd get to like Whisky so much? What better way to end a day than a dram of Whisky and wondering if we'll manage to get it all done??

I woke up this morning, worrying about some books, wondering where to store them - there would be so many more important things to worry about! The children are at our neighbours and we’re really getting on with loads of work! Just written the last Christmas Cards and have gone through all the rooms, deciding what we want to take to Orkney, store in the attic or “just leave where they are”. Luckily, we’re leaving most things, hoping that will be ok for M&J. But still much sorting and carrying to do! I’ve gone through all our pinboards (you wouldn’t believe how many we have!!) sorting through old vouchers (expired 2011, 2012, ...) newspaper articles (good books for three-year-olds, ...) and photos (Nanouk, aged 2, with his new suitcase :o) Although it’s all hard work, it’s also rewarding - and good when it’s done! We will come back to a very uncluttered house (hopefully...)
That’s all for today! I’m off to the Christmas Market with my Mum, for some mulled wine, girl chat and some together-time, which we will both miss!

So far all the blog entries were written by Natalie. In the future I (Matt) will also be writing the odd contribution. So if you think an entry is odd, it’s probably from me ... You can actually see who wrote the post above the entry where it says ‘Posted by’.

As you might (or might not) know, I will be working from ‘home’ in Orkney, for the same firm I worked for the past five years. Thankfully they were all very understanding when I first mentioned that I would like to take a timeout (about 3 years ago). Now that it’s not even a timeout but rather a ‘relocation’ it’s even better for my bosses. I will work three days a week and have the other four days for my family and some of my own projects, whatever they will be. Next Thursday I will for the first time take our car to work, to pick up my desktop computer and the computer screen. It will be plugged in again towards the end of December in Orkney and I hope the connection will be fast enough to allow for some hard work. I’ve tested it in April and it should be fine, but you can never know unless you sit down and do the things you need to do for a whole day. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

We’ve had some fabulously sunny days here in Wil, very unusual for December. It will allow us to arrive in Orkney saturated with sunlight and that should last us through the usually rather bleak January there.

I assume these blog entries will be coming in more frequently as we actually reach Orkney. If not, we either hate everything and don’t dare to write about it, or we are so busy with all the exciting new experiences that we don’t have time to start up the computer...