New house

So last week we moved house for what will hopefully be the last time.  It all went smoothly, our removers (Atlas - for future reference) were absolutely brilliant - we booked them with slight trepidation as they quoted us about £500 cheaper than the other removers - I can't think how we could have got £500 better service from the others so it was a lucky good call to go with them.

Our new house - Spring Cottage in Ingleton

Thursday was spent directing the removers and cleaning the Lupton house as it gradually emptied out.  Friday was spent doing the same and then directing the removers on where to put all the boxes.  The house filled up in no time at all - we really do have a ridiculous number of possessions - something to do with us both being hoarders.  I thought it would never end, and although this is a large house, it still doesn't seem to fit!  Hopefully it will all fit into place and now that this is our forever home, we hopefully should be a bit better at throwing things out as we won't need to keep things 'just in case we need it for our new house' - it's a thought anyway!

Poor Tom went down with a cold Wednesday / Thursday / Friday.  I felt really bad taking him to nursery on Friday as he looked really bad, but what could I do - wasn't as if he had a bed / comfy place to be at home, so in he went.  Turned out he wasn't too bad, but instead of going out for dinner (we did that on Thursday night and it went a little wrong at the end as he was ill and tired), we got in fish and chips from the takeaway - they were good, Tom ate well and went straight to bed and slept well.  

On Saturday Bob came up.  Matt and Tom went to collect him from Lancaster whilst I finished off cleaning the Lupton house.  We then tried out the tea room in Cowan Bridge (very nice - especially the cake selection) and headed back to the house to carry on unpacking.  Luckily Tom was happy watching films on the sofa (still not 100%) whilst we worked on the house. The number of boxes didn't seem to diminish at all, but at 4pm we called it a day - all very exhausted (neither me nor Matt have slept very well this week) and also we needed to give Tom some attention.  We went out for dinner in Ingleton, originally we were going to try out the Italian, but it was full (ie all 3 tables were taken) so ended up at The Three Horseshoes, another pub in Ingleton which we haven't yet tried.  We were pleasantly surprised as it was much bigger than we thought and the food although basic was good - the chips excellent - so much so that I couldn't stop eating them.

Unfortunately we kept Tom up too long and suddenly he lost his good humour and cried all the way home - even Grandpa carrying him on his shoulders wouldn't help, he cried and cried.  When we got home he told us he didn't want a bath or a story just bed, so that's what we did.  He went straight to sleep.

Sunday we continued with the house.  Bob, Tom and Matt went into Lancaster to get some curtain rails (the previous owners took absolutely everything with them!)  I carried on unpacking, unpacking and unpacking.  We wandered into the village for lunch (Neptis of course) and then more unpacking whilst Bob and Matt got some curtain rails up (we've been using boxes as curtains until now).  Finally around 4pm I finally found the kitchen - none of the cupboards closed but at least the surfaces were clear.  We had dinner of slow cooked Japanese stew (the previous owners took the oven so we are down to using a slow cooker, a deep fat fryer and a teppan for dinners until our cooker arrives).

Monday we did more tidying and then Tom and I took the bus into Settle whilst Bob and Matt took a car load of rubbish to the tip in Settle.  I was rather nervous about getting the bus as last time I got one it cost £7.25 for a 20 minute journey into Kendal.  I was pleasantly surprised to be charged £2.25, so this is a day trip Tom and I can do regularly.  We met up with Bob and Matt had lunch and then drove home via Clapham as Bob hadn't been there.  We spent a pleasant afternoon there, Tom playing in the new fantastic playground there and then tea and a bun in a tea room there (fantastic tea room too - the cakes were excellent).  Then home, some more unpacking before the bedtime routine.