Launch Date - minus nine

Its now only nine days.

The last nine days have flown past – we seem to have done such a lot, and yet there is such a lot still to do.

The house is gradually being packed into boxes, given to charity shops or dispersed via the Freecycle network. I am constantly surprised at how efficient Freecycle is. We “advertised” two used dustbins – which went within twelve hours, as did the spare parts for a Hozelock system, some miscellaneous baking trays and all our house plants (the taker subsequently emailed me to assure me that they had gone to a good home – I suspect it might be a better home than they had previously). The “useful wood” in the cellar has also gone to a good home (although it might end up on someone’s fire).

We have not had a sniff of anyone being interested in renting the house. The credit crunch has a lot to answer for. However, whilst it is somewhat dispiriting to have to clean the oven and empty the bathroom cupboard, I suppose that if the worse came to the worse and we died whilst on our trip, at least all our affairs are in perfect order for the children. They simply have to take all the boxes from the attic to charity shops.

One of the bonuses of leaving has been the many kind things that people have said and done. I am struggling to empty the freezer because people keep inviting us out for meals. The planning for the next nine days will be interesting. There is a tension between packing everything you don’t want to take away, having enough to wear, and deciding what to do with the things that you are wearing on the penultimate day. I may end up wearing some very odd combinations and then throwing the lot away. But for the remainder of today – the task is cleaning the oven.