Update on moving house: we did it!
Well, I say ‘we’, but most of the actual moving credit should go to the amazing people at Finest Van, who also came and packed everything the day before. They really do go above and beyond and are highly recommended if you are looking for a moving service in London.
We’re also very grateful to Sienna for coming to stay with us that week! Not only did she give us lots of practical help during the move (including cooking a giant curry and helping us figure out where to hang everything in the new place) but we also had such a lovely evening together on the final night. We have five years of amazing memories from a flat which we truly loved, so it was really nice to just sit together around the staircase – all the furniture having been packed already – and reminisce.
Our new house is very exciting but also feels absurdly large for just the two of us. I’ve been assured that it won’t take long for us to feel differently. In the meantime, we’ve just been desperately trying to work through our top priority list before the baby arrives: unpacking all of the boxes (tick), getting the whole house recarpeted with something soft (tick), acquiring a cooker so we can cook food again (tick). And last night, Ewa and Mario came round with a drill to hang everything on the walls downstairs – including the famous railway departure board! – so now it’s really starting to feel like home. (Thanks! You guys are the best!)
Unsurprisingly we haven’t been out and about all that much recently, although we did enjoy a really fun evening with the rest of our NCT class at the Perry Hill pub, and as a Friday night surprise Randi also took me to a new (and delicious) Polish restaurant which she discovered has opened in Crystal Palace. I also had a great night out with my uncle Andy after work, the two of us entirely unaffected by the Tube strike thanks to the growing list of Tube-like things which aren’t-technically-the-Tube.
And for the purposes of making sure she gets into the blog, I’m just going to pre-emptively guess that Randi and I enjoy having Reema over this afternoon for a big shakshuka lunch! (If it turns out to be awful, I guess I’ll just have to come back and add a postscript.)
Last but certainly not least: last weekend was Ellie and Michael’s wedding up in Lutterworth! Randi was understandably not up for travelling, so I hopped on the train from St Pancras to Market Harborough solo. Apparently the big crowd I passed heading in the other direction was a group of far-right supporters on their way to enjoy their Big Nazi Day Out in central London, but I was running late so just assumed it was some sporting thing.
We’d already booked a room at the hotel where the wedding was taking place, so after imploring one of Ellie’s cousins who I’d never met to tie my tie for me (thanks!) I checked-in and then headed downstairs to third-wheel with Simon and Fleur.
Hanging out together over the course of the wedding was super fun, combined with helpful doses of baby talk and life advice, and although Simon was upset at me for sending back Randi’s starter and main course at dinner I tried to redeem myself by hanging on to her crumble at the end to share. All of the food, much like the rest of the wedding, was fantastic.
I’ve only met Michael once – and haven’t seen Ellie in a while, either – so it was really nice to learn more about him from the excellent wedding speeches, and from the rest of our table which turned out to consist of Michael’s semi-professional quiz team. They seemed very nice and intimidatingly knowledgeable. Plus, there’s clearly some air of mystery attached to this group, because later on in the night we were approached by a drunken man with a slightly wild look in his eyes, who asked:
“Hey, are you guys on Michael’s quiz team?”
“Oh, no no no…”
“But… you were sitting on their table!”
“Oh, yes, but we were just interlopers. We’re not quizzers.”
“Hmm… OK” he said, clearly still suspicious, before storming off again – presumably still on the hunt. I have no idea what this was all about, but I’m just glad I verified that the quiz team was alive and well on the dancefloor later, or I worry I would have become a side-character in an Agatha Christie murder mystery.
After a very hearty English breakfast the next morning, Simon and Fleur kindly dropped me off back in Market Harborough where I hung around in a café for a bit, confirmed that Randi hadn’t unexpectedly gone into labour overnight and then headed home. Our new home! (In which, incidentally, a succession of cats are now taking it in turns to watch intently from the garden. It’s as if they’re on duty…)
