Hi all.

I must apologise to a number of people here - I hope they know who they are - for not doing this in a personal message, but things have ramped up a gear or three here.

We have a definite buyer for our house and whilst it pains us to have to leave, selling up does at least give us the opportunity to start afresh and clear our debts, which have mounted by leaps and bounds over the last year since I haven't been working.

We have not exchanged yet, so everything's not a done deal and we're hoping that nothing goes wrong between now and the fabled completion.

We're looking for somewhere near Blandford where Pen works and once we exchange, we can actually start looking in earnest. In the meantime, we took last week and went from the top of the house to the bottom of the garden and threw out everything we weren't either taking or leaving behind.

It was about five loads in my car - which holds a lot more than I thought once you'd jumped up and down on the bags a few times anyway and we got to make friends with those at the tip. There was one guy who was dressed in a Scooby Doo costume. He assured me it was for a bet, but I was sure he was going to work the day after as Daphne, but hey, who are we to judge?

Things have reached a bit of a lull, but we're not expecting it to last too long before we're up and running about like headless chickens again.

We're planning to move ourselves and I'm looking forward to driving a 7.5 tonne truck.

There's also a motorbike in the offing, but I'm not holding my breath for that one. I want a Honda 1100 Shadow or something similar. Mid life crisis? Possibly.

Anyhow, everything's alright, it's just sides to middle here at the moment, plus I have been asked to write an article for My Brighton And Hove about the school Jo and I went to way back when. It's surprising how much you remember and how much gets muddled too - especially after over thirty years.

Well, that's it from me. I hope you're all well and if not, at least coping.

Love to all

Nick