After work on Thursday went straight from work to our new house in Oldham. I’m still blown away by the travelling times. The longest part was the walk down to Victoria station from where I work in Picadilly, roughly the equivalent of walking from the Train Station end of Leeds to the market. Nearly missed the Rochdale stop, it was so quick (15mins on the Leeds express)! Rach picked me up, but it would have been just as quick to go by bus (~10mins). I’m going to like this lots 😀

Had the in-laws round for “xmas eve”, beer n nibbles and a game of Canasta (boys vs girls and we lost , *sulk*). It was a resounding success, but everything took four times as long since we were still finding out where everything lives.

Woke up Friday morning and explored the house some more. Highlights included the natural freezer behind the garage, where we keep beer ice cold, and going to the ground floor loo which is just off this corridor of extreme cold and being gently relived that the radiator makes the throne area toasty warm. Overall still felt a bit weird. It was like we were staying at a very nice bed and breakfast, although after our stay we got to keep it.

Friday afternoon went round the in-laws for “xmas”. Had a great time. Some nice presents, including the collectors version of Kung-Fu hustle (which comes with an inflatable axe!!!), good food and great company. I had a nice post lunch kip, and really chilled out. We had bought Settlers of Catan as a family present and after the intil terror of the board set up it was a big hit with the in-laws. It Rach quite rightly pointed out that it was not really like Xmas and next year we’ll have too do something on the day even if she is working.

Saturday morning woke up and I was truly in ranch relaxo territory. It helped that the sun was out, so I had a tour of the garden, which although not huge is big enough to have a decent sized garden party. I truly felt at this stage that this was our home. So now its odd to be back in Leeds.

When Rach got up we caught the bus into Oldham, which is 11mins away from where we live, and had a nice time looking around. Quite decent variety of shops and an absolutely fantastic Library, which dumps all over Leeds. At present I usually buy books because there isn’t a chance in hell that Leeds Library will have it or order it in. When we looked round the main library in Oldham, they had complete series of some of my favourite books. Rach actually found the latest editions of her University Midwifery books. I’ll be enjoying this place on a regular basis meethinks 😀

Meet up with the in-laws for a pub lunch, had a game of Settlers (to which they are getting addicted) and then had a quiet night in watching the tele (which is a wide-screen!!!). Caught up with the repeat of the latest Derren Brown special called “the Heist”, which I would heartily recommend.

Sunday morning, slowly got things together to return to Leeds and our cats.

These three days really cleared my head about the move. On many levels it felt that I was just going along for the ride. Now I know that this is exactly what I’ve wanted for many years. Managed to ditch a shed load of anger that had stored up unnecessarily about the move and life in general as a result.

Now counting the days to the move !