My writing continues at ourdutchadventure.com
The Queen
Literally the perfect gift from Emilia!
I told her I would have an old pic of the queen looking gorgeous, and hang it next to a pic of my new king, Willem-Alexander. And this is my leaving gift! It’s perfect, and the frame complements her tiara beautifully!
Tonight we had to bring all of everything we wanted to keep, from the loft into a bedroom as the packers won’t go up there. Lola and Jojo went out with friends, which I didn’t think very sportsmanlike. It was a lot of stuff, so we halved it by just deciding not to bring stuff down!! Also the bins are full so unfortunately I had to put rubbish in some cardboard boxes and leave it out the back. I am just about done. We have been given some cakes and champagne, so we can have that tomorrow in our new home hopefully.
Last Friday in Speke. Wahoo!
Why are people surprised by this clause?
It’s official!
My lovely pal just brought us 2 Marlenka cakes, we’ll take them with us or share them out today as we are guaranteed loads of last minute visitors.
There’s a lot of mad packing, deciding, searching & so on happening here today. I kid you not, Lola was headed out to the Wirral at 9.30pm last night to sleep over, having literally NOT done ANY packing or sorting AT ALL in her room. Thankfully after having a little rant about it all being my fault, she at least packed 2 boxes. Last minute ain’t the word!
SO, Lee has signed the contract of sale this morning & popped it into the solicitors.
12 of these boxes have been taken away (it turned out we only needed about 6 but Lee filled them all just because!) and will turn up at our apartment in the week. We each have a big suitcase and a cabin case for the plane, for clothes etc. I kid you not, some of us were able to fit all our clothing into a cabin case! So there was a whole spare suitcase going for Lee & Lola’s many clothes.
J&S just popped in with a card, gift, and a poem from Alf!
We took some boxes of junk to the 2nd hand shop.
The locksmith came and secured the backdoor, that’s the last of such jobs.
Things feel a lot calmer now with virtually all our case packing done. I wish I could clear/sort out more rubbish/junk, because I guess the Packers are going to end up carefully packing some absolute junk and sending it all the way to the Netherlands and then i’ll have to unpack it and send it to a 2nd hand shop there! Never mind.
Neighbours=friends=family
The best neighbours anyone could imagine.
We are leaving behind an incredible wealth of friends you know.
2 sweet friends
Hello. In the morning I began emptying the kitchen food & baking cupboards. Then Fred, cycling home from the shop, trapped his finger between bike and a bollard. So I ended up taking him by bus to the walk-in. It wasn’t damaged thankfully.
I have been for a lovely lunch with my friend at our café.
She has taken the finches too. Then I had a lovely peaceful phone chat with precious Sam, about each of us looking for our future homes. Obviously I’m rather tired from all the activity, socialising, sorting, and there is general background tension over the whole massive job of it all! So it was soooo fab to have a peaceful convo with no people’s expectations of me to be either cheerful or tearful! I’m quite flat emotionally through tiredness and these eyebags ain’t helping! It might be an allergy – possibly I’ve become allergic to living in Britain.
Gateway ladies lunch 💖 & final BSF
Hello. Today was my farewell lunch with wonderful ladies from lovely Gateway Church.
T made 2 super soups, mine was carrot n parsnip, with a kick of chili. yum! & we had a lovely sunny peaceful fun time with me, my 2 girls, and about 10 others. I received a book and also some cash to buy myself a nice dress! What a sweet, Marian-specific gift! They have loved us so well. Then there was a bit of tears ‘n’ hugs.
I have had to start saying No to people when they ask “oh can I pop and see you on…” which is not something I enjoy.
It was the final BSF of the year last night, I was thrilled to be present! -usually it would be in June. They have changed the format of “Sharing Night” and we began in our groups around tables with cakes, and then went on as usual, using the time to worship in a hymn or two, then individuals can give a little testimony into the microphone. The vision of BSF is To Magnify God and Mature His People. So we would say something that we learned or a special piece of Bible relating to that, from this years study: the book of John.
It’s always very emotional as people have been personally touched by the Lord in such varied and intense ways! H from our group had written a lovely poem/prayer. I got a copy afterwards.
Also I got some gifts and cards…some of these ladies I have known quite a while – Jojo was 3 weeks old when I enrolled at BSF. I received some home made marmalade, this lovely coaster and a big framed piece of Psalms to put on the wall in my new home.
How gorgeous.
“See if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
Meal with Grandparents
Last night we had a fire, Lola was staying over at E’s. I put O to bed. It is a big wrench knowing we won’t have that cosy bedtime again ! 😭 Then we had a nice glass of wine and chatted until midnight.
Monday morning Lee & I had a lovely breakfast in The Elephant, Woolton. Then took some big bags of towels to the launderette. I have emailed two schools asking for appointments for my boys to ISK. Then chased up the final quote for removals. That is all my email work for today. I find such work quite energy-sapping. Lee packed his case & threw a load of clothes to charity shop. (yes Lee: took about ten mins to do something I have been working at for months!) LOL.
Mum & dad came in the afternoon and we had a cuppa, then went to Widnes to Frankie and Benny’s for a lovely meal. There was quite a lot of travel logistics involved!
Last Sunday at Gateway *sniff*
It really is quite close by!
This morning all the kids came to church as we were getting “prayed out”. There was an excellent sermon from Mark about Jesus speaking with authority in the temple and turning out impure spirits with authority, looking at the word authority relating to Jesus being the author of all life.
Then I spoke for a couple of minutes including the phrase “I am amazing”! because why not! And the 3 older kids came out the front to be prayed for, F chose to remain in his place and that was ok, because they love us. They prayed for us, especially Psalm 16 and said the Aaronic blessing over us and Jonny had a prophetic encouragement about our having been here as training for the next adventure! Absolutely.
It was very sweet. Then a few hugs everywhere and we met Lee at KFC. got Ruby a suitcase and now we must puzzle over what is going in suitcases and what is going in a pallet of boxes, and what remains to go into storage.
I am off to E’s for my last Sunday Tea for a while.
My brother (mijn broer)
My brother & his lovely family came up for the afternoon, which was wonderful! I didn’t take any pics, but if any surface, I’ll post them. We chatted & went for a pizza, then Lola put some makeup on C. !
I had to go and see Penny in the middle of it because the separation “is becoming too real” so we had to have some hugs & tears!
ourdutchadventure.com is going to be my new blog which will begin once we’ve moved. It will be touted to all my facebook and Instagram friends, so I am going to tighten up on personal info about people. To make it more safe.
Jojo got himself some Rogue One (Star Wars) lego with some of his birthday money. Thanks everyone for his cards & gifts!
Treat yo’self!
In the words of Tom Haverford, “Treat yo’self!”
I got these 3 dresses in Debenhams yesterday in a bit called Mantaray.
Lola helped as I find shopping quite unpleasant. currently a size 20, so you can’t shop in any old clothes shop. And I knew I wanted something either greeny turquoise to bright blue. And something I really liked.
Then we got these 2 pairs of shoes, same brand, Vans, because Lola swears they are comfortable for a lot of walking ( she does walk a lot.) One full price, one 1/2 price in TK Maxx.
This morning Lee & I had our brekkie at the Tavern and then popped to Matalan for big suitcases. Then got Lola & went to TK Maxx where she chose these rather fab rose gold matching cases.
(the peach pink one is mine). I say a girl should have matching cases if someone is offering to buy her them!
Furthermore, Karen Frost just posted this pic on facebook, apparently it was school leaving day. 1992. she’s the blonde in a peach skirt & I’m lurking behind her shoulder. Quite a range of teen facial expressions there huh!
Life with Marian 