Changing Copper Into Wine (And Other Stories)

Well, as of today we no longer own a home...

In the clearing out of the house, we found £12.20 in 1p and 2p copper shrapnel, which we turned into red wine - a great improvement! Yesterday the removal men turned up, packed everything we are keeping into two wooden crates (600 cubic metres in all, though we didn't fill the second crate) and took it off to storage. We won't see any of it again for a while...This morning we cleaned the house, and at 11:30am handed the keys to the new owner. And that was that. I think the thing that surprised us was how unattached we were to the house, emotionally (despite the fact that Noah was born in the dining room - intentionally, not by accident, I hasten to add). And when we asked Susannah if she'd like to go through the house room-by-room to say goodbye, she replied, "No. I'll say goodbye out here, so the whole house gets it." Very matter-of-fact. Though tonight she said she wanted to go home, so I'm sure we'll have a few ups and downs to come...

Tomorrow we're off to Glasgow for 16 days. Apparently the forecast is for gales and driving rain all the way up there...roll on Perth! (We'll be in Australia three weeks today.)