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Hello! Can't believe it's been nearly two weeks since my last, rather painful post from my phone. Flat stuff somewhat took over, and it took a deluge of one comment to prompt me to get back on the computer to update the blog. Unfortunately it demanded that the reader be entertained, a skill largely outside my realms of expertise. But you never know, I might wing it.

So... the last couple of weeks. What's been going on? Well, for posterity, a massive volcano has been screwing the airspace over the UK, which seemed quite exciting for a while until I realised that people I knew were being affected - J's friend is trapped in Cyprus, meaning her son is having to stay with his dad in Edinburgh for an extra week; Facebook is awash with tales of people not getting to where they want to go; perhaps most rubbish of all, avid blog readers Helen and Lee have been grounded from their long-anticipated trip to Australia to see a couple of old friends. Gutted. J and I are also now wondering whether or not we'll be able to make it to Poland this weekend to see her folks - again, something that has been looked forward to since Christmas by all concerned. It's a bit different to a huge trip like Oz, and we can conceivably rebook for a few weeks time, but disappointing all the same.

Elsewhere, I won on the nags for the first time ever thanks to the Grand National and a sentimental punt on AP McCoy - a cheeky fiver transformed to an £80 profit just thanks to a horse and rider not getting wiped out on the way round the course. Probably more skill to it than that, but in that particular race, not much I'd wager (and probably win, now I'm an expert).

Rally-wise, organisation has been affected by the same issues as my general internet consumption - decorating, shopping, furnishing and sleeping (a bit). Dangerously close to leaving it too late to get our visas sorted in good time, but we need to wait until we return from Poland anyway as we need to send off our passports. Err, actually, in that case we need to wait til we've returned from our weekend in Belgium in a few weeks time as well. Oh bugger, not planned this very well, have we? But....and it's potentially a HUGE but.... we may have a vehicle! Can't really say too much about it but a generous benefactor has offered us a slightly damaged van for donation to the charity - the details have been submitted to Mongolian customs for review so it's with baited breath we sit.

The flat is pretty much sorted now, and we can almost look forward to relaxing in it. Our new bedroom paint job looks rather marvellous, if I do say so myself. Will be needed, with hectic times ahead, starting this weekend and followed by my niece's christening & the aforementioned pilgrimage to fookin Bruges. All go, as they say.

3 months and counting

The clock is ticking. Moving house is complete but we're still in disarray, the only plus point being we're now in a bigger place so can close the spare bedroom door and pretend it's not piled high with boxes!

Moving was a mission, and one we couldn't have managed without the amazing help of Laura, Craig, Jennie, Lucy and Kev. It looked for a second like it was going to be me and three girls trying to move everything, which given the impressive box-lugging strength displayed might have actually worked out ok - but thankfully it didn't come to that.

We're still internetless (writing this on my phone) and I unfortunately missed the latest conference call for the rally. Starting to get nervous now that we're not further on in our plans. We may have the chance of a vehicle but it's all up in the air at the moment. Visas have not been applied for yet, but that may not be a bad thing as the unrest in Kyrgyzstan means we may have to change our route. It's awful watching the coverage on tv - despite not having been to the country I have read so much about it the names and references actually mean something to me now; it's one of the countries which was inked into our itinerary, such is the warmth of the writing about its landscape & people, and we are planning on a not insignificant detour to allow us to visit en route to Mongolia. The scenes of bloodshed on the streets of Bishkek are distressing and I hope that calm can be restored without further deaths.

We have to monitor the situation and make the call in a few weeks when the visa applications go off. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do.

on the move again

yup, moving again. Leaving our beloved wee shoebox in the sky behind for pastures already well-known, as we move across Brixton into a flat recently vacated by a couple of friends. Our heads say it's the right thing to do (bigger, near a park, we can put pictures on the wall, the only bathroom isn't en suite); as we sit here surrounded by boxes on our last night before the big day, our hearts are seemingly not of the same opinion. Gonna miss the wee place, gawd luvvit. Looking forward to the happy memories of the last 15 months though.