www.wilfanddigby.blogspot.com

We are now in France. The blog has moved to :

www.wilfanddigby.blogspot.com

Waiting to be connected

We made it safely to France and Wilf and Digby are in fine form. Our lack of news reflects France Telecoms inability to connect us to the internet - we are having to use a steam powered connection that links at 2kb's which takes forever and makes blogging impossible. I'm in London today - hence the post on the hotel computer - and 'the font' has been to Toulouse to remonstrate with France Telecoms local office. Thanks for all your comments. Talk (hopefully ) soon.

Here comes www.wilfanddigby.blogspot.com

As you'll see from the top photo the packing is now entering its final stage.By tonight all that will be left is our bed and the bags we'll be taking with us. We are enjoying ourselves although with one cereal bowl,one spoon, one plate and one knife, breakfast has to be taken in shifts. I guess you'd call it hot bowling. After 34 years of collecting things it's as if overnight we've gone back to the simplicity of being students again.

Today will be spent packing the car. Two things are apparent. 1) The huge SUV despite its impressive external dimensions has less usable storage space than the dog car and 2) three quarters of what will be packed is bedding, kibbles ,toys and treats for the boyz.We are restricted to two tote bags on the back seat- just like travelling with toddlers. The lack of space in the car is the perfect excuse for me to be gallant and claim that I've sent on my own carefully stored wardrobe to make extra space for the 'fonts' clothes - in one fell swoop I can turn my sartorial problem into a chivalric gesture!

The computer gets packed later this morning so this may be the last post for a few days. We'll take the laptop with us and try to post en route to the new home. Our first stop on Thursday and Friday night is at a remote hotel deep in a Tuscan valley and a mobile phone signal , let alone a WiFi link, are not to be expected, but we'll try. By Saturday night we should be across the frontier and into France so posting should be possible again. After Saturday,new posts will be on the replacement blog www.wilfanddigby.blogspot.com as Life in Italy will be well and truly behind us. Thank you all for your comments over the last few days - it's truly heartening to get support from people you've never met but who you read about on their blogs every day. Strange how regular blogging has that effect.

The two boyz are sitting in the drawing room barking at all the boxes - even they are now aware that something is up. Tickles and treats are being handed out in abundance. Yesterday afternoon they had the time of their lives. Every time a carpet was taken outside to be rolled up and wrapped, Wilf and Digby would arrive and settle down in the middle of it,luxuriating in the late autumn sunshine.Digby still dislikes one of the workmen.

For now 'au revoir' - we'll post pictures of the boyz adventures when we can.

Digby takes an arch dislike to a packer.

Winter has arrived. Yesterday afternoon a sudden squall blew in bringing with it a downpour of rattling hail and a bracing wave of frigid air from Siberia - the temperature fell from 28 to 14 degrees in half an hour. While we are complaining, the two boyz are in seventh heaven. This morning it is barely eight degrees and their Polish cold weather DNA has reasserted itself - they have rediscovered that boundless energy of puppyhood and are flying across the fields enjoying the arctic conditions. The removal men are doing a great job. A quarter of the house is now echoingly bare, a half in a state of chaos, and the final quarter still bearing some resemblance to a home.

We have a bit of a problem with the packers. For some reason Digby has taken a violent dislike to one of them. We simply can't work it out. He ignores all the others, but with this one guy he becomes a fifteen inch tall growling, snarling ,horrible aggressive beast. Naturally,Wilf is happy to play with them all. We wonder if the packer doesn't remind him of one of the robbers.

I was able to save the 'fonts' clothing yesterday but the bulk of mine had disappeared into those strange hanging wardrobes that packers use. This morning I am therefore combating the cold by wearing the top from a pair of British Airways pyjamas under my shirt. In addition I have come across a marvellous pair of 'combat pants' that belong to a younger Angus. In future I shall only ever wear combat pants - I can carry a monkey wrench, a can of WD40, the car keys, twine, a pair of pliers ,and still have pockets left over. The 'font' has so far not commented on my attire - the imminent arrival of the packers being a helpful distraction. Let's just hope that I'm not expected to go to any fancy restaurants on the journey to France - I fear that I shall have to rely on liberated 'younger Angus' clothing which may raise eyebrows when adorning the older Angus figure.

Four days to go.

Chaos and panic are the watchwords for today and I fear it can only get worse.The 'font',who has suddenly gone into hyper mode, has just asked me where I've hung the clothes we are going to wear for our journey to France. Put simply I haven't thought about clothes for the journey and have left everything in the wardrobes and dressers for the movers to pack. Diplomacy being my middle name I have not alluded to this fact . Rather than make an already fraught situation worse I shall instead demonstrate a cool, calm demeanour and try to extricate whatever clothing can be rescued from the super efficient packers. I just hope I've not left it too late !

For the rest of the day I think that Messrs.Wilf and Digby together with yours truly will need to find some quiet corner where we are well away from the organized chaos that has settled on our little piece of paradise.

Thank you for all your kind comments over the weekend. The traumas of moving have clearly struck a chord. The new blog address when we move to France will be http://www.wilfanddigby.blogspot.com/ . I tried 'Life and other musings' and all sorts of philosophical twists thereon but the names were all taken.

The two boyz don't seem to have understood that the gang of men wandering around the house and grounds are packers. Wilf has been greeting everyone in sight with a ball in his mouth - he has the firm belief that he has found a group of new ball throwing playmates.Long may it last!