On London

2 hours sleep, up at 6.30, one last cup of tea, put kettle in loft with other miscellaneous crap, lock loft, vacuum pack bedding & stuff into holdalls, big taxi at 8.30am – too small for 5 cases 2 holdalls 2 small backpacks 2 kids backpacks 1 guitar 2 car seats 1 laptop bag and a pushchair – wait for 2nd taxi, lock house, traffic jams to Heathrow, helpful porter trolleys luggage to check-in, security etc. 10 minutes breakfast scramble in BA lounge (Harry ate mostly olives), 7 hour flight (Lily watched TV, Harry wrestled then slept for 2 hours), land 3pm local time, 1 hour in immigration, helpful porter trolleys luggage from luggage reclaim, reunited with our “relocation counsellor” Sandy, delighted welcoming of indifferent Lily & Harry, helpful porter hoiks luggage into her car while Sandy spots mistakes on work permit, back through airport to immigration (I go to car hire desk then back through airport to remove luggage from Sandy’s car in search of driving licences) – work permit corrected and exorbitant car hire arranged, we unintentionally tour the city accompanied by weary arguments, arrive 40 minutes after Sandy, carry Lily to bed, unload car, consume cheese, biscuits & wine courtesy of our new landlords on lovely porch while Harry charges around amazingly cheerful until 10pm. Sleep…

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As all our stuff has been packed or given away we’ve been mostly eating out the last few days. We were planning to have one last night at Il Bacio and invited a few friends who hadn’t been able to make the official leaving do.

We didn’t bother booking cause it was only a small do, but the numbers escalated until finally there were 22 of us. The staff in Il Bacio were great though and even entertained the kids with Generation Game style pizza dough activities.

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…not for us though cause we had the help of a moving team: Jason, Mickey & Mickey. Putting the stuff we’re leaving behind up into the loft was pretty knackering though I must admit.

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We’ve had a two week holiday in France which, falling 2.5 weeks before our move, gave us chance to make lists in the sun whilst giving the appearance of carefree relaxation.

Got back on the Eurostar yesterday and today had our leaving do in Clissold Park. The torrential rain and howling wind just prior to the start meant that we nearly cancelled, but luckily (for him!) the short-term forecast on Pat’s iPhone proved accurate: the rain stopped, the sun came out and it turned into a lovely late summer afternoon.

We got through 2 rounds of 8 pizzas but I think another round would’ve disappeared just as quick, so sorry to anyone who didn’t actually get any…

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Louis arranged some studio time for us to get two tracks down before I depart. Here’s a video of me & Ed playing Poem – my last opportunity to play with the magnificent Eddie G for a few years…

Thanks to Adie for giving us studio time at Panic!

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Amazing how quickly the stuff disappeared once we put it out.

I guess it helped that there was a carboot sale going on in the schoolyard opposite. People were probably taking stuff straight from our wall and selling it.

We really couldn’t be arsed to sit there all day for a few quid, so good luck to them!

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Today has been ridiculous but I’ll just relate one thread in the tapestry of lunacy.

Caroline had to renew her passport because it’s full up, and Lily’s passport expires in October so we decided to do both at once, Fast Track in one day.

I completed Lily’s form online a few weeks ago, so it had my name as parent / guardian. But because Caroline would be taking it into the office I had to write a letter giving my consent for her to take in the form.

When she got to the passport office they said that because she is named as parent/guardian on Lily’s passport, she needed to write a letter giving her consent for me to complete the passport application.

They also needed a letter giving my consent for Caroline to collect the new passport, and as I was getting that ready I got a call saying Lily’s photos had been rejected for being too light. The photo studio did another set for no charge which was good of them, and I cycled the 5 miles to Victoria to drop them off along with the letter.

That went ok – I gave the lady the photos and letter and she disappeared for 5 minutes. She came back and she had somehow lost one of the photos, but I had 2 spares…She disappeared for another 5 minutes, came back (with a bag of Thornton’s chocolates for one of her colleagues I noticed), and told me everything was ok for Caroline to pick up the passport later.

I had passed the time construcively remembering how to make an origami rowing boat. When I asked her if she wanted it, however, she pretended not to hear me.

Back at home later on I got a call from Caroline waiting to pick up the passport: they couldn’t find the letter of consent. So I typed up, printed and faxed another.

Now I’m just waiting for Thornton’s to call.

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Sarah & Jimmy are looking after our piano while we’re away. Sean very kindly came and helped with the move.

Seconds before this shot there was a brief interval of torrential rain, during which Sean and Jimmy sensibly sheltered in the van. For some unknown, primal reason, I stood there and got soaked…

Also check out my special hoiking stance.

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At the weekend Gill & Simon took half a loft’s worth of baby gear which packed nicely into their convertible.

We put a few cassettes, bike parts, vases etc on the front wall with a note: Please take. The Prince cassettes were the last to go: some Spanish guys must’ve taken them because they left a note saying “Gracias!“

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I predict Justin Bieber is gonna be huge around 16 years from now

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