We arrived

We have arrived in the Czech Republic, to our new home. We have a lovely flat to rent at the moment, I was a little surprised how nice! It’s a really good size, really clean, newly fitted and refurbished. It has a forest just behind it, which our balcony faces, the sun set over this side in the afternoon.

We have a lot of boxes around us as anyone does when they move. I will gradually get through them next week. We have to take our sofas to the weekend house for storage as it would have been too cramped and tricky to get them in the flat. Daron made the trip in about 12 hours or so, which was amazing, it was better because he could have dinner with us when he a got here.

I have changed up some money but not too much just yet, although I probably ought to make the most of it because its an excellent exchange rate at the moment.

We spent the afternoon yesterday as tourists wandering around and eating and drinking far too much, the weather has been fantastic, and is looking good on the forecast for a few days to come. We walked to see a few of the flats that we will take an internal look at, we showed Daron where they were. Today we will probably take a boat ride as none of us have done it yet.

Obviously I have my PC set up, it was so easy as the block of flats that we are in has WIFI available, so it was simple as 1,2,3! Vynikajici!

The house sale completed yesterday afternoon so I guess I am now a free man.

Im Leaving...

I’m leaving, on a jet plane,
Don’t know when I’ll be back again,

Moving on

This past week has been a roller coaster of emotion, and has come to an end on a very positive note.  Earlier in the week I called my solicitor to explain our need to have some notice for exchange and completion of the sale because I still needed to arrange all of the transportation requirements.  She told me she would try to get some answers from the other solicitor and get back to me, as the week went on we had no news.  On Thursday I had a call from the agents to arrange for the buyer to view my property again with her builder to start to measure up for alterations, so I had the opportunity to speak to the buyer and get her side of why the sale had stalled.  She had said to me that she was aware that I was trying to push the sale through by the 29th but her solicitor had said that it was very unlikely.  After some thought I realised that maybe I had got my hopes up too high and the reality was that it would most probably be a few weeks away.

Then on Friday afternoon, I had a call from my solicitor asking if I was ready to move next week because she was about to exchange the contracts and make it all binding.  Which spun it all around and caused mayhem as I had to get on the phone to friends and family etc to get them all actioned on the parts that they will play in the move process.  My brother had to shoot out of work and go to the van hire centre to book a van, which really was at the 11th hour as they need 3 days to clear the insurance for Europe, and he will be collecting the van on Wednesday morning.

So, here we go, so much to do, I will finish at work on Saturday, and visit my parents in Lincoln on Sunday. By next weekend I will be living in Prague. Wish me luck eh.

New Mobile

Been feeling a bit under the weather lately, hopefully it’s nothing. Had a trip to Folkestone yesterday, to see the sea for probably the last time in a long long while. Used my new sat nav for directions to, more about that in a minute. The weather has been great lately, seems we are having a late warm spell, I’m lovin it, as the famous fast food chain says! Actually I did partake in the offering of that fast food chain yesterday, wish I hadn’t, isn’t it bloody awful, well not my cup of tea anyway. Not long at all til my brothers wedding, it’s going to be a great bash I am sure, there will be a strong Czech contingent there which I am looking forward to.

I have bought a new mobile, the Mitel Mio A701 PDA/Mobile/Sat nav phone. One word – FANTASTIC. I am very pleased with it, it does all I expected and more, and so far has proved very stable, unusual considering it is running a piece of Microsoft software! If there was one complaint I have it is that my last windows mobile PDA through my O2 network had a thumb keypad, just like other mobiles but it was part of the touch screen software, so you didn’t have to get the little stick out every time you used it, this one doesn’t have it and I feel lost without it, it was the best addition to my last version but sadly, I’ll have to make do now. The sat nav that is included with the package is branded Miomap v2 and it is excellent, it’s produced for them by navigon, which some of you may have heard of anyway. It surprised me at how fast it is in calculating routes and rerouting when I have been deliberately going off route and stuff to test it, just seconds. If you like PDAs etc, I would definitely recommend this mobile, size wise it compares more to the XDA mini, and the orange, and t-mobile equivalent.

Next couple of days should give me a solid date for the exchange, then I can book and confirm all the transport and tickets that I have to do.

There is hope

Wow, it has been a lovely weekend, so sunny and warm.  I have been real busy with work on Saturday and then a great deal of chores on Sunday.  I spent a number of hours working on the garden, and Petra and I washed, T-Cut and polished the car so that it was lovely and clean to go on sale this week.  I must say, it did come up a treat.

So today I have a day off, which I will spend some time working on the garden, and I have a couple of people to meet also.  With any luck in the next couple of days I will get some exchange and completion dates from the solicitor.  I can then make final plans for flights, van and ferry.   I’ll also be able to make final cut off dates for my television service, mobile, and gas and electricity.  As soon as the car is sold I can cancel the car insurance to.

The weather forecast is a little less sunny over the next few days, with a little more rain due.  I wish now for a really fine September and October for our entrance into Prague, I know that the winter will be really harsh an it will be so much harder to settle in as it will be more difficult to make the most of the outdoors when the weather is bad.

The exchange rate had gone very favourable in our favour for a couple of weeks, it’s a shame we are not ready to make the switch just yet, as the rate has just started to fall again.  Doh!

Friday news

We have come into a spell of nice weather this week and it looks like it will continue for at least another 5 days or so, it’s been really quiet at work because of the kids holidays ending and them going back to school.  So, business has been poor.

I won’t go into the most recent drama with my house sale as sometimes I wonder if it just makes me sound more of a drama queen than anything else, but after quite a stressful couple of days I had a much more positive conversation today.  It appears that there are just a few more bits to tie up and we will be heading for a completion!  One of the water searches on my property has taken a long time and is still outstanding but should not take too much longer, and the agreed contract of sale has to be signed, other than this the final enquiries will be taken care of by my solicitor and that’s about it.

The timescales are now much more clear, well after these last few bits it should be rather quick if all parties in the sale agree, I am hoping for just 3 weeks from now, maybe the 29th September.  But as I said this all relies on the next week when it will all be finalised.

So, we will hire a van and book our one-way tickets out of here.  My brother will drive the van to Prague whilst Petra and I fly 1st class and set ourselves up at the flat we will be renting.  We can then look really hard for the home of our dreams in the historic town, you never know, maybe we will get that place at Trziste?

So, I am working tomorrow and I am meeting Daron for coffee in the morning at the club before work, we can catch up and make some more plans.

Sunday Afternoon

It’s been such weird weather here lately, since the beginning of august we have hardly had any nice days.  My training has been a little of beat too, since we got back from holiday I have not really done a lot other than walking to work.  I have just started to perk up a little over the last few days, I have been running with Petra, and cycled to work and been swimming this morning, hopefully that’ll be the start of a good routine again.  I do wonder what the month of September will bring, maybe some milder weather and a little sunshine with any luck.  I got an email from an old school friend of mine yesterday, he is the same age as me and just about a year ago he left the UK to move to San Francisco, he and his wife are just 7 weeks away from having their first child, ah bless!  He must be so excited and very anxious for the day.  I guess I question myself about when it will be my time for a family, but I just don’t feel that I am ready for it yet.  I hope Petra is patient with me?

My Brother has now moved to his new home and I am so pleased that he seems to be heading in exactly the right direction, I would really like to help him do up his new place but I’ll probably not be around long enough and will also be an extra pair of hands he doesn’t need.

Finished the second draft of Ulrics menu today, I’m still not happy with it, but I have to follow the desires of the client, I feel he chose the wrong paper and the wrong way of binding the menu, but C’est la Vie, as they say in France.

Sadly, I missed the tour of Britain which has just finished, the last day was today in London, yesterday the Kent leg happened which would have been great to spectate, unfortunately I was working and couldn’t get out to see any of it.

Maybe next year Petra will come with me to watch several stages of the tour de France, and we can have a little camping and cycling holiday?