Mike Bennett. Author: November 2015

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

We Have Moved.

Moving update! We have successfully moved house / country and are now residing in South Wexford, Ireland. The move was pretty frantic; after months of waiting, the deal went through and we had just a week to get packed up and out. On the day, two small trucks came took all our stuff, and then we had to jump on a train and whizz up to Gatwick Airport and fly over to Dublin that same night in order to meet the trucks down in Wexford the next morning. We spent the night in a hotel and met the trucks at a petrol station at 9:00, and from there we led them through the labyrinth of country lanes to Pauline’s dad’s house where we offloaded everything. Only one breakage: a Parsec award snapped at the stem (but it’s fixable). That’s pretty good going, considering all the glass and furniture that made it intact - even our houseplant made it in one piece!

Last Train to Gatwick

Next we moved ourselves and our basic necessities into Pauline’s sister’s house not far away. We stayed there for a week while we looked for a place of our own to rent, while at the same time viewing houses that we might like to buy. We found both within the week. We moved in to our rental last Monday, and we went sale agreed on our house purchase a few days later. So then we had to sort out bank accounts and all that sort of thing, and also to start ferrying our boxes from Pauline’s dad’s house to our new rental. Writing and podcasting kit were at the top of my list, along with clothes, board games and ventriloquist puppets.

This last week has been spent trying to find a car. We found one today and, due to our lack of insurance at the time, the salesman was good enough to drive us home in it. We’ve since got insurance, so we’re now totally mobile (mini fist pump!)

Saint Helen's Bay, Wexford.

So that’s where we are now: pretty much sorted out. We went for a walk on Monday at St Helen's Bay (above). Our wellies filled with lingering tide and we had to scramble up the cliff to dry land, which was good huffing and puffing exercise. Pauline’s seen a job she fancies and has started the process, and I’m now set up and back to writing every day. Oh, and last but not least, if you listened to the PatreonCast of the last episode of The Thing on the Doorstep, you’ll have heard me mention the guy from our Internet supplier told us we’d spent half our monthly allowance in two days. Good news is, he misinformed us, or we misunderstood him, or a bit of both. It turns out that as it happens, we’ve used very little - which is a great relief because we were at a loss to understand how we could have used 10g in two days by just checking email and whatnot. Anyway, that’s all the news I have for now. Basically, it's all good. Huzzah!!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Underground - Episode 6

Underwood and Flinch: Underground. Episode 6 now available at Patreon for supporters at $3 per month and over.

It's also my penultimate day in the UK. We're currently packing the last boxes and getting ready for the big move to Ireland tomorrow. I'm worried we may not have enough cardboard boxes. Where does all the clutter come from? (Answer: charity shops). We went for a last early morning walk. It was foggy, which was nice. Here's a picture of P enjoying it the mistiness.