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No idea what the original colour of this car really was, but I somehow doubt that it was pink.

So here I am now, sitting in the house in Eastleigh in the UK with nothing at all to do than to watch cats trying to catch the kois in the garden pond. I am also trying to get my inner balance back after the upheaval of the last weeks and waiting for our stuff to arrive.

Last week was very difficult for me. I came back Sunday 4 January from Berlin and had just very few days to pack the last things. On Monday I felt weak (because of the pregnancy) and tearful (probably exhaustion) and thought I wouldn't be able to cope with the move. Thank goodness for the help of four very good friends to who really really worked hard for me on Tuesday evening: they did a miracle and packed all my things!!! On Wednesday morning the movers came in and took everything away within two hours. The house felt horrible after that - all I had left were some items that I wanted to take with me in the car and basic bedding. I took refuge at a friend's house to watch some TV. On Thursday I did a trip to the recycling centre to get rid of some rubbish and then picked up Frank from the airport (who hadn't even slept after his night shift). We had one last evening at Brady's and early the next morning Frank and I packed the car (it never had been this full before I bet) and went off to catch the ferry to Holyhead. Even though it was Friday the 13th, everything went fine and we arrived at Eastleigh in the evening after a long drive through Wales and England.

I had two more days with Frank before his shift started again and he showed me around a bit. Eastleigh is very residential but has good shopping facilities not too far away. This is very important when you have nothing to do, even though I cannot exactly spend lots of money there either. Apart from getting on with some stuff I need to do (seeing a doctor/midwife, registration of the car) I am now a housewife who drives her beloved to work and picks him up again, thinks about what to cook for dinner, and tries to keep the place in order. It's all very strange and I still have to get to terms with this new almost non-rhythmical life.

The baby seems to be doing all right through all of this, but I could feel that it was quieter during the stressful days. The first evening in Eastleigh it made up for all of that and kicked me for hours and hours like there was no tomorrow. Now I am treating it to some nice relaxing reggae/dub and it seems to be sleeping.

Precision work

Even the moles in Germany are tidy!

Not quite. Just holidays and plenty of stuff to do. The last two weeks simply flew by. See in the Photo Gallery what I was up to:

Of course I also had my last working days in the meantime. Weird, but I didn't cry on my last day. I was simply too busy.