Spring cleaning

29 sleeps to go. We'll be heading off to the UK soon, and there's quite a lot to get done. At the moment, we're waiting on visas, bank accounts, various accommodation arrangements, and the infernal inventories of all the stuff that either needs to be stored or transported to UK. And we're trying to get the house tidied up so that it can be marketed for rental. Today there was a trip to the dump during which we shed 218kg of household goods (the inaugural family microwave provided one more burst of joy as I flung it over the edge and watched it bounce to destruction (I was going to advertise it on eBay as suitable for directed energy experimentation, since the turntable motor stopped working)), and Pop and Grandma were playing with bricks and mortar making the new garden edging. The newly mown new lawn looks nice, and the shed is tidier than it's been for yonks.

Wine note: After the day's exertions, we were rewarded with a Tatachilla 2000 Shiraz. It was delicious. Very full bodied - rather chewy - with some chocolatey hints over delicious fruit, and some residue. A faint acetone/gluey aroma in the aftertaste, but nothing to complain about. Definitely a score of 15.4. (You'll note that my wine scores are out of 20 points.) Joanna thinks there is a whiff of Dynamic Lifter, but that's probably not the wine...

Steph spent the day with Claire Quinlan, planned to be at the Art Gallery/Southbank, but mostly swimming/playing at Janine's place.

Christopher is taking a few steps these days. He can't stand up (from a sitting position) by himself yet, but he's walked several metres in one go already. He laughs his head off when he walks.

As I type, the girls are (re)watching a Harry Potter DVD, and some of us are listening to Stokowski arrangements of Bach while we finish dinner. Grandma's trying to convince everybody not to have any custard, because she wants it all.

I should make a reference to Jim and Kylie's adventure at http://cyleigh.blogspot.com/ which we follow. We'll be leaving just after they get home, so we won't get a chance to acquire any of the Jim 06 Shiraz for a while. But I hope their (and Peter and Anna's) wedding celebrations in Romania go well.

That's enough for now.