a very, very, very fine house

all our stuff - in a VAN

And having missed out a whole month we're (sort of) in our new house. 

We were lucky enough to be moving into the house of a friend of my wife's family so were able to move out stuff in gradually, even before we'd signed any rental agreement. 

But at the end we seemed to spend a whole lot of time waiting for our buyer to give us any instructions and we kind of took our feet off the pedal. And then all of a sudden they turned round and said that they had to move in at the end of that week. 

We gnashed our teeth and ranted and raved. But with the sure knowledge that people should be careful what they wish for, we steeled ourselves and said, "You want it? You can have it". 

That week was obviously the longest and most demanding week at work that I have ever had, so most of the shifting and planning fell to Mrs. D and our amazing families. And our old house wasn't as clean as we would've liked it to have been when we handed over the keys [not that it was dirty you understand] but at the end of the day it has gone. 

As I write, we're still at Mrs. D's folks' while we get straight but it's taking shape. And the new house feels more like a home than the other house ever did. 

It's still pretty frustrating that we were forced out of a house which we owned, and the changes in lending coupled with us being a one-wage family mean that we've had to go into a rental property, but it's so nice to know that whole situation is finally over and done with. 

And the further away it gets the less it bothers us. Onwards and upwards. Can't wait to spend Christmas in our lovely new home. 

My previous MS Society-rattling post got a bit of interest, not least from the charity itself. I'd tagged it in a tweet when I first published the article [on September 29th] so I expected a conversation at least. So I was genuinely pleased to get this a couple of days later:

Since then, the silence has been frankly deafening. The most engaged debate was on this very blog - it would've been interesting to get a bit of a discussion happening with the many other MS writers/bloggers/activists I follow on Twitter, most of whom follow the MS Society. 

Even if they think I'm full of sh*t, I'm interested in the logic behind THAT organisation using THAT phrase on THOSE items. 

I know it's popular among some members of our community but for all the reasons I mentioned I still think it's icky. And I stand by them. 

In my (to my mind) righteous fury, I'd forgotten that it's also the title of a blog written by the person who chooses the "blog of the week" on the Shift.MS Facebook group.

So I guess I won't hold my breath before I get picked for that particular accolade again.