Hardly believe it was only a month ago since we made the move!  The anniversary was really a couple of days ago but I only realised this morning when one of the kids asked how long we’d been here!

It has been a rollercoaster of a move and I would not recommend anyone doing it at this time of year.  However, it proves that it can be done on pretty short notice and that my kids are fantastic.

To recap…

Scotland changes education system, Shetland Islands Council unveils it’s “plan” for implementing said new system.  We dig escape tunnel.

2 days before we were due to get on the boat, we didn’t have a house to move in to!  The house we were hoping to move to (seen from the outside by my dad and inside by one of my brothers) had problems that we knew about (boiler, carpets, oven) and problems we didn’t know about.

On moving in we found damp, no down-pipe, satellite cable routed through the upstairs bedroom window, condemned stove, really crappy bathroom suite, dodgy DIY repairs to stuff, blocked chimney, the garden, did I mention the damp?

In one month, as my kids put it, we’ve turned this place from some rooms into a home.  The final touches were put in place last night when we lit the lounge fire for the first time and just relaxed.

Memorable Quotes…

“We’re not staying here very long, are we?” – Thing 2

“What the fuckety fuck have we done?” – Me

“I swear I saw a dragon guarding a castle back there!” – Thing 1 on seeing the Wall of Thorns (Green creature, 5/5 Blocker, You go in there, you’re not coming out.  Not in one piece, anyway – Khorash, Elven Ranger)

“It is! It’s the back wall!” – My wife once we’d got the Wall of Thorns down to a 0/1 creature.

“It’s like he’s always been here.” Thing 3’s class teacher at the wonderful local school

“You again?” – Staff at Branch Bros, Bourne.

“You again?” – Staff at Screwfix, Bourne.

“You again?” – Staff at the Bourne Recycling Centre

“How did you do that? We never get those returned!” – Local garden centre on seeing what had happened to the garden fork they’d sold me not 2 hours previously

“Wow! Your bed is really high!” – All 5 kids, in turn, on seeing the raised bed in the master bedroom.  To be fair, it is about 5′ off the floor.  Advantages, lots of very useful space underneath.  Disadvantage – the loo is downstairs and adding in a stepladder is not helpful.

“How do you fit that lot in there?” – Just about anyone seeing the Horde exiting the house on the way to school.

“You’ve really made this place a home!” – Thing2, warming his hands in front of the fire.

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Baston is a wonderful village to have moved to.  Carols (and very good beer) in the pub the other night.  A cake from one of our neighbors on day 2 (my goodness that was a real lift!  A wonderful moment that just raised our spirits).  So much stuff going on at the local hall and in the surrounding villages.

There were times during the last month when I questioned our decision to move.  Times when I seriously wondered whether it would have been better to have put Thing1 into boarding school and seen what happened.  They were fleeting moments, though, and they’re gone now.  The kids are settled in their schools, Thing5 starts nursery in January and life is (on the whole) good.

2014 is going to be an interesting year for Scotland in general and Shetland in particular.

Now, the only thing that remains is getting me sorted.  No rush, I’ve got a chicken house to build.