The countdown has started......

Never a dull moment. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in (The calm before the storm) we have been talking about retiring for years. I also said that there was a lot happening in the background, well my friends this is some of what has been happening. Just under a month ago an Estate Agent phoned us to ask if we wanted to sell our house as she had someone who was interested. We explained that we did in fact want to sell but hadn't listed it yet. Anyway, long story short, we met her and she listed our home. We were quite sceptical as we have had another property on the market for almost a year and it is still not sold. The third couple she brought around fell in love with the house and returned with their family to look again. They signed an offer which was subject to the sale of their house, but also less than what we were asking. We accepted with a counter offer. In the meantime their house sale fell through and they held an 'emergency' Show House which yielded results and the house was sold to a cash buyer. They came back to us having increased their offer a bit, the Estate Agent dropped her commission and we accepted. Remember the harbour lights in Italy? Well .......... this finally happened yesterday and we signed the papers last night. Our house is sold and we are actually RETIRING to the Western Cape, in particular we are looking at Betty's Bay. My mind is like a Formula 1 race track at the moment with all that needs to be organized and completed. We will be going down to the Cape in three weeks to view the houses we've been looking at on the Internet over the last couple of months, we have sifted through, more or less, the ones we like. Then it is going to be full steam ahead to get this house packed and the actual move. All this is a little daunting for me at the moment as I have Fibromyalgia and am going to have to find a way to pace myself (not my natural style) in order to stay on top of things and get it all done. If anyone has a main line to the 'moving elves' please tell them to come and visit me. Haha I wish.

Retire has already become a flexible word as Hubby is busy making plans on how he will be able to work long distance, make furniture and a number of other ideas. It was also very 'considerate' of Poppet to tell us last night that "it makes complete sense for Dad to make my dining room table before he makes your bookcases, because then you have less bookcases to move with." Love you girl. This is already a bittersweet event for me as I will be leaving Big Guy, Poppet and my little Princess behind and moving closer to Big Bear and Baby Bear and other family. I think there are many moms out there that will agree with me when I say a perfect life is if all your family live in one city. This is going to change so many dynamics of our family, for the good, in that instead of family caravaning holidays in December we will now be doing family holidays and get togethers by the sea. This for me is a lifelong dream coming true.

Kiko has now learnt how to 'high five' me when she gets her food, as she is usually quite frantic she is only too to happy to oblige She is growing so quickly, has her own very distinctive personality and loves to chat with me in her little squeaks and meows. this little bundle of fluff is extremely determined and is still the first one to approach Gemma for friendship, except for the other day when she leapt off the chair onto Gemmas back and then leapt straight off just as quickly. There was a huge ka-fuffle I can tell you.

Have an awesome weekend folks, enjoy your families, relax and recharge for the week ahead. Stay safe.