Stage one, complete.

We handed over lots of cash and got a set of keys today at 2pm. Fortunately we got ones that fit in the flat we were planning on, so all that was fine. Mark headed off to pick up the van while I waited at the flat, did some last minute work (man I love mobile broadband) and waited for Alex, our friendly management company concierge to arrive to show me how everything works around the flat. Unfortunately I've forgotten already.

We met back at the Clevedon flat and loaded up - Mark valiantly did lots of carrying down the stairs, while I moved things from the flat to the landing, a much easier job that I created for myself under the guise of "efficiency" (so neither of us had to go all the way up and all the way down all the time, running into each other on the stairs. See?)

By the time we had the first van load (we ended up with a bigger van than expected so filling it up took FOREVER) it was way into dinnertime, so we drove down to Weston and got Papa's Fish and Chips (which Dad and Jenny will possibly remember) and ate them on the sea front. Then we drove to the flat and unloaded the van, which took less than forever, and this time I helped more (which no doubt is why it took less than forever).

We saw two neighbors - one who scooted by quite quickly before I had a chance to introduce myself (a nice looking blond person, younger than me, carrying a badminton racket, possibly lives in flat 7) - and Christina from flat 8, who was really friendly.

We finished just as dark was really settling in. We didn't stick around and drove back to Clevedon to regroup, sleep and start on our full day of moving tomorrow. I think Mark's dad is going to help out, so I'm already plotting how I can score the "cleaning and unpacking" role, leaving Mark and his dad with the "heavy lifting up and down stairs" role.

We'll see how that goes...

Here is Mark in our new living room right after we got the keys:



And our new kitchen (this is the most exciting photo I could come up with - the rest are just rooms and bathrooms):



And this is the view off to the side of our bay window - it's cheating though because this is really zoomed in - the sea is much much further away than this photo makes it look - I just wanted to see if I was just imagining that we could see the sea from it...):


We have some photos of rooms with boxes in, but I don't think they're uploaded yet, and they're not really that exciting...but I'll try and post more tomorrow, maybe, depending on how tired we are after a whole day of moving and unpacking!