Packing + Buzzers + Lockdown + #Pet #Halloween Themed #Photos + Celebrating #Samhain 2020

I've been busy making sure everything is packed...

    
It was Logan's idea to get in the box he's pictured in above, and it was actually harder to get him out of it than in to it, in case you're wondering... He climbed in to the box eagerly, and was quite content sitting in the box, which I'd actually grabbed to pack some books in to.  It was my idea for Kelly to get a photo though.  Took me ages to persuade Logan to get back out of the box.  LOL! 

    

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Anyway, I've been working hard to get things packed sooner rather than later, because we might be moving this side of Christmas instead of early in the new year.  I don't know for sure yet if it will happen, but we're going to try to make it happen, because we all agree it would be better if we could move sooner rather than later - and that includes the landlord, who has spacifically asked us to try and move sooner. 

     

So if we can arrange it, we're going to be moving before Christmas instead of after it.  With that in mind, I'm hoping to have the rest of the non-essential stuff packed by the end of this week.  With how well I've done with packing over the past couple of weeks, that should be achievable.  As for the actual moving part... Well, just stay tuned for a moving date announcement, since one will be coming in the not-too-distant future one way or another anyhow.  

     

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I don't want to go in to it right now, but... Given how things are starting to become in this area, we're starting to be glad we have to move, and have to agree it will definitely be a good thing if we can move sooner. 

 

    Plus, like I said, the landlord has actually asked us to try to do so, and this is one thing we actually agree with him on, so we're more than happy to do just that if we can make it happen.

    

*~* 

     

By the way, the buzzer broke again. 

 

    Yes, really. 

      

It was meant to have been fixed by now, since someone was supposed to come fix it again last Friday.  We're still waiting though. *sigh* 

 

    So not going to miss dealing with this stupid buzzer. 

     

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Well, it works enough that people can buzz, we can hear it when they do, and we can use the button to let them in, so that's a good thing (and more than it had been doing).  But it makes this horrid screaching sound whenever we (or the neighbours) pick up the receivers, and we can't hear anything people are saying properly over that. 

    

I wonder if they'll get it to stop doing that before we move out? 

    

 Yeah... I'm not holding my breath. 

   

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 As if this whole moving thing wasn't complicated enough, we're also dealing with lockdowns again. 

     

Wales has been in lockdown for a couple of weeks, and is due to come out of it on November 9th.  Where as England went in to lockdown yesterday (November 5th) and is due to come out of it on December 2nd.  Because, of course, they couldn't just have it happen everywhere at the same time, and apparently England needs a longer one than Wales. 

    

 I think areas with numbers of confirmed cases of Covid-19 that remain high will be forced to stay in lockdown after December 2nd, but - though it sounded that way to me from Boris Johnson's conference the other day - I'm not sure on that, and don't want to think how people will take that news if it comes to it.  Let's just hope it doesn't.

     

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The plan is to organize things so we can move the moment England's full lockdown is lifted. 

     

I'm hoping we can arrange things so we can be moving right at the start of December, assuming property availability allows for it.  As I mentioned earlier in this post, I'll let you know for sure when we'll be moving after a moving date is confirmed.

 

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Although, there is a loophole that would allow us to move during lockdown. 

     

Since we're moving because of issues - harassment among them - and the landlord certainly won't want us to postpone the move (he actually wants the opposite) we can technically move during lockdown, because you're allowed to if it can't be postponed, or if physical or emotional health issues could result from postponing it.  I checked.  But since we couldn't be ready until the end of November anyhow, even if we do find a place immediately now we're getting in touch with people about one, it won't be a big deal holding off for that one extra week. 

     

The landlord will just have to put up with it, and I'll just have to count down the days once we have a date. 

 

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Having said that, if we can find a suitable place, and it does turn out any areas that affect me – by which I mean the area I currently live in, the one we move to, and any we have to pass through during the move - are put in lockdown later than December 2^nd, I’m going to make use of that loophole and go ahead and move, because I really have to unless there isn’t a place available that’s suitable. 

     

I really don’t want to be here longer than absolutely essential.  Apart from anything else, the stress of dealing with everything we're having to put up with while we're still living here isn’t doing me any good. 

    

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Like I said a couple of times earlier in this post though, I’ll let you know when I have an actual moving date.

     

In the meantime, any positive house-finding thoughts would be appreciated.  Think of two or three bedroom houses with gardens when you think of us in our new home, please.

   

*~* 

    

In other news: 

     

As I'm sure you don't need me to point out, Samhain - or Halloween, for those who prefer to call it that - happened this past weekend.  Of course, I naturally had to have a pumpkin so I could make 2020's version of Mr. Pumpkin-Head.  So, here he is:

 

 

I didn't bother with decorations this year (other than Mr. Pumpkin-Head) because of trying to get things packed up.  But I had to do a bit of a petkid photoshoot, didn't I? 😉

     

So, here's Lilie in her purple Halloween themed bandana:

    

Here's Logan in his black Halloween themed bandana:

    

And here's Artemis, who doesn't have a tiny tortoise-sized bandana, but got in on the photo shoot by being relatively willing to pose with the light-up skull I got earlier this year, and this year's Mr. Pumpkin-Head:

    

Mollie isn't included, because she wasn't feeling co-operative, and wouldn't even get out of bed, let alone pose for a photo.  I still gave her a little pumpkin as a treat though, and some pumpkin seeds too.

    

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So, how did I celebrate this year? 

     

I ate some vegan friendly Halloween gummy sweets Kelly got me while watching DVDS and reading.  The sweets were shaped like skulls, bones, brains, and a couple of other things I can't remember what they were... They were detailed enough that I could tell what they were meant to be and everything.  We got them from M&S (Marks & Spencer).  I was going to take a photo, but I forgot, and now I've eaten them, so can't. 

    

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The other thing I did was to do some baking, and make some cookies... 

    

They're just basic cookies with a bit of nutmeg in for flavouring, and an attempt at drawing faces on them to make them look sort of like jack-o-lanterns, because I couldn't be bothered to mess about with cookie cutters (even though I hadn't packed them at this point intentionally so I could use them). 

    

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I also made pumpkin sage sauce and baked potato (because I didn't have any pasta, and decided to just have a baked potato instead of pasta with my pumpkin sage sauce this year) and pumpkin bread. 

    

 

 I've made pumpkin pasties, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin spice cakes, and various versions of the pumpkin sauce that are adaptations of the pumpkin sage sauce recipe before, but not pumpkin bread, so wanted to do that this year.  Apparently I'm in some kind of a bread products baking mood right now. Anyway, here's a photo of some of my pumpkin bread rolls:

    

I had to adapt the recipe, since the two I had both called for eggs, so I needed to veganize it.  It seems to have worked well.  Oh, and if you can tell there's a lack of pumpkin seeds... I left those out, because Kelly doesn't like seeds in his bread, and he wanted to be able to have some pumpkin bread.  So the pumpkin itself made it in there, but not the seeds.  I had those just sprinkled on my dinner (the baked potato with pumpkin sage sauce mentioned above) which one of these rolls went very well with, by the way.