I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been awake now. It’s 5.30am and my mind is churning. Today is the big day, at 10.00am we sign, roughly 8 months after we first shook hands with the current owner. I’m not sure why I’m so anxious. Our visit a couple of days ago yielded some new information on a small roof leak, a partially blocked kitchen sink, and what to do when the electricity trips out. It also reminded me though, of the views, the quiet, the birds singing, and how very blessed we are to have this opportunity to make this a very special place. I left excited and ready to get stuck in. So, why am I awake in the middle of the night feeling like an elephant is sitting on my chest?? The bank appointment yesterday ran relatively smoothly, bank cards collected, money transferred, all good. The insurance appointment was a little more fraught, all sorted and ready to sign until I noticed our name was spelt incorrectly, my husband was “Graig” and our surname had a U on the end. Giving myself an internal high-five for remembering the French for W to enable this to be corrected, the lovely lady began what became a rather arduous task of amending and re-printing the documentation. We sat there for what seemed like forever with the silence only punctuated by exasperated tuts from across the desk until finally phew, done. The already written cheque had to be re-done though as inexplicably the spelling correction rendered the policy €2 cheaper?!?! No clue, literally no clue! The lovely lady had been so very patient and helpful that we popped back with a little basket of hyacinths, the least we could do and they were very happily received which made my day.

So after awarding ourselves the Duke of  Edinburgh bronze award for adulting, we headed to the brocant and bought a lectern and a pair of wooden bison bookends. Normal service has been resumed….