The kids wanted to get school sweatshirts (EC is entitled to wear a hoodie which is a big deal here) so we walked over to the uniform store. We (Noah and I) wanted to get some good boots for walking in the rain so after the uniform store we headed into the downtown area. We also checked out a couple of other stores and had dinner at the Jamaican restaurant. It was fascinating that the guy running the restaurant was very friendly with everyone who sounded like a tourist… except for us. He barely spoke to us. I didn’t get the drink I ordered. I don’t think he likes folks from the US.

All this after a plumber came and fixed the broken sink faucet in the kitchen and the broken toilet in the downstairs bathroom. Oh, and we did a fairly major house clean because the kids did basically zero chores all week.

All told we walked a hair shy of 9.5 miles. The walk home was in the dark and it was raining quite a bit. Except for the fact that Noah is getting sick it was fun. I have a growing appreciation for wool.

Today Noah is napping after making a lovely breakfast and the big kids have Her Sweetness outside for some play time. My “rest” has involved making a new email address so I can make a new Apple ID and I ordered a Sim card for the mobile phone provider I want to use. My phone costs are going to go from around $100/month to £10/every other month or so. Sweet.

I logged into my bank account for the first time. The system here is quite different and a serious pain in the ass. I have 3 or 4 pin numbers for various services and none of them can be the same. I also need to have special words that go with my pins. So that’s not going to be confusing in the slightest. I also opened a savings account and transferred the money into the kids’ savings accounts. Plugging right along.

My bed is breaking, which sucks a lot. I need to get some braces for the bottom support legs.  I also need to order a toilet seat and a handle for the upstairs bathroom. So much stuff is breaking. (Added two hours later: these pieces are now ordered.)

Grocery order made. I am doing so much thinking about my feelings about hiring help. I will hire a plumber. I’m having my groceries delivered. Why am I getting all butt hurt about hiring help cleaning? Because there is something in that experience that just… I can’t. I can’t. I don’t know what the fuck it is. Noah sure would like me to. I can’t.

I’m a hypocrite; I know.

I am super close to being done with Christmas. I am giving fewer presents this year than usual. I am not dealing with shipping or online orders for most people. I am just so tired and moving was so expensive.

I am getting genuinely close to the point where we don’t need or want anything else. That’s nice. Well, after Christmas we won’t want anything for a while. A bunch of want stuff is sitting in Noah’s closet. I should go ahead and wrap things soon so the kids don’t “accidentally” find things.

I figured out that there is a recycling point right next to the primary school. I will be pushing a load over there every day when I drop the kids off for a while. The boat stuff is due to be delivered within the next 24 days. I will cross my fingers that it doesn’t take that long, but with all the storms in the Atlantic… we’ll see. I’d rather the boat went super far out of its way to be safe than take a more direct path and lose everything (mostly I care about the lives of the sailors. My stuff is just stuff. The people matter).

I have barely moved today. Only 1200 steps. I took over 20,000 yesterday. Surely it evens out…