First big hurdle has been overcome: we have sold our house and at a better price than we expected.

We now have to negotiate a mutual moving date and let the solicitors do their searches and what not for the missives, which can take up to 12 weeks!

In case you didn’t know, solicitors (that poorly paid bunch of professionals) like to advertise their prices minus any VAT and other add-ons: for us the price was advertised at £700 but with the add-ons and VAT (both compulsory) it was £1070. However, when we told them we would go somewhere else we did get a reduction of £120.

We have also booked seats on our flights which, for Singapore Airlines (Singapore to Australia) was free, and for British Airways (Edinburgh to London) was £9 each (£36 total).

Only 3 months and 6 days to go…