There have been a lot of false dawns. People who were selling at one price, then decided to increase it. Ones with scary inspection reports. Ones where the estate agent just couldn't be bothered to show us round. Oh, and one with the bidding war from the outer reaches of hell.

Finally we agreed on a place, in a little kommune called Billinge. The place is tiny, though it does have it's own rare breed duck and a cheese, so it's not totally uncivilised ;) It's also just 5 minutes away from the Swedish National Forest - the largest broadleaved forest in Northern Europe. Hopefully we'll be moving in on July 10th, only a few weeks away, and hopefully our estate agent in the UK will decide that it's worth sending stuff to solicitors and allow the sale of my house to complete in the UK...

On the downside, we've had to get rid of our girls. I'm really sad about this, as is Nigel, but we can't take them with us, and we'd rather them go to a good home now, than us panic later.

Still loads to sort.