Well that was easy! I just transferred our phone service across to our new address. I did it online, and it took me under five minutes. It was a totally painless process. Very different to dealing with Telkom SA, who tend to be both slow and inefficient.

Seems like the move is definitely happening (I'm interested to see that I still can't quite bring myself to type a firm "we are moving" ... ) We got the appraisal notice from the bank, and the house appraised at a few thousand more than we're buying it for. So, it's all systems go. We're scheduled to close on July 29th. I'm getting excited about it, though also a bit unnerved by all the things that have to happen in the next two weeks.

I am still constantly taken by surprise by differences in the way things are done in South Africa and the way they're done here. In SA, for instance, a school guidance department deals only with various forms of counseling. Subject choices, whether to take exams at standard or higher grade, student problems both academic and personal ... You certainly wouldn't contact the guidance department if you need to notify the school of a change of address. The secretarial staff (who are generally rather dragon-ish) would take care of that. Here, though, the guidance department seems to handle all the administrative details about students : address changes, emergency contact lists, immunisation records and so forth. I needed to get our change of address in to both schools today, because the bus routing people told me that they download all that information tomorrow and use it to plan who goes on which bus. The middle school administration were uniformly pleasant and helpful; the high school staff seem like a bunch of snots.

Oh, and we've decided that we're going to carry on homeschooling Sophie this year. I'm really excited about it, and so's she. I have ideas for all kinds of fun activities. We're going to start off by looking at the solar system - Sophie's idea, sparked off by our reading of "The Magician's Nephew". You know the bit where they talk about how the sun on Charn is red and old and tired? I think my previous can't-cope feeling was all about worry about my mom, sadness about Kirsty's death, and general stress and tiredness, with a bit of jetlag mixed in.

I'm meeting with the seller at lunchtime today to pick out new carpets for the house. I am so bad at choosing things. I tend to get overwhelmed, dither for ages, and eventually end up not wanting to pick anything at all.