Arrived safely!

Yippee! Got to Banda Aceh, in Indonesia a couple of hours ago. Even better - so did our luggage, every last bag! Better still, despite being some 10kg overweight (luggage not us) we did not get charged, praise God. Took us 30+ hrs to get here, 3 flights and arrived to 35C and 95% humidity. All in all a good day but now we are tired so time for some zzzzzz.....

Smiling on Saturday

Its now Saturday and the stresses of the week seem to have subsided. We are on the way to applying for a new loan although this wont happen before we leave. We just have to trust that things will go through after we leave on Tuesday. Can now start to think a bit more about packing and preparing to leave. Had a lovely surprise party on Thursday night. Our friends from church put together an English tea party full of all the stuff we will miss in Indonesia - cream scones, twiglets and cucumber sandwiches!
We are running out of time to say our goodbyes but fitted in another farewell tea on Friday. Its quite good having our friends cook for us because since we packed up our flat we are surviving with one pan and some odd bits of cutlery.
Tomorrow is our farewell in a local pub, oh and also my birthday! Hope lots of people turn up!

Frustrating Thursday

6 days before we leave for Indonesia. Everything was going fine - flat packed up, stuff taken to Lancaster & stored in Mum's loft. New tenants found. Then the bomb dropped! Our mortgage has been withdrawn!!! This is after 3 months of paperwork, searches, evaluation and a signed agreement... some technicality that we will not be in the country at exchange of contract. We called the solicitor & mortage lender but noone would listen or reconsider. So with 6 days to go we are back to the start with buying our flat. Do we still leave knowing if we do we lose the sale, try and raise personal finance, persuade our families to remortgage their homes? I felt like weeping! Chris was out of the house when I got the call and seemed to take it all in his stride saying , 'we will find a way'. Spent the evening phoning family and friends to gather advice and cash.... see what tomorrow brings.