Tea and Measures

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen have been busy. After yesterday's news regarding the blinds and shutters we had an interesting drive up to Kingston-upon-Thames. you would have thought that a new car with a new satnav would be aware of long-standing postal codes, but it seems that the Ford SatNav is unaware of any KT2 7xx codes. To make things worse, when a road name was entered it became fixated on the route chosen. Thus, when the Gorse Fox tried to select a slight variation it kept trying to direct him back to the point he had left the route. Thus as he got closer to the destination the satnav reported he was further and further from the desired point. Fortunately the Silver Vixen was able to get a fix using Google maps navigation from her phone and talked us in to the Brook Lodge Hotel.

At the hotel we were treated to a lovey afternoon tea. We had delicately cut sandwiches, meringues, chocolate brownies, sponge cake, scones with jam and clotted cream, and so forth. It was all provided courtesy of a voucher provided to the Silver Vixen as a gift from Mrs Tiggywinkle and Badger for her last Birthday. It was a lovely change and excellent way to spend the afternoon.

Today was a little more prosaic. Firstly, a plumber arrived to sort out a couple of minor problems we had identified in the new house. He couldn't have been with us for more than 15 minutes - but at least the problems are sorted. 

Soon after the plumber left, the man from the blinds/shutters company arrived to start his detailed survey. This took about 3 hours and was meticulous. At the end the Gorse Fox paid the deposit and we booked a tentative date for fitting the blinds (though will have to wait longer for the shutters).

Quote

Delighted by the quote received from the blinds and shutter supplier. Only a fraction over the optimistic budget the Gorse Fox had allowed. Told him to go ahead.

B&Q Boomerang Effect

There is a phenomenon that the Gorse Fox has discussed in the past. Let's call the B&Q Bounce or B&Q Boomerang. This is the phenomenon whereby it is impossible to do a single trip to B&Q. however well prepared you think you are, there will always be a) something you overlooked, b) something that is the wrong size, or c) something unexpected that crops up.

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen went to B&Q. There was a requirement for light bulbs for yesterday's purchase, and also a plan for a new light for the kitchen. After much checking we had the brightness, the wattage, and the screw size sorted for the bulbs - and they were correctly candle-shaped. However, when the Gorse Fox actually tried to fit them, it appears their girth was too great. He went back to the instructions - there was no indication of girth (or diameter) - obviously they expect you to guess. He went through the collection of spare bulbs and found one that would do the job. Thus was triggered the bounce, or boomerang effect as he made his return journey to get the right bulb.

Gorse Fox's legendary skill with electricity was put on display again. Twice during the fixing of the new lights, he managed to trip the circuit breakers on the house. In the end everything is fixed and working, and the Gorse Fox expects no further trips to B&Q today.

Reflections

Reflecting on the day the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen started by discussing lighting and that got us on to wall accessories. After some debate we plumped for a mirror and light  for the hallway. The nearest shop with the range was in Havant, so we pottered off to the west. Though Havant was the nearest shop, it hadn't got the stock so after a few calls headed further west to Hedge End. 

Hedge End had the mirror we had settled on, but not the light - but they had such a large selection that we managed to find another lamp that we liked. It was a struggle to get everything into the car (in fact we had to unpack the mirror) - but we got everything home without incident.

Hallway is now finished and we are very happy with the results.

Blinded by the light

The Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox spent several hours with a chap who runs the Chi blinds franchise. He was a mine of information and good advice and bit by bit we worked round the house deciding what was needed at each window. We were very pleased with the decisions and now await the quote.

New neighbours have started to move in next door but one. `the Gorse Fox suggests things will get a bit riotous once they settle. Clearly they have decided to grow old disgracefully. Should be fun.

We finally have a date for the delivery of our remaining new furniture, this will be good as we can start to arrange the spare bedroom and the living room the way we want.

Just stuff

A good day.

The Gorse Fox had been experiencing a problem with his iPhone since switching his SIM in August. He finally got a chance to go into the Vodaphone shop where the helpful assistant had a look and realised they had installed the wrong profile. 30 seconds later and a reboot and the phone was perfect.

Chatted with the neighbours about the proposed Orangery - no problems once they had seen the plans.

The Gorse Fox also mowed the new lawn for the first time. There are a few small patches that haven't taken, but over all it looks pretty good.

Hodgson's Rejects, again.

Another outing for Hodgson's Rejects as the Gorse Fox attended his second walking football session. 

Again it started with gentle drills - dribbling (which is becoming more common as the Gorse Fox gets older), passing through gates (which is just as well, as he can no longer leap over them), and wandering from one side of the pitch to the other with the ball (again the Gorse Fox is worried that he may become good at aimless wandering).

After about thirty minutes of drills and gentle exercise we split into teams and had a match. This was great fun, but immensely difficult as the propensity to run becomes quite overwhelming at times. The Gorse Fox managed to score a couple of goals and also save a couple at the other end. His team finished off as 6-0 winners, so he was well pleased.

The Gorse Fox was surprised how much the game took out of him and found that a snooze in the chair became necessary late in the afternoon.

Grand Designs

Finally managed to get through to Cousteau-cub on the phone and had a long chat. It's good to hear that she is doing very well and the dietary regime seems to be keeping the rheumatoid arthritis under control and in remission. 

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen went to visit the supplier of the Orangery with some new designs and to query some of his measurements. He will be coming back to see us later today too check out the footprint. We also stopped at a local furniture store to buy a glass console table for the hallway. Back home this is now unboxed, assembled, and in position. What it needs now is a light.

Birthday

Back in the days when the Gorse Fox wore flared trousers and a purple polo neck sweater and the Silver Vixen had a kaftan - today was special. It was the day that we were blessed with Cousteau-cub. It may have been 5:15 in the morning, but she was a wonderful gift. The Silver Vixen had been semi-conscious on pethadin and who-knows-what and she insisted on calling the amply-proportioned midwife a jolly green giant, but somehow she managed to complete the mission. Happy Birthday, Cousteau-cub. 

We spent much of the day trying to call Cousteau-cub, but to avail. Hopefully she will see the Facebook messages and read this.

The Gorse Fox has spent the rest of the day in close orbit of the adminisphere. bills to check up on, receipts to scan and shred, phone calls to make. It appears that we cannot install the gas fire that we wanted without reducing the bore of the flue. Gorse Fox is now chasing other options to see if problem is endemic in gas fire design, or a limitation of one manufacturer.

Finally all the empty boxes have been collected by the removals chaps. The garage looks surprisingly accessible again - though not enough to house the car, yet.

Move along, nothing to see

Very quiet day featuring a trip round the DIY stores looking for something as prosaic as the ground spike for a whirly-gig washing line. Believe it or not the first had sold out.

Not much else to report... though it is Gorse Fox's oldest friend's birthday - so Happy Birthday, Mo.

Virtual Reality

Most of the day has been spent in the study. Having seen the Orangery yesterday, the Gorse Fox needed to adapt his designs to resubmit to the suppliers on Monday. Sketchup was again the tool "du jour". It has taken most of the day, but the finished result is looking pretty good.

Gorse Fox is a little concerned that the measurements the surveyor took are not quite right, but he has already commented that proper measurements will be needed once the design is agreed.

Meanwhile, the Urban-cub came in to see us as Pistol Pete was off fishing. She spent the afternoon with us before heading off to prepare dinner for the family.

Extending

Quiet-ish day. We had an appointment with the Orangery developer to go and see a similar design to that we have chosen. It was a worthwhile trip as it gave us a clear view of what we could expect and alerted us to a possible design-flaw they had fallen in to - but we had avoided.

Afternoon was spent marking out the garden with the hose to show the dimensions and place the windows and doors. This was followed by more computer designs so that we can send some final requirements to the developer on Monday. Still some more to do, but it's progressing.

Signals, fixings, and searches

Fairly productive start to the day with a completion of Tuesday's list. Fixings for the downstairs cloakroom, mirror for the bedroom, whiteboard for the study, and re-hanging the doors on the Silver Vixen's storage unit after they were bodged by the removals men. Very satisfying.

Next the Gorse Fox noticed a change in the display on the house phone. The phone line has been activated, finally. At first he was worried it was but a single phone line, but then realised he had a faulty telephone cable. A quick swap and it was apparent that all phone jacks are active. Now he can start working on the change of address cards as it is clear that the number they revealed several weeks ago is in fact the right number. Another 30 minute call with BT revealed, however, that it is still likely to be October before the Broadband is available.

Another neighbour is moving in today. It's nice to see them as they were somewhat constrained by a holiday that was booked and the end of their rental agreement.

The Silver Vixen went out for the afternoon, being Thursday. A quick trip to Chi followed by the after school sewing club that she helps with. This left the Gorse Fox and Jasper the cat. Jasper was under close supervision in the garden whilst the Gorse Fox called the various utility companies to ensure the accounts were closed for the rented house. All was going well until the door bell rang. The Gorse Fox answered to a chap offering window cleaning services. By the time he got back to the garden Jasper had disappeared.

The Gorse Fox started to search the garden, the downstairs rooms, the upstairs rooms and cupboards and all of the places he usually hides. Nada. Nothing. He then did another circuit with the box of treats that Jasper likes. Still nothing. The Gorse Fox was concerned. The Silver Vixen hadn't been gone for more than 30 minutes and the Gorse Fox had lost the cat. He peered over the fence where he had escaped last week. Then headed out to the front and walked round the local roads, alleys, and courtyards. Concerned neighbours were probably hiding behind their curtains watching as an old bloke with a strange case of Tourettes wandered about shouting "Jasper!". 

He returned home empty handed and hoped that the errant feline would find his own way back when it suited him. Taking one more spin round the house, he heard a rustle - there was the little devil hiding under the bed, snuggled right down between some storage boxes. He looked up the Gorse Fox as if to say "What?".

BT connection

It would appear that we now have connectivity between the house and the exchange and the nice chaps from BT Openreach came in and fitted the master socket for us so that as soon as the exchange is activated, we should be set to go.

Hodgson's Rejects

The Gorse Fox joined Hodgson's Rejects. As it is increasingly unlikely that the Gorse Fox will be picked for one of Roy Hodgson's new-look England squads, he has joined the local "Walking Football" team. This is arranged by Brighton & Hove Albion's community programme and run by one of their coaches.

It was great fun with gentle warm up exercises, followed by static passing, then pass and move drills. As we didn't have sufficient members for two teams we played an attack-v-defence game. This then swapped over so everyone got a turn.

The Gorse Fox notes that it is immensely difficult not to run. He also notes that the mind still manages to write cheques that the body cannot cash - as he got the ball stuck beneath his feet several times and miscued a number of shots.

As regular readers will know, the Gorse Fox has problems with his feet - and is now interested to see if there are any after effects. If not, he'll be back next week.

Left hand does not know what right hand is doing

Left hand vs right hand. The Gorse Fox was alerted by the Silver Vixen. BT Openreach were outside our neighbour's house. This, thought the Gorse Fox, was a wind up. 

He went outside to speak with them to find out what they were doing. "Jointing and cabling" came the reply. At this point the Gorse Fox pointed out that there was already cable running into the houses and showed them what was in the "media cupboard". This seemed to come as a surprise and so they put a signal on one end of the cable from our cupboard to check that it was connected through to the joint box. Things are looking positve. (BT Openreach chap said "I thought we did did all these about 3 months ago"... Gorse Fox suggested that the did but it wasn't recorded).

More later (the Gorse Fox says hopefully)

Not in plan

Best laid plans. The Gorse Fox would start the day with a plan of the activities and tasks to complete today. It started well with the Gorse Fox completing a backlog of admin.

Then a number of calls were exchanged with the coffee supplier and their distribution company. Surprisingly this seemed to do the trick as the coffee finally arrived late in the morning.

From there on things went down hill. A quick refresher - the Gorse Fox was chasing BT for phone and Broadband since early August. The development has been in place for a couple of years. Promised for 3rd Sept it slipped to 10th Sept and then to 17th - now BT tell the Gorse Fox that works won't complete until 3rd Oct and they will then re-book. The Gorse Fox is not pleased.

Next on the agenda was to install some bathroom furniture. Should have been easy. Oh no. In order to get the towel rails to be sturdy it took three attempts to fit, remove and re-fit. Eventually Gorse Fox had to use hollow-wall metal fixings that open up behind the plasterboard. Then it was clear that towel ring was on a solid portion of the wall - and that needed another fixing type. Finally the robe hooks were screwed to the door, and the screws bent as they went into the hard wood. These needed drilling out and then unscrewing with molegrips. Several trips to B&Q punctuated the day... and the final trip got some screws that sorted out the robe hooks in a couple of minutes. A job that Gorse Fox had expected to take an hour took most of the day.

Msg, txt, SMS

The Gorse Fox is easily pleased. Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it. Coffee supplier is in the Gorse Fox's bad books. He is displeased. Coffee still hasn't arrived after a couple of weeks and several follow-up calls.

What did please the Gorse Fox was a little test we ran in the new car. The Silver Vixen sent the Gorse Fox a text message and the car picked up the message and read it out loud when prompted. Neat feature! (Not that the Gorse Fox gets many text messages). 

Much of the rest of the day has been looking for household bits and trying to decide on some light fixtures. Not an easy task - yet we only have a few lights to worry about. The Gorse Fox thinks we both have vague ideas of what might be nice and definite ideas about what we don't want.  Unfortunately the choice is huge.

Unboxed

That's it - all the boxes are now empty.

Things are squirrelled away all over the house and the family bathroom is full of stuff that is destined for one of the Gorse Fox's favourite local dumps. GF is always amazed at how the Silver Vixen can take a pile of things occupying several cubic kilometres (a size that would be visible from space), and make it disappear into a couple of small cupboards and a drawer.

Gorse Fox is beginning to wonder if it would have been quicker to have the removal men take everything to the dump and we just retrieve the bits we wanted!

Expedition

Today saw the beginning of the expedition. It had been planned for quite a few days. All was in place, we just had to pick a time when the weather was clement. The Gorse Fox kicked off, blazing the trail into the depths of the garage. The Silver Vixen gained access from a different base camp.

Bit by bit we hacked our way through box after box, reducing each to its flat pack equivalent and separating the useful trinkets, tools, and gadgets from the casualties of consumerism and hoarding which were quickly dispatched and given a suitable burial at the local tip.

The Gorse Fox is excited to report that this is yet another tip, with a whole new bunch of helpers to become known by. It's also only 2 miles from home, so is very convenient.

Lost shades

Quiet day - relatively. The Silver Vixen was due at the hairdresser's and the Gorse Fox thought it a good excuse to go and see Angus to get his hair cut also. This gave him a chance to take the new car for a little run, to see how some of the technology works, and to fill up. Oh, yes. Filling up means remembering the filler is on the opposite side of the car, it uses petrol, and has a smaller tank. So whilst he may have to fill up more frequently it is a bit quicker and a lot cheaper.

The Gorse Fox stopped off to see the designer who is working on plans for the Orangery. There were a few clarifications that were needed and some ideas to discuss. Interestingly he showed the Gorse Fox an orangery on a house in Felpham which had the exact design the Gorse Fox had drawn. We have asked to take a look at the finished article.

The Silver Vixen wasn't best pleased on her return from Chi... she had misplaced her prescription sunglasses and walked her feet to blisters as she zigged and zagged back through the town looking for them.

Fuel

As fuel to the Gorse Fox's Grumpy Old Git fire, the first appointment of the morning failed to turn up. Not s good start. When GF called to chase it was clear that the guy had no record of the appointment - so much for Office 365 and its cloud functions! We re-arranged and, to be fair, he turned up on time and was most helpful. The question we now have to address is whether we really want shutters, or not. We need to think on this - it would be a costly decision to get wrong!

Drawings have come through for the proposed Orangery - perhaps unsurprisingly, they look very similar to the drawings GF provided them. Looks ok, but we do need to see what the pricing would be.

New car has been delivered. GF was very sorry to see the Passat CC go, but it doesn't make sense to hang on to it. New car looks very smart so the Gorse Fox will spend the afternoon reading the manual while the Silver Vixen goes back to Fontwell to help with the first of the after-school sewing clubs of the new school year.

GF has also been invited to go and have a chat with some ex-colleagues about setting up an independent consulting practice. He will probably go along for the initial meeting, but isn't yet convinced he really wants to do any more "work", so doubts very much that he will get involved in anything other than an advisory capacity.

Grumpy Old Git

BT are rapidly turning the Gorse Fox into a Grumpy Old Git. Originally the commencement of service for the new phone was 3rd Sept, then it got moved to today, 10th between 0800 and 1200. This was confirmed by BT on Monday.

1130 this morning the Gorse Fox gets a call to say they are not turning up. There's still external line work to complete. They'll fit us in on Friday. Then Friday morphed into 72 hours during the call. Disgruntled Gorse Fox ended the call.

Then a text arrived, the 72 hours had morphed into a week. They will deign to call next Wednesday.

The Gorse Fox called them to express his displeasure. Thirty minutes later he had learned that Openreach still had line work to do and that would not complete until 14th. At that point BT would reschedule the engineer. Whatever the date given, they promised they would escalate to bring us forward as a priority. Yeah, right!

And the Gorse Fox missed the Walking Football

Installations

Yesterday was relatively quiet. Final clean at the old house and handed back the keys to the agent. It seemed quite cathartic - closing the book on that episode of our lives, now that we are working on the first chapter of the sequel.

Busy day scheduled - BT Engineer first thing to put in the phone line. Not sure how long that will take, but at least we will be able to send out the change of address cards once the number is confirmed. Hopefully, this will mean that we can get a Broadband service again in a few days. Then, if the engineer finishes early enough, the Gorse Fox is going to go across to Angmering to try the "Walking Football" that has featured in recent advertisements.

After lunch we should have the chap from John Lewis fitting the new TV and also the chappy to fit the satellite dish.

Green side up

The turf laid at the new house was not taking well. We did not have to mention it - the builder's Customer Care department spotted it. The whole back garden was stripped yesterday and today they have prepared and laid new turf for us. Looks very smart.

Unboxed

It has been another busy day. News has come through regarding Gorse Fox's new car so then he had to speak with the insurance company. As usual this was a fight through the telephone system before getting to a human and then fighting tooth and nail to stop loads of extra charges from being added.

Next the New England styled furniture, ordered last month, turned up and once placed allowed some more boxes to be emptied and the existing stuff to be shuffled about.

The afternoon saw a chap arrive to discuss our requirements for an Orangery at the back of the house. Give it a few days and we'll see his design,

Design Solutions

The Gorse Fox has been struggling with finding a good solution for housing some of his technology. The stuff in the study is no problem, but there is a cupboard under the stairs where all telephone cables enter the house and where the aerials all come together. It is the obvious location for the ADSL router / WiFi hub and the Sonos bridge. The Gorse Fox was looking for a flexible solution that would allow fairly simple access and the ability to move things about.

After wandering round B&Q for a while looking at plywood, at fixings, at corner blocks and goodness knows what else, he had a bit of an epiphany. There was a plastic peg-board designed for tool storage. A little bit of dynamic redesign and he strolled out with bits and pieces and a vague idea.

A couple of hours later the peg-board is held clear of the wall with magnetic catches to allow simple removal. In the gap behind the peg-board the cables are hidden, and on the front Gorse Fox has a 4-way power block, the Netgear router and the Sonos bridge. All very neat and very successful. Incidentally everything, font and back, is held against the peg-board with cable-ties so that everything can be easily removed or re-arranged.

Jasper de Gama

We had spent some time last night chatting outside the house with our neighbours. In the course of the conversation we had mentioned Jasper. we explained Jasper was a house cat, and though we let him out in the garden he doesn't stray. Jasper was clearly listening.

This morning we let him run about in the garden. Going in to make some tea we left him to it. He promptly disappeared. We searched but couldn't find him. A little while later our intrepid explorer was seen sitting on top of a shed five or six houses away. We called and he ignored us at first, then eventually deigned to leap down and stroll back to us.

Little devil.

Checking out

Today's clear objective was to finish all the tasks needed to release the rental property. The Silver Vixen hopped on board, bringing her broomstick to help sweep up round the garden. The Gorse Fox stopped at B&Q for decorating supplies and 10 minutes later we were pulling in to Fontwell.

The Silver Vixen headed out to the garden whilst the Gorse Fox masked up the areas that needed to be painted. First cutting in round the perimeter, the wall lights, and the plug sockets was carefully completed. Then the roller and tray came out and the wall quickly conformed to the intended colour across its whole landscape - rather than the few blobs where the Gorse Fox had tried to touch up some blemishes. From the study he went upstairs to apply a similar treatment in the Silver Vixen's sewing room.

While the paint was drying, the Gorse Fox did a final cut of the lawns. He must say they look very smart. Finally, the garage was swept clean and a second coat of paint applied in the study.

Dropping off our detritus at the dump we headed home. Urban-cub and Pistol-Pete were there waiting for us. Urban-cub was collecting Gorse Fox's old filing cabinet to help here organise all here paperwork. (A problem Gorse Fox no longer has as he has adopted a ruthless read-and-shred, or read-scan-and-shred approach to mail).

Care and feeding of your new home

Most of the morning seemed to be spent with the Customer Care manager from the builder. Boy he can talk. No complaints, though. It is good to have the face-to-face contact and know who we should contact for any after-care issues. It was good that he was also interested in our view of where the design could be tweaked to improve the house in the future.

The kitchen/family room is significantly larger than we have been used to, and with the planned locations of the various furniture items it is clear that there is really only one suitable location for a TV. Now, we have TV that used to squat in the kitchen, but the reality of ageing eyes and a bigger room brings the realisation that we needed a bigger TV to have any chance of seeing it. This meant the Gorse Fox found himself making some templates of different sized TVs so that we could assess the size and impact. Decision made, we headed off to John Lewis's. the Gorse Fox may have found a cheaper source, but he wanted the comfort of the JLP after-care if needed. Tv selected and demonstrated we added the wall bracket and a cable-tidy to the basket and requested the JLP Technical Services to come and install it. (The Gorse Fox would rather they had the responsibility in case anything goes wrong during the mounting process).

Having to rely on the 3G MiFi for internet access is a frustrating stop-gap. The Gorse Fox will be glad to get back onto real Broadband.

Amber nectar

Well as Harry Enfield's character used to say, "You didn't want to do that".

It started simply enough. Ocado delivered the groceries. The Silver Vixen started to put them away. Among the goods stood two four-packs of Fosters held in their cluster by plastic collars. She snipped the collar to separate them an then started to peel the collars from each tin. Time consuming, but up to this point successful. The Gorse Fox decided to help and grabbed a can. Freeing his trusty Swiss Army knife from his pocket he went slit the plastic collar.

Mistake. The knife penetrated the side of the can. The can exploded, splitting from top to bottom an spraying 440ml of Amber nectar all over the Gorse Fox, the kitchen unit, the floor, the ceiling, and two walls across the other side of the kitchen.

Several bowls of clean water, a sponge, and roll of kitchen roll later the problem has been retrieved and the mess cleared up.

Ooops.

Blemishes

Another very successful day - boxes continued to be emptied and piled up awaiting collection. Urban-cub and the Silver Vixen concentrated on the kitchen whilst the Gorse Fox made a start on his study.

The phone rang. The lady who runs the cleaning company that was scheduled to finish off the Fontwell house had been sent for some immediate scans - she would have to let us down. Houston, we have a problem. The Gorse Fox had to find an alternate company who could come in a short notice and do the job. he phoned the letting agent and they suggested an alternative. Five minutes later the Gorse Fox had arranged to meet the chap late on Thursday afternoon. Looks like Houston won't have to worry too much.

We had to pop over to Fontwell to let the removal men into the garage so they could finish the job from yesterday. Gorse Fox proudly showed the Silver Vixen the cleaning he had done as the removals men vacated the property, and promptly noticed that where he had touched up various paint spots - the paint showed as a different colour. Looks like he'll have to go back and repaint each of the walls where he touched up blemishes.

Finished off the day with an almost clear kitchen, the Gorse Fox's study ready for action and a trip to the local Indian take-away. Perfect.

Boxed In

32 boxes unpacked and distributed around the house so far. Bedrooms are usable, as is the kitchen and living room. At least 11 more boxes still to be emptied in the kitchen alone.

GF's study looks almost impenetrable. It may need to be emptied in order to start the sort-out.

GF's sister's card was the first bit of mail through the letter box.

Life support

As the Gorse Fox wanders round the house switching off various network segments and unplugging the devices it feels a bit like switching off his life support. All that's left now is the ADSL hub and the Mac. Even the network storage is offline and ready to be put in the car.

Packed and ready

Everything is packed in boxes and piled all over the old house. Soon the removals men will come and and start the final move. It should be quite a day. The Gorse Fox would point out that we are both quite excited.

Packing

The removal men arrive today to start packing up for us - though the Silver Vixen is going across with Jasper the Cat to the new house.  Having spent the last 30 minutes loading her car with the bare essentials - GF is considering asking for a rebate from the removals firm.