So eventually the time has gone for us to leave FTG, after just more than three years there. At least the new place, down in the retirement village Pettiward Close was still fairly local and in the Putney area, so wasn't really a massive change. Just the move itself was a bit of a pain, as it always the case when having to pick up everything you own and move it somewhere else, no matter how far or how close. But before the big move day, it was off to the London Coffee Festival on Friday night out at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane. Una had organised some discounted tickets through work I think, so off we went after work for a walk around the expo stands and a bit of coffee tasting. Probably a good idea considering I had to go home and pack before we started with the big move on Saturday. At least I don't leave things to the last minute :) The coffee festival itself was alright, probably better during the day when it would be busier, but managed to still see a few of the stands and taste a few of the coffees there on offer. There was also a DJ playing there, and I guess the vibe would've picked up as the night went on, but decided it would be best to head and start on the packing, which I realised I couldn't avoid or procrastinate over any longer. So it was off home to start with that.

On Saturday morning, Si and I headed off on our bikes down to Wimbledon to Hunts to pick up our removal van for the day, which we had managed to only organise on the Friday evening. But at least we got something for the two days of moving. The whole day was spent sorting, packing, loading, unloading, moaning, throwing away, etc until eventually just about everything was down in the new house. It didn't actually turn out to be all that bad, but never much fun. The van definitely helped, and with three of us it worked out ok. On Saturday evening, with the brunt of the move behind us, it was down the road to the Arab Boy for some food and a beer to relax.

Yesterday morning started off with us having to head past the dump to get rid of everything we didn't need, then off to drop the van back down at Wimbledon. After dropping the van, it was back over to FTG for the final clean up, which was even more painful than the packing up. But eventually we were done with it, at around 8 last night when I got to lock up the house and head down the road to chill out a bit in the new house, after a fairly awful weekend. But at least that's done with for now, and it's not something we do very often, and I certainly know why!