Monopoly

Well, it seems "the interview" at the very very civil office went well.

So well that they want hubby down in Portsmouth as of now, to do a new job at the grade that he was applying for. The only problem is that only a few weeks ago, it took a two hour meeting, preceded by several months of going backwards and forwards, forwards and backwards and backwards and backwards, to work out how logistically the family could be moved down to Portsmouth in two years time. Moved without disrupting educational and other plans for huge family, huge house and huge mortgage, who are collectively tied up in the midst of major educational milestones for the next six years.

But now they want him there. And they want him there now. So we are back to square one.

It's a bit like one of those games that you play at Christmas. You know the sort, those high risk seriously mentally challenging games. Like Monopoly. You get so close to winning, and then, bang, you throw a six and down you go right back to Jail, without passing go and without the £200...

Now I don't expect that we will be going to another meeting with Scary One and Scary Two, because to be honest, they probably won't invite me. Either because I would almost certainly write another blog about them, or because we are now subject to a different set of rules. This time it is a move for career purposes rather than part of the bulk move. Only they actually want to make it part of the bulk move. That would be easier for them and the rules for the bulk moves are quite similar really to the rules for the unbulk moves. Well, exactly the same. The only difference is that in non bulk moves it's a sort of a speeded up version of the "Yes Minister" reality programme as opposed to a slowed down one.

So, the nice budget that they found, to house hubby and ED up here until she had finished her A'levels and until his job was ready to move down to Portsmouth, is no longer available, and, if we decide to allow ED to stay up here in a flat on her own, then we would largely be funding it ourselves. Given the normal regular balance on our current account, that is not an option that the call centre, (sorry did I say bank manager?), would relish.

Now there is a big dilemma here, because part of me, if it weren't for the fact that I would have to change every other aspect of my life, change the address for every utility bill and every bank account, change every child's school, sell the house, rebuy another house, tell all the family that we've moved, tell the children that we've moved, resettle the slightly traumatised, verging on slightly insane, previously rescued dog and cat.... would actually quite like to move down to somewhere nearer the sea. I like water. That's one of those strange things about me.

And yet here we are stuck in the middle of England, about as far from sea as you can get, due to the fact that nine years ago we made the decision that this would be a good place to live. At the time we were living over the said water in Northern Ireland. My mother must have asked me eighty five times why we had moved here. To that the reply was always, "because we could afford a house here and there are grammar schools locally." No wonder she carried on asking when we then we bought a house that we couldn't afford anyway and sent our children to private schools.

When we ran out of money we remembered that the grammar schools were our reason for moving to a place in the middle of England where there's no vast expanses of water, other than the sort that falls from the sky very regularly. In fact, the water from the sky falls so regularly that it sort of seeps into your bones. You don't realise that it's there until you feel ever so slightly damp on the inside. It's strange really. There's no place like it for feeling like a slightly rusty oil can.

Now I'm told that Portsmouth has some excellent schools. The only thing is that the league tables seem to have forgotten to list any of them in the top 5000 schools for the last five hundred years. They did put their very good private schools into the league tables, but NO.................... we're not doing THAT again.

So! Just like one of those challenging Christmas games, it's really exciting, because there's SO many options that we could go for. Move, not move and make tea for a living. Ruin children's education and not make tea for a living. Not ruin educational prospects but go bankrupt. The list is endless......

And the great thing is that if we're really lucky we may know the answer by the end of the year....... About as long as it would take to play a game of monopoly over the Christmas season.

Well, as long as it does in our house anyway!

p.s. ED seems to have disappeared from the Orange Website, but as she is now officially the "Orange" girl on Spanish T.V., I don't see why you can't see a photo of her in costume.....