Progress

It's been a while since the last update and that one was probably a little confused. It was written at the end of our trip to Austin, where we were househunting.

We found an apartment up on 45th Street, so it's nicely downtown and within reach of plenty of shops/bars/entertainment. Cool.

So we returned home to the UK and got on with selling our house. This was achieved in 10 days of putting it on the market! OK, it's not actually completed yet, but the new people have been round to measure for curtains etc...

We've come upon the issue of the Social Security Number (SSN) already, even though we're not living in the US yet. Everything revolves around it. We are meant to have electricity connected before they will give us the keys to the new apartment. Alan phoned the electric company and they told us we can't have it without the SSN unless we turn up in person wielding our passports (and visas) for ID. Luckily the apartment people will let us in but we have to go round to the electric company the next morning after we arrive to sort it out.

We got our visas last Wednesday. Went down to London, picked up our paperwork, took it to the US Embassy and waited in line for the requisite four hours or so. They have given us 5-year visas, so we are happy :-)

Now we are in the process of starting to cancel everything in the UK. Phones, electric, gas, roadside assistance, doctors, dentists, direct debits, credit cards, using up our store card points etc etc...

The shipping people have been round to evaluate our stuff for packing. They think it will take almost three days to pack it all! We get a 20-foot container all to ourselves. That's going to be fun.

So now we have to sort everything we own into various piles: Taking on the plane, air freight, sea freight, giving away, charity shop and The Tip. Joy.

Still, it'll be worth it.