On Saturday, we took possession of both our new home AND our new car - all in the space of about an hour. The trouble of course (being car-less) was getting there which on the train from Bolton and 192 bus from Piccadilly seemed to take an age, it was probably about 2 hours door to door. On the way back we seriously trumped this time many thanks to the newly widened M60, getting home after just half an hour.

Anyway I was saying: The car seemed pretty much as expected. County Garages had taken the little ding out from the bonnet with seamless precision and done several other servicing niceties such as re-gassing the air-con. This all looking acceptable, Jackie swiftly became the proud registered keeper of a big yellow car.

In we hopped and zipped down to the Vale Estates office in Heaton Mersey where we handed over great wodges of cash in return for the keys to our new house. Jo, the agent, was looking rather under-the-weather and was visibly wilting in the heat of the office. We got the forms done as quickly as possible, grabbed the keys and drove round to the house for a peek inside and take some photographs...

And then we had both the landlord come to help me shut the back door (brute force was required) and very wonderfully the neighbours came round to introduce themselves which was lovely, they even gave us a bottle of fizz and a card. We have truly landed in a warm and friendly neighbourhood, just like we wanted! I get a feeling it's going to be very nice living here.