Tue, February 28

Today we moved out of Cedar Dr. The sale of the house turned sour when the new owner (who had offered a cash purchase) informed us that he may not be able to close on time. This was not an option for us, as we had already shipped our belongings to London, arranged travel plans to see family and friends in GA, SC & FL, booked our flights to London, and even paid three months upfront for a flat in London, too.

The buyer then informed us that he could make the closing two hours later, but that we could not stay in the house until our departure as agreed. Thanks to Mary (our realtor) and good friends John & Phyllis, we were able to get all our belongings out of the house and had somewhere to stay the night until we sorted ourselves out.

At the closing, the new buyer never said a word to us, leaving us with a sour taste in our mouth. Not exactly the way to bid farewell to the home we had spent the last 6 years in!

Mon, February 27

One day to go until we close on the house. We've been out to sort out some errands, and started getting ready for our trip to Brady's. Paul took some last photos around town. Then this evening we met our good friends John and Phyllis Courtney and were treated to a nice meal with good friendly company at Tiffany's before going back to their place for some coffee and cake.

Sunday, 26th February

Today we spent most of the day dealing with a lot of odds and ends. Called Dad to give him the latest on our progress, and that all was still scheduled to close on Tuesday. We then took a ride over the new Memorial Causeway bridge to Clearwater Beach, so that we could enjoy some grouper nuggets at Frenchy's Rockaway and watch the sun set over the gulf one last time.

Saturday, 25th February

Compared to the last two weeks, today could have been described as one of leisure. Once again we were out and about so Paul could get some more photos of Dunedin, but we also dropped by Countryside Mall (Westfield Shopping Center) to pick up some shoes, and had lunch at one of Paul's favourite haunts, China King. Then, this evening we were at Ruth Eckerd Hall for the last time and saw the two Rock Star:INXS finalists perform with their respective bands. Runner-up Marty Casey's band Lovehammers opened for INXS, fronted by Rock Star:INXS winner JD Fortune.

Friday, 24th February

We have still been pretty busy with our plans.

On Wednesday, we dropped into our accountant's office to get our taxes moving. He should have them all prepared and wrapped up soon as our business taxes are due by March 15th. Dawn picked up her new drivers licence. However, mine will be mailed to me. We also received Tiny's carrier, and an Avid chip reader that we needed, too.

On Thursday, we spent most of the day away from the house, dropping in at Schiller to organize a reference for Paul, the Post Office to mail stuff to London that we hadn't been able to ship, and finally Los Mariachis for lunch to enjoy some Mexican (will be much missed).

On Friday, we dropped into Hairdooz and had Mary Beth cut our hair for the last time, before having a walk along Edgewater Drive and downtown so Paul could take some photos. That evening Marsha and Ed dropped by to see us before we left. We enjoyed some Bambino pizza and great company.

Tuesday, 21st February

As was the norm, we had another restless night and were up early. However, today we had good reason. We needed to get the 55 boxes out in the garage so that the shippers could get to them easily. They arrived at 8am and were on their way to New York within 45 minutes. Paul contacted BT in London and sorted out a telephone connection for when we arrive, in addition to broadband access for the computer. We ran some errands, which included picking up a new suitcase at Walmart, and some City of Dunedin pins that the Mayor had promised to leave us in his office. Also enjoyed our last lunch of 911 wings and fried grouper sandwich at Hooters. Paul finally completed our accounts for tomorrow's meeting with the accountant, and ordered Sky satellite.

Monday, 20th February

Today we passed another milestone on our journey home. At about 9.30am the door bell rang and Fed-ex handed us a parcel with Dawn's passport with her new settlement visa in it. We were delighted to say the least. We completed the shipping paperwork, and faxed it to the shipper. Worked towards finalizing the paperwork for our accounts. Ordered a second carrier for Tiny, as we still had not received the original replacement yet.

Sat & Sun, 18th & 19th February

We had a busy weekend. Paul was dealing with the paperwork side of the move, especially preparing our 2005 taxes for our accountant. We have a meeting with him on Wednesday. Dawn on the otherhand spent all her time wrapping and packing. By the end of Sunday night, we had 55 boxes full our our belongings. When we arrived in America 7 years ago, we brought 21 with us. That must mean the difference is all the photos Paul has taken!

Friday, 17th February

This morning we attended our final DCO breakfast at the Dunedin Country Club, and received a wonderful reference from our friend and ex-customer (Keel Golf & Promos), John Courtney. After that it was back to the house where Dawn continued with the packing. Over half the 50 boxes completed. Paul needs to go through his clothes and kitchen stuff and decide what he is leaving behind or doesn't need for six weeks. Best of all today, we received an email from the British Consulate in New York to say that Dawn's visa had been approved and that we should have the passport back in our hands early next week.

Thursday, 16th February

Today we ran up the road to Countryside Mall and picked up some odds and ends that we wanted to bring back to London with us, stuff that we could get cheaper here, and needed to pack in the boxes being shipped by freight. We mailed the signed copy of the tenancy agreement to the landlord in London. We banked a ton of coins Dawn had spent a month of Sundays rolling, and also dropped into the Post Office and UPS Store to ship out stuff we had sold on Ebay. Dawn got stuck into packing up our belongings into the countless brown coloured shipping boxes.

Wednesday, 15th February

This morning we expected a visit from an inspector to review the property for the the new owner. However, we received a visit from the new owner's appraisor instead. We received the balance of boxes bought from our local UPS Store, so Dawn was able to start planning the packing. We received a contract by email from the landlord of a flat in London as was able to sign it, email it back and secure our new home for a six month period. Paul called CarMax to discuss selling our car to them. We also cancelled our spare telephone line with Verizon.

Tuesday, 14th February

We dropped by the bank to get a cashier's check for Dawn's visa and then the Fedex office to ship the supporting documents and payment. Dawn contacted a shipping company to arrange for them to collect our belongings. We estimated there would be 50 boxes, but won't know for sure until we have packed everything we're taking. Paul continued to deal with a realtor in London trying to secure a short term lease on an appartment for us. We returned a pet carrier to the supplier because it was broken. Now we need a new one!! We rode up to our local UPS Store and paid for 50 shipping boxes, a huge bag of popcorn and a huge roll of bubble wrap. We brought home ten of them that they already had in stock. Paul contacted our accountant and made an appointment to go over our taxes for 2005. In the evening we went to Tarpon Springs and had a nice St Valentine's meal at the Greek Pizza Kitchen.

Monday, 13th February

Now that we have a contract on the house, things should progress quickly, so we will update our blog daily (where possible).

Today Paul called a couple of estate agents in London and started the ball rolling with regard to finding somewhere to live, and went to the bank to wire some cash to one of them so that we could pay the deposit once he had secured something we liked. Dawn spent a good amount of time on the phone with the USDA to confirm Tiny's immigration details. She also booked our flight to London, and confirmed with the airline that Tiny would be on the flight too. We filed Dawn's visa application online with the British Consulate in New York. And for good measure, Dawn also found time to go to the dentist.

CONTRACT ON HOUSE

Today we had a very successful open house. In fact, the very first person who viewed the house was a realtor who provided his own contract to accompany his offer. To our delight (following a couple counter offers) a price was agreed by both parties and the contract signed. Now we have the fun of dealing with Dawn and Tiny's iimmigration, finding somewhere to live in London, and shipping our stuff to our new temporary home. We also have to fit in the Paul & Dawn White farewell tour to visit family and a few friends,too.

PAUL RECEIVES PHF

On Wednesday, we attended the Dunedin North Rotary Club meeting where Paul received a medal, pin and certificate to confirm that he had been named a Paul Harris Fellow "in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding friendly relations among people of the world".