The Jury's Out

Well, that was short but sweet wasn't it? After planning this week and next week around daily trips to the Crown Court in Liverpool, I (along with around thirty others) found myself discharged back into the real world at about 4.30 today;  we were told that our services were not required next week so our ten day commitment turned out in fact to be just four. 


I'm not complaining. Jury service was not an unpleasant experience and we were certainly very well looked after. Observing the groups of jurors gathered in the waiting area every day at lunch time and during breaks in the trials it appeared that a number of friendships were being formed. There was a general air of camaraderie about the place which allowed us to relax and concentrate upon the job in hand. Had we not had such a lot of stuff to do at home I would have been quite happy to do the full stint.


As things are, the early reprieve is a bit of a Godsend as we've some family visiting next week and then we have to carry on with going through everything in the house and deciding whether or not we'll be taking it to Suffolk. As for Suffolk, the architect hopes to present the plans to prospective builders next week but then expects them to want four more weeks in which to come up with their quotes. This would mean that it could be into August before the builders get cracking; which in turn means that it could be almost Christmas before the house is ready for us to move in. And that means - if we sell our house in Southport - we might have to live in the caravan in Scotland for some time. Which is not, in itself, such a bad thing as long as the savings in no longer running the house in Southport offset the cost of keeping everything in storage.  


So it's hectic times ahead and, with Rose's first birthday in July,  a family baby on the way in August, Paul moving soon and us two managing a building project over a distance of 475 miles (9.25 hours according to AA Route Planner) this could be quite a bumpy few months. It's a very good job we're retired (that's a slightly stupid statement as, if we weren't retired we wouldn't be moving to Suffolk). Wish us luck.

I had a letter from the coroner today.  If Marion fancies a trip to the Lake District on our wedding anniversary, he's holding an inquest into the piece Roman gold jewellery on that day. He hasn't summoned me to attend so I think that we had better give that one a miss if I want any more wedding anniversaries. Not expecting to go detecting again any time soon.