I've just signed up for a 'pro' account with flickr so we can upload lots of Canada photos this summer... and also because we've just bought ourselves a new toy: a Nikon D40 Digital SLR Camera. Ben got his annual bonus at work, and for some reason I've started being paid about £40 more a month recently (teacher payrises don't happen until September!) so we thought it would be a good thing to buy prior to our Canadian trip.

We're off to Canada in a very exciting 44 days time, so from 12th July we'll be sharing our Canada photos here. We're also planning on blogging whilst we're out there... I'll share the address of that when the time comes!

Spent the weekend on a whistlestop trip down south to do a bit of 'sorting out' at our house down there. We accepted an offer on it just over a week ago, and although we aren't holding our breath, we thought we should check that the place is still ok.

And it is.

It's gorgeous! I can't believe it's been on the market since last summer... bloody media and their scaremongering about a housing crash.

We're currently having our 'Midland House' (home) plastered, which is pretty exciting... every day we come back from work to a new surprise! Our plasterer is really really good, although he's had a few mishaps and hurt himself a couple of times, poor chap.

This week it'll be finished and then we start the mammoth task of painting the whole place.

Fingers crossed that in a month or so we'll have all our stuff that's still in the other house with us... and that it will have sold!

All's going well at the moment, bar various issues with selling the house that i won't go into.

School is good... I'm feeling really settled and happy there, and extremely glad I moved here last summer. I can't believe I'm only 2 months off the end of my first year there. It's great to know I have a permanent job and will be in the same place with the same people come September.

We're off to Canada in just over two months to spent a month travelling around thre different provinces - can't wait! And it'd be even better if we have the house sold by then and actually ahve some money...!