Chirping noises not in fact as correlated with chickens as expected

The meeting on Friday turned out (I was told this in an email on Thursday evening, which I didn't see until Friday lunchtime, because my email-reader thought it was spam because it had too many references to sums of money in) not to be for the exchange, but for the pre-exchange Reading Through All The Paper. To continue on the poultry theme, it was to ensure that all my ducks were in line. So I have signed documents providing me with not-very-onerous commitments in the way of paying HSBC considerable sums regularly, have admired the pink and orange shaded areas on a number of Official Maps and the little T-markings indicating which fences I will own, and have read through the series of covenants that the house acquired upon losing council-house status in 1987; none of them are terrifying.

Planned completion date is 22 June, which is about the busiest date in my work year (it's the Friday before all my employers' customers come for three days of being told how awesome we are and what wonders we plan to do with their next year's subscription fees); exchange 'sometime next week-ish', at which point I can start giving firm dates to the contractors who are needed to fix things.

This morning I went round with the estate agent, weeded the front drive, looked at the electrics (a few sockets need replacing, as well as the main fuse board), and checked through the inventory that the sellers had sent to my solicitor; the comfy sofas which are the one bit of furniture that I would have coveted have already gone, and the vendors are conveniently leaving all the curtains and carpets and other such fixtures. I've met my new next-door neighbour, who reminds me pleasantly of grandma ten years ago.