Wreck thank you for Chichester recommendations :) we're staying in the Haven in Pagham, can't wait. DD had a bit of a meltdown last night though - overtired can't blame her, so am I but basically because she won't be seeing her homeschool buddies for a whole week! And of course that seems like forever to her. Bless her. I was sympathetic (mostly... 
it was very tempting to just say FFS we need a holiday so tough luck you're going!) and we talked about how great it is that she's got such lovely friends who will miss her too. I really hope she will be ok when we're there. :(
She does struggle with change generally, it's because we'll be out of 'what she knows' and she'll be missing her classes etc. In some ways I feel worse taking a 'term time' holiday than I would've if she was missing regular school, as I know exactly what clubs she's missing! But then we could never afford one in the holidays anyway. She's only missing one 'learning' type club and I've already told her tutor who is sending the week's activities.
Not quite caught up with the thread yet (I notice Babs has a promotion though YAY! Congratulations! 
) but thank you all so much for your lovely comments 
. I'm actually rather overwhelmed with relief. Can't remember if I mentioned this before but it turns out DH didn't actually apply for this job. It's on the same road as his current store, and the staff therefore knew him and actually put him forward for it when the manager said there was a vacancy - so it looks like they already know his track record and value his skills, IYSWIM. We aren't sure of shift patterns yet, apparently they get their rota 3 weeks in advance (although we don't know about his first shifts yet so not sure how that works!).
Downside is I've now 'crashed' a bit - last couple of weeks have been really stressful and culminating in a really full day yesterday, I was ridiculously flustered and had to dash into work to finish this redeployment form etc. So was in a lot of pain last night and still am now, but we're at mum's until tomorrow so that takes the pressure off a bit - I'm still in bed and I can hear mum chatting away with the DCs so I can rest. :) It's a lot easier now the DCs are out of the running-about-madly phase - when they were younger until about 6 months ago it was stressful being here as I'd panic about their excitability and having to keep them quiet etc (it's a flat, grumpy downstairs neighbour and my parents aren't really keen on boisterousness...).
In other news, they are PAYING all his extra hours! I can't believe it! DH says the area manager has been ducking the issue for ages and we really thought he was going to weasel out of it by saying 'needs of the business' and all that shit. DH has been taking a few of his hours this week, finishing early etc, but he's got at least 3 weeks' worth of time owing, so with that and the remaining annual leave it's a decent last payslip later this month, so with the fact he's starting a new job soon it means things are going to be a little less scary financially. We've nearly got my AL issue sorted too so hopefully I'll find out about that too.
Oh and yes. I think in a way the AM is regretting DH going. He's said to DH he'd like to go for a drink sometime (REALLY?! 
). And it turns out quite a few customers have actually made official complaints that 'the best manager [store] has ever had' is leaving. If that isn't a giant Fuck You I don't know what is. :o I think DH's work ethic has in some ways been his downfall. The reason customers love him so much is because he puts them first, always. But in the AM's words, he wasn't [brand] enough. In other words, he put the customer first rather than the company's immoral moneygrabbing needs. And that's why in AM's eyes he 'failed' even though he admits DH is incredibly hard working etc. He's always been like that, it's why we still get locals coming up to him 5 years later asking him to come back to the store he used to run. And one of the many reasons I really adore him. [soppy] :)
Sorry for that epic waffle. Back later :o but thank you all again