The list -- T-minus 30 days

"You know what we need," I asked my wife, her eyes widened with expectation. She knew exactly what we needed at this point.

"A list," she said gleefully, "a list, we need a list."

And so it was done. Our penchant for making lists would come in handy with our new adventure.

Last night we booked our flights from Vancouver, BC, to Corner Brook, NL, at the princely sum of $760 with another $100 to be paid for the luxury of taking Sir Richard onto the plane with us as carry on. Our only fear is that he may fall outside the 10kg weight limit of cat and carrier considering he himself weighs almost 10kg. The big fella may have to go on a crash diet but back to the list.

Before we married I was a huge fan of 'the list' thanks to my good mate Dave's explanation of not only their organisational functionality but their therapeutic value -- peace of mind courtesy of a few dot points that once completed could be scratched from existence along with the completed task.

"See, job done," he would say when he crossed another task off his list, which he compiled each night before bed ensuring that the day was planned to a tee. The list always started with one simple task.

• Wake up

It's unbelievable how satisfying it is to cross things off a list, especially the first task of the day. Another mate of mine, Gazza, had a diary for each year dating back some decade and contained everything he had achieved. You could give him a date, a couple of beers and about an hour and he would find his diary and tell you exactly what he was doing that day almost to an hourly breakdown. Truly old school.

When I found out my wife loved lists, it was a match made in heaven. Our wedding lists (note the plural) were pencilled into a Merry Christmas notebook while another list was on a classier wood bound notebook with a robot on the cover. For a random present I received a 2010 Diary with Leonardo Da Vinci's Le proporzioni del corp umano secondo Vitruvio (particolare) on the cover and carry it every where I go.

Our list of things to do before we move to St Anthony is nearing epic proportions with sub-heads, tree branches for subsequent thoughts and now thankfully there are a few black lines through accomplished tasks.

Things to find out in St Anthony (achieved tasks are italicised)...

• Rent (not yet but we are working on it)
  
• Car (Thought we had this sorted but the car fell through. Back to the drawing board)
  
• Banks (Yes and we are already members -- SORTED)
  
• Pet Shop (Much to the chagrin of Sir Richard there is no pet store hence no more of his delicious California Natural minced New Zealand possum and vegetables unless we can get it shipped there from St John's)
  
• Thrift Store (Yes, bless the Salvos for providing us an outpost of shopping normalcy)
  
• Pub (mmmm, we think there is a place like an RSL there called a Legion and apparently it goes right off on a Wednesday night. Here's hoping there's bingo).
  
• Weather each season (yep, cold and snowy)
  
• Camping (if you can brave the cold and the snow then sure, why not)
  
• Close communities (the tip of Newfoundland is about 90 minute drive and in between there are a bunch of small towns)
  
• Airport to town (there's an airport and there's a bus that takes you from it to the town centre. We won't be using this service however as we are flying into Corner Brook, about 10 hours away)
  
• Craigslist (mmmm, sort of)
  
• Car Insurance (still working on it but at this stage it looks like $60/mth)
  
• Medical coverage (they have a training hospital there so maybe the medical service will be cheaper)

Not the most exciting of lists albeit but a list nonetheless and damn doesn't it feel good to get started on the logistics of it all.

Thankfully the past evening was nightmare free. The tally since we made our decision to move is now: Nightmare free: 1 -- Nightmares: 2 (moose and ice driving)