Rollercoaster Ride

So this morning I went off to sign my new letting agreement for my new house. Got there at 10.30, read through and signed the contract, then had to take a quick detour into town as they couldn't take my deposit off my debit card and I don't have a chequebook.
Holding £950 in my sweaty little hands was quite nice, although Anthony insisted that we didn't walk back to the car past work in case I was overcome and spent the lot on books.

So, contract all signed, money handed over and key obtained! Yippee!

Then we went over to the house...

Basically for a house that's just had new heating, new carpets and been decorated, it wasn't really "finished" (as those TV people would say). There are marks on the walls by the paintwork and stains on the new carpets. Fine I thought, I'll just make a list and take photos so I don't get penalised at the end. Bit of rubbish in the garden, again, this can be sorted.

Came back here and did a bit of packing and had a nap as I was shattered, although Mr Nightshift couldn't get any kip so he's been up now for 24 hours... (not good when he's trying to disconnect my washing machine).

We went back over there to hoover the carpets ready for tomorrow and to write a list of the marks etc. Three A4 pages later I decided we'd better go see the letting agents. Basically, as well as the marks and unpainted pipes (which are just cosmetic so not that hard to live with), only two of the doors actually shut properly, we couldn't find any way of making the shower work, and in the passage between the houses where you can take the bin out, you can look up and see the floorboards of one of the back bedrooms. Most of the things were there when we viewed it the other week, but then they hadn't put the carpets down (they only went in yesterday) or finished off so I just thought they'd have fixed them.

Anyways, the list is with the letting agent and they're going to speak to the landlord tonight. I will almost certainly be moving in tomorrow and Sunday as I can't really move at any other time due to work etc. The guy at the agents is going to sort it all out apparently - I'll just have to trust him.

I did annoy myself by almost crying when trying to explain to the letting lady about why I had to get this done. Work this week has been very stressful and next week with certainly not be any easier so I wanted moving to go as smoothly as possible.

Ah well, that's life. It's all a learning experience.

I'm off to pack more things, I just hope that everything in the house gets sorted double-quick, that Virgin Media can connect me up nice and quickly, and that I hear some fabulously good news about Miss Campbelli on Tuesday night!

PS: I do have a 1kg bar of Dairy Milk for when I get overwhelmed!

Meh

Nothings been happening that's worth blogging about really. I'm worrying about having a house to move into, trying to eat healthily, trying to pack all my possessions and enjoying the fact that Anthony is working days this week so I actually get to spend time with him in the evenings.

I haven't been spending much time online other than to nip on and check blogs/FaceBook so I can't even post an entertaining list of random blogs that I've been reading.

Today I went and paid the admin fee to get my references for the house I want. It's on hold for me now and when (not if) my refs come back fine I can then sign the contract - appointment made for next Friday at 6. So that's helped with my stress a little bit, the fact that I can't seem to get myself in gear and actually pack things is another problem.

I've got almost all my books packed up, and have also filled a box with bubble-wrapped precious things. I get all proud of myself that I've packed lots...and then I look around and realise I haven't! That's partly cos I'm leaving the things I use most until last (of course) and so they're everywhere making me think I've not done enough.

I'd been thinking about changing my broadband/tv to try and save some money and then a nice guy from Virgin phoned today to offer me some funky package. Apparently it'll be easy to install and all that and can be done next Sat when I plan to move in. So hopefully I shouldn't be without broadband for too long when I move, but I shall keep Twittering via mobile so you should know whats going on.

Better go pack some more stuff...

Cleansing

Had another attack of packing and clearing out on Sunday. All the books from upstairs are packed and I think we're up to 25 boxes now. Just the downstairs books to pack, although that does include Pratchett who'll probably fill three boxes on his own! (I don't mean Mr Pratchett himself by the way).

We also managed to fill three bin bags with rubbish, four if you include the bag containing my wedding dress...

Yup, you read that right. It's a fabulous dress and I adore it, but it'll always be my wedding dress. I'm not binning it before you scream in dismay, it'll be going into the clothing bank at Waitrose. I figured that I could have taken the time to list it on eBay, but I just want it gone with no hassle. It's sharing its bag space with my velvet cloak, and a long velvet dress that I don't think has ever fitted me and would probably only look good on a stick.

I also threw all my wedding photos out. I've still got copies of them stashed on my Yahoo webspace, but I don't want/need paper copies so they've gone too.

It was very cleansing, but also rather scary. I did burst into tears at one point after looking at the wedding photos, but it was because I couldn't actually believe I was ever that girl rather than from regrets. (Which Anthony was very pleased to hear through the sobs).

Last year I kept a sort of diary for a few months. It was basically a list of all the things that had made me feel good that day. It's very cool to look back on it and remember how I was finding myself those first few months. To remember the nights out with Campbelli and Katie, Phil getting rubber bands stuck on his head, and RichieFingers stabbing himself in the head with a stanley knife when answering the phone.

Moving house is just the next step in moving away from the person I was when I was with the Yeti, and the next step into a future of happiness and sunshine.

Update: Silly silly me. I mentioned getting rid of my wedding dress to my mother and promptly got a 15 minute guilt trip. So it will be getting sold on eBay after all. I love my mother dearly, but sometimes I wish she understood me.

Books/Boxes, Boxes/Books...

I have been putting off starting to pack. Partly this is because I wasn't sure if I was ready to move, partly because I had no idea where to start!

I'd collected a load of boxes from work (the first of many loads I think), got some brown tape (although I want a tape gun now) and even found a black marker to write on the boxes with - but didn't start.

Today I did.

So far I've done five boxes (1 x Penguin, 2 x Transworld, 2 x HarperCollins) of books, only the tip of the iceberg. I had to be careful about how I started to pack them too. What I wanted to do was group them in boxes the way they need to go on the shelves...but I'd be here til next June doing that! In the end I did it the "booksellers way" - by size.

It was quite freeing really, grabbing an armful of 'A' format (think most crime, horror, fantasy) and filling a whole box with them. Some Anne McCaffrey, the Chalet School series, the Redwall series, a scattering of Enid Blyton, a few Kelley Armstrong... they all went in together. I've emptied one whole bookshelf of 'A' format, leaving behind the occasional stray hardback for an author.

Yes, it might be a bit of a bitch when it comes to unpacking, but better that I faff about arranging them and listing them on spreadsheets then, rather than doing it now and not being packed the day before I have to move.

Since I have also rediscovered LibraryThing it's a good thing for me to pack my books quickly. I keep losing whole chunks of time by popping on there to just change a couple of covers to the correct ones for my editions and then getting sidetracked. I actually even made it a paid account since on a free one you can't have more than 200 books, but when I loaded up my spreadsheet it loaded all 500+ and I had a note from them to say:

*****
Hi Kate,

I've noticed you've managed to catalog more than 200 books yet remain an unpaid account.

As the terms of use state, "LibraryThing users may not subvert the system. For example, right now there is a bug that lets you add more than 200 books without paying if you do it in a special way. If you do this by accident, fine. If you do it on purpose, you have legally promised to pay us $10. Fork it over."
*****

So I did. (Especially since I'd had that note back in Oct but only went back on there the other day and they hadn't deleted anything or suspended my account).

When I went upstairs I decided that the first thing to tackle should be a big box (Penguin) full of paperwork that was part mine, part the Yetis. It turned out to contain things like my debt management paperwork from three years ago, old cards, copies of C.V.'s and all sorts of leaflets and tat. I got ruthless. If I found any of my payslips I kept them, but everything else went into a bin bag. Yes there were things like P45's and P60's in there, not to mention chequebooks and exam certificates... BUT NONE OF THEM WERE MINE!!! Like I'm gonna throw my stuff away like that hehe. Very very satisfying in a way.

I eventually stopped packing boxes when Foley came and sat on the one I was trying to seal in a "Both of us have had enough of this, come and have a snuggle" kind of way. So Foley is snuggling on my lap while I type this, and I'm actually cooling down enough to need to put my jumper back on.