In the house

We have finally moved in to the new house! I hadn’t been here for a couple of days (too busy packing) – what a transformation when I arrived yesterday! Suddenly it looked like a home again instead of a bit of building site – it’s amazing how much difference having the carpets down and some items of furniture in has made. My wonderful brother Adrian, nephews Jamie, Jason and Craig (plus girlfriend Charlie) and friend James all came over to help load and unload the van and lug furniture and boxes about – not quite sure how we would have managed without them.

Last day in the flat

I have spent my last night in my little flat. It looks so different with nearly everything packed and ready to go, and the walls all bare. I’m looking forward to finally being in our new house but do feel a little sad to be leaving the flat. I’ve been here for five years which is longer than anywhere other than the house I grew up in and it was the first place that I felt was “my” home. I’ve been here longer than I thought I would be though – I only expected to be here a couple of years.

Set for The Big Move

The carpets have now arrived, our bed has finally been delivered (on the fifth attempt!) and most of the cables have been laid so we are all set for The Big Move. There will still be a few things to do once we are in (probably will wait until after we have painted the flat and handed the keys back) and a couple of rooms are probably going to be used mostly to store boxes until we start putting up bookcases and getting new furniture in. It is all quite exciting – tomorrow we will be living in our new home!

Feeling cut off

Got woken this morning [Thursday] by the man from Virgin Media coming to take away the TV box and broadband modem from the flat which I was not happy about as he was supposed to be coming tomorrow. So we have no internet or TV at the flat anymore and all of a sudden I feel very cut off from the world. It makes me realise how much I rely on the internet. I do have internet access on my phone but it’s a bit limited (I haven’t yet succumbed to the lure of the smartphone) and not good for blogging!

Too much stuff, so little time

Last time I moved, I shocked Michael with how much stuff I had managed to fit into a small bedroom. I seem to be very good at fitting a lot of stuff into a fairly small space, and despite having had a bit of clear-out and taken a few bags to the charity shop, there is still a lot of stuff in the flat needing to be packed. I thought I had done a lot, but now realise quite how much I still have left to do. I’m hoping there are enough boxes to be able to pack it all!

Passion - review

Passion started off well with a beautiful opening with lovers Clara & Giorgio singing about how happy they were together (a clear indication of a doomed relationship). The music was evocative, emotive and restless at times and was easily the best thing about this show which otherwise had a fairly weak and unconvincing storyline (Giorgio eventually choosing the ugly, obsessive and clearly mentally unhinged Fosca over the beautiful but unfortunately married Clara) and seemed to confuse ‘real love’ with obsession. Scene changes were impressively slick and acting generally good, but overall a night of Passion that left me feeling unsatisfied.

The magic of massage

It’s amazing what a difference a good massage can make - making time for a full body massage this afternoon has left me feeling like a new woman – less achy and with more energy than I’ve had for days. I went from feeling tired and grumpy to feeling energised and optimistic and wondering why I hadn’t planned time out from decorating to do this sooner! The effects have worn off slightly now thanks to the crawl home in rush hour traffic and lugging heavy boxes around whilst trying to pack this evening but I’m still feeling much better than before.

The decorating bubble

One of the downsides to all this decorating is not having very much time to catch up with friends and I’m looking forward to finally having a bit more of a social life again once it is all done. I feel a bit like I’ve been in this little bubble of ‘house stuff’ for the last couple of months and lost touch with life outside it a little bit It’ll be good to have a bit more time again to be able to catch up with friends properly and not have to rely on their Facebook updates for the news!

Putting a foot in it

With the cabling work going on, there are a few floorboards up in the bedrooms at the moment. Progress on the house was impeded slightly by Michael’s dad putting his foot through one of the gaps and right through the ceiling in the dining room. Fortunately I was not at home at this point and by the time I arrived home, the pieces of the ceiling had been retrieved and it all glued back together although it doesn’t look too good there right now! Michael has assured me that once it is filled and painted, it will look okay again.

General dogsbody

My father-in-law has been very helpful with getting our new house ready for moving in – getting walls ready for painting, helping lay flooring, put various cables in and general fixing things. Unfortunately, he tends to see my role in the process as being tea-maker and general tidy-up-er (although I’ve developed selective deafness where this is concerned!) He also occasionally doesn’t seem to realise that there are limits to my abilities in this regard – this morning, he asked me to take a box of rubble to the tip. I couldn’t even push the box across the floor, let alone lift it!