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My girlfriend always get’s annoyed with me when I tell her to turn things off and on again: “That’s your answer to everything!”, she grumbles, but I don’t just parrot this from a script. It’s the way I resolve 90% of all problems because this is usually the first thing I’ll try in any situation involving electronics or computers.
This morning I had cause to chuckle, as I sat on the train to work. At Waddon the train stopped for a while and the driver announced that he wasn’t able to open the doors on the train and was seeking technical help. After a 10 minute pause, he announced that it was a problem with the on-board computers and that he was going to power down the train to reset it.
The lights went off and the persistent hum of the air conditioning rattled into silence for a few minutes. I sat there in gloom and wondered if that was really going to do the trick or whether we’d all be manually overriding the doors to escape. The train once again whirred into life and slowly we could see the various systems come back to life. The displays on the train train all announced that this was an Electrostar model then started displaying normal information.
So there you go, take a leaf out of my book, next time you have a problem, try turning it off and on again. You never know 
We got back from York at around half past three today after what was a considerably better journey than the one on the way up. It snowed a bit through East Anglia which turned to rain by the time we returned to London.
We had a brilliant weekend and really enjoyed making new friends and catching up with old ones. Amusingly the weekend was a bit light on the Viking side of things, as we chose to spend a lot of it drinking and pillaging instead.
I’ve uploaded the photos to my gallery, I really should have taken some more! I might steal Julia’s at some point and upload those too.
I might have to rename this to ‘A photo every few days’, I’m still not consistently taking a photo every day, but I’m getting better at remembering and my camera is usually with me now. As I’m enjoying taking photographs more, I’m coming up against the limits of what I can do with my little Canon IXUS 60.
Last week, there was an amazing full moon, which I’d had a go at snapping. Alas, like all of my attempts at photographing things in low light, it was crap. A mostly black image in which a tiny white blur could be seen. As it turned out, my mate James had also been snapping the moon so I was eager to see how a ‘professional’ did it (well, sort of professional!). I was both disappointed with myself and impressed with him, as I saw his photo which is quite stunning. I asked him how he did it only to hear the sound of my bank balance cringing in terror at the requirements, his camera uses 18m mega-pixels, can spot meter and was using a long lens.
So yeah, just goes to show what you can do when you have the right gear and some know-how. I’ll have to be content with taking crap photos in the meantime!
(Left) This is the front of a house-warming card we got from Julia’s friends Sarah and Richard. I couldn’t get the lighting right with or without a flash so it’s a lot darker than I would have liked. I think if I’d have taken this during the day than the evening, it would have come out better.
(Right) Some random gravestones that I’ve puzzled over since moving to Epsom. Again, this looks really dark in the Winter morning.
(Left) I’ve really enjoyed messing around with the digital macro mode on the camera, since starting this project I’ve come to realize that there’s not much beauty in my life, in terms of the big stuff, so I’ve been photographing a lot of the smaller stuff. Needless to say, this is my fingerprint. Who say’s there’s too much personal data on the web? 
(Right) I spent a lot of time at home last week and a lot of time staring out of the window. This is one of the sunsets I watched. I really like the ruddy glow, but the view from my window isn’t exactly exciting.
(Left) Yesterday, we walked around Nonsuch Park, in the gardens we found a shady little grove at the centre of which stood this pine tree.
I has some really weird dreams this morning, I dreamt that I was on the team in NCIS and we were investigating something near my Nan’s house in Essex. It was snowing and Gibbs managed to crash the Land Rover he was driving. Then I dreamt about mice, then I dreamt about frying the little dead mice but having to puncture their bodies because of the build up of gases inside their bodies while they were cooking.
It all seemed perfectly normal at the time, but now that I recall these memories to writing, I can’t help but feel a little disturbed. I can very clearly remember the mice, although mercifully there was no smell. Now that I think of it, I’m not sure if I ever remember smells in dreams.
One of my friends on Facebook, Mr Sutherland, has been taking a photo a day. I’ve heard of this sort of thing before, taking a photo of yourself every day or various photo projects, but I can’t say that it ever interested me until now. I have no idea why but suddenly it just seemed worthwhile doing.So as of last week, I’ve been trying to take at least one photograph a day.
Unlike my peers, a few of whom are fairly keen amateur photographers, I’m not trying for anything clever or different. I’ve not got the equipment nor am I really interested in spending thousands of pounds on lenses or lugging heavy dSLR kit around. It’s just me and my little Canon IXUS 60 taking snaps of things that either caught my eye, or just playing around with different settings or ideas. Maybe in time I’ll get into photography but this will do for now.
Anyway, last week was a bit of a mixed bag, work was attempting to drive me into an early grave and I spend enough time in the office that I hardly saw daylight that wasn’t filtered through the blinds in front of my desk! Also, I wasn’t entirely sure what to photograph as I hadn’t decided what I was going to get out of this process. The end result was that I’d missed a few days, although I’m enjoying the attempt.
Find below the few snaps I’d managed to take :
(Left) This is a Pin which was custom made for my old Eve Corporation, I finally realized that ‘Macro’ on my camera means ‘close-up’ and decided to try it out! I’d always looked at it through a programmer’s view-point, ah well this is all about learning.
(Right) This is the point where I realized that my life is visually quite boring, having spent most of my time working. Lacking anything more interesting I decided to see how bloodshot my eyes were, as it turned out I really like this picture, especially that you can see my screens in the reflection.
(Left) Chemicals in a puddle which I noticed on the way to work. I’ve always thought this was quite pretty, although depressing when you really think about it.
(Right) Yesterday we wandered to Epsom Downs for a walk, despite being quite unimpressed that we could walk around it all in less than an hour, it was good camera fodder. Just as we were leaving we stopped so I could snap the sunset, because of the lower light levels it looks a lot darker than it actually is but I loved the clouds, this type of cloud is called Altocumulus.
So there you go, my attempts. I’m quite happy with how this is going so far, but if you want to see some serious photographers in action, have a look at some of my friends’ work:
This morning I woke up at around half six, why would I do this when I’m still on holiday? We’ll, last night I made an off-hand comment to Julia saying that I would walk her to the station today if the snow was bad. Ostensibly this is rather gallant of me, but in actual fact, it served to excuse me to play in the snow. Everyone’s a winner! So it was that I wrapped up snug and we trudged to Epsom station in virgin snow, all the while more snow fell in reassuringly large clumps.
When we got there, at around 7:15 everything was disappointingly chaotic, all of the information boards were blank, nobody knew anything and people were milling around in confusion. Eventually I managed to collar an employee who said that there was a London Bridge train outside of the station, but he’d been trying to get into Epsom for 20mins without luck. The snow on the rails a clear testament to the truth of this statement.
Just as I’d convinced Julia to abandon all hope, and come to the greasy spoon, the train in question managed to pull into the station so in spite of my arguments, she got on the train and I headed to the cafe alone. After a warming full English breakfast, I was watching the world go by when Julia called to tell me that the train was stuck outside of Ewell … yup, in all of that time, her train had made it one stop.
I sauntered home snapping pictures of the snow-clad streets and sat down to read some LJ and other correspondence, another call from Julia, this time much less stalwart she admitted that it might have been better to stay at home, the train had stuck outside of Cheam and the power was off and they were all pretty cold. It seemed that the driver was considering evacuating the train at one point. By this point Julia admitted it wasn’t going to work and was trying to get home. I made a bet that she wouldn’t get here until 11:30am. The train eventually managed to get to the station and Julia caught a bus back home. As it turned out, I was wrong, but only by an hour.
Personally I would love to see the country shrouded in snow and mist for a good 3 months every year, but I imagine I’m in the minority. So I’ll be enjoying this week to the full. I might bust out my bike tomorrow and go for a little tour around.
I snapped plenty of pictures, which I’ve added to the gallery.
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I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here other than through Twitter, but last month Julia decided that it was time to move on and gave her notice at her job as a Recruitment Consultant at Crone Corkill. Well the good news is that yesterday, she got offered a new job for an interview she went for last week. More money, better environment and all that good stuff, so Hooray! Apparently the interviewers said that “She knocked our socks off!” in the interview, how good is that? I don’t think I’ve ever had that kind of feed back.
The bad news (there’s always bad news) is that it doesn’t start until the end of November. So December’s rent is still looking a bit iffy in my mind, but she’s going to pick up some temp work this month to cover it. So it could still be a budget Chrimbo, depending on how things pan out, but I’m sure we’ll cope.
Speaking of Chrimbo, we’re off to my Parent’s this year, up in their Bungalow in Suffolk. Should be a really nice relaxed time, involving pie and lounging. Also, I’m doing the Christmas dinner to give my Mum a break, I’ve been practicing roast dinners for a couple of years and I think I’ve finally got it down. I’ve booked Christmas Holiday from 15th of December to 11th of January so I’m going to seriously relax and work on some projects I’ve been meaning to get done for a long time.
I’m seeing series 2 of Dollhouse starting to appear on the internet, it’s a sign of how bad that program was that even though I could download it, I really can’t be bothered.
I’m not saying I haven’t tried, we watched the whole of the first series begging for it to get better but we just couldn’t get into it properly, I think we only really made it to the end of the first series because we had nothing else to watch.
I can’t quite put my finger on why it was so bad, but the whole thing just seemed to strike a discordant note with me. The story was interesting as was the concept and the actors were hardly green. I think it might have been the lack of empathy I had with any of the characters, the character archetypes were dull and lacking any depth which made them all just seem like poorly drawn caricatures of real people. Maybe because there was less banter about it, or maybe it was because when there was any, it seemed so artificial.
Julia is an avid Buffy/Angel fan and we both loved Firefly, so you’d have thought that one of us might like it! This makes me wonder if any of you managed to get along with it?
Either way, I don’t think I’ll bother with the second series, not unless there’s a serious drought in terms of anything to watch!
Weekend before last Julia and I, along with Julia’s sister Laura, took a long weekend to go and visit their Aunt Denise new Tavistock in Devon. Due to a shortage of guest space in her Cottage, Julia and I camped out whilst Laura stayed indoors.
I’ve still not managed to sell Julia on camping and this was about as good as camping was likely to get, amenities such as a nice shower and loo in the Cottage, pleasant weather, wood fire, lovely views and about as private as you can get. At this point I think I’ll give up. Of course this means I need some camping buddies so if any of you fancy going camping at some point, let me know.
Our ‘Holiday’ wasn’t entirely a selfish endeavour though. Julia’s Aunt became a widow this year and we were partly there to help out around the house and get stuff done that she couldn’t do easily on her own. This mostly consisted of moving slabs of rock from one end of the garden to the other and attempting a sort of poor man’s crazy paving. It didn’t turn out great but it was an improvement which is about as much as you can ask for, we’re not exactly builders after all!
All told it was a lovely break and really nice to have a fire, it’s been a long time since I had a camp-fire going. Coming back to work on Monday was a bit of a shock to the system.
I’ve uploaded the pictures to my gallery.
Ok so I’m very behind on this, but I’ve just uploaded the photos from the 12th of September when we went to the pub. Why? Well, because we can and we hadn’t been to the pub with Julia’s friends for a while.
We started off in the Fitzroy Tavern then sauntered down to the Intrepid Fox, many many many beers were drank, in the end we bailed at 10pm … 8 hours in the pub is enough for anyone!
Pictures from the evening :
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 I’ve promised myself that I’ll be blogging a bit more, but frankly this week has killed me. I’ve barely had time to eat and sleep, let alone blog. But on the other hand, that does make for a good topic!
I can’t go into too much detail about work as this is a public post, but I think I do need to vent at some point so I think I’ll make a protected post here so I can unload without fear of losing my job or breaching any NDAs. Not that I really have anything bad to say, but I do need to be more careful these days. Bloggers are getting themselves into trouble over all sorts lately.
Basically, this week has been the final week before our next software build at Mortgage Brain. It’s now public knowledge that we’ve been working on a complete re-write of our sourcing system, called ‘Broker’. When I came back to MBL it was to work on the .Net team and that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for the last 6 months and it’s all coming to a head because this is the last build before we start giving it to real users to test.
So it’s all systems go. Everyone on the .Net team is working 24/7 to get everything ready and the pressure is on. But frankly, I love times like this, I’ve always said on my CV that I work well under pressure and whilst it sounds like one of those throw-away statements, it’s completely true with me. I’ve been working like a demon and thoroughly enjoying it, smoothing off the rough edges of the products I’ve been working on.
It’s not without toll though, there’s only so hard you can work before you hit the point of diminishing returns. Sure you can work for 3 days solid without sleep, but the code you produce at the end of it is going to be the worst thing you’ve ever written and it’s not likely to work. Over the years I’ve gotten better at spotting those moments, when you should just call it a day.
Anyway, this weekend is one of those moments, I must admit I did work again yesterday for most of the day, in between some shopping, but the rest of this weekend is now pure relaxation. I’m off to Greenwich this afternoon for a picnic with friends, then we’re hitting the pub for the pub quiz, then back to Royal Arsenal for all night movies until we pass out.
Next week is going to be busy again as the Thursday deadline approaches, but that’s next week, Carpe Diem
How cool is this?
I’m totally going to buy one of these when they’re released. I’m all about the kitchen gadgets!
(Link via Snesgirl)
It’s been forever since I’ve written a meme, this one has been doing the rounds and it appealed :
Instructions
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people, including me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “my life according to (band name)”
Pick your Artist: Manowar
Are you a male or female:
Manowar
Describe yourself:
Heart of Steel
How do you feel:
Nessun Dorma (Seriously, they covered it!)
Describe where you currently live:
Hail to England
If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Valhalla
Your favourite form of transportation:
Wheels of Fire
Your best friend:
Defender
You and your best friends are:
Brothers of Metal
What’s the weather like:
Master of the Wind
Favourite time of day:
Each Dawn I Die
If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Fighting the World
What is life to you:
Fight Until We Die
Your relationship:
Glory Majesty Unity
Your fear:
Bridge of Death
What is the best advice you have to give:
Carry On
Thought for the Day:
Blow Your Speakers
How would you Like to Die:
Violence and Bloodshed
Your soul’s present condition:
My Spirit Lives On
Your motto:
Today Is a Good Day to Die
On Saturday, a friend of mine from Eve, Schempazoid Jones, stopped over in London for an afternoon. In that he normally resides in San Jose, I made the effort to hook up with him and drag him around the capital sight-seeing. I’ve ‘known’ Schemp for years now, almost since I’d started playing Eve, this is mainly because when I first started playing, I would be up all night obsessing over the game. So in spite of the fact that he’s in the time zone where I should be asleep namely: midnight to eight in the morning, we were still online at much the same times.
Anyhow, we met up on Saturday in the City at around five in the afternoon and proceeded to attempt to cram as much touristy stuff in as a humanly possible and the Summer Sun would allow. Even though just about everything was closed we still managed to stroll around the Lloydds Building, then the Tower of London, over Tower Bridge, down past City Hall, then Southwark Cathedral, The Golden Hind Replica, back over the Thames via London Bridge to the Monument, past the London Stone down to St Paul’s Cathedral, across the Millennium Bridge, then further downstream to the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.
Out of all of this the only attraction that was open late enough was the London Eye, so we forked up the princely sum of £17 quid and proceeded to queue for half an hour, which was surprisingly fast considering how crowded the whole area was with tourists. Our timing was great and we managed to get on the Wheel during Sunset, I’d been on the Wheel once before but I’d forgotten that it’s actually quite good, if over-priced.
By this point it was nine O’clock and we were deservedly knackered, so we grabbed a pub up to Tottenham Court Road to a quiet Fuller’s pub called the Jack Horner, it’s not an amazing pub but they do some nice ales and it’s one of the few places near Oxford Street on a Saturday night that’s guaranteed to be quiet. I ended up drinking discovery, having worked up a powerful thirst, I managed to evaporate the first pint in about 60 seconds without realizing.
We hung out for the rest of the night, at one point a pair of wrecked Spanish looking guys came into the pub and were asking as directions to St James’s Park, pointing at a tube map that they were holding upside down. I remember telling them that it’s better to get a bus down there and they stumbled out, clearly not having listened to a word I said.
I didn’t think anything of it until closing time when we were politely ushered out of the pub and Schemp said he couldn’t find his iPod Touch. We searched in vain for 15 mins before coming to the conclusion that it must have been the Spanish guys, using the old “wave a map in your face, nick your mobile” con. With the variant of a third member leaning over the back of the bench and nicking it whilst we were being distracted by the map-wielding ‘drunkards’. It’s annoying because we both knew about this con and yet still fell for it, damn you beer, damn you and your soothing, foamy embrace.
So we left things on a bit of a downer and a lesson learned in leaving stuff on the pub table, I hadn’t lost anything personally but I still felt guilty as hell that I’d managed to get a mate robbed.
Sunday was mostly spent feeling a bit hungover not achieving anything other than the washing.
I’ll throw up some pictures in a bit but they’re nothing to shout about.
An Eve friend of mine is over from California tonight and we’re heading into London to grab a few beers, I’ve not particularly decided on where, depends on his priorities really, if he fancies good beers then we might find a Fuller’s pub somewhere, maybe the Jack Horner off of Tottenham Court Road, or we might head to the Fox.
If you fancy meeting up tonight then gimme a call on my mobile, the number is in my bio on this blog, or on the first post on my LJ.
I don’t normally bang on about this sort of stuff, but for the last couple of years the harassment of ordinary people taking photographs has been something that was on my radar as a worrying trend on which to keep an eye.
During this time I’ve read numerous articles describing how the police have been misusing their powers to delete people’s photographs and interfere with them under the blanket of the Terrorism Act, train-spotters and plane spotters, even tourists having their holiday snaps removed. The fact that they aren’t allowed to do this doesn’t seem to matter when social compliance gets involved in the issue, people just see the uniform and get intimidated into doing whatever the police want them to do.
Why does this bother me? Well I’m certainly not a hippy type nor am I really fussed about public protest and all that malarky, but I’m certainly the type to whip out a camera and take photographs of things, mostly for this blog and sometimes just for general amusement. I generally have a digital camera with me or at least my mobile phone and I don’t want to get into the situation where I have to have an argument with a police officer because I want to photograph the late trains or whatever.
Anyway the good news is that some sense seems to be finally prevailing. The Met have just published more guidance to their officers basically explaining what they can and can’t do, it’s well worth reading through and knowing your rights. Personally I’ve only had good experiences with the police but it never hurts to know your rights.
Here’s a copy of the Met’s Photography advice taken from Here :
Guidance around the issue has been made clear to officers and PCSOs through briefings and internal communications. The following advice is available to all officers and provides a summary of the Metropolitan Police Service’s guidance around photography in public places.
Freedom to photograph/film
Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.
Photography and Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000
The Terrorism Act 2000 does not prohibit people from taking photographs or digital images in an area where an authority under section 44 is in place.
Officers have the power to view digital images contained in mobile telephones or cameras carried by a person searched under S44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, provided that the viewing is to determine whether the images contained in the camera or mobile telephone are of a kind, which could be used in connection with terrorism. Officers also have the power to seize and retain any article found during the search which the officer reasonably suspects is intended to be used in connection with terrorism.
Photography and Section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000
Officers have the power to view digital images contained in mobile telephones or cameras carried by a person searched under S43 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to discover whether they have in their possession anything which may constitute evidence that they are involved in terrorism. Officers also have the power to seize and retain any article found during the search which the officer reasonably suspects may constitute evidence that the person is involved in terrorism.
Section 58a of the Terrorism Act 2000
Section 58a of the Terrorism Act 2000 covers the offence of eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of the armed forces, intelligence services or police.
Any officer making an arrest for an offence under Section 58a must be able to demonstrate a reasonable suspicion that the information was of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.
It should ordinarily be considered inappropriate to use Section 58a to arrest people photographing police officers in the course of normal policing activities, including protests, as without more, there is no link to terrorism.
There is however nothing preventing officers asking questions of an individual who appears to be taking photographs of someone who is or has been a member of Her Majesty’s Forces (HMF), Intelligence Services or a constable.
Thanks to people who mentioned various providers, after having a good look around this morning and checking out a few people who I wouldn’t have really thought to look at, I opted to go back to Be.
‘Be’ get a lot of stick from some people, mainly the whole ‘up to 24mb’ thing that every ISP is guilty of, but when I was with them a couple of years ago I found their service to be brilliant, especially when you complain to them that your ADSL isn’t fast enough, they take that sort of thing very seriously. My only real gripe with ‘Be’ was that they were pricey.
Previously I was paying 24 pounds a month but due to the quality of of the wiring in my old flat, I only got around 8-9mb down and that was really pushing the modem to the point of desyncing, so it was paying a lot for not much. However ‘Be’ introduced a scaled down deal of 8mb for £13.50 a month which is much easier on the wallet especially for those of us who are stuck paying tax to BT for the privilege of having a wire in our house.
Anyhow, decision made, I sorted it all out on the internet this afternoon. About 3 hours later I got an email saying that my activation date is 9th of July. This time next week, I’ll be back in the digital age.
BT connected our home phone yesterday, so I can finally sort out broadband. For those interested, I’ve updated my contact details which you can find as one of the links on the top of this blog. Either email me for the password, or you can find it in the first post on my livejournal.
The good news is that this means I can get broadband rolling. I’ve got a strong leaning towards Tiscali right now, for the past year they’ve not only been the cheapest provider but have given us 100% uptime (seriously) and a solid 8mb connection, I’ve also downloaded about 1.5Tb through them without even a hint of complaint!
I’m open to any suggestions on broadband provider though, they need to be cheap and not quibble about lots of data usage. Any thoughts?
If you’ve been keeping track of my micro-blogging on the subject, you’re probably well aware of the fact that we’ve just moved house, we actually did the moving on Thur 25th last week, but it’s only now that I’ve had a chance to sit down and blog a bit.
I’m currently sitting in our new garden today, working from home. We don’t have broadband set up at the moment but I can connect to the internet using my Nokia E71 as a modem, which isn’t too bad. For once we get excellent mobile signal in this house including 3G. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the speeds I’m getting, it’s certainly possible to VPN to the office network and get stuff done.
The house move was horrible but went as smoothly as I could have hoped, just very hard work in some serious heat. Although compared to this week’s heat, I guess you can say it was merely hot, rather than the current eye melting inferno. The main problem was the distance, getting from Finchley Central to Epsom is not a pleasant journey, you either choose to wend your way through some of the most congest parts of London, i.e. the North and South Circulars or you double the distance travelled and spin out via the M25, which is currently undergoing road works in that area.
So as some of you guessed, my estimates were waaaay out. It took us 2.5 hours to get to Epsom in the car to pick up the van so we were already an hour behind schedule by the time we put our bottoms in the Luton. At this point we decided that the really important part was the contents of the house rather than the sofas at my Aunt’s so we postponed the Romford leg of the operation until the evening and concentrated on the actual moving of everything else.
 Julia was pretty nervous about driving a Luton, being used to the Honda and an Automatic no less, so we opted for the M25 which we reckoned would be more van friendly and Julia would be less likely to kill us both But it was all fine in the end, the Van we’d rented was a Ford Transit type and was both more comfy and had more power than Julia’s car so was quite pleasant.
When it came to filling up the van, Julia mostly loaded and I mostly brought stuff out of the house. Thanks to the awesome job of packing we’d done, it was a smooth operation although we were getting VERY tight on space, it took 2 hours to load the van and when we were done we could barely roll down the door because we’d crammed so much in. Yes that’s right, between the two of us we have so much crap that we’re probably a two Luton trip!!
We managed to get back to Epsom with the fully loaded van at around 4pm, having made some seriously good time coming back. Unloading proved to be a lot harder. Mainly because I’d spent myself loading the van, so I was feeling pretty tired already, couple that with stairs, up which virtually all of our stuff and furniture needed to go and a front door that doesn’t quite open up all the way and we were both seriously exhausted by the time we’d unloaded. It didn’t help that we couldn’t get the Wardrobes up the stairs thanks to a seriously awkward banister/handrail layout on the stairs. So we ended up throwing most stuff in the living room.
Shattered and having been on the go since around 6:30am, we sat down and snacked on some pasta I’d made earlier in the week, then had a little power nap on the bean bags. Bean bags are amazing for this and we have two fun-fur covered giant bean bags which were a present from Dan and Tarah last year. They are like sleeping on a big monster’s belly. Think Sully from Monsters Inc.
With the evening’s rush hour out of the way we shambled back to the van and sped anti-clockwise around the M25 to Romford and the sofas which we’d bought off of my little brother, sofas which neither of us had seen. All we knew is that they were black, huge and originally cost about 1700 quid. With help from my aunt and uncle we managed to get them out of her dinning room and into the van. I say we, but I played very little part in this, as soon as I tried to pick up my end of the first sofa, I realized that I’d over done it and strained my forearms, my fingers were all locking into my palms and had to be forcibly straightened out. So I valiantly let Julia do the hard work!
Then back around a mostly deserted M25 to Epsom. It was around 10:30/11:00 when we made it back. At this point we could barely stand let alone try to unload, so we called it a night and left the sofas in there, we didn’t have to return the van until 9am the next day.
Life took a turn for the worst when we tried to have showers before bed, the mixer tap came off in Julia’s hand, meaning we could barely work the taps and couldn’t get more than a trickle of water. Filthy, we had no option but to wash as best we could at the sink then collapse into bed.
Friday morning brought the anticipated revelation that we couldn’t fit the sofas through the front door. If the door was able to open fully, we’d have done it, but alas the door being mobility challenged was a no go. Luckily our new place has a path around to the rear of the house, we manhandled the sofas around the back and got them in through the back door instead.
We returned the van without incident, we’d done well over 200 miles, and it only cost 40 quid to fill the van’s tank up to full again, so it turned out to be a great cost saver. The rental cost 90 pounds for 24 hours, so this aspect of the move cost £130, waaay cheaper than hiring people, which is usually in the order of 200-300 quid. In fact it wouldn’t have been possible to hire anyone for this move, we’d have paid a fortune just sitting in traffic, let alone picking up stuff from different parts of Greater London.
The rest of Friday was spent feeling sorry for ourselves and unpacking. To our chagrin, the wardrobes couldn’t fit up the stairs no matter what angle or approach we took. There was nothing left to do but bust out the electric screwdriver and dismantle them to get them up the stairs. These wardrobes haven’t been disassembled since 1992 when my mother bought them, so this was a challenge and a half, and I was worried that they wouldn’t go back together. Mercifully they did, but I don’t think I can get away with doing that more than a couple of times.
We managed to get most of the living room and the kitchen unpacked on Friday. We at least got all the right boxes in the right rooms. By 6pm we had lost the will to do anything other than sit on the new sofas and get a kebab for dinner.
On Saturday we had to traipse all the way back to North London again for the cleaning marathon. The problem with renting a big, old, garden flat is that there is a LOT to clean and it’s the sort of cleaning that takes a long time. We started at 9 and didn’t finish until around 3-4pm. By which point we’d gardened, washed, hoovered, polished and scrubbed the place to an immaculate shine. Cleaning the extractor fan filter is something that will stay with me for a long time, I gagged as I peeled the yellow, fat encrusted material out of the hood. *shudder*
And on Sunday we rested (haha). I did unpack one box of DVDs, and one of Julia’s friends popped around for lunch, but that was the extent of our efforts and the rest was well needed, we’d been on the go for about 4 days solid and frankly, hard work scares the both of us so we were physical wrecks at this point.
 So that’s about that, I’ve still got to unpack my study but I can’t really do anything until I buy a new desk. Pog’s old desk finally gave up the ghost last week when I tried to dismantle it to find that most of the screws were threaded and the whole thing was no longer stable, so I kicked it to pieces and we took it to the dump. Alas this means I have nothing to put any of my computer equipment on, so there’s no point in even trying to do anything with it. Hopefully we can find a nice desk somewhere locally for less than a million pounds. I can live another week without PCs though, especially seeing as we have no broadband so it’s a little pointless anyway.
I’ll post up some pictures of the new place as soon as I can find the bloody charger for my camera.
My updated contact details are on this blog, the usual password.
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