Life, And Other Natural Disasters...

Everything has now been moved from Tipton to Ravenstone.  House is scattered with boxes.  I suppose that's the worst of it over now -  have been fretting somewhat about getting everything out of the flat, but job done 10pm Sunday.  Just got to empty the damn things now...
New office in Hinckley seems ok, even if I'm only going to be there a few months before I move to the office in Coalville.  Other than that, life begins anew...

So, the move is pretty much on.  Don't have a date yet, but have been in conversation with people and the plan is for me to work on detachment from my new office for about two months in a place called Hinckley.  Then, hopefully around the end of April, I will transfer back to my new office in Coalville.  Which is about 30 minutes walk from where my new home will be...

It begins...

One thing that really bugs me about my life is my inability (according to the Driving Standards Agency) to drive a car.  I have proved to their satisfaction that I can drive a motorcycle but not a car.  And this has just been brought into sharp focus this morning as I tried to schedule a delivery from IKEA, which was being made by DHL.  I placed the order last Wednesday for a book case and two CD tower cases.  They advised me their approximate delivery date was Friday 9th. October.  Great, thinks I, I've got the day off anyway.  I had a call yesterday while I was out from DHL to schedule the delivery; unfortunately, I was out all day.  They called again this morning on my cellphone - they can deliver next Tuesday (which I cannot make as I am on training Tuesday through Thursday) but not Friday as it was fully booked.

I am relying on these purchases to help me empty out a few more boxes and start to make the apartment a bit more habitable - less like cardboard city.  It seems that I now have to live like this until October 30th. which is my next day off.  The fact of the matter is, all the boxes hanging around depresses me - I look at them all and think "where the hell am I going to put it all?"  And I am not the best person for motivating myself.  I know that if Russ were alive, he would be, at minimum, giving me Fierce Eyebrows.  And so we add "Missing Russ (still)" to the list of things depressing me at the moment...

But anyways, back to the lack of ability to drive.  I have taken (at last count) seven tests - which probably doesn't seem like much - at various times in my life.  Problem has always been running out of money to continue with the lessons.  And so, it is usually a few years in between attempts.  And in between, the test increases in difficulty - some other thing gets added; last time, it was reversing into a parking space and having to quote basic maintenance.  All very laudible things to undertake but just adding to my frustration.

The worrying thing is I am afraid to try again - I am toying with the idea of going away somewhere and doing an intensive course, but the last time I did that, the instructor shouted at me when I did something daft and as a result, I lost all confidence.  I would love to be able to drive and it seems that it is unacheiveable for me.  Or is it?  Do I try hypnosis?  Do I try a pill?  Am I that desparate?  Or frustrated?

Answers on a postcard, please.

The removal men have been and gone; the apartment is now filled with boxes.  And, as expected, I'm in a state of shock, unsure where to start or how everything will fit in the flat!

I feel a bit like I'm sleepwalking through life at the moment.  No sense of sniffing the flowers along the way.  Sure, I'm doing stuff, going out, seeing people, but I still want that bit more.  It's just that that bit more is now so much more out of my grasp, so it seems.

On the plus side, September 21st. sees me going down to the lock-up in Portsmouth; opening up and letting the removal men in.  And September 22nd. I will be re-united with all the stuff I've missed these last 2 1/2 years.  And going through boxes and throwing stuff out/selling stuff on e-bay.

Seven months and I'm still here.
Looks like I'm settling then...
In truth, I have had a good offer from my landlord to take a tenancy on the whole of this apartment, which means that we need to sort our between himself and myself what is to stay and what is to go.  Most of the back bedroom is being boxed up and shipped out along with the store closet outside the apartment.  Just need to go through the other rooms and sort out what furniture (and other stuff) can stay and what needs to go.  Then, on September 21st., I go back down to Portsmouth to supervise the emptying of my two storage rooms.  The next day, everything arrives here in the West Midlands.

The process then begins to sort through my stuff that I haven't seen for 2 1/2 years.  Some of it will need to go to goodwill; some will get sold on e-bay.  Yes, I could have done that 2 1/2 years ago, but then I didn't know my stuff was going into storage for as long as it was.  After that, plans.  I have been promising to go and see my sister in Sweden, near Gothenburg.   My computer won't let me paste in the correct name for the city for some reason.  Then Christmas.  After that, I might be able to make Tucson and Fiesta 2010, but it depends on raising cash - the number of Delta Skymiles seems to vary depending on whether I leave the UK on a Delta or a former NWA flight.  Which probably means that once the merger is complete, the number of miles needed will increase to the Delta rate, and I will be short by 1000 or so miles.  We shall see...

Calm and moderately surprised.

Surprised, because I am where I expected to be.  Nothing went wrong.  And the pessimist in me says yet...

I've been here in Tipton just over 2 weeks now; getting used to catching the bus to work, but trying not to catch it from the nearest bus stop so that I get some sort of a walk in each day, even if it is along the traffic choked road to Oldbury.  Might look into walking along the canal for the summer.  Or maybe getting a pushbike, if I can find somewhere safe at work to store it.  But my luck with anything requiring regular love and attention tends to be bad, so maybe I should stick to walking.

Missed being in Tucson dreadfully; so much so, I am looking at ways of getting there next year.  Book me a space in the hot tub!!!

Got over the first anniversary of rock_bear 's passing.  I have a few pictures of him up on the shelf in the bedroom, and growl at them occasionally.  He's probably sat in the great hereafter playing charades with Joyce Grenfell and Noel Coward in any case and complaining that you just can't f*ck on clouds like you used to.  It would not surprise me.

Seem to be having a little seventies revival here between packing my stuff up; uploading Steeleye Span mp3's from the period 1972 - 1977.  Also, have been in contact with Maartin Allcock again, (see here) as it looks like one of his projects has a gig in Birmingham at the end of January.  Catching up with my folk roots, I suppose you could say...

...that is to say in between Christmas and New Year, finishing off the leftovers from the Christmas feast and doing very little.  Christmas Day itself was spent with my oldest friends (apart from someone I knew at school I still keep in touch with) laughing, eating and drinking.  Which is as it should be.  Met up with curlycub  yesterday in Brighton and looking forward to meeting lthrbear in London tomorrow.  In someways I am not trying to think about the new year; lot of organising still needs to be done - need to talk to madamemish about borrowing the services of her husband for a day to move out; urf.  It's still a little scary, but I know it will be OK once I settle...

I don't consider myself the most patient person on Earth.  Which is why life is so damn frustrating at the moment - a month or two ago I learnt I had been accepted onto a wait list for a promotion to somewhere in the Wolverhampton/Walsall area (that's to the North East  of Birmingham approximately).  Which would mean another move of location into another shared house for 6 months or so until I'd got my cash reserves back up to move into an apartment or house of my own.  And an increase of salary.  I spoke to HR before I went on vacation and they thought that I would most likely be offered a post in the new year.  In the meantime, I feel pretty much in limbo; don't really feel like going out and meeting new people, partially because I've only just about got enough cash to get through the month.

So, as always, I sit and moan about it... ;)