kestrel

Going to detail progress here for myself – feel free to skip :)

Yesterday we:

• spent 3 hours hunting for DECT phone base, firewall and Pete’s phone charger – this entailed opening every bloody box. We eventually found all three in the very last box, inside another box
• got the bed made up, so no more sleeping on the mattress on the floor. I also washed the bed linen and hung it on the line, after a desperate but successful hunt for the clothes pegs – that’s a "feels like home" thing, but we need a new line and clothes prop
• assembled the clothes rails, found the hangers (why do we have so many?) and hung up all the clothes I could find, although I know there are a fair few packed in the top of the tower of book boxes
• sorted out all the wicker baskets in the bedroom, redistributed their contents to where they should be – bedroom is nearly there now, Bit more tidying, and new curtains and rails to hang
• Had a Polish chap round to quote for fitting the loft ladder and hatch – he’s startlingly cheap at 200 quid, and I’m not sure whether to trust him, but his feedback on mybuilder.com is good …
• discussed how to lay out the living room, discovering in the process that our not very nice television stand will have to go; simplest thing will be to put a custom triangular shelf in one of the alcoves, so Pete will hie himself down to Sculcoates Lane and visit the wonderful woodmonger, who planed a piece of wood exactly to size for the catflap, and charged us precisely £1.50, including the wood
• knocked out the manky shelving in the study alcove, part-assembled the spare set of shed shelves, and determined that they will fit in there – not ideal, but quick and easy, and so will do for now. The first set of shed shelves went in the cupboard under the stairs, which I have organised to within an inch of its life
• found the blind we bought for the old study in Bristol, and discovered that – amazingly – it will just fit in the study here
• found the missing shelf for the pine bookcase in the kitchen shelf, but sadly not its fixings – so we’ll pick some up today on our trip to pick up the paint for the living/dining room, which will have to be decorated in instalments; paint a bit, shelve it, move on. The kitchen bookcase is holding up the finishing of the kitchen, so that’s a priority
• got the Linux server up and plugged into the firewall (now we’ve found it),although we have a lot of network plumbing to do. Did some research on a job that a customer needs a quote for today – just what we need right now
• had fish and chips; £6 quid for two allegedly small portions, which we couldn’t finish, they were so huge. We were going to have them for lunch, but I was late getting up there, and they were shut, so I bought a couple of filled rolls – one tuna/sweetcorn, one ham/cheese … £3.10p. Cost of living is cheap up here!
• had someone round to collect a stack of cardboard boxen via Hull Freegle, and got someone coming for more tonight. Also cleared all the ones from the back yard ready to go to the tip this weekend – they’re stacked behind the wheelie bin.

Then we collapsed. More today – onwards and upwards.

Well, we’re here. All we have set up at the moment is my Netbook and the wireless router – I haven’t *looked* at LJ, Facebook, Twitter, etc, just done the odd Twitter post from the phone to let folk know we’re alive.

The move was hideous, but eternal and inexpressible gratitude go to geoffcampbell, who drove the lorry, organised the team of packers and loaders as though he were playing Tetris, and generally made the whole thing work; Pat and Dave, WANOLJ, who came round to the old house at 6 a.m. on moving day and worked like *heroes* for five hours; agc who drove to Hull from Wiltshire to help with the unloading, and etriganuk who trained over from Manchester to do the same. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH.

We couldn’t get everything on the van, so perlmonger had to do a one way van rental at an extortionate price, and spent four hours packing and loading the last stuff in the pouring rain, not getting away from Bristol until nearly 5 p.m. He came down with a nasty chill on Tuesday , unsurprisingly, but he got here.

Nothing broken in the move so far, although my ceramic duck mobile’s wire broke when I tried to hang it up, so that’s a casualty. We cannot find the clothes pegs, or Pete’s mobile phone charger, so if anyone needs him, use the house phone or my mobile (contact details just posted in a friends locked post).

I drove the cats up, which could not be described as an enjoyable experience, even for me – Iggy and Mustrum cried the whole way, and Iggy disgraced himself in his basket. EnRon, of course, just curled up together in their carrier and slept the whole way – they really are utterly bombproof, those two. When we arrived they went off exploring, but soon came home through the kitchen window, which we kept open until Pete managed to fit the cat flap on Tuesday. Except for Iggy, who disappeared on Sunday evening – we were distraught. I’ll write more about this later in the cats’ blog, but suffice it to say that when I was making a cup of tea at 6 this morning, he strolled into the kitchen from the living room – so he’d found his way back through this grid of Victorian terraced streets, and discovered the cat flap. I’m more relieved and happy than I can say.

So, anyway, we’re alive. I’ll write more about the house later, but I know some people have been waiting to hear. Thanks to all those who’ve phoned and mailed – no time to respond now, but I’ll get there.

On with the unpacking – we nearly have a living room now, the kitchen is almost finished (going to paint it RED) , and Hull is good. Except that bloody Gavin still hasn’t paid the sodding rent.