Tuesday 13 September 2011

Pack up your troubles

Those of you who are in the know (i.e. follow my Project365 photos on Flickr or are friends with me on Facebook) will know that I am going to be moving at the end of the month.

For those of you not in the know?

I’m moving at the end of the month.

I’m not going far, this is not some grand relocation, I am in fact moving approximately 0.5 miles away from where I currently live, so less than a 10 minute walk.

If I could afford it I’d be living on my own, but until my debts are paid off (which if they were would give me an extra £350 a month. I know. Ouchies.) I’m going to have to content myself with continuing to share a house.

I played it cool when I saw the room, I didn’t want to give away too much but my insides were doing backflips. “Hello massive room!” my insides were saying. “Hello awesome wooden floor. Hello cute little fireplace. Hello SPACE.” The space bit was very exciting for me. At the moment, unless I hang up my clothes as soon as I take them off, it’ll only take 2 days before I have no floor space left. If The Person comes to stay there has to be system in place for getting changed in the morning because there’s definitely not enough room for two people in there.

So it’s very exciting. I don’t know who the people are that I’m sharing with. Some might say that’s a gamble, but given that the landlady only takes on professionals and comes and checks the house once a month, I’m feeling pretty confident. And if not, hey it'll give me some fodder for the blog!

The grand move in date is 1st October which isn’t that close but appeared much closer when I realised that I don’t actually have any free weekends up until the day that I move. That’s not good. I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve got a ton of boxes to hand, thanks to the fact that there’s a community cafe at my work, so my belongings are currently being packed into boxes formerly containing bags of chips and cans of tuna.

My approach is simple. As soon as I come in from work I make a start and keep going until I get bored. This approach has actually meant that I’ve pretty much packed as much as I can already. It’s not too hard really, my main baggage consists of books and dvds. I’m going to have to spend quite a bit of money when I get to the new place accumulating stuff because when I moved out of the flat I shared with the Ex, I let him take pretty much everything, so I don’t own basic things like, you know, plates or cutlery.

But I have taken the packing as an opportunity to get rid of stuff. Add in the fact that Dorothy is also having a clear out of gargantuan proportions and the result is that the downstairs has enough stock in it to keep various charity shops in business for the next year or so.

I would love to make some money out of it all, Dorothy has plans for a car boot, but I just don’t have time to be faffing with it, literally don’t have the time given that my weekends are blocked up. Where I can I’ve tried to make a bit of money though. A loads of dvds that were destined for charity have been packed up and sent to Music Magpie – you don’t get much for a dvd, probably around 30p, bit more for box sets, but I’ve managed to make £22 out of 27 dvds that I would have given away for free so it’s better than a kick in the teeth. An old mobile is going to Envirofone for £14 (check Mazuma and Envirofone before you sell, Mazuma were only offering me £12 for my old phone). So that’s £36 in the plates and cutlery fund already!

I’ve also been brutal with my books. I’m pretty brutal anyway, I read them and get rid. There are very very few that make it to the permanent shelf. And if you saw how many books are on the “to read” bookcase you’d realise that I really don’t need to keep the books I’ve already read. What are the chances of me reading them again? Slim to none. Out they go!

But then I thought maybe some of you guys would like them?

So here’s a select pile for you to have a look at

The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruis Zafon /
Wedlock. How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match – Wendy Moore
The Sea – John Banville
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
The 19th Wife – David Ebershoff
Firmin – Sam Savage
The One From the Other – Philip Kerr
Fragrant Harbour – John Lanchester
(I have linked to each title so you can have a read of the synopsis and see if you fancy them.)

It’s simple. All you need to do is
- leave a comment,
- tell me which book you would like, and
- tell me anything hilarious that’s happened to you when you’ve moved/packed up to move

I’ll pick out THREE winners, let you know if you've been successful and send your books on out to you in the post. (I was going to give them all away, and then I realised that that would be my £36 that I’ve already made out the window and I’d be eating out of a shoe. You wouldn’t want that would you?)

You have until Friday 16th September to enter, whereupon I will close the contest, and pick winners out of the approximately 5 people who will enter.

GO GO GO!

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Apologies for the crap blogging lately. Funnily enough I have freaking loads to tell you but have found myself a) without time and b) without decent internet access to upload photos and we all now that we like a good photo filled post.

11 comments:

  1. Good luck with the move.

    There is nothing quite like space to stretch out and wiggle your toes in delight.

    And moving from a small pace to a larger place is SOOOO much easier than the reverse :) Hope you have good wireless in your new place - I'll be expecting pictures of this chic pad kitted out in crocheted finery.

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  2. Ooh, how exciting! Shame you're so far away or I would off-load some houseplants on to you :¬)

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  3. I am suppose to be moving on 1 October too but we still haven't found anywhere to move yet! Eek!!

    I won't need a book because I am afraid we don't have the same practice in our house.

    Michelle

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  4. Exciting about the move but I have to say I never had you down as a 'read and rid' girl, thought you'd be a horder!

    Have you thought of readitswapit though for getting rid of old books in exchange for ones you haven't read? (Just to add to your moneymaking/saving tips!)

    I'd like The Shadow of the Wind as I've heard lots of good things about it. I can't think of any hilarious moving stories though, only the amused exasperation of trying to pack whilst the kitties jump in and out of the boxes :S

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  5. Ooh, well I loved Geraldine Brooks 'Year of Wonders' so the fact you have another of her books is quite exciting...

    I don't have a funny story about moving. In fact, it's rather miserable but I laugh at it now and I can put claim to knowing/disliking someone famous...

    I used to date a young man, who happened to also be dating Ellie Goulding in her pre-fame days. Funnily enough he was also sleeping with a girl who was my now boyfriend's girlfriend at the time (does this make any sense??)
    ANYWAY I didn't know all of these shenanigans at the time and was moving between houses and lots of my things were at his place. I went to collect them only to encounter an unexpected emotional break up (can I also mention that he had twitchy type tourettes which only increased in emotional moments? Hilarious). So I called myself a taxi as it was raining and hurriedly bundled my shiz into the backseat and watched my ex's twitching face disappear into the drizzle as we pulled away... I was crying pretty loudly and the driver just ignored me. When we reached our destination (which was a very small cul-de-sac) my driver refused to pull into the little lane and rather, decided to unload my things into the middle of a main road, snatch the money from hand and get back into his car, thus leaving me in the rain with more than I could carry and cars racing towards me at top speed. I grabbed everything I could and then the bottom on the bin liner with all my bed sheets burst into the road and scattered my treasures in the murky puddles. I saw my taxi driver in his rear view mirrors smirking at me as he pulled away.

    Wailing like a maniac, with tears springing around and mixing with the rain, I dragged all of my things to safety within the house and snatched my mobile to call for the kindness of friends... but alas! My battery was dead. I plugged it swiftly into the wall to charge and set off out the front door to a friend nearby who then didn't happen to be at home. Returning feeling utterly rejected, miserable and wet I opened the door in the hope that my phone would have some power to call someone and what did I find??? That the rabbit had chewed through my charger and was regarding me darkly from the corner of the room... 'welcome to your new home' he seemed to say in a menacing voice before charging at my feet and nipping my ankles.

    BOOOO! (Can I have the book now?)

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  6. Shadow of the wind was great, really enjoyed it. Sorry I haven't commented recently just been really busy with mountains of stuff. Nothing as exciting as moving though, very exciting especially with more space and light. Room to whirl and change and just be. Hubby was reading somewhere that British houses are the smallest in Europe with the least light, bad for health. If you get to the stage of just wanting rid of books try the local hospital or elderly people's home. They might really like them good luck with the packing xx

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  7. How exciting to be getting more room, and a fireplace! I'd be really worried not knowing who I'd be sharing with, but that's because I need to be in control and know what is happening. Can't wait to see photos of the new place.

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  8. You will eventually realise that the cheating man slag did you a favour. Believe me as one who married one first time around. Sorry for the bad memories. xxxx

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  9. My sister forgets I worked on Geraldine Brooks' stuff so I actually have a proof of People of the Book...oh well! Send her a copy so she doesn't nab mine! :) Anyway I don't know where it is in the garage right now...

    Moving house!! Exciting times - I like the sound of your room. I need to leave my dad's house soon...bunk bed in box room is slowly beginning to not seem so cool as I creep up to the age of 30. If you'd asked my 18 year old self where they saw themselves at 30 it would not be in that room!

    Job hunting blues probably just getting the better of me today...blog post on that tomorrow me thinks. Can we see photos of new room soon please?! xxx

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  10. The last time we moved it was exactly a year to the day that we moved into our own house again. In-between times we moved in with my Sister who sold up and moved with us...she then fell pregnant so we moved out to give her space and moved with my best man… Both my Sisters and my best man’s marriage crashed and burned after we moved out. Moral of the story don’t have Mrs B and me as extended house guests…

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  11. Yay for a big new room! Hope moving errs on the exciting side, not the stressful one. As for funny moving stories, hmmm... Like Mary Rose I can tell you some sad bad stories about moving but I will avoid that. I do like the sense of achievement of that first night in a new place when you eat fish and chips while sat on a cardboard box. Good times. It's less fun when two years later you still have belongings in cardboard boxes, but we're working on that!

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