The heating has now been fixed, and the radiators are, happily, working well. The engineer says that the boiler has a bad service record and wasn’t a great model even when it was installed, let alone ten years later. If it were his choice, he’d get a new one. You could argue he would say this, but in his next breath he recommended that if I decide to change it a local plumber may be cheaper. I’m getting a quote tomorrow, although that’s some serious expense and I really doubt I’ll be able to afford it.

Speaking of expense, a new aerial suitable for digital broadcasts is apparently ~£200 on its own, excluding any fitting costs. So perhaps not. I’m looking at freesat from Sky¹ as a cheaper option, and have emailed the housing association to find out whether they allow mini-dishes on the side of their buildings.

It’s so nice to be back on broadband Can catch up on my podcasts, now.

1. not to be confused with Freesat from the BBC and friends, which hasn’t launched yet, and may be as late as christmas 2006 [↩]

Broadband is up and working a day early! Great It was strange how little I could do offline - am definitely reliant on my internet connection.

There’s also a man here looking at the boiler…Given the service log, it seems to be somewhat broken. Urgh.

Expensive day. The initial shop at Tesco for food, cleaning stuff and general supplies came to more than I was expecting¹ and I also picked up a couple of christmas presents that needed early posting.

The boiler here is desperately in need of a service. It keeps turning itself off, which is annoying, and hasn’t worked at all since about 2000 this evening. I haven’t been able to do any washing up yet² - how annoying Actually it is bloody annoying. The flat’s actually quite warm generally, but my inactive computer habits don’t help with keeping at a reasonable temperature. I won’t want to get out of bed tomorrow morning!

After reading on various forums that indoor aerials could work well for freeview I tried one out, but still no joy. The analogue picture is pretty dire, too, so I’ll need to do something. I have the number for a local aerial company who will apparently give me a quote for a proper loft installation, but I dread to think how much that’ll be…Given that the signal checker for Stratford recommends an “amplified extra high-gain” aerial, it’s probably best to let the experts handle it. Either tha

I went to pick up a christmas tree this evening, but B&Q didn’t have much left. I’m back in Solihull tomorrow for my guitar lesson, so will pick something up from one of the massive stores there.

Ooh, I received a letter! A bill, naturally, but a letter for me nonetheless
Kinda lonely today, although I deliberately kept myself busy whenever I felt it coming on. I’m hoping this is something that passes, rather than one of those things you just have to get used to.

It’s getting chilly in here, so I’m going to curl up in bed.

1. and I was being thrifty, really! [↩]
2. I could just use cold water, I guess - or does the heat help to kill germs? [↩]

I’m in! After all these months, I’m finally spending the night at the flat.

We loaded up the van this morning, grabbed a flat-pack bookcase from Argos, and then with some help from my uncle and grandmother moved it all into the flat. It’s now all tidy, amazingly. After borrowing Nod’s modem (thanks again!) I’m up and running on dialup. It’s strange not being permanently connected! I must remember not to connect much during the daytime, or it’ll cost me a fortune.

I need to pick up a fair few things tomorrow, and am trying to keep a list as I think of them. The more expensive items I’ll subtly request for christmas Speaking of which, tomorrow’s decorating day, and I’ll be getting the largest tree I can find - if you don’t have to chop the top off to fit it into the room, it’s not big enough!

The freeview reception is weird in Stratford as the broadcast frequencies are higher than normal, requiring a wideband aerial. I have the box, but it seems that the building aerial isn’t the correct type. I’ll ask in the local TV shop tomorrow - it must be a fairly common request. Maybe they can install a loft aerial.

Mum and Dad went home a couple of hours ago. I keep thinking of an episode of Ballykissangel I saw years and years ago, in which somebody left home, and the final shot was of an empty room, with the faint sounds of both parties crying. I’m very close to Mum and Dad and don’t like leaving at all in that respect. I’m happy to have my own place and to be in Stratford and everything, and I know they’re happy for me too. But it can’t be pleasant when your kids leave home, and I hope they’re ok. I’m a mixture of excited, scared, sad and nervous tonight.

I just took a walk into town, which was very pleasant. It’s cold, but misty so the christmas lights are beautiful. I took a fair few photos before my camera battery started to fail, and I’ll put some onto flickr, while saving others for the advent calendar.

Am going to settle into the sofa and watch a dvd, I think. Goodnight!

Much is unpacked, much is not, must has yet to be transferred. We¹ built a bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers and bedside cabinet from flat-packs, too. Half-dead. Hopefully I’ll be in a position to stay there tomorrow night. We’ve given up on painting for the meantime - I’ll live with the bright pink wall for a while
Darren and Lilia made it to the Strictly Come Dancing final - woo! I like them.

Gotta get some sleep.

1. Dad and I, but mainly Dad [↩]

Spent the evening packing the contents of my room into boxes and copious plastic bags. It’s maybe 2/3 complete, and I haven’t started on all the computer stuff yet. The sheer amount of stuff I have is ridiculous, yet I can’t bring myself to throw much of it away. I did manage to part with a small ukelele that I dragged around the US after buying it in the first week, then never looked at ever again, but my bungee-jumping sheep that yells ‘baaaaaa’ as he falls? He’s a keeper.

I have no clue where I’m going to put all this. Thank goodness there’s a loft.

We’ve borrowed a van from a neighbour, and will likely be making multiple trips with that and the Focus. I’m also going to look for the largest bookcase I can get my hands on immediately, as I somehow managed to forget that the books would actually need to go somewhere. I really want a massive bookcase, so shall probably look for generic shelving.

I had an email today to say that my broadband is due to be enabled next Thursday, which is pretty fast work. Since they said nothing I guess the line must support 1mb - woo! I’ll use dial-up until then, the only problem with which is that I don’t actually have a modem. Didn’t realise that until half an hour ago! Can’t think of anybody to borrow one from as yet…Shall ponder.

I arrived at the flat just after 0900 and the sofa turned up forty minutes later, just after I’d finished unloading the car. They had trouble getting it up the stairs but managed it eventually - am glad we decided the three-seater would look too big As luck would have it the rubbish truck arrived moments after they left, so I was able to ditch all of the associated packaging. So that was great timing, and no need to hang around all day. I stayed for a while and put together two stools and a small table, so that more than two people could sit down at any one time. It was a beautiful morning, and the sun came nicely into the room. It’ll be great once I’m all moved in and it’s cosy.

I bumped into a neighbour and we said hello as we walked past each other, and three seconds later I thought that I should have introduced myself properly. Why don’t I think of these things?! I hope she doesn’t think me brusque already! I figure that christmas cards will be a good way to say hi.

We went to the dancing group’s christmas ‘ball’ this evening, which was great fun. They had a CD of christmassy tunes set to standard dance rhythms, and jiving to Slade was most enjoyable! I took some photos which I’ll put online tomorrow, hopefully. A tie was de rigeur, but thankfully it was ok to take it off after twenty minutes. I enjoy feeling smart in a jacket, shirt, black trousers and smart shoes - they’re great to dance in, too - but a tie just feels like a phallic navigational aid around my neck for no good reason.

Tomorrow should be marginally less manic, I think.

Busy busy busy.

• The sofa is being delivered tomorrow! This is great news, except that I may be sitting in an empty flat all day as they could only say ’sometime between 0900 and 1800′. I’ll load up the car with as much as I can, make a start on building whatever furniture I can carry and give the place a good clean. I don’t want to start painting without somebody else around, as I haven’t done any before. Must remember to take a radio, kettle, food, £50 in cash for the delivery driver(!)
• I phoned BT at 1800 yesterday, and the phone line was enabled at 0600 this morning. The number showed up in broadband compatability databases at the same time. This is worryingly efficient for BT…I’m waiting for that to fall apart somehow.
• I’ve signed up with Metronet for broadband. Their 1mb service is £19.99 monthly with a 45gb limit, and they have extremely good ratings from the folks at adslguide.org.uk. I was considering Virgin, Newnet and Freedom2Surf, but discovered that podcasts alone have amounted to 5gb over the past couple of weeks, which puts me over their bandwidth limits. I could ditch the podcasts, but when my phone line doesn’t support 2mb¹ there’s little point paying for a 2mb service when 1mb would do fine, and I can get the higher cap. Should I go over 45gb, I’ll be charged per mb up to a maximum of just under £30, although I plan for this never to happen! Metronet are also nicely geeky, and contribute to the forums regularly.
• Just to make things even more complex, I’ve opened a new bank account at Smile. They operate entirely online, and you pay cheques in via mail or at the post office. This should be much easier to manage than my current HSBC account, the online features of which are a little lacklustre. The interest rate is 3.3%, which while not the highest on the market is far more than the 0.000000004% at HSBC². There’s also the added attraction of parent company The Co-op’s ethical policy. For example, they won’t invest in any business or government “which fails to uphold basic human rights within its sphere of influence”, or anything to do with the tobacco industry. I think they’re too paranoid about genetically modified foods, but I find everything else entirely reasonable.

Tomorrow evening is my dance group’s christmas party, then on Friday I need to pack up everything I own. Painting and moving will hopefully take place on Saturday and Sunday. I plan to sleep for all of next week…

Although busy, this isn’t too stressful. I can’t imagine fitting all of this around a full-time job and one day to move completely!

1. too far from the exchange anyway [↩]
2. this may be a slight exaggeration [↩]

Started a post. Re-wrote each sentence three times. Too sleepy to make sense. Give up. Nutshell:

Flat = mine
Flat = great

Going to bed.

Ring, phone! Gah, how am I meant to concentrate…

A client’s computer problem has been hanging over my head for a few weeks now, and this morning it was finally sorted out. I worked on the system over the weekend and had it back to their office for eight this morning, and as far as I know it’s still working ok. It’s amazing what a relief it is not to have it at the back of my mind!

As far as I know I’m still completing on the flat tomorrow, although I haven’t had any instructions. I’m nervous! I keep thinking about how I only saw it for seven minutes on a sunny happy bouncy August Saturday…It’ll still be good though, I’m sure I’ll see how much needs decorating and try to do as much as possible before the weekend. I can also get the phone line installed and broadband ordered, plus a washing machine.

Then I’d best start packing boxes. That frightens me. You have no idea how much kak useful stuff I have stuffed into cupboards.

I chased up the “delivery before the end of november” sofa and it’s apparently in the UK and on the way to the warehouse. It should arrive there late this week or early next - it is clearly being transported via rolling logs - and they’ll give me a call then. In the meantime I’ll steal a deckchair from Mum & Dad

This morning I signed the mortgage deed after finding a solicitor who would act as a witness. The first office I went to refused, which was a little odd. The second were fine about it, although when I jokingly started to open the passport while talking about my signature being a little variable I was hastily stopped. Nearly messed up the whole thing, there! Note to self: don’t make jokes in solicitors’ offices. Once the deed is sent off everything should be ready for next Tuesday, I think.

I just reinstalled all the USB drivers in the hope the crashes are a software issue, and the webcam’s plugged in. Now I’m nervous that everything’s going to freeze…I hate this feeling!

Hungry hungry hungry.

Turns out that ear syringing isn’t as bad as it sounds. A reasonably strong jet of warm water is fired into the ear, and whatever comes out is caught in a cup. I was expecting some kind of syringe to be involved, and a popping suctiony type sound. I’m happy to say that it worked very well, and I can now hear again! Only problem now is that the other ear feels blocked in comparison…The nurse said it was quite full, but you need to apply drops for three days prior to syringing so couldn’t do anything about it. There’s apparently some soreness in both ears, which isn’t very normal, so I’ll have to make a doctor’s appointment to get it all checked out at some point.

After learning it in my guitar lesson this morning I’ve just purchased my first ever song by Green Day, a band which didn’t appeal in the slightest before now. Wake Me Up When September Ends is the track, and I quite like it. Last week it was Smash It Up (Parts 1 & 2) by The Damned, so I’m really expanding my musical horizons at the moment Currently trying to get to grips with pentatonic scales - I’ve never had any real understanding of music theory and it’s not so scary as I thought. I seem to have been born without the ability to tune or identify chords in the same key, however.

This morning I had a half-hour chat with a very pleasant BBC researcher about my experiences at Live 8. I hadn’t had any breakfast so probably wasn’t on my best form, but hopefully I gave him the kind of information he was after. He said they’ll talk to as many people as they can and then decide who to film for the BBC2 show - that would be exciting!

Finished writing this twenty minutes ago, then got distracted by first time housemoving tips over at Ask Metafilter. It’s such a useful website!

Just received confirmation that the completion date will be 6th December - next Tuesday. Phew! We’ll try to decorate it that week - there should be very little that needs doing other than the bright pink wall - then I’ll move in the following Saturday.

I never did decide on a broadband provider, so I’ll do that this afternoon. I’m still looking for the elusive 1mb/uncapped/<£20 deal…

Also, I have an appointment with the nurse this afternoon to sort out my ear. I’m thinking it’ll be gross It’s starting to hurt now, so it’ll be rather a relief when it’s sorted.

The solicitor phoned on Tuesday. She hasn’t been able to find anybody to set up an indemnity regarding the lease problem, and now says that the lease is actually fine as it does in fact comply with the 1985 housing act. Which is good. I’d rather this had happened two months ago, but it’s good nevertheless. So she has recommended to the Halifax that they approve the mortgage immediately. Woo! The estate agent, slightly bemused, called this morning and says he wants to push for completion on the 5th December. It’s unlikely I’ll actually move in then - there’s a bright pink wall that needs repainting, for a start - but it won’t be long after that. I’m just waiting for the phone call to confirm that the exchange can finally take place…