This will be a sort of diary.
Saturday:
Almost finished packing books. We have
too many books. As I have packed I have put them into categories –
on bookshelves upstairs, on bookshelves downstairs, to be stored on
shelves in the garage and to be kept but we don't need to have access
at the moment AND deciding which books are still in good condition
but we know we shall never read again. These last have ended up in
the hall at the bottom of the stairs because we have arranged for a
van from the Children's Hospice to call and collect what we can no
longer keep. Hopefully it will help: there is something so
heart-rending about those two words – children's hospice.
Meanwhile Marcia has been looking
through our clothes and at the various bits and pieces in the place.
We seem to have accumulated so many clothes and so much 'stuff'.
Being a big house, when someone gives us something we have had no
problem in finding it a home. That will not be the case. Lots will
have to go and again we want most of it to end up in the hospice.
Sunday:
Turning my attention to our studies. In
some ways they are even worse. After a while I realise that all I am
doing is moving things from one pace to another simply because my
mind refuses to take any more decisions. Time for another break.
Today there is a service in the village
church it being the Patronal Festival (St Germanus – there are six
of them to choose from: the one to which this church is supposed to
be dedicated is the bishop of Auxerre (378-448) founder of the
Carolingian abbey of Saint-Germain en Auxerre. Marcia attended so as
to bid farewell to all the folks. This wasn't until late in the
afternoon and by then I was so tired that I decided to take a break
and actually fell fast asleep in my chair only to wake when she
arrived.
At least that gave me a second wind but
my energies went into write one of the two political blogs which are
posted onto the web on Mondays.
Monday:
The van from the hospice is due some
time during the afternoon so the morning was spent in trying to
decide what 'stuff' would be worth them trying to sell and also what
furniture they could have. There is a very good reclining chair that
my father bought shortly before he died. It is in very good condition
but there just won't be room for it at the other end. Unfortunately
the label saying is complies with fire regulations has come adrift
with the result that the hospice is not allowed to take it. You would
have thought there was a mechanism for reinspecting such pieces of
furniture but there isn't so this will end up on the tip. It is such
a waste.
Finished with the stuff for the hospice
so back to the study. Tension is fairly high now as the removal men
are due to be here early on Tuesday and I seem to have so much to do.
Eventually, but not quite before I had finished, I ran out of boxes
so the rest will have to be left until tomorrow and it will be up to
the removal men. At least they are always very good at sorting
through a shambles. Just as well. Mind you, we know what we have to
do tomorrow: provide endless cups of tea and coffee and keep
everyone's sugar levels up by feeding them with lots of biscuits and
chocolate cake.
Wednesday:
Woke in our new home after and
incredible day yesterday. We have known Mark Carter for something in
the order of twenty-four years when he started a 'man and van'
business working evenings and week-ends. Then he took the plunge and
gave up the day job in order to create a removal firm that
specialised in removals that involved narrow, twisting lanes,
difficult entrances and all the other problems that we experience in
rural areas. Today he runs five or six vehicles of various sizes the
largest being still small by removal standards for obvious reasons.
He know trades as South Hams Removal (not surprisingly
www.southamsremovals.co.uk
is the web site) and has built up a truly formidable reputation in
this part of the world.
Mark did quite a few small jobs for us
when we lived in the South Hams before moving to the north of
Dartmoor eleven years ago – and yes, he moved us then – so
obviously there was no question as to who it would be this time
round.
Four vans and eight men arrived at
about a quarter to nine and started packing. At eight-thirty in the
evening we said good-bye to the last pair. The day had been extremely
hot and they had all worked so hard and so willingly that they took
most of the stress out of the whole thing. I left about lunchtime and
arrive here just before the first van arrived. Marcia stayed behind
so that she and the wonderful Jean (who has been mucking us out every
week) cleaned the house through. Because this is a serious downsize,
we only need about a third of the furniture so the rest is staying
put until we have sold the property. By the time Marcia arrived here,
I had been able to get the kitchen, the sitting room and our bedroom
reasonably straight but even so it was nearly midnight before we fell
into bed.
Quite a lot of stuff had been dumped in
the garage – including most of my study furniture – and there was
one more load to be fetched being the stuff in the garden.
So a couple of Mark's chaps arrived
here quite early this morning, moved in the study furniture and then
dashed off to get that final load while Marcia finished off in the
kitchen and the bedroom and I sorted my study. To my horror the
telephone connection and broadband which we had so carefully ordered
wasn't working. Everything should have been working and so it looked
as though there was a problem with the wiring in the house. There was
nothing we could do (and we both have mobile telephones so we weren't
completely out of touch) except arrange for someone to call around
tomorrow.
In the middle of the morning, the first
visitor arrived – bearing flowers. She and her sister-in-law used
to live just around the corner from us so we have known Christine for
over twenty years. It was lovely to see her again (sadly her s-i-s
died some years ago) and to know that once again we shall be living
in the same village. It was now that we realised that we had left all
the vases when we moved.
Since neither of us wanted to cook, we
went down the road and had lunch in the pub – a great treat since
we have been living where the nearest place to eat was over five
miles away.
Thursday:
One tiny problem is that there is only
space for one car outside so one of them has to go into the garage –
and the garage was where all the boxes of books had been stacked. At
the moment my car is down in the car park – which is fine but I
would not want to leave it there for too long. So today we have been
busy unpacking books – and sorting out the telephone/broadband
problem.
It seems that at some time there were
two lines into this property although one one had been in use for the
last five years or so. The telephone company had disconnected the
line pending further instructions and then reconnected it – but to
the one that had been out of use. The results was none of the sockets
in the house were working. It took nearly two hours to work out what
had happened and then ten minutes to put it right.
While the electrician was here, another
friend arrived – also bearing flowers. Jill cleaned for us all
those years ago but she and Marcia have kept in close touch and
Marcia has become a surrogate aunt to Jill's two daughters. The
kettle had just boiled when the postman delivered yet another huge
bunch of flowers – sent by Marcia's editor at Transworld. We were
trying to decide what to do with them all when the local florist's
van drove up the lane with even more. It really was a serious mistake
to forget the vases.
By now it was lunchtime and (this
really must not become a habit) it was over to the pub again.
Mid-afternoon and the chap from the IT
company down the road called to get the broadband running. At four
forty-five everything was working properly – and just over seventy
emails arrived. We had been hard at it all day and decided to ignore
them until the morning and so, after a nice long soak in the bath, to
bed.
Friday:
A rather late and leisurely breakfast
followed by a session sorting emails and now writing this and hoping
to post it before Nancy arrives for lunch (not at the pub this time).
I wonder who else will pop in? It really is quite a shock having
lived where you saw nobody for days at a time.
Basic decision: we are not doing any
more unpacking or sorting things our until Monday. All that is left
is the spare bedroom (which is where we dumped all sorts of bits and
pieces) and the boxes of books in the garage (all neatly stacked to
one side out of the way). Both can wait.
Sorry there are no photos this week but
I am sure you will understand why.
