Slowly crossing the line

The move is a strange beast. Right now, I'm fully engaged with preparation work. Today I spent the day with further vetting books and papers I have, packing stuff for the various charity shops in the area, packing six massive archive boxes with books and clothes - without making a visible dent into my "library", and then I listed half a shelf's worth of books on ebay, in the hope that there might be a stray pound somewhere in all this.

Vetted more books, piled them differently (to sell, to give away, to re-organise). Tomorrow I'll take my two surviving plants over to the new house. The bonsai will love the natural light, and the hebe has a fair chance of flowering again. That will clear up the desk so it can be taken over to the new place on Friday, along with all the books.

Yeah, and curtains. I feel ridiculously domestic and more than a little ridiculous. In none of my previous abodes did I even have curtains. I'm allergic to dust mites, I just tended to not have carpets or curtains, but they are building an apartment building across the street and the bedroom is facing the street. And while I'm a bit of an entertainer, I'm not entertaining in that way. And the living room bay window needs to be covered up as well. I dislike showing random strangers all the gaming consoles and DVDs on their shelves.

So that's my mission for tomorrow - head back into the flat and take the measurements of the windows, then head to the curtain shop to get some ready-made curtains. I'll install them after the repairs and the other work around the house. And I'll get a tub of white paint and paint our picket fence. I simply cannot resist the irony of that.

I met all neighbours and they are cool, friendly people. And then somebody from further down the street, who seemed very welcoming too. I guess if you're living in the same Victorian terrace, there is a sense of community, but it's nice to actually talk to the neighbours. I've been told that's rare in England (less so in Germany, where you tend to invite your neighhours around after moving in so they can feed their curiousity and to get to know each other).

So tomorrow is mostly going to be a day of fiddly stuff getting taken care of. One last deep breath before the really big things happening. I'm off work all week, too, to be able to do all this in the first place.

Since the muse is on holiday (sending the occasional guilt-ridden postcard), I'll print out a couple novels and work on them on paper. Yeah, and the fact I won't be connected to the internet for a few days in the next few days is a quite unpleasant thought. So if I'm gone, I'm moving. See you on Saturday latest, that's when I'll get re-connected in the new house.