The Move Part Two

Ok, so I've been a little slack lately with upating ths blog and I've fallen behind on my self-promise to upload one a week. I think it probably has something to do with the fact that there is a lot more going on in m life once aain, as opposed to how I was living in Paris. As you may, or may not know, I am back working in Removals with a company called Aussie Man and Van I always think it's quie fitting) and I often come home from work feeling quite exhausted. Yes, working anywhere between 8 and 14 hour days, lifting furniure and heavy boxes, will do that to you, so I don't feel as guilty as I could for not writing this thing. Especially when I also have footy training some days and like to cram in the odd pub quiz now and again, it's amazing I even bother at all (such a lazy thing to say). The last couple of days have been a bit of work however, as outside of moving people's belongings from house to house, I had to help with he arrival of my girlfriend and the rest of our belongings from Paris. On Monday evening she arrived with her dad in the family minivan, loaded to the roof with clothes, flatpacked shelves, guitars, suitcases and boxes of books and cookware. I knew she was bringing a lot, but when we'd unloaded the car and had it spread ridiculously about the room (my bad*), it looked as if it was going to be impossible to find a home for it all. It was great to see my girlfriend again, after three weeks, but the task ahead of unpacking all of this stuff had be a little overwhelmed.

The first order of business once the two of them had arrived in the car, after having taken the ferry from Calais to Dover, was to unload it (obviousy) but once this was done we threw in the towel and went across the road to the pub for a few drinks. I cannot stress how handy it is to live across the road from a nice pub. Once we'd rested and restored our morale, we headed back home and set about putting together shelving in order to get clothes and books out of the way. It was a pain as there was stuff everywhere and it was quite difficult to pass through the room without stepping on something. We ended up placing half the things outside while we worked. At around nine pm, dinner was ready so we stopped to eat and would not resume work until the next morning. My girlfriend's father found a space somewhere on the floor to sleep and the rest of us went to bed, prepared to wake early to go to work.

The next day, I rose at 5:30 in order to head to Aussie Man and Van. It is bloody early to get up, but I manage to do it each day without fail. I had a relatively easy day at work, but received no tips (seriously guys, tip you removalists in England, we're on minimum wage and work stupid hours doing something you don't want to do**). Back home, my girlfriend and her dad reset about putting things away and building shelving and when I returned home I was shocked to find the room looking completely different. Over the last three weeks I'd grown accustomed to living in a large room with nothing but a bed and a couple of wardrobes to fill it. Now, there was a a sofabed (which we managed to socre on freecycle), three extra shelves, a coffee table and a couple of mirrors. I must say it's a huge relief to have a fully functioning room again. We spent the rest of the evening upgrading the shelving in the kitchen before heading aoss the road again for a few bevvies. I was then placed in charge of cooking dinner for the whole house, so I made and excellent spinich and garlic pasta the everyone wolfed down. That night my girlfriend's father slept much more comfortably on the new(old) sofabed whilst the rest of us chatted for a little while before heading to bed ourselves. I had the next two days off work and was looking bloody forward to it.

The days since have been a little bit more of putting things away and sorting stuff out. My girlfriend's father drov home on the second day after we showed him about Camden and Kentish Town. There's finally space in the room for activities and the room feels a lot more livable now than the mess we created on the first night. I built a small shelf for all of our books and now we can actually look foward to using the room properly. There's plans for  epic barbeques in the backyard and all kinds of home improvement ideas bouncing around in my girlfriend's head and I must say life is begining to feel a little more normal. All that's left for me to do now is enjoy another (unexpected) day off work*** and try to catch up with some friends that I still haven't seen yet****. Cheerio!

*You'd think because it's my job I'd know better than to place things all about the place in such an overwhelming fashion

**If you can't afford to tip, even the offer of a cup of tea and a few bickies goes a long way. Some rich people treat us like garbage, or personal slaves, so at the very least don't be like that

***Turns out there's another Adam C at my work who got called in today instead of me.

****I sincerely apologise to those friends who are reading this