Moving House the Second

September 28th, 2020
Moving House the Second

It was dark by the time the others had left, and night had truly set in when they arrived with the Honeywell Flat tucked neatly into a van. Though reticent at first I donned a dressing gown and shoes and aided in the war effort, bringing everything into the living room. The key components were a delightful yellow chair which now forms part of our living area, a rug which does the same, a lot of wooden boxes and chests, a large heated drying rack, lots of books and fake plants, etc. etc. etc. They would be worried about having too much stuff, until they saw how we brought the next morning. With that, we five were in for the night, and ordered a delicious pizza each to eat around the (glass) kitchen table, all giddy on the nature of change, and the prospects of a future ahead together. We discussed things like kitchen arrangement, living room arrangement, other arrangements. Having been a long day we were all pretty knackered, Ollie had worked early at Kent that morning! Bed it was then, our first night in the house.

Sunday was the day where a few small things went wrong, to great comic effect, Cats in Hats style. It started bright and early for all of us, but especially Braddy, Flood and I, who left at 7:20 in the van for Wildwood, while Dan and Eve did more living room and 'things' organisation. At Wildwood we packed up the rest of our things, mainly three desks (Two of Braddy's and the blue side table at which I now write), Braddy's bed and the sixty inch TV. There was also a lot of art, some guitars, more bags and boxes, kitchen things, and things of Lucy's amongst the clutter and crap of Wildwood. Neither of us had our keys to give to the new WildWooders, mine at Lysia, Ollie's at Radio Kent. Ready to leave at about 10:15 we had only one thing left to pack, the cat. Unfortunately Mars had made good his escape while the WW residents (old and new) slept after their first night together. So we searched for a while but time was against us, and we left at 10:30 on the dot back to Lysia Street. There we unpacked the inordinate amount of STUFF, the desks going straight up to Ollie's. The bed in his room, we had taken to WW that morning. We did a bit fo sorting and moving and at this point I realised we'd gained a few extras in the form of two guitars and a big kite in a backpack which went back in the van, not belonging to us.

Braddy and I vanned off for the last time. Almost at the car, which we'd parked in the side streets opposite Sixt, Ollie realised he'd left the Citroen keys at home. I called Eve and she kindly agreed to scoot them out to us, so we got fuel and McDonalds 3.0 while we waited. Back in the van after picking up the food and Ollie had dropped my keys into the handbrake somehow. We left anyway, and I managed to fish them from under a plastic casing while we waited for Eve to arrive with the car keys. In the end Ollie called it and went on with the van while I waited for the scooter by the side of the road. It was quite chilly. We'd received a call from Ryan, and Charlie, that we'd accidentally taken a bag of kitchen things from Emily, which we would return on Tuesday (Wednesday as it turned out). Eve tootled up and I got in the car, waited for Ollie who was only five minutes and we drove to Wildwood with guitars and kite to pick up the cat, who we'd had confirmation was in the house. Cat secured we did a last check of the house and made our merry way, saying our goodbyes and waving through the window with a cat and high-heavy hearts.

Back at Lysia (home) we spent the day shifting and sorting, discovering all the things about the house and generally having a good time mucking about and doing bits and bobs. Various parents arrived and left throughout the day. I missed Karen Flood but saw the Sheringtons and Nicky Ingoldby for a little while. We drank tea and ate brownies (thanks Bob). Dinner time came around and we ordered Thai food which we ate around the table as a happy family.

Monday morning Dan organised the kitchen excellently, then him and I did some work on the living room which started to take a more permanent shape, which bookshelves filled, keyboard set up, cabinets arranged, sofa placed and the whole room feeling rather more homely than when we'd arrived, or when it was stacked with boxes and crap. Monday afternoon Lucy arrived after Dan and I shopped for dinner, and we had a good old tour. Mars was freed and did a good snoop of the house in the evening. With Eve home we cooked up the burgers, running to the shop for oil, then Lucy chips, maybe something else. The store Paradise is at the end of this block, Londis two blocks the other way. The burgers we smashed, the chips we ovened, and it all came together ratter well. Sitting round for dinner for the third time in a row (Lucy instead of Ollie) and it already feels like a home. Although we keep remarking on how odd it feels… as though we're either doing Padstow but longer, or that we're visiting one of our family homes, or just generally that we're masquerading somewhere we don't belong. People our age shouldn't have a TV that size, remarked Flood, which is probably true, even if there is occasionally a line down the middle.
Monday evening we made all of us as Miis and made them go on parade. This is going to be a lot of fun.