Sad day yesterday

I took my lion to the dump.  I have had him for 27 years as he was given to me as a leaving present from my first job.  After a boozy send off I had to go home on the tube clutching a large lion.

As he is so old I wouldn't be able to take him to a charity shop like I planned so while I was dropping off the bits of laminate floor I took a deep breath and left him on the top of the 'textiles' bin I asked the lads to look after him for me, ruffled his mane and quickly got back in the car.  He looked majestic.

RIP Lion

Touching canals

This weekend I took a load of stuff down to my parents on the South Coast.  Luckily before I reached J28 on the M1 and the A38 the road signage changed from congestion between J26 and J24 to Road closed at J25.  I was thus able to head off down the A38.  I should have turned left onto the A444 at Burton but as I was so close I detoured to check on the boat.  It was fine.

Going down different roads but ones I was now familiar with due to the recent car/boat/bike shuffling made a nice change from my usual route down to the parents.  M1 to J20, A5 to Towcester, A43, A34, M3, M27.  Instead it was lovely country roads and of course plenty of canals to cross over and travel beside as well as names off to the left/right indicating places I had been through on the boat.

So I clocked up the Trent and Mersey, the Coventry Canal, and due to a slight error in Coventry the bit of Coventry Canal I haven't yet been on with the boat, The Grand Union, the Oxford, the Kennet and Avon and the Chichester Canal.  (not sure if I managed the Birmingham and Fazeley or not)  Still I felt an impressive array for one journey.

Banbury annoyed me because I knew the road went straight through to Oxford but I hadn't appreciated that the road name changed so looking for the A423 was no help at all and of course it doesn't indicate a route to Oxford because they would rather you went on the Motorway.  I did eventually click that Adderbury was on my route so all was well.  Bonus I crossed the Oxford Canal twice.

Passing Thrupp I considered calling in to have a cup of tea with Bones and Maffi but decided as I was running late not to bother and then I spotted Granny Buttons.  I did not see the great man Andrew Denny himself as the person sprawled all over his hatchway was most definitely not him.  It sported a lot of long hair.

On the way back I decided that the new route was much nicer than the old so I did a variation which spat me out onto the M1 at J23a.  Passing Granny Buttons again, this time I spotted that Milly M was right up close and personal with Granny.  Is that wise at their age?

I love my Fiat Panda and despite taking a detour I still only clocked up 6hours driving down and 5.5 hours coming back and an average of 74.5mpg

Who needs motorways.

De cluttering

Everyday I try and clear out some more clutter.  The attic is nearly empty just need to decide what to do with small boys toys.  Do I carboot them myself or take them to a friend who runs the village toddler group to raise money for the group by selling them herself?  I am extremely lazy so will probably do the latter.  Today took small boys old clothes, some pictures off the wall and some silverware (that has been sitting in a drawer for the last 5-6 years) to the British Heart Foundation.  I have kept back one large and one small tankard.  Apparently it is de rigueur to walk around festivals with your own tankard attached to your waist with a climbers clip!


Some things can't be parted with and the dinky cars are a case in point.  I will take them with me and deposit in Rob's attic.

I am organising a painter/decorator to remove the woodchip in the hall/stairs/landing and also to freshen up the two bedrooms to improve my chances of selling the house.  Do I put carpet on the stairs or leave as is for them to make their own choice.

Decisions decisions I am going for a liedown I have done enough thinking for the day.  I have also done some bookkeeping work so am feeling virtuous.

Moving out

Thursday was very tiring.  Due to various people including ex husband letting us down small boy and I had to do his moving by ourselves with a Fiat Panda.  I am so glad I went for the option with split sliding rear seats.

First trip went well, we were lent parking sticker and bay plus key fob to open gates etc by another tenant.  Very trusting of her small boy gave her a bottle of wine as a thank you.

I was left next to car guarding his contents whilst he did the long trek through doors that all open outwards to his flat.  I worked out that his flat must overlook where we were parked so suggested he open doors onto his balcony and we rope and bag stuff up.  This was very successful indeed and the rest of that car load went up that way.

Second trip involved using the motorbike trailer (having scoped out the destination on first trip).  On the passenger side of the car went wardrobe sides, Ikea unit shelves (8ft long), bed frame, slats and footboard.  On the trailer - tarpaulin, then my double mattress, backboard for wardrobe, base of Ikea unit (could have gone in car but was a bit too wide and would have interfered with gear changes), desktable top and the headboard were all strapped down onto it.  Not that well but luckily in the next village a diy store has finally opened (6 years late) so we pulled in there and bought some more rope and bungee straps. The Ikea board was attempting an escape as it was only held in by the cheap tarpaulin which might not have survived the trip.  Whilst unwrapping my cats cradle at the flat a man who wanted to do a floorplan and energy audit of the flat arrived and I felt it would be a waste if he didn't carry something up so gave him the legs off the desk.

While he was doing his audit we returned to passing things up to the balcony.  Wardrobe sides, bed frame and ikea unit were all long enough to be reached without resorting to the rope basket trick and everything else fitted in the bags and were hauled up.  I took the opportunity of there being two people in the flat and collared two lads sitting out their flat and between us the mattress also made that route into the flat.  The desktable top was the only thing that had to be carried the long way out of that car load.

Third car load was all his precious stuff so once again I stayed by the car while he took 3 guitars, amps, computer, tv etc etc up.I was allowed to assist once we were down to clothes and kitchen stuff.  I persuaded him to let me help him put the bed back together so if nothing else he could sleep well.  Finally left at 7.30pm and was too tired to cook but of course I couldn't have a marmite or bovril sandwich as I had given them to him.  Eggy bread? No he had the eggs. In the end had to make a small baked potato 9mins in the microwave (at least I hadn't given him the butter.  Hopefully his friend arrived after I had gone to help him put units, wardrobe and desk back together.

I hope he will be happy once he has settled in.  All the people in the surrounding flats that we met seemed friendly and quite a few are at University so about the same age as him.  I now have to organise moving to Rob's and getting my house ready for selling.  Rob's car has towbar and electrics so might hire a proper trailer for my move!  At £15 for a day a better bargain than hiring a van.  I don't have electrics so didn't want to use a trailer that would by itself block view to my indicators.

Okay now to work.