I’m Moving Today
Or should I say, that the removers are picking up everything today. Tonight, I’ll be in a sleeping bag in my new house, ready for them to turn up on Wednesday. This may seem a bit silly, but last time we moved here, we were in a hotel and it was a disaster. So perhaps to prove to myself, I’m not a wreck, I’ll sleep on the floor. But it is a heated floor!
The other point is that I’d sooner spent the £100 or so for the hotel room on something nice for the house or a good meal. At least breakfast tomorrow is sorted, as there’s a Carluccio’s in Upper Street.
It’s All So Bare Now!
I’ve packed up a lot of stuff and the house is now looking so bare. I’ve found a few more gems, including a lovely postcard from Barbara Cassani, who started Go. You don’t hear much of her today, I hope she is OK. I’m just probably getting paranoid.
But look at this.
An Almost Bare Office
Up With the Morning Star
Venus has very bright these last few days, as I hope this picture shows.
Venus, The Morning Star
The planet is just above the tree in the middle.
I’ve pointed Venus out to several people lately and they haven’t realised what they are seeing. Knowledge of the stars and planets is something that should be properly taught. At my school, Minchenden, there was an observatory that contained a beautiful telescope in both artistic and scientific terms, that had once belonged to Prince Albert. One night, someone broke in, smashed it all and stole the lens. It was no act of wanton vandalism, but a cold calculated crime. I at least hope that the thief dropped the lens, so got no pleasure from his act.
I always look up when I’m in unfamiliar lattitudes. I remember when C and myself were in a hotel in Alice Springs, a kid of about sixteen had set up his telescope and was showing the guests the night sky from an Australian perspective. We had perhaps an hour of his charming and informed company. I hope that somewhere in the world, he is still following his hobby. Perhaps as a career!
Sadly, we were the only people, who that night took advantage of his company. But how many read their horoscopes every day and act on them?
No wonder the world is in the state it is today, if that is the general view of science.
So what am I doing up at this hour?
I slept well as I usually do, but last night, I spent several hours clearing my loffice loft of my past life. So most of it was old magazines, books and software I no longer need, but the only way to clear it, was to drop everything into a wheelie bin and then transfer it to boxes, which I then threw in the skip.
Clearing the Office Loft
It may have been a long-wnded process, but my shoulders aren’t strong enough to carry the boxes down the rather rickety loft ladder.
So perhaps the adrenaline is flowing through my body. I certainly feel pretty well today, although my left arm is tired.
Lost Without a Clock
For the last forty years I’ve had a brass-bezelled ship’s clock in the kitchen. Tooday, it’s not there as I’ve packed it!
The clock was bought in Liverpool and was rumoured to have come of the Great Eastern.
I doubt it, but I’m lost!
The First Thing I Moved In
Despite all my troubles, there is two things I won’t do; let my standards slip and lose my sense of humour and the surreal.
So the first thing I moved into the house is this photograph.
Pride of Place
Sometimes I wish I had my uncle’s talent with drawing, as I’d create a picture, that would do C and our son proud!
As I write this it’s three years to the day since she died. So perhaps today is the first day of my new life, even if I haven’t quite moved yet!
C always said she married me, because she knew life would not be boring. So it’s now up to me to live up to her view of me. If I should get boring, please tell me!
The Devil Would be Proud of Me!
I’ve just found a whole box of bibles in the loft. They went straight in the skip!
The only religious book I’ve kept is a Protestant Dictionary. It’s the funniest book you’ll ever read!
The Devil would be proud of me!
The Tale of Boughton’s Nail
In the late 1950s or early 1960s my father embarked on a major reconstruction of his printing works in Station Road, Wood Green. We ripped out large quantities of rubbish and covered the walls in corrugated asbestos sheets to hide the damp. It worked very well, but what would modern Health and Safety have said. At one point in our destruction we came across a cm. thick plank of wood, which someone had attempted to fix to a six by four beam with a six inch nail. As he didn’t have the strength to drive the nail home, this bodger had attempted to bend it flat. He’d failed. It was and probably still is, the worst bit of carpentry I’ve ever seen. I can remember that my fsther said it was probably done by a man called Boughton, who.d worked for the family firm some years previously. So to me whenever I see some really awful handiwork, I think of the unfortunate Boughton. Incidentally, I’ve never met anyone with that surname and I don’t know how I’ll react.
But perhaps one of his descendants did this?
A Very Bad Door Stop
The doorstop is too small and whoever put it in cracked the tiles and did a lot of damage. It’s even more stupid as just round the corner in the Balls Pond Road is one of the best shops for door furniture in London.
I do have a thing about door stops, as I was mugged by one in Belarus.
I shall be visiting the hardware store!
Installing the Virgins
Men living alone have curious habits. But two things they need are decent broadband for the Internet and football on the television.
As the new house is in a cable area, one of the reasons, I visited yesterday was to get the cable connected.
By twelve and ahead of schedule, they were both working, after installation by a competent and charming young lad, who didn’t seem to make any mistakes, except leave a cable in his van and go back to retrieve it.
I also got a speed of 54 Mbps, when I’m only paying for 20!
So virgins aren’t as expensive as they used to be!
How Not to Paint
Mark didn’t like this, as he didn’t want me to think he was to blame, so I photographed it.
How Not to Paint
Things like this grate with me, so hopefully Mark will be able to put right some of the faults of the original builders. But really it’s not his job.
How Not to Put in Bolts
In the previous post, I indicated that the new house has featured steel beams. The stair-case is also in steel and painted the same dark chocolate colour.
But look at this picture.
Bolts in a Staircase
My father would have said that this was probably put together by a one-eyed Irishman in the dark, as some are round one way and others are the other. We may not blame others like we used to in the 1950s, but whoever put these in had no basic sense of design and order. I’d love to see the architect’s drawings, to see what they intended. Some bolts look to be a brass colour, so there might have been some instructions.
I will change them at some point, but whether I use brass, bronze, stainless steel or chrome, with or without cap nuts is a question that has to be decided.
Whatever I do though, I’ll put them in properly and in order.
The Anonymous Widower 