Moving On, 2020

Yep, I’ve moved again. Yesterday, in fact. From an end-of-terrace house to a second-floor flat.

It’s ace. It’s a long, wide studio flat with two massive skylights and three large windows which means you get sun all day from varying angles - and sun means WARM. Honestly, the carpet is trying to radiate its own heat from the sun patches that move across the floor. It’s fantastic. I know it’s June but when it’s only 15 degrees outside you need all the direct sunshine you can get. On top of the heat there’s that fact that the bathroom as big as my old bedroom (which was big, by the way).

I don’t know the neighbourhood other than ‘it’s good’ (my work colleagues were happy with the location, and they’ve lived locally for over twenty years). However, what I have noticed is the high, nay excessive, number of carry-outs and off-licences. Add to that a very large famous supermarket brand being five minutes’ walk away and I’m pretty happy with it. Oh, and did I mention, it’s a five-minute drive from work. Yes, I know that means I can walk it. I haven’t got round to checking a walking route yet, give me chance.

Sunday was a slog, I’m not going to lie. Half the day packing up my life was torture - I hate packing anyway, and this was pretty much 90% of what I own. The other 10% is about to go to a charity shop, so more than one good thing has come of it all. The removals people turned up on time Monday, they were fast, friendly and cheerful, and my stuff was loaded up in less than half an hour. We hit the road and barely three hours after they’d first arrived, they were off again. I was left staring round at a mish-mash of boxes and disassembled furniture, wondering where to start.

As with all moves, I went with priorities. The bed was assembled first, then the bookcases. The rest of it was literally unpacking stuff and emptying the total of nine boxes (yes, I fitted my entire life apart from furniture into nine cardboard boxes).

And so here we are, having moved in yesterday. Pictures have been hung, TVs and all things entertainment have been set back up, temporary work-from-home stations are sorted again and all kitchen items stored or ready to use.

Now the easy part is done, it’s time for the difficult bits. As soon as I got the keys on Friday I went about changing my address with every company that needed it. Seeing as I’m about 90% paperless, this was a formality. However it has to be done. Then I went to the BBC TV licensing page and declared I do not have the ability to watch live BBC shows on telly and therefore will not be paying a licence fee. Done.

Broadband is ordered, but due to BT being arseholes, their OpenReach will not be performing my installation on behalf of my provider for another fourteen days, because they prioritise their own BT customers first. Fair enough, you might say - but wait. The only people who can physically do installations to any lines is BT OpenReach, so not at all fair, and in fact the definition of ‘monopoly’. Someone should really complain about that. Oh wait - EE, Virgin, and everyone else already have. We’ll wait and see if that means that OpenReach is forced to splinter from BT and become independent in the installation stakes, I suppose. Don’t hold your breath.

Utilities. Fighting to get my name on the utilities bills has been really draining. Sent round and round websites because they can’t man the phones due to coronavirus, trying apps that demand a customer or account number (which I don’t have), trying to open an account and being told there’s no-one to answer the phone and to use the app which tells you to cal - it’s doing my head in. Finally I realised that all I had to do was use the contact form and use the option ‘cannot pay my bill’. It didn’t ask why, after all, it was just an option. Well I can’t physically pay my bill because they don’t know to send me one, so yeah, I can’t pay my bill. I’ve already had an acknowledgement email from each utility asking me to bear with them and they’ll get in touch shortly, so I guess I got their attention.

Been to the Chinese supermarket and done a Big Shop (including a new wok that I’ll be seasoning this very afternoon) and even got a supermarket delivery booked for tomorrow night. I guess they want more deliveries than they do people in store, so hey, it’s all good.

May take a walk around the neighbourhood later just to see what’s what, and also check out where the nearest bottle shops are. It pays to know their opening times for when the supermarket has a queue due to social distancing.

And that’s pretty much all there is. One day when I look back at June 2020, this post will be in the list, and that’s a good thing.

Soopytwist.

Image by Bob Hopley from Pixabay