Packing to move house is so much shit

[shinytoaster]

You know what I don't like: packing.

I am plagued with vague worries that I won't be able to fit anything into my room in the new place. I am moving my entire life, not just a bunch of clothes and some textbooks like at Uni. I am taking pretty much my entire library and, discounting the kiddie stuff I'm leaving behind, like my precious Biggles books and The Usborne Junior Nature Explorer and suchlike, it's still a pretty big library. This is a life-changing thing, not a term-long stint in Halls, and it's now properly daunting me. I'm worried the bed won't fit or the wardrobe. I'm worried now that even Mikael, my sexy Swedish computer table (the tiniest little computer table that could) won't fit. Daunted. So daunted.

Saturday afternoon, we charged up the Fiesta's battery. The Fiesta used to be called Draco but I've decided that calling things Draco is so over, so now I'm thinking of calling it either 'Car', 'Little Car' or 'The Fairy Ferry' (because I saw the name used in a book, possibly an Armistead Maupin book, once and liked it). Well, yesterday I came close to calling it 'You Flaming Money-Grubbing Piece of Shit' because no sooner had we charged the battery, reset the radio, cleaned two years' worth of dead leaves out of the intakes and reversed the car out in front of the house to give her a good lathering, but the radiator started to leak. Luminous green fluid. Everywhere. Not good.

So now the car will fail the MOT test booked for it on Friday, but I can't get road tax without the MOT, so legally we can't even drive the car to another garage to get the radiator fixed - it's likely going to need a new one and I don't know how much these things cost but I think it'll mean I do food shopping at Lidl for a month or so. So Car (nee Draco) is currently an unlicensed, unregistered car and this makes me sad.

To add insult to injury I just picked up my mug and found my delicious tea had gone stone cold.

And I bet we're going to lost the Third Test now as well.

Comments

[catlily.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Good luck.

Moving is very stressful at the best of times, and must be worse when it's the first *proper* time. A word of advice - when you get there and have everything physically through the door, make making up your bed a priority. That way, you won't get to 2am when you've been faffing around sorting out your books and kitchen cupboards etc. and realise you have to unpack bedlinen before you can get a comfortable night's sleep.

I think you are right about "fairy ferry" btw. I reread the whole Tales of the City sextet in May (felt appropriate as I was in San Francisco and managed to track down the inspiration for Barbary Lane which was ultra cool), and that phrase definitely rings a bell.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

So inflate the air mattress, then. Can't afford bed until next paycheck :(

Good advice though. I shall follow it.

[february-sea.livejournal.com]

God, I hate moving. And packing is SO horrid. (I hate it more than unpacking, although it's a close race, there.)

Sorry about the car--in the 'for what it's worth' category, I like all the names you suggested ('Car' reminds me of the fact that Audrey Hepburn calls her cat 'Cat' in Breakfast at Tiffany's; I like 'Little Car' because I call my dog 'the Little Dog' even though she's not; and 'The Fairy Ferry' is just clever and funny, and Armistead Maupin is brilliant.)

*offers hot tea*

[sophie10.livejournal.com]

I hate moving. When I moved down here, I was seriously worried all my stuff wouldn't fit. Admittedly the house is certainly more crowded, but it's liveable with.

Perhaps having a chat with Cyg and finding out what things you have that overlap might help i.e. books, dvds, cds etc

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

We have no CDs that overlap, this I can pretty much guarantee. I have some Stravinsky and a little Mozart but that's it on the classical front.

I'm not sure, it's a good idea - an excellent idea - but I do kind of want my things around me.

[sophie10.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel! We had loads of CDs and books that overlapped but neither of us would agree to part with our own copies. So we have two of lots of things...

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

Having just packed up scott's apartment and moved it across three states, I am so with you on this one.

Also: Poor ex!Draco! I knew him but briefly, but he treated me so well!

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

I cleared him out and found two postcards that I think you meant to send to the States, some AA batteries - I'm keeping those :D - also a map torn out of Cassie's guidebook. Cornwall was pretty much the last trip I took in him actually, so it gives you a measure of how lonesome he has been in the two and a half years since - poor ex!Draco indeed.

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

Clearly, the solution to this is vising you again so you have an excuse to gallavant about the countryside ;}

[wednesdayschild.livejournal.com]

*snuggles Alex*

I am SO with you on the packing. I hate it so much, man. How much space are you going to have?

*wishes you luck in everything*

<3<3

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

It's a big flat, but my room is actually quite small, so I'm going to put up bookshelves in the lounge and hall and stuff.

[wordplay.livejournal.com]

Moving is dreadful and I so, so feel your pain. In almost 12 years of marriage we've lived in 7 apartments/houses and the whole undertaking still exhausts me. Am buried in my own version of packing hell here. Good luck getting it all done.

[wordplay.livejournal.com]

I got a phone call (from the real estate people eee!) in the middle of this comment and forgot the point I was going to make. If your family isn't going anywhere, you might ease up on yourself just a little about getting everything at once if they're willing to give you a little more time. It is SO overwhelming to do everything at once.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we're doing that to a certain extent - not taking all the books until I have some bookcases up.

[meggitymeg.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I sympathize - I truly, truly do. Moving is hell. We've just now finally gotten all our utilities turned on, there are boxes I cannot face unpacking so I've stuffed them in the closets, and my cat is very, very confused at the utter lack of furniture. *covets Mikael*

Re: the car - if it's been sitting inactive for a long period of time, it's more likely that the coolant you saw leaking out of it came from a cracked radiator hose, rather than the radiator itself, or that there's a blockage in one of the hoses and the liquid came from the overflow tank - both of which are fairly simple, inexpensive things to check and fix (in the US, replacing all the hoses easily costs less than $100). Hopefully, that's the case! :D

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do hope so. Of course, the general rule for working out prices between the UK and US seems to be to charge the same amount in pounds, which makes it more like a hundred and fifty bucks, but that's still preferable to two or three hundred for a new radiator.

[meggitymeg.livejournal.com]

You know, I've noticed that - most recently when Chris was shopping for a new desktop, and kept coming across systems that looked like a good deal at first glance, until I realized the number was in pounds... :P And Chris is forever having to remind me that, say, fifteen quid for a casual meal out is *not* particularly cheap. :))

*crosses fingers*

[moony]

I am having that issue in my plotting and planning. Everything is in sodding Euros and I get all excited!!! and then I realise no, the Euro is like .80 to the dollar, so I need to add about five or ten bucks to everything. :-P

Moving bites the wax tadpole. I have had to move across the entire country about five or six times in the last five or six years, and I am certainly tired of it. I am so tired of a country that it takes you all day to cross by air. Raaaa.

Poor Fairy Ferry. I had friends in SF who called their car the Queermobile, and another set of friends had a van called the Fagon (as in, Fag Wagon). Heh. Should I ever own a vehicle it shall be called the Moony Mover. Or Moonymobile. :D

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Whereas England fits neatly into most overhead storage bins.

[moony]

Or under the seat in front of you.

Ireland fits in my handbag!

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

Belgium is rumoured to be the size of an iPod Shuffle. If you're planning on travelling right round Europe, then you should watch out for countries like Liechtenstein and Monaco, where you can't lie down without a passport.

[moony]

Ahahaha, iBelgium.

I am currently trying to sort out how to get to Krakow and ultimately Auschwitz, despite not knowing a stitch of Polish. Traveling even slightly out of the Western Europe safety net makes me a touch nervous, right now in particular. *glares at stupid war-mongering president*

I plan to be Canadian for the entirety of my trip.