This week, the last week of the month, is pure hell at work.
You see our Board of Directors meets the first Thursday of the month. So our papers for the meeting go out the Friday before. That’s this Friday.
And these days, I write them. I proof them. I bind them. I post them. And next week? I minute them.
So, yeah, updating not so much happening when I get home from work. Pretty much when I get home from work, I pack and then fall into bed.
Move – 2 days. YIPPPEE!
We’ve spent all day today packing. We move in 6 days.
The strangest thing is the refrigerator. We use it as a Rogues Gallery of pictures, mostly of our nieces and nephews, of which we have 12, in an ever changing display. I packed all of those pictures today. Now there is just a blank ‘fridge. Its kinda disconcerting, actually.
There are boxes everywhere, empty bookshelves, blank walls. I have no full length mirror to check my look over the next week. Although I keep glancing at that section of wall, expecting it to be there. All that meets me is wall.
I took my last bath in our current bathtub today. Its a great tub, very deep, I can soak up to my chin, fully covered all the way to my feet. I doubt the new one is as deep.
I told Simon I was feeling a bit sad. He looked at me like I’m nuts, since I have been bitching about this flat for over a year. But this flat has some great memories. A big group of my family eating Chinese in the lounge a few days before my wedding. The same group eating Fish and Chips in the same place a few days later. Simon and I curled up on the sofa watching movies. Good times.
I really can’t wait to move. But we’ve been here for 4 and half years. That’s all of our married life.
Bye flat. See you in the funny papers.
Its really very strange. I will go months and months without a single person asking me where I am from. And then 10 people will ask me in two days.
I don’t really have an answer to that question. I mean, obviously, I am from the United States. But then people ask me what part. The real true honest answer is:
I was born in Massachusetts. I grew up in Connecticut. I went to Boarding School and 1 year of University in NY. I finished University in Iowa. I lived in California for 7 years. I’ve spent several summers in Ohio. I’ve also spent several summers in Maine.
I usually just give the shorter answer: Connecticut, but I lived in California for 7 years before I moved here.
And then I get asked where ‘home’ is. If home has to be in the US, then home is California, hands down. San Francisco Bay Area, to be specific. Where my brother and his wife and my two nieces live.
So what I really want to say when I am asked where I am from? Belfast.
And what is home? Belfast.
And I really don’t see myself ever going back ‘home’ to the US.
So, as I am pushing this thing all over the internet, I thought I’d tell y’all a little bit more about me.
I was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Connecticut and have lived pretty much all over the US, with the exception of the deep south. I visit the deep south on occasion as my father lives on the Panhandle of Florida, or, as the locals call it, Lower Alabama. But I have never lived there full time.
I went to University at University of Iowa, graduated in either ’94 or ’95 (and you’d think I’d know, since I just uncovered my degree in the Great Flat Clear Out of 2008, but I can never remember. I suppose I could check my CV…) with a BA in Liberal Arts, Theatre Design emphasis. This is why I am now a Personal Assistant. And because when I got done with the damn thing I realized how much I actually hated working in the theatre. Well, I did then, I got over it a little later, but I really didn’t want to do it professionally.
I have gone through a long long process of medication and therapy to get to my current diagnosis of Anxiety Disorder and Borderline Agoraphobia (which is: an abnormal fear of being in crowds, public places, or open areas, sometimes accompanied by anxiety attacks. In case you weren’t sure which phobia that is! Thanks Dictionary.com). I can and do go out in public, but I would be perfectly content to never leave my flat again. Or ever talk on the phone again. If I could, I would live my whole life right here and use the ‘net for everything. I am not currently on any meds, and except for some insomnia, am feeling good!
I live in Belfast (well duh!) with my husband Simon. We’ve been married for 3 years. Our anniversary is 4th September 2004 (which I did not pick for the symmetry of the date (04-09-04) but I do like the symmetry of the date!). No kids. Yet.
Oh and in 12 days, I will be 39 years old. That’s 5th February, in case you want to send me a card or anything. 😉
So Simon and I spent the day packing. Its maybe 60% done at this point. Most of the books are in boxes, with the rest scheduled for tomorrow. Then I want to pack up the kitchen and use the stuff that came with our (furnished) flat so it will be done and dusted.
I predict it will all be packed by the end of next weekend.
I am totally shattered. I usual nap on Sunday afternoons but didn’t get to today.
Think it will be an early to bed night. So I’ll probably be up at 5:30. Yay!
I had a really weird experience on the bus home from work the other day.
I was, as I always am, reading a book as we are heading towards City Centre from work when I glanced up to see how far we were. I said, in my head ‘ah, Queen’s Bridge’ and started to turn back to my book. When the Belfast Wheel caught my eye. Now you can see this thing from far and wide around Belfast. But if I was on Queen’s Bridge, the wheel was in the wrong place. “Had they moved it?” I seriously thought. “I mean, if the bus is just crossing Queen’s Bridge, which I know we are, then the Wheel should be to my left. So why is it on my right?”
I seriously sat there and thought about this for about a minute. Until we made a right hand turn and were *actually* on Queen’s Bridge, and not the Syndenham Bypass we were actually on and the wheel ‘moved’ to where it should be.
If someone had held a gun to my head right then and said “Where is the Bus?” I would have told them, no doubts, that we were on Queen’s Bridge and they must have moved the Belfast Wheel during the day.
Perspective. Its a weird thing.
So Simon and I are getting ready to move. We’ve been looking for a 3 bedroom flat in Belfast, to upgrade from our tiny little 2 bed.
Just before Christmas a few flats came up on Propertynews and we figured no one would look at them before Christmas, so we waited and called as soon as we got home from our Christmas at Simon’s parents.
We went to see one flat, number 604. Only when we got there, 604’s keys were not with the estate agent, so we saw 606 instead, which was ‘exactly the same’, but already had a let agreed. We loved it. 3 big bedrooms, large lounge, the kitchen I practically dream of, DISHWASHER!!! So when can we see 604? Monday. Great, here’s our application and fee. So I tell boss I’ll be in late Monday so I can see flat.
Get there Monday, still don’t have the keys for 604, do you want to see 606 again? Sure. So we saw it again, with another bloke who was interested in it, only he needed to bring his partner back to see it also. So when can we see 604? Tuesday. For sure? We’ll call you to confirm, but pretty much yes.
I get to work, tell boss I need to be in late again Tuesday.
Tuesday, we’re waiting for the Estate Agent when he calls Simon to tell him he still doesn’t have the keys to 604. We’ll call you.
Robyn has a hissy fit in the middle of the street. Just *so* typically Belfast.
Thursday, Simon gets a call. Application has been accepted, only landlady has decided to let flat to her brother. But 606 is *still* available.
We go see it again. We still love it. We wrote them a cheque.
We move in 2nd February 2008.