primitivepeople

So...the dust is settling and things are shaping up. Life in Linlithgow is turning out to be fun so far. Tully was a bit tearful on her first day, but towards the end of their first week, both the children seem to be settled and happy at their new school. The school impresses me - the staff are lovely, and I'm glad especially that Eddie is having the chance to make a fresh start.

We haven't befriended many people yet, but our neighbours are very nice and they have a little boy. I need to be bold enough to talk to other schoolgate parents.

The house is still an epicentre of CHROS, but it's better than it was. I'm online and have a new printer, and I'm finally getting round to making a second issue of Journeyman, the zine I produced way back in May. I'm making good progress so far. The printer I bought is a mono laser so I can run off zines at home. I've got software that converts A4 documents into A5 booklet format for printing, so I'm good to go.

On Tuesday evening, I went to Linlithgow Camera Club, which was quite good fun, and I suspect I'll go regularly. The big attraction is a fully-equipped darkroom, which is free to use more or less any time - you just need to supply your own chemicals.

We've joined the library and the doctors, and begun to catch up with friends. I also had a call from Edinburgh Airport yesterday, and I'm going in to see them on Monday to talk jobs. I've got a good feeling about it - I think things are falling into place.

Today was the first day since we arrived where the weather hasn't been apocalyptically bad - I don't think I've ever seen so much rain in my life. There's a sign up in town that says "Living By The Loch" - it was starting to look more like living in the loch. I'm glad we're on higher ground. Anyway, the sun was out this morning, and Geocaches don't find themselves. I walked past the children's school, and soon ended up in gorgeous countryside with spectacular views. The cache-hunting was a naff effort, though. Close by to where the cache was, some men were cutting down Christmas trees, so I couldn't find that one. I headed off towards some others, but the rainfall we've had turned the footpath into a stream. Those ones will have to wait for drier weather. I headed home after I managed to slip in some mud and land rather ungraciously on my arse...oopsie!

I can see myself becoming a rather more outdoorsy person here, because suburbia as such doesn't exist - the town ends very suddenly and turns into countryside immediately. I've certainly done a lot of walking, mainly because there's no equivalent of the Oyster card, and there's nowhere near as many buses around. Public transport is still good enough to make a car unnecessary for most things, but it does have a lot more limitations than it does in London, and it's time I finally learned to drive. You can walk from one end of town to the other in half an hour, but there's no buses in the evenings and walking is no fun in the rain (of which there is a lot).

I'm certainly tempted to get a bike. Abby went cycling around the loch today and had a great time.

After living in flats for so long, living in a house for the first time in thirteen years is a bizarre novelty. We're finally cutting through the clutter and making the place bearable. It's funny having so much more space. Among the more bizarre things we found in the house are two CDs of sound effects, including one of creepy horror noises. Well, they're more laughable than creepy, but we thought about freaking out the children with them at night. Ghosts and gouls, anyone? Or perhaps howls of demonic laughter? What's your poison?

I'm wondering why we didn't do this years ago.

Here's an interesting feature on Yahoo that caught my eye, all about "family values", "broken Britain" and other assorted Daily Mail bollocks that the Conservatives keep harping on about. It highlights my concern that the almost-inevitable future Conservative government will end up being desperately reactionary, and will punish all the wrong people for all the wrong things. It's all fuelled by nostalgia for "good old days" that never existed.

Excuse the comments on the article, though, which are in general fairly stupid.

Reading things like this make me feel glad that I've moved to a genuinely progressive country where the Conservatives stand no chance whatsoever of doing well. Whatever happens at Westminster, the Conservatives will never run the Scottish Parliament - round here they get a pathetic 10% of the vote, which cheers me no end. :)

1. "Keep The Aspidistra Flying" by George Orwell
2. "Bollocks to Alton Towers: Uncommonly British Days Out" by Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley, Alex Morris and Joel Morris
3. "Silverland" by Dervla Murphy
4. "Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way" by Gary Chapman
5. "Dawn of the Dumb: Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline" by Charlie Brooker
6. "Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea" by Guy Delisle
7. "The Dark Crystal" by A.C.H. Smith
8. "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
9. "Protect and Survive: Civil Defence Manual of Basic Training" (HMSO, 1950)
10. "Can Any Mother Help Me?" by Jenna Bailey
11. "Shooting An Elephant" by George Orwell
12. "Holly The Christmas Fairy" by Daisy Meadows (read to the children at bedtime)
13. "Investigation into the Clapham Junction Railway Accident" by Anthony Hidden QC
14. "Time of Death" by Jessica Snyder Sachs
15. "Viz: The Big Hairy Almanackers 2009"
16. "Little Children" by Tom Perrotta
17. "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton
18. "Not In My Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy" by Julie Burchill and Chas Newkey-Burden
19. "The Devil's Alternative" by Frederick Forsyth
20. "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
21. "Girl Genius Volume 1: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank" by Phil and Kaja Foglio
22. "How Not To Write A Novel" by Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark
23. "Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City" by Phil and Kaja Foglio
24. "Working Hard(ly) - The Overachiveing Underperformer's Guide to Doing as Little as Possible in the Office" by Chris Morran (on company time, apparently)
25. "Incendiary" by Chris Cleave
26. "Live Generously: 50 Small Acts That Make a Big Difference" by the Live Generously Project and Julie Van Pelt (ed)
27. "The Dawkins Delusion" by Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath
28. "Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn"
29. "Notes From A Small Island" by Bill Bryson
30. "The Surrey Hills" by W. A. Poucher
31. Da Vinci Inventions Official Programme
32. "The Early Years of London Diesels" by Michael Welch
33. "Me:Moir Volume 1" by Vic Reeves
34. "Reasons to be Cheerful" by Mark Steel
35. "No Contest: The Case Against Competition" by Alfie Kohn
36. "Steam In The Scottish Landscape" by Michael Welch

Gosh, I've been a terribly slack reader of late - this is the first new book I've finished reading in over a month, although that said, I've spent a lot of time re-reading bits of "How To Be Free" lately. Anyway...this was the book I bought in the Ian Allan bookshop after I finished work on Friday, and I read it on the train to Penrith. I think it's important to get up to speed on the whole Scottish railway scene - I don't really know that much about it, so this was a good start. Steam has vanished, of course, and a lot of the lines featured in the book have closed, but it gave me a good idea of scenic locations and I enjoyed the excellent photography. I've got a couple of other Michael Welch photographic books, and they're very good, so this was more of the same. Very enjoyable light reading and worth having on the bookshelf.

Next task is to join Linlithgow library and get reading more things.

So...after a relatively calm Saturday, CHROS descended on Sunday morning when the removal lorry arrived to deliver our stuff. We're completely surrounded by things without a home as yet, but we did get our priorities right - whatever other things aren't sorted, the TV and the computer both work. :)

The landlord of our house has, it must be said, crap taste. The place was festooned with tacky gonks and knick-knacks, and they've now all been removed and boxed up and stored in the garage. Our own things are moving in instead. There was a huge dresser in the living room that was truly a horror to behold, so it too has gone into the garage - there's now a bookcase in its place.

It feels like home now, because it's messy. ;)

The children started school this morning. Eddie was very nervous and I've been fretting a bit about how he's getting on. Still, all the people in the school seem kind and lovely, and I'm impressed with their professionalism and efficiency. Tully was excited and I'm sure she'll take to everything like a duck to water.

After living in a flat for years, it's a novelty living in a house. It feels so big and like quite an awesome responsibilty. It also feels like we're being proper grown-ups...

We went to Edinburgh by train after we dropped off the children. I've visited so many times, and the place has never ceased to impress me - and now it's a mere half hour from my front door, which is quite something. The novelty of that might take some time to wear off.

We did some shopping and then went to see if we could visit Abby's great aunt Julia. Abby last saw her in August, but when we got to the care home where she lived, we found out she died a few weeks ago. This is sad, but not really unexpected, given that she was in her late nineties and had become very frail of late. Still, at least we made the effort, and I'd like to think that counts for something.

I'm currently on the train back to Linlithgow. There's still lots to do, but I feel we're off to a good start, and being here feels like the most normal and natural thing in the world.

Cass Elliot. She was fantastic.

Well, we've been planning this day for years, and it's finally come - we're moving to Scotland. I still can't quite believe it's happening - but it is.

Last night I went to the pub with a couple of old friends, and today I helped start things off when the removal lorry showed up. Work was OK - it mainly involved sorting out files etc., and then going for lunch with a couple of my more agreeable colleagues before wandering around the building to say goodbye to people.

I was very touched by a lovely card signed by lots of people, and a gift card for the Ian Allan Bookshop (full of all the train books you can shake a stick at) loaded with a generous amount of money. I visited the shop on my way home and bought "Scottish Steam In The Landscape".

My boss thinks I'm insane for leaving without a job to go to, but hey, he's one of the most boringly conventional people I've ever met. I'll manage. :) He's very nice, but not much of a How To Be Free sort of person. He thinks I'm being disloyal and irresponsible, but if forced to choose between job and family, only an idiot would put their job first.

I was glad to get away. I didn't feel any particular emotion on leaving the building - I won't miss a lot of the frustrations the job has given me. I will miss a lot of the people, though, many of whom are lovely and have been nicer to me than I deserve.

So...now I'm on the train to Penrith. I'm meeting Abby there later, as we're staying over at the Travelodge. I got an earlier train than the one I'd planned to get, so that's good. It's very full, though, and full of people having rather twattish mobile conversations, so I'm glad I've got my iPod...can't complain, though, I'm not one to turn my nose up at a three-hour train journey. Shame it's dark, though - I'd love to admire the view.

More later. I've got a life to get on with.

What a great actor he was - this series was a fine example of his work. Brooding macho hero, cool car, and superb synth music. Excellent.

Well, with only a few days to go before we move, it feels like lots of chapters are closing. For the first time in my life, I'll be living outside the south-east of England. Apart from a year in Bognor Regis and three years in Oxford - both around an hour and half's travelling time from London - I've lived my entire life in London's south-western suburbs.

Today was my final Monday morning in my current job. I'll miss some of the people I've met, and I'll miss the interesting elements of the project I'm working on. I won't, however, miss the spirit-crushing boredom, the petty bureacracy and the complete failure of the company to look after its staff properly. It's made me very wary of the sort of thing I'll be willing to do in future, and it's making the idea of self-employment of some kind very attractive. I'm a flexible and adaptable person - there's lots of things I could do, and I want to look into development of new skills, and commercial exploitation thereof.

We were in church for the last time yesterday. However much I've struggled with the place over the years, I've come to realise that most people there are kind, generous and well-meaning, and they've been very good to us. Various people are helping us out this week, which is very kind and relieves the stress caused by mountains of cardboard boxes and an inability to find anything.

I have to work right up until Friday. I didn't feel I could get away with asking for any more time off, given that I took the piss by only giving two and a half weeks' notice. We move out of our flat on Friday morning - while I'm at work. Abby will have to handle all of this, before driving to Penrith later in the day. I'm getting the train there after work, and meeting her at the Travelodge. On Saturday, we drive up to Livingston to sign the lease and pick up the keys to our new place, and on Sunday, the removal lorry will deposit our stuff. I'll be very glad when it's all over.

Big news in the rail industry at the moment is the renationalisation of the East Coast Mainline, after National Express managed to cock up running it in a most spectacular fashion. It shows how utterly crazy transport policy is in this country - the ECML has seen two franchise holders fail in two years, despite almost every train being wedged full of passengers, in many cases paying through the nose for their journeys. The route makes huge amounts of money, at least in theory - but two franchise holders have more or less gone bankrupt running it.

When it was first privatised in 1996, GNER took over and did a spectacularly good job. They were almost universally admired and did a lot of things right. They recognised that British Rail had done a pretty good job and adopted an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. They adopted a stylish and traditional livery and image, and provided superb customer service. Things went a bit wrong when the franchise was re-let. GNER kept hold of it, but the government decided they wanted vast amounts of the cash the line was making, and encouraged bidders to offer huge premium payments for the privilege of operating it. GNER promised to pay around £1bn to the government over the course of ten years to run the line, which raised a few eyebrows, but times were good and people thought they'd manage it. However, within a short space of time, energy bills shot through the roof, and GNER's parent company, Sea Containers, ended up in serious financial trouble. They couldn't keep up the payments, and effectively had the franchise repossessed, although the government recognised they'd done a good job and let them keep it until National Express were ready to take it over. Lots of people were sad to see GNER go, and I was one of them - I liked them a lot.

National Express were desperate to win a premier franchise - they'd lost quite a few, and stopped at nothing to get East Coast, bidding even higher than GNER, using a business model that needed growth of 10% a year. Insane! Loads of people said it was at the time, and lo and behold, along came recession and National Express were completely screwed. The whole National Express empire is in a mess, and they officially gave up in July. The government has refused to renegotiate - quite rightly so, because all the other franchises would demand easier terms if they did - but they remain culpable by setting up a franchise system that encourages such stupid behaviour. Richard Bowker, the boss at National Express who sanctioned the stupidly high bid, has sloped off to run a railway in the United Arab Emirates, and Lord Adonis - the first transport minister in years to actually know what he's talking about - has hinted strongly that NEx will never win another franchise again. They still have two that are making money, but Lord Adonis has hinted they will be taken off them - it's a classic illustration of what's wrong with the franchise system when a franchise holder can keep hold of profitable lines, but can dump loss-makers with no real consequences. Apparently, National Express are liable for £72m by walking away early, but they leave a £1bn hole in the government's transport budget as a result of their idiocy.

Needless to say, things turned sour for National Express very quickly, given the downturn in the economy. Passenger numbers are still high, but growth has levelled off dramatically, and passengers are switching from first class to standard, and from open tickets to cheap advance-purchase ones. They immediately did very unpopular things like reduce catering, and introduced fees for seat reservations. It didn't do any good, though, and I think they're still surprised that the government gave them such short shrift. I'm glad they did, though - they messed up spectacularly badly and have been made to pay the price. I still don't see anyone trying to fix the franchise system, though - it's ridiculous that such a busy route should have bankrupted them. It's because it's been treated as a cash cow both by NatEx and the government, instead of being run as an essential public service.

Of course, now it's in government hands, there's no obligation for them to come up with huge premium payments, although the whole thing will still be expected to run at a profit. It's now headed up by Elaine Holt, formerly of First Capital Connect, who is well-known for being ruthless and hard-nosed. She's appointed another senior manager from within FCC, which is interesting - FirstGroup would kill to get the franchise when it's re-let in a couple of years' time. I sincerely hope that under state control the line does so well that people will resist it being privatised again, although we're almost certainly about to get a Conservative government that will privatise everything in sight, including the Royal Mail, the NHS, schools, Network Rail etc. The Conservatives are, of course, responsible for the bulk of the stupidity in the rail industry. Labour have fixed a few things here and there, but have largely failed to address the real problems, and now it's far too late for them to do anything about it.

National Express are desperate to try and salvage something, and clearly they took the marketing database with them before they handed East Coast back. I got an e-mail thanking me for travelling with East Coast, and offering me a 50% discount on my next coach booking. Nice try - I absolutely loathe coach travel, and I shan't be taking them up on it. Meanwhile, the East Coast website has sprouted new logos and promises of a new dawn - including scrapping of the reservation fee and improved catering. I'm keen to see what will come of it - I hope it's good. It may just begin to convince those at the top that rail privatisation has been an enormously unsuccessful and wasteful experiment that we should just consign to history.

For the first time in ages, I had a seriously disturbing nightmare last night. Images from it aren't going away, and it's freaked me out a bit. Unusual - my dreams are normally incredibly bland and far too difficult to remember. Let's just say there was a lot of gore in it.

Having gone back to using my HTC TyTN II a few weeks ago, I decided I could live without my Touch Pro, a phone supposedly better that has done nothing but infuriate me since I acquired it. The only thing any better on it is the screen, and possibly the slide-out keyboard, but everything else was stupidly crap, and I never really took to it. Not a problem, because Mazuma Mobile, a phone recycling company, are currently offering more for the Touch Pro than I paid for it in the first place, so off it went. Abby posted it on Thursday afternoon, and this morning I got an Argos gift card loaded up with cash in return. Talk about quick! It's going to turn into a Freeview Plus box ready for when we move. Cable isn't available at our new address.

Initially this bothered me quite a lot - I confess we like cable and all its bells and whistles, and we get broadband and a landline from Virgin as well. However, looking back at our bills, I realised it's cost us an absolute fortune over the years. It's really, really expensive, and may be handy, but it's not really good value. I just never bothered doing much about it, because I never needed to. But dropping it will save us a lot. As we may only be in our new place for a short time, we're not getting a landline, and that's not a problem, because both of us have mobile tariffs with free minutes coming out of our ears, and we're getting a T-Mobile 3G broadband dongle for internet access. I'm aware it won't be as good as what we have now, but it's all incredibly cheap compared to our current set up, and as I won't actually have a job when we move, that's important.

Keeping with the technology theme, I've been making a lot of use of the Psion Series 5 I acquired from Freecycle. I'd forgotten how lovely Psions are. Admittedly they're a bit long in the tooth these days, and the TyTN II is, at least in theory, WAY more powerful and capable. But...pure performance aside, the Psion remains years ahead of its time in other ways. The TyTN II has a slide-out keyboard that is just about usable for typing chunks of text, and it also has Pocket Word, Excel etc. - but they're very cut-down and crippled versions. Usable, just, but not great. Compare that with the amazingly good Psion keyboard, and an office suite that's almost as good as the ones you'll find on desktops - seriously, Psion Word and Sheet are amazing programs. The Psion also has amazingly powerful object embedding, and almost out-Windows Windows in this respect. The Psion Agenda application is amazingly good too, and craps all over the fiddly bugger that is the Windows Phone calendar. The only significant thing missing from the Psion is the location field in appointments, but that's not a problem. If I need to use that, I can use my phone to create the appointment, and it will sync with Outlook on my PC, and the Agenda on my Psion. It just strips the location out on the Psion, but keeps it on the PC and phone.

PsiWin handles PC syncing. It's now a pretty ancient piece of software and I don't know how well it will keep working on newer PCs and OS-es, but it works OK for now, and can convert Psion documents to PC formats. The Psion is an amazing thing for writing on while out and about - the keyboard is unsurpassed on a device so small. While the Eee is quite easy to use on the move, and has the advantage of Wi-fi, the battery life is lousy and it's still quite big to lug about. The Psion runs for up to 20 hours on one set of AA batteries, which is a month of typical usage! The price to pay is a rather gloomy and not very clear mono screen, but hey, the prettiest device in the world is crap if it needs tethering to a power point every five minutes.

The Series 5 isn't as good as the later 5mx for connectivity, and sadly it's now pretty difficult to go online with them. It has IrDA but no Bluetooth, and finding an IrDA phone that works with it isn't easy now. The web browser available isn't up to modern standards at all, and the e-mail application doesn't support SMTP authorisation, which just about every ISP now needs. There's a workaround for it, but it needs a massive Java application that hogs a huge amount of memory and needs massive amounts of nerdy setup using text files to get it working. More trouble than it's worth. So...for connectivity, the TyTN II wins hands-down, and of course, it's much better for web browsing, multimedia and texting etc. But - for loads of stuff, Psions rock. It's tragic they pulled out and didn't keep developing their PDAs. They're AMAZING machines. The Series 5 design is twelve years old, and in some ways it shows, but in others - just wow. The thing is incredible, mainly because the built-in software is just awesome. It would even give the iPhone a run for its money.

I've spent a lot of time on the phone to the bank and the insurance company today, and I have to say it's been a totally joy-sapping experience. The levels of bureaucracy, pedantry and general twattishness I've faced have been astonishing.

It's not really fair of me to lay into the staff I spoke to, because they're fairly low down the food chain, and they did seem to do the best they could. I tried hard to be nice to them as well, because you can bet that loads of people will be horrible. Ultimately, though, it was hard to hide my exasperation.

For the bank, I have to sign a form and return it to them. Normally they'd post it, but it needs to be done quickly, so they said they'd fax it to me.

This fills me with horror - fax machines are truly the tools of Beelzebub. I've never come across one that works properly. I helpfully suggested that maybe the documents could be e-mailed to me, so I could print them, but no - despite the fact that they must exist in electronic form somewhere, they had to be faxed.

Faxed.

Even the railway industry, which is technologically years behind others, has more or less abandoned fax technology. We have a fax machine, but it's some distance from my desk, and I didn't fancy it spewing out loads of my private details while I wasn't there, so I got Bank Phone Lady to wait until I was standing next to it before she sent the documents. Zilch. Zip. Nada. All that I could see, beneath the layer of dust covering the machine, was a cryptic error message, featuring, appropriately, the word FAIL. However, according to Bank Phone Lady, it was sent OK, so no doubt my personal details will be spewed out some time when I'm not there.

In the end, I had to get them to send the documents by fax to the bank around the corner, so I had to go out and get them.

Gaaah! I've had access to e-mail that could have done this for the past 14 years!

Anyway...I've got to sign the document, get Abby to sign as well, and then fax it back. My local library can do this - I think I'll get them to fax it multiple times to make sure it all works.

I then had a rather fruitless and pedantic discussion with Insurance Phone Man, attempting to work out if I have what's needed to rent my new house. I think I do, but because the insurance company and the letting agent both use different terms, I can see trouble brewing.

I sometimes think this is what Hell is like. I don't think there's any pitchforks or flames - I think it's a permananent, never-ending bureaucratic nightmare, eternally dealing with administrative cock-ups, lost details, being put on hold, annoying muzak, malfunctioning fax machines, lost baggage, customer retention departments, harrassed and indifferent staff with no ability to deviate from the script, small print, no record of that conversation etc.

I think that's punishment enough for even the most revolting human being.

Abby and I had to go and see our solicitors this morning, to show him proof of ID and address. Something to do with proving we're not money-laundering, apparently - so there you go. Just as well I'm not a Russian gangster or something.

The solicitor's office is on the first floor of a large office building containing several companies. A sign in the lift told us that the firm on the second floor was called "Climax", which appealed to the particularly infantile Beavis-and-Butthead-esque streaks in us. We were intrigued as to what went on there, so on our way out, I "accidentally" pressed the second floor button so we could take a peek. We thought it might be a front for something glamorous and sexy.

Anyway, the doors opened to reveal a completely empty and deserted office space.

Sometimes reality is very disappointing.

So, it's twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. A hugely significant day, of course - and it's interesting in lots of ways to muse upon how the world has changed. Back in my early days on the railway in the mid-90s, I worked with an ardent socialist/communist, who was sad to see eastern European communism collapse. It was always better in theory than it was in practice, and some pretty horrendous things were done. I'm sure no-one in the Eastern Bloc wants the Stasi, the Securitate or the KGB back...but then if you look at the fabric of society in places like East Germany, there was a hell of a lot to admire. Full employment, a sense of purpose, and public services that cost peanuts and gave people what they needed. We could probably do with a lot of that now.

So...happy 20th anniversary, Berlin without the wall.


Me in front of one of the surviving bits of wall in 2006


1969 film advertising the East German People's Car. Quick - get your name down for one! If you're lucky, you'll only have to wait fifteen years!


You might prefer a Wartburg if you need to transport 57 footballs, though. Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, life carries on being full of HOUSE MOVING CHROS but we seem to be getting there gradually. Does anyone know the best way to transport a goldfish 400 miles without killing it? I know the odds of its survival are fairly slim, but my little fishy does seem to be ausdauernd und robust, so I'm hopeful. I've got a big jar with a screw-top lid that I'm thinking will be the best thing to use - I'll just take the lid off now and again to keep the water oxygenated.

I've succeeded in getting Android up and running on my TyTN II phone, which is interesting, because the phone is designed for Windows Mobile and was not built with Android in mind (even slightly). The display under Android looks a bit odd but it does all work, more or less. Not sure I'll use Android on a day-by-day basis, but it's fun to experiment with, and can be launched easily from within Windows Mobile. A soft reset gets Windows Mobile back again, so it's more or less dual-boot now.

The Android web browser is very nice indeed, actually, so I'm tempted to make quite a lot of use of it.

I'll leave you with some pictures I took when I was last in Linlithgow a couple of weeks ago. I'll be back - oh, yes.

As you can imagine, life is a little chaotic in our home right now - we're moving in less than two weeks, and we have large amounts of assorted crap to deal with, pack, throw away etc.

While clearing out a cupboard, I came across a big envelope stuffed full of ancient family photos and letters that I shall have to return to my mum and my aunt at some point, who have been deemed the rightful owners. So...I did a bit of scanning this afternoon. Of particular interest were a couple of postcards written in the summer of 1923.


Front


Back

The addressee here - Eileen - is my maternal grandmother, and the card was from her mother Louise. Eileen died when my mum was only seventeen years old, so I never met her, but Louise survived until she was well into her nineties, and my sister can just about remember her, but I was born too late for that.

The San Remo is a hotel in Eastbourne, a seaside town about sixty miles from London, and a popular holiday destination. A quick tour around Google shows that it is now called the Royal Parade Hotel, after the street it's in, but it was called the San Remo until around 2002, and I found a picture that shows it still looks more or less the same. I'm assuming the picture on this card was the residents of the hotel at the time, and that it was sold as a souvenir for the guests.


Front


Rear

This card was sent a couple of weeks later, and recipient Mrs. King was in fact the writer of the first card. Turns out the San Remo was a popular destination! I asked my mum who Mr and Mrs Stevenson were, but she didn't know, so they're not relatives - they must have been family friends. I assume Kitty was the Stevensons' daughter, and a friend of Sybil, who was Eileen's sister and my great aunt. She died some time in the mid-eighties, and I do remember her.

Anyway, there you go. I love old things like this - a little glimpse into an ancient past, wondering who all these people were and what they were doing. It's a little insight into where I came from, something I know precious little about.

I think it's been pretty common knowledge amongst my friends that I've loathed my job for a long time - the main reason being the utter boredom of it. It's reasonably busy, and at least in theory, the work should be interesting, because it's all connected with something I love - but it's not at all. The boredom is absolutely spirit-crushing. I'm not made to be a desk monkey - that's the problem. I expected it to be much more hands-on than it is.

Still, I leave in two weeks, and I certainly know what sort of work to avoid in the future.

I enjoy weekends because I can spend them as I want, rather than as someone else tells me I should. I think this is why I love the idea of self-employment, and will do a lot more looking into this when we've moved.

Abby has been contacting removal firms to find out how much it will cost to move all our stuff to Scotland. She got this e-mail today:

Dear MRS ABIGAIL OSBORNE

Thank you for your e-mail. We can confirm the cost for removal would be £23950.00 fully inc FOR THIS REMOVAL FROM YOUR CURRENT TWO BED FLAT BASED IN SW20 MOVING TO WEST LOTHIAN AS REQUESTED. THIS WOULD BE A DIRECT REMOVAL FOR YOU FULLY LOADING THE DAY PRIOR TO DELIVERY, IF YOU REQ FULL PACKING ADD AN ADDITIONAL £340.00 INC AND FULLY INCUDING ALL MATERIALS. WE CAN ASSURE YOU OF OUR AWARD WINNING, FIRST CLASS SERVICE AND G/TEE A STRESS FREE MOVE!!!!. Cost as per e-mail details. This cost includes 75k insurance. If a confirmed booking is made with us and you wish to do your own packing, we will provide 20 boxes free of charge, with free delivery and both large and small sizes are available. We can also provide additional packing materials such as bubble wrap, tissue paper and extra boxes at an additional cost. We can provide wardrobe cartons on the day of removal which is included in the price. Please feel free to call & discuss this quotation with us at anytime on [phone numbers]. If you need any more help / advice or information, or if your move is imminent & in the very near future PLEASE CALL US ON THE ABOVE TELEPHONE NUMBERS & WE MAY BE ABLE TO OFFER A SUBSTANTIAL DISCOUNT TO THE PRICE GIVEN IF IT IS A DAY ON WHICH WE ARE QUIET.

Twenty-four grand, eh? I did ask Abby if that included a gold-plated lorry. I wonder how much the substantial discount would be as well? She sent this e-mail in reply:

£23,950? Really? Do I get to keep the delivery van afterwards?

After that, we got the following reply:

DEAR ABIGAIL.

WE ARE VERY PLEASED TO CONFIRM THAT FOR THE COST OF TWENTY THREE THOUSAND, NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS, WE WILL GLADLY INCLUDE OUR FULLY EQUIPPED REMOVAL VAN (AND A PERMANENT SPARE MAN IF REQ) HOWEVER, IF YOU DO NOT REQUIRE THE VEHICLE AND THE (SPARE MAN) WHO (WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET RID OF FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS) THE COST WOULD BE A MERE SNIP, AT TWO THOUSAND,THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE POUNDS, WHICH WOULD OF COURSE, PROVIDE YOU WITH A FIRST CLASS MOVE(BUT WE PREFER THE FORMER SO AS TO BE ABLE TO CALL IT A DAY AND RETIRE TO SPAIN) KIND REGARDS, [removal company]

LULZ! What a great sense of humour! We had such a good laugh at this, but did realise that even at a mere ten percent of the original quote, it's about twice as much as some of the other quotes we've had. Still, it sounds like we'd have fun if we booked them. :)

After more grief and stress than you can shake a stick at, we have finally exchanged contracts on the sale of our flat.

It's been a nightmare getting here, but we can get on with our lives at last.

We move to Linlithgow, Scotland, on the 21st.

For all the forgetful muppets out there, check out this blog, or some shit like that.

I've been told it's way better than my blog, but that can't be right.

Seriously, this is an utterly pointless thing to ponder. Whatever we could have done differently, it's too late to do it now. Wherever you are in life, you can only go forwards. Brush yourself off, learn from the past, and just keep moving...don't spend ages pondering what might have been.

I've had a very stressful day, basically caused by enormous frustration at other people not doing stuff, and there's not much I can do to make anything improve.

Still, things will get better, and this time next week (hopefully) I'll be out of this frustrating headspace.

I went swimming this evening, as physical exercise is a great stress reliever. While I was there, I caught sight of the hairiest man I have ever seen. He literally looked like an ape.

I was a bit scared. But it amused me.