Behind the scenes

It has been a whirlwind of administration this week. I've been trying to do it all at once and nothing is ever straightforward. Even to cancel a TV licence you have to provide proof that you no longer need one… And I've found out that my broadband supplier had sneakily tied me in to another 12 month contract without telling me when I upgraded my connection speed 6 months ago so I need to pay a chunk of money to get out of it. Grr. Although BT told me yesterday that my account is in credit by the same amount so the broadband injustice seems a little less irksome now.

I'm also hugely relieved to have decided against using a removal and storage firm for the move into storage and out again. I just couldn't rationalise the big sums of cash. Anybody established and trustworthy was charging as much as two round the world plane tickets. Everyone else still seemed expensive and a little bit dodgy - what happens if they go out of business with all my stuff still in their warehouse? - so I couldn't make a decision. Anyhoo - I phoned a self-store place in Shropshire on a whim. Their prices were competitive anyway, but then they told me about their half price for 12 weeks offer and were prepared to give a 15% discount for the rest of the term as I wanted storage for more than 6 months. The guy had a reassuring brummie accent and I felt as if my stuff was going to be safe with them. Daft eh? Just as likely to go under or catch fire I'm sure.

So G and I will be hiring a Luton van for a couple of days and trekking up and down the M40 a few times. It's going to be extreme hard work I know. But I feel so much happier doing it ourselves. There's nothing we can't really lift between us. Heck if G can pick me up, he can probably manage a sofa on his own. We can be much more flexible about moving our stuff out of storage when we come home too. Do it a bit at a time and dump/re-store/relocate stuff that won't fit properly in G's house.

And even with van hire, diesel and packing supplies it's going to come in at least a grand cheaper than the cheapest removals quote. That should pay for a few slap up steak dinners in Buenos Aires.

We had a lovely day with Mum and dad on Monday. Mum has wanted to go to the British Museum since the millennium roof was put on. She used to hang out there a lot in the sixties. In fact the last time she was there was 1966. She reckons she won't get the chance again once we move further away from the big smoke, so mum and dad came down on Sunday night and all four of us nipped up there on Monday morning. Dad enjoyed the Michelangelo exhibition enormously and Mum was not disappointed by the roof. She, G and I looked round the Egyptian and Greek bits while Dad did the sketches. Then we came straight home and went to a local vineyard and micro-brewery for a free tasting. I won the tickets in a raffle at work. The table wine was not good - even I could tell that. But the fizzy and the sweet wines were pleasant enough. We managed to taste a fair bit and enjoy the lovely location. G and Dad bought some very strong beer too and proceeded to get thoroughly plastered when we got home. We finished the day off with a very boozy but delicious dinner at a local Australian run gastro-pub. The green-lipped mussels and 'roo steak were superb. G and dad were pretty well hammered by the end of the meal. Judging by the state of them the next morning, I'm glad I was driving!