DIY, moving and anniversary day

The last couple of weeks have passed in a bit of a blur. We got the keys to our property on the 12th of November and we wanted to make it ready before we moved in. That meant we had 2 weeks to really work hard on it before the weekend of the 30th, which was move-in day!

The tenants of the place weren't the cleanest people I met. On top of that, they had a baby, a bird, a cat and a dog! All these animals (apart from the baby) did wonders to the light coloured carpets of the first floor. We’re talking about serious filth. The moment you entered the hallway, the stink would hit you like a slap to your face. There was so much dog hair everywhere! And we couldn't have that. So, we begun the process of removing the carpets to restore the original wooden floors and also paint the bedrooms.

The before picture with carpet and yellow wallpaper and skirting boards

The second before picture. So much dirt... 

Removing the carpets 

 That's me happily (?!) sanding the floors

The first weekend we spent it removing the old carpets and their joints. We needed to cut them up in manageable rolls and remove the carpets’ under layer. Also, we needed to remove all nails and staples that held everything in place. Because the weekend after that we rented sanding machines to sand the floors and they needed to be clean from everything that might damage the sanding paper. We had never used machines like that. There was a learning curve to it, but I believe we did well. There are so many good DIY websites and YouTube videos to check. Finally, we applied the varnish.

Finish sanding the floors and removing the wallpapers

First layer of varnish and undercoat on the walls

While doing all that, we spent as much time as we had around work hours to paint the rooms and pack our stuff. We removed wallpapers, sanded walls, applied undercoats and paint. And then, finally, the last weekend arrived. I had Friday off and Jeff had rented a van. His company provides him days off to move anyway. So, we did lots of trips back and forth. We had some friends helping us in various stuff, like assemble IKEA furniture or bring food and it went more or less fine. We didn’t break anything!!! I count that as a success.

The second bedroom after we finished it.

So, yesterday, I travelled for the first time from our new place to work. It felt great! We still haven’t completely finished the third bedroom and there are boxes all over the place, but we have all the time in the world to sort things out!

In addition, yesterday was the day of our first mortgage payment AND my anniversary with JJ! I met him exactly 4 years ago in a bookstore that is now a METRO bank (boo) in Fulham Broadway! My life has changed for the better in so many ways since then! I love him to bits. This journey, which I think has just begun, is something amazing that I will treasure!
I’m just so happy!!!!

Last weekend…

Saturday was JJ’s last day of holiday and we decided to do something different than normal. That’s the good thing about London. It can provide so many great means to escape your everyday life. So, having a list of possible destinations we decided to visit Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court Palace was originally built for Cardinal Wolsey, a favourite of the King Henry VIII. However when the Cardinal fell from favour the palace was handed to the King. In case you’re not familiar with Henry VIII’s story I strongly suggest you do. His is a very interesting story. (That is if you are into this kind of things.) He is generally acknowledged to be a very charismatic, attractive, intelligent but at the same time notorious, vicious and very strong-minded person. He is mostly remembered for his role in reforming the State with separating the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church and for his many wives. Especially for the way he treated them and moved from one to the next in order to get a male heir.

These are some pictures I took during our visit. The palace and the surrounding gardens were very interesting to see. We were very lucky as well because of the beautiful weather.  I think we must have spent around 2.5 to 3 hours walking around, visiting the quarters and learning about the old days.

The palace 

Some residents

 The kitchen

The wine celar.

The courtyard

The inside

 The beautiful garden

The room overlooking the garden

 

During Sunday I started packing! Hooray!
I wasn’t looking to it to be honest. I didn’t know where to start. I want to go through most of my stuff and separate those which must be given to charity, recycled or simply thrown away. That procedure is time consuming but required so that I don’t carry my stuff to my new place to simply throw away later. I’m also taking my time to wrap everything properly so that to minimise the items that will come out of the boxes broken. That is why I needed to start early. Although I am pretty sure I’ll still have loads to do at the last minute.  

My room now is mostly occupied by boxes, piles and half full suitcases. I don’t have lots of room to manoeuvre and I keep on kicking a damn box I have next to my door. My toes are not that happy but all this is simply temporary. Next weekend a brand new life for me / us begins.
  

Friday happiness

I just received one of the most wonderful text messages for the past days: ‘Great news-you are now connected to O2 Broadband. You may now plug in, run the CD and enjoy! Thanks O2.’
YAY
I can now try finding my laptop, removing the dust that is covering it and turn it on after being neglected for days. I think that’s the longest I’ve ever left it off. Last time I used it was on Sunday when I took it to the local pub that has wireless internet connection!

On a totally different issue, I went running this morning before work. I normally don’t do that because the idea of me going outside in shorts that early, with this cold, is not pleasant. The transition from being under the duvet to going running by the river is very difficult. However, with all my evenings spent with my parents I have to do some kind of exercise in the morning. In addition, I’m beginning to freak out a bit regarding my half marathon race in three months. Excluding the (at least) two weeks of overeating and overdrinking of the holiday season, I don’t have much time left. I am not being delusional about being nice and not eating too much during my holidays spent in Greece. So, I want to get some proper exercise before mid December and get back on track beginning of next year.

That means that I should get over myself and start running at least three times per week and it would be better done in the morning to have my evenings free. So, I was thinking that in order to get myself more motivated I should try buying new running gear. I need proper warmer running clothes for my upper body, running gloves and some long tights (OF COURSE to wear under my shorts). I also need to download and update my ipod music collection that I listen to during running. Maybe a pedometer? I’m gay, I like these kind of things (gadgets, accessories, new clothes).
I began running in May and I do not have winter running equipment…

One of the main reasons I like running is that it clears your mind and you can get a new perspective on certain things. After finishing the first couple of miles, your body goes in ‘autopilot’, running mode, without much thinking over it letting your mind wander. So, this morning I was thinking of the ‘Essex Boy’ in combination with the movie ‘He’s just not that into you’ (bad combination). The movie is not that great but it does put some things under consideration…

The last time I saw him was the previous Wednesday (almost 10 days ago). I sent him a text last Friday to see how he’s doing. He replied a few hours later saying that he’s having an awful day at work and would need a pint afterwards. I invited him over to come with my mates since we were going for a pint anyway. He replied to the invitation around midnight (a little bit too late). God forbid he couldn’t come and meet some of my friends. I’ve never met some of his also. I then contacted him on Tuesday evening to see how’s he doing and his replies were a bit weird that included words like ‘yo morfo’ (= hello, mother fucker), so I guessed before telling me that he was out for drinks.

He comes from a rough area (in Essex) and I know that that’s his weird sense of humour (I hope) and calling me a mother fucker is actually exchanging pleasantries. However, that’s not me. I’m more polite as a person and he just seems to be underestimating me. Anyway, I don’t want to sound like I’m a desperate complaining bitch (again) but I start to think the whole ‘he’s just not that into you’ business. If he was ‘into’ me, wouldn’t he try a little bit harder?

I just find him difficult to understand. I still don’t know what he’s looking for and what he wants from me. Is it just sex? Is he content with talking just once per week to arrange a weekly getting together or even less frequent that always ends up in sex? It would be easier if I only knew what he wanted. Could it be that he doesn’t know what he wants himself? (most likely)

Anyway, I’m finishing this complaining / projecting insecurities extravaganza. ‘Essex boy’ is old enough to make is decisions. I will not stay put waiting for him. I’ll try to go out with someone that shows a little bit more interest in me just because I deserve it…
(OK, I’m officially losing it)

In a way, it’s always fun never to be bored. On the other hand…

Moving into a new place can always be so much fun. Last week we received a ‘repossession notice’ letter. Apparently the former lodger owes to the council around £2000 from taxes. However, the very frightening letter was addressed to our new place mentioning that they can get into the apartment and repossess stuff to match the value owed, whether we are or aren’t inside! The fonts, size and bold letters used in the letter itself are indeed very intimidating! They make the word ‘repossession’ massive for the A4 paper size. Also, they try to emphasize the fact that they can get in the flat without us in it.
We called the number given on the letter to declare that the lodger has changed and to beg not to break our door and take stuff! I don’t even know if we have £2000 worth of stuff in the apartment to take. I was told that they are not allowed to take everything, like a bed or a chair so that the place is still habitable but I don’t want to take chances. It will not look that good to our new neighbors...
Anyway, we passed the whole thing to our landlord who promised to take care of it (hopefully in time). I’d hate to think that they will take our newly bought and used Christmas decoration…

That’s not the end of it of course. Our heating is not working. It stopped working on Friday evening and until we doubled checked, we couldn’t get anyone on the phone to help us. I tried a couple of things that actually didn’t work (I wonder why, since I do not have any experience on the matter). I try restarting it a couple of times (it works on PCs). I tried hitting it a bit (I saw Han Solo doing it on Millennium Falcon that afternoon). My final verdict is that the gas pressure is not good enough to ignite it again. I had less than 1 bar and I needed around 1.5 bars (damn you bars). So, we spent the whole weekend wearing sweaters and jackets in the house. Ok, I’m exaggerating, but yesterday evening was a bit cold…

So, instead of staying in and being cold we’ve decided to go to the movies. From the movies available, we went to see ‘2012’! If you haven’t seen it, I would recommend you NOT to go and see it. I like action movies, I enjoyed ‘The day after tomorrow’ a lot. So, I said that ‘2012’ is a movie to go and watch in a movie theatre for the visual and sound effects. However, the movie is bad. The plot is amazingly predictable, never ending and tedious. I expected the movie to be slightly silly but not that much.
I came across the following image related to the plot of the movie and to Earth destruction, so I'm sharing it with you since I found it quite funny:

Rambling Friday

-Technology is finally arriving our way. Since yesterday we have TV at my new place. YAY! For the time being we got ‘Freeview’. Later on we’ll see about different options, but for now our budget is tight and we wanted a fast solution. That means that I was in the very happy place to watch my favorite TV morning program: Auswitch, The Nazis and the Final Solution!! Honestly, who watches that at 8 in the morning? Is it going to make you all happy to face the day? Where could you be working to like morning programs like that? Not even in the local prison… So, I naturally switched to watch Lady GAGA talk about her ‘Bad Romance’ and Pikachu kick the ass of another Pokemon with silly name.
Hopefully, we’ll get our landline connection enabled today and I’ll be able to apply for broadband. Double YAY!

-Things start to look slightly grim at work. Since our clients are from the public sector, we are now having the aftermath of the recession. Their budget is cut even more which means much less income for us. People here (mostly the bosses) are being slightly grumpy about it (I’m being polite) which have an effect on our work. Also, that means that we are most likely not getting bonuses as accustomed at the end of November and there will not be none or minimal pay rise for next year. It is a bit irritating, since everybody else seems to be overcoming the crisis but anyway.

That made me think again about my career (my what?) and the different options I have. I’m thinking of getting some extra training and acquiring some extra certificates so that I’m prepared if everything goes really bad. The bad thing is that I have so many options at what to do that I’m confused. I can apply for e-learning, Open University, evening or weekend courses or just get some books and try to pass certificate exams. These of course are my options AFTER I’ve decided what exactly I want to learn (I know… minor detail).

-‘Essex Boy’ resurfaced as expected. I know I complained a bit about it (yes, just a bit) but you can’t blame me. He just appears and disappears randomly. He will reply to my text messages but will not contact me unless he wants and has the time to meet. I can now start to see the trend and expect what can be expected (which is not much for the time being to be honest). So, we met, went for a pint, then for Chinese dinner and ended at my place. We had fun and said that we might meet again on Sunday (fingers crossed). I will not of course sit idle waiting to see when he’s next available. I have dignity (some friends of mine can die laughing with that) and make my own plans. If I can and he’s available we’ll meet. Triple YAY...
I will not cancel my plans for him (again, I can hear laughter at the back of my head).

Feeling good…

I got the keys to my new apartment! I’m moving probably this Saturday there and to be honest I can’t wait! I’ve posted the issues I’ve been having with my current arrangement so you know why. My new flat feels like more of a proper home. I will be living with one of my best friends in a decent size, double bedroom and two bathrooms flat that is also close to work. What more to ask?

Maybe I could ask for something (being greedy as always). I would like to be able to put my finger on my nose, move it a bit, do magic and make all my stuff and furniture move and also the bills and internet sorted! That means that I need magical powers for some days. No? Oh, well… I had to try…

I really don’t how we managed to survive without internet connection during the Dark Ages (10 years ago?). Hopefully, I might find some kind of unsecured wireless to secretly use for the days until I get connected…

Speaking of internet, I did my research on self-harm and I now know a couple of things more on the subject. I’ve decided not to let it bother me at all and keep on what I was doing before. I will keep on seeing ‘Essex Boy’ and try to get to know him more. I will just keep an eye on the marks…

Now, it’s time I went back to keep on packing! Do I sound excited? (No, I am not…)

Mr. Busy!!!

The past week has been amazingly busy. I have been doing one thing after the next, without being able to sit and relax. I am not complaining though, I am really enjoying myself. I just don’t like sitting idle not doing something…

Around 7 months ago, I had to move from my then house since my house mate was leaving London and of course I couldn’t afford a two bedroom flat on my own. I tried to see my options and I decided to give a try to finding a nice (?) house share around the area I work. I knew that it would be much cheaper than renting on my own and I thought that it would be fun.

So, I found a nice big double bedroom with two other professionals in a two bathroom house. The house was located in a walking distance from work, cheaper than the one I had before and equipped with a weekly cleaner as well. It seemed too good to be true, so I moved in.

I don’t exactly know how other house shares work, but ours cannot be described as very functional. One of the girls living with me (who actually looked normal) moved out the second month I was there and was replaced by a foreign student, who wanted to learn English during his gap year. However, he only hangs around with people from his own country, literally hates London and I don’t think he learned any new English words apart from the very basic (unless he’s hiding them from me). I’ve only been able to chat with his cousin / translator who told me how my foreign housemate hates London.

My other housemate is doing a post doc in a very good university nearby. She can be described a bit uptight, unsociable and hostile. She also doesn’t like London and misses her country / village! I tried having some kind of conversations with her but at no use. Her life is around her studies and laboratory experiments. As far as I understood they keep and breed mice, implant viruses in them and check the results. I totally respect what she does (I could NEVER do this kind of work) but it’s not a very nice subject to talk about having dinner in the kitchen. Ok, I’m probably overreacting, who wouldn’t like to hear about how to slice open a HIV positive mouse to check the side effects of a new drug over a plate of spaghetti?

Anyway, these things wouldn’t really be a major issue, (I don’t stay home much and I seldom see my housemates anyway) if my lovely landlady wasn’t added to the equation. Since she probably doesn’t have a life, she loves to pry on ours. She keeps a key of the house and uses it amazingly often. I know she’s been inside my room many times. The house we live in is part of her daily walking route and she comes very often to check her mail etc (and us of course). She is one of these nonstop talkers and gossipers.

Also, she loves to complain about her dreadful financial situation (she ONLY has two houses that she rents). It was a major issue when my ‘wife’ was staying over. She wanted me to pay more rent for that. In addition, since all bills are included in my rent, there is the constant issue of how much water I spent, how much electricity, etc…

I know that probably these things are common in house shares but I am getting too old probably to deal with them. I want to be able to bring ‘friends’ that stay over at night, without having to hide them.

After all these, I don’t think you’d wonder why I chose to move out and live with a very close and dear friend of mine in the same area. So, at the moment I’m viewing properties and will be moving in the next month. That takes most of my free time. I can feel the side effects on my aching legs as well. It can be really fun though… It’s back to packing boxes