I left off the last rambling tale with furniture arriving. This was followed up by going out to buy more stuff. A rug for under the new dining table, which matched one of the wallpapers in the kitchen (and subsequently an online order for a second as the first wasn’t quite big enough for the chairs when the table is extending – that’s been here over a week and is still in its wrapper). Also, some new jars for sugar and tea, which meant converting the existing sugar jar into a coffee one. For the first week after that, I was close every day to putting coffee on my cereals instead of sugar.
We were asked on the Saturday if we could be witnesses at a civil partnership ceremony on the Tuesday for Simon and Linda. Tom and Terri were going to do it originally, but Simon had gotten the days mixed up and had told them it was going to be on the Thursday, so when it turned out it would be the Tuesday, they were already booked onto a call to renew their child security checks. So, we were asked to step in. Being asked on the Saturday, with it being a Bank Holiday weekend meant that we said yes and would have to hope we had no meetings at 11 on the Tuesday morning so we could take an early lunch.
It wasn’t only the witnesses that Simon had given the wrong date to. He had told Linda that it was on the 5th (Wednesday), and not the 4th. Therefore, she had booked the wrong day off work, and because they were so short staffed, she felt she couldn’t change the day, and instead made up an emergency dental appointment to get the time off to go to her own civil partnership ceremony.
I thought it would be a fairly formal occasion, and so dressed appropriately, I put shoes on, a shirt and even dusted the suit off (I still didn’t bust a tie out though). Helen was equally (if not more) glam, and we headed off.
When we got to Crawley registry office, the original witnesses to be – Tom and Terri, were stood outside. Their renewal call hadn’t lasted as long as expected, but because names had been given before, we were still going to be witnesses. Then Simon and Linda turned up. In jeans and jumpers. Leaving us feeling slightly overdressed. Apparently, Terri had asked Linda what she was going to wear some time ago, and been told jeans and jumper, only to reply, no seriously, what are you wearing? Jeans and jumper came the reply. Possible information that would have been useful to us before getting ready.
I’d taken my camera to get photos of the event, but my shutter speed couldn’t keep up. We were in and out of the building in 9 minutes. The registrar was “interesting”, I couldn’t pinpoint her age, but it was definitely older than us, and she had a deep gravelly voice that suggested she may smoke somewhere in the region of 300 fags a day. And when it came time for Simon and Linda to sign the register, it was clear I was seated in a position where I couldn’t take photos of them signing it, because the registrar was bent over in front of me in a too tight and too short skirt (which she kept trying to pull down), and so the only picture I might have got would have been one of her breakfast.
Back to work, and it was to be my last full week working from home, as I’d arranged to be back in the new (to me) Hove office Tuesday to Thursday each week. It would be just Monday’s working at home. Something to look forward to. In that last week at home, electricians were supposed to be turning up on the Tuesday to install a load of new sockets all around the house, only for them to not have anyone due to illness, and so that got put back to Thursday to start the two-day job. Wednesday saw the charity shop come and pick up a load of the old furniture sat in the garden.
On our Friday off, not content with the electrician gouging big grooves in the walls, and the other new furniture and decoration in place, we headed into Crawley and bought and old gramophone cabinet for the dining room. We also ordered an old-style stereo to go in it which would be picked up Saturday. We rolled this into the house and went straight back out to Hayward’s Heath to look in the second-hand furniture shop there. Where we found a new sofa and armchair to out liking. With the works at home, we declined the same day delivery option, and they would ring us to arrange delivery during the week.
It took a while to clean up all the plaster dust after the electrician had gone, and it was well into Saturday night before all the furniture was back in the places it came from. It was goof to not do anything on the Sunday.
I was just gearing up to log off Monday night and load the rucksack to take stuff to the office Tuesday morning when the second-hand furniture store rang and said they would be delivering Tuesday, but they would need some help as it was only a driver on the delivery route. Seriously? What kind of cowboy unit charges you £25 for stuff to be delivered, but then you have to help offload it all yourself? I had to scrap plans for office working on Tuesday and stay to help offload the new sofa.
It also meant we had to get the old one out. I’m not sure how they got it in initially, but to get it out we had to move the rest of the living room furniture and the stuff from the hall, and clear half of the bin area outside, and even then, it was a struggle.
The new sofa hadn’t even arrived before someone was knocking on the door asking to take away the old one. Great I thought, until he said it would be £30. I’d have said no outright, cheeky bastard. But Helen said we’d pay £20, he countered with £25, and I said no. He knocked five minutes later to say he’d made some money from a neighbour and so would take it for £20 after all. And so, he did, and not even five hours after it had been dumped on the front it was gone. It seems to be the way of things in Crawley, put random rubbish out and someone will turn up and take it away.
Wednesday morning saw the first commute to Hove, and the first long drive in the new car for me. It’s going to take some getting used to, after mainly having only really driven diesel cars, driving a petrol one leads inevitably to me stalling. A lot. Plus, on the first day, I wasn’t actually sure of where I was going. I’d been to this office a few times but had only ever gone on the train. So, it was sat-nav on. And even then, I nearly missed the indicated turn off of the A27, and then lined up in the wrong lane for the roundabout. But as I crested a hill on the sweep down towards Portslade, you get the view over the continuous buildings along the coast and across the very blue looking sea and sky. It would have made a great picture, but it’s a bit difficult to stop there with constant traffic around and no pull in places available.
Once in the office it’s a bit of a trek from parking out front to my allocated desk. It’s s similar distance than if I’d have been walking from the station to the office. The screens are a lot smaller than the ones we have been using at home, and that were in the old office, and none of the desks had keyboards or mice. Fortunately, I’d got my wireless mouse with me, and after a bit of digging I’d found a keyboard.
I need to find a slightly different route home. There was a five-minute hold at the level crossing next to Portslade station, and then the hill starts at the traffic lights just beyond saw me stall numerous times and miss the lights more than once.
I did take a different route last night, but it wasn’t really intentional. I was supposed to be going round to Liam’s. He’d given me the address, and I recognised the road name from when I’d looked at the map earlier in the day, but I was being hassled to leave the building at six, and so never got a chance to look at the map again. I hadn’t brought my phone with me, and the sat nav in the car didn’t want to recognise his street name, instead only wanted to send me to a similar street name in Worthing.
So, I headed off to where I thought it was and spent the next half an hour driving slowly around, up, and down trying to find his street. I had no joy, and he’d suggested parking north of Aldrington station, only for me not to be able to find that either, or after fifteen minutes even remember what it was called. I stopped to ask a couple of people for directions but must have grown a couple of extra ugly heads as they just looked at me bug eyed and scurried off. I ended up thoroughly lost. Looking at the map this morning, I drove right around his street, going parallel with it on both sides, and crossing over it at least once. Quite frustrating.
Have I mentioned recently that I don’t like driving?
And so, it’s Friday again and the weekly day off. Which means that it’s another Ikea trip. Wish me luck.