Tag: moving house

All at sea

~ Fran Harvey ~ Leave a comment

The new place is starting to look a bit more like home now. We’re actually in it, for a start, properly. No more camping out and grabbing clothes from backpacks. We have a lovely new bed, complete with lovely new mattress and bedclothes (bedclothes that, for a touch of nostalgia, are patterned with an old map of southeast London. Our old flat is on the pillowcases). We have a comfy sofa that we will try (in vain) to convince the dogs they are not sharing with us. The TV is set up, the shelves are built and crammed with books. I can get up earlier than the rest of the household and not worry about waking up three other people (CM doesn’t count because experience has taught me that he can sleep through almost anything). There’s still some chaos, but now we can stop and breathe and look at the next step – which basically amounts to moving out again.

Oh god, the next step. Those steps never stop coming, huh? Continue reading “All at sea” →

So this is goodbye

~ Fran Harvey ~ Leave a comment

On the train North, and I just lost sight of Ally Pally – the last significant London landmark on this route out of the city.

I’ve left London much as I arrived in it 7.5 years ago: inching along by myself under the weight of bags filled with every belonging I have that isn’t 100+ miles away; splashing out on a cab even though I shouldn’t, just to make the trip across the city easier. Continue reading “So this is goodbye” →

Snapshots

~ Fran Harvey ~ Leave a comment

Seven-year itch

Okay, the itch is supposed to be about relationships rather than life, but there is a school of thought that says life runs in seven-year cycles: every seven years or so you change as a person (which would also explain the seven-year itch). Well, I’ve been living in London for just over 7.5 years, and working for the same company that entire time (and yes, I will miss them a lot). Prior to that I travelled and studied for seven years. So maybe there’s something to it. Continue reading “Snapshots” →

Behind the scenes

~ Fran Harvey ~ 2 Comments

Life’s been trundling on behind a headline roll so bad that it’s a shock, sometimes, to look social media and see people discussing silly, small things. Our internet broke down this morning, briefly, and it was a relief to escape the stream of world news for a while. (Yes, I could just turn my computer off and so forth, but what can I say – I’m an addict.)

Still, when the outside world is shut out and I can look at just what’s going on in my personal sphere, things are pretty good. Continue reading “Behind the scenes” →

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

~ Fran Harvey ~ 2 Comments

About a month ago, I wrote here that quite a lot needed to change. I wrote that as a dare to myself, really. A threat or a promise. I was poised to do or not do something. I wanted to push myself off the cliff, and if that failed, pick up and try something new.

So I talked things over with CM and did the thing, and now I can tell you all that we will be leaving London and moving to Newcastle – or the general vicinity thereof – in the new year, because I got a new job. Continue reading “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes” →

Have yourself a ferry little Christmas

~ Fran Harvey ~ Leave a comment

Last Monday, travelling on the ferry to my parents’ house for Christmas, I was violently, horribly seasick. As it turns out, the stormy weather meant the ferry we were on would be the last one to run for a day or so, and I’m not at all surprised. It was the worst crossing I’d been on since the age of about 11 and I was absolutely not the only person with their nose in a sickbag for the last hour or so of the trip. Continue reading “Have yourself a ferry little Christmas” →