CAN’T BLOG FOR A BIT – MOVING HOUSE AT LAST

Posted on by mikesteeden

Dover Castle

For the next week or so I shall not be blogging!

For some little time now I have been dripping on about moving house. It should have happened just after Christmas yet for a myriad of tedious reasons did not. We had almost given up on it ever happening yet now suddenly we find we have exchanged contracts and will complete on the deal next week – rather short notice!

My wife will kill me if I don’t get all the admin bits and pieces associated with moving home together and it is thus she has me chained to my desk doing boring things with utility companies, broadband providers and the like – the list, as anyone who has moved recently will know seems endless.

For her part she is doing all the final packing and humping boxes about the place because I am claiming a bad back. Indeed just a moment ago there I was sat comfortably contemplating in my chair sipping coffee when she appeared sweating heavily, hair in disarray carrying her umpteenth box of this and that. Placing it upon a pile of similar boxes all I said was, “Shirley I really do think that box…the one you’re struggling with would sit more comfortably at the bottom of said pile…safer that way…shouldn’t take you too long to re-arrange.”

I find that there is a certain look only women can cast in the direction of a chap who is after all merely trying to help. First there is the stance they adopt…hands on hips, stood bolt upright, a certain puffing of the cheeks and upward blowing of breath that scatters stray hair strands from the forehead and then, oh yes then the glaring eyes that spell ‘Hate’ and all of its variations contained within the pages of any good thesaurus.

Whatever, at the new place I am not sure when we will have the telephone/internet up and running so that may pose one or two hitches on the blogging front – I understand that the current owners of the house, not quite up to speed with modern technology use only megaphones to communicate with friends and family far and wide!

So then I shall endeavour to catch up on all your blog posts when I can. There is a rather fine café with the internet nearby so I might try to get my tablet thing to work again (if I can remember how to turn it on) yet the password to connect there is ‘TOTTENHAM’ and I support The Arsenal. It is thus that I shall try to muster the courage to type those accursed letters in yet I am not sure I will be able!

I shall return with my old toot in due course…until then keep well.

Mike Steeden

PS – the snap is of the castle close by to the place we’re moving to!

79 thoughts on “CAN’T BLOG FOR A BIT – MOVING HOUSE AT LAST”

  1. Now…why would women adopt that stance? Could it be anything to do with a man’s sitting on his ass drinking coffee stance? Seriously after moving last year my heart goes out to you both….. See you on the other side.

    Reply

      1. MIke..we still ain’;t got sod all and we been living here now since September. Do not menshie fucking fibre or fooking optic to us or how I get on the net. Kiss. Koss . Kiss,

      2. I must confess that when the gal was selling it (fibre optic) to me I thought she had it in mind to get me to eat contact lenses thus providing roughage in my diet! Also she – lovely as she sounded and indeed helpful as she was – had scant English so she and I had a bit of a Count Arthur Strong conversation that was difficult at times! I shall not post now until the 11th March yet until about Monday will read stuff and I recall your hamster come out of hibernation of a Sundee – I shall be there young Shehannemoore (give your name a few ‘L’s’ and you could be Welsh). Best of luck.

      3. Oh me Hamstahs would come out more if I did not have all this painting and decorating and all to do, plus a wean tae mind 2 days a week, a book tae write, a job to do….. Oh not to worry. But these broadband folks would tell you the moon was purple wi pink spot if they could get away with it. Virgin Media sold us a package without checking the cable did not come in to the house. It meant after weeks of nowt we had to go back to BT. I am not going there I am going to refrain from cussing. But soon as we can we are getting shot of them.

      4. Thankfully I cannot paint and decorate so that’s down to Shirley and whatever chums she comes up with! Luckily we don’t need to work – sold our business back in 2008 just before the crash. We are not rich by any stretch but it was nice to quit work ‘young’ rather than burn ourselves out with just enough to live on. As to this broadband stuff I really don’t understand it at all yet am assured they have done all the checks that means I can actually have it…hope so it’s an extra £15 per month for TalkTalk ‘Large’ whatever that is. Sounds like a burger eaten by someone who eats with his mouth open to me! I know BT are rubbish, Inchy could write a book about them he hates them so much. Still I hope to have my last hamster fix before we lose the internet until the 11th March. I’ve got so much to do today on the moving front yet feel inclined to have a kip after the trauma of the mail re-direction today – aside from anything else queuing in a Post Office these days feels like being in a bread queue in Moscow during Soviet times!

      5. Oh,,,they will be stirring up a tempest tomorrow!
        You were wise to get out before the crash. Bloody good on yah. Enough is probably enough! I hope your TalkTalk is ok…… I am going to say nothing nothing there either.

      6. Right I shall ask Shirl for a blogging pass (as I did just now and she seems satisfied that I have done rather a lot of ‘moving things’ today so I am in her good books) for a hamster review of a Sundee! It was a couple of Scots who purchased our business and I understand they have carried it forward rather well – good on them!

      2. It is! Not only that I’ve had a good measure of writer’s block lately yet today when all I can do is take a bit of time out here and there the check the blog all the ideas I’ve been searching for are back…Sod’s Law they call that!

      3. I know you’re moving house, but I nominated you for that pesky little inspiring blog award. Of course I don’t expect you to do all of the rigmarole that goes with it, but it was a pleasure to share your link with my unsuspecting readers. Hope all is going well.

  8. I shall sorely miss your company. Moving is such a very traumatic event – purely because it involves effort and physical activity which, to me, is one of the worse inventions ever! I am sorry to hear of your bad back and also that you are so deeply misunderstood, helpful fellow as you are. I realise you were merely deeply concerned for your dear wife’s safety…having said that, may I suggest that you contact a moving company to assist her – you will be much less ‘misunderstood’ if you do. See you soon!

    Reply

    1. The moving company are so busy they can only do the move itself and a few bits the day before. I haven’t told her yet but my back is actually fine at the moment! There will be hell to pay if she ever finds out – but I have been phoning people and doing important bureaucratic things all day long and am now so very, very tired! I think I’ll ask her to make me a hot drink and massage my back – she’ll like that!

      Reply

    1. Cheers – what I’d give for that Castle. I am a member of English Heritage so get to visit the place regularly. Churchill had his quarters built into the cliffs upon which the castle stands. William the Conqueror built the place and that Johnny Depp chap was filming there recently!

      Reply

      2. True if Shirley’s happy then so am I – at least she gets the big garden like the one we had back in Devon in the new place. Where we live now is really good yet being so close to the sea she has only had a courtyard garden and it has driven her insane…well a bit more insane than she already was!

      4. Thankfully the new (old almost falling apart Victorian lump built 1898) is only 1 mile from the sea – I cannot live without the sea, calm, gnarly or wild! You are plainly a wise gal. Best of luck – a bottle of wine beckons and I cannot resist therefore must go!

    1. That’s very kind of you Sir. My issue is that I cannot understand the bloody tablet thing the got me – 100% bolloxed I am. Your link does seem like a useful thing to someone with a brain though. I did – as would a truculent child – even throw the tablet thing at the wall in frustration yet the bloody thing still boots up! The break might do me some good because my old toot of late has been sub standard to say the very least! Best of luck

      Reply

      1. ‘sub standard’?

        bollocks !!!

        my apologies for not visiting/commenting on your blog as much recently as I would have liked – I’ve had some health issues these past few weeks which have made it a struggle to post to madhatters, never mind read/post to other sites

        but let me assure you there is nothing ‘sub standard’ about your recent posts – we are our own fiercest critics when it comes to our own posts !!!

    1. Cheers Sir – must admit the actual moving bit is a pain. It’s the advising so many businesses/authorities of a change of address I find most irksome more so in that these days so many organisations don’t declare their address on their letterhead! A nuisance…regardless I shall return!

      Reply

    1. Cheers – it was a mistake to buy our current house for we traded being on top of the sea for a courtyard garden (north facing). Still she has her garden ‘back’ now

      Reply

  23. Aww, I’m so glad your move is finally going forward! 🙂 So maybe they old women use megaphones now, but at least they don’t still use two tin cans and a string. 😉 And I think you should consider yourself lucky if Shirl has only give n you “the look” and not thrown another heavy box at your shoulder and tried to cripple you again. I wonder if she’ll have any bubble wrap left once she’s done packing? Good luck and I’ll miss you until you come back! ❤ Hugs to Shirley! ❤

    Reply

    1. I would rather like to! I have been in the place loads of times and, at the time of the year when there are not too many tourists I must say it is magnificent. Underneath it there are tunnels built into the chalk cliffs it stands on. From WW2 there is a hospital, Churchill’s quarters and loads more let alone the Norman history. Still if I crane my neck from the back windows of the place we are moving to I get a half decent view! Right then, she who must be obeyed has told me that my coffee break is over and I should now prepare for the dismantling of my desk. I’m back blogging on the 12th – can’t even read any blogs in the meantime as will have no internet!

      Reply

  25. Missing you already! Hope your back’s better too. Don’t you have to carry your Shirley over the threshold? It’s a new house, new chapter of your lives, after all!

    Reply

    1. Cheers – she who must be obeyed has just allowed me a coffee break. She is dismantling my desk for the removal men in the morning so I won’t even be able to even read a few blogs after that! I shall return to the blog on or about the 12th. Take care

      Reply

    1. The castle is Dover Castle and it sits above The Port of Dover. Our move could have been better – 10 days in and still can’t find the box with my shoes in among many other things! Best of luck

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  28. I was wondering if you two were settled in at your new digs yet. I see by the reply to “the foureyed poet” that things are coming along. The shoes are likely in the box at the back of the stack, on the bottom. 😀 Hugs

    Reply

    1. Old houses need much work and I am devoid of practical skills so we won’t be settled until a veritable team of workmen take charge! What I’d give for shoes – been wearing the same pair of tatty black trainers for a week; put my back out and even managed a toothache. I do whinge rather well though! Have a splendid day young lady!

      Reply

  29. Hi,
    I hope your move went smoothly and you are now in your home. Of course there will be dozens of things to do. No one is ever really settle in my opinion.
    And thanks for liking my post on And The Whippoorwill Sang.
    Shalom,
    Pat Garica

    Reply

    1. Insofar as an impractical man can be I’m settled in what is an old house needing much work. Even as I write I hear my wife stripping wallpaper! Best of good fortune

      Reply

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