Sunday, September 27, 2015

oustide of the box

hi there

i am really sorry, look you see, for the lame title. i have been trying to think of something witty or clever, and as would be the usual case i have somewhat failed. bear with me, i am rather tired and physically knacked.

plans are afoot, the dice are rolling, dear reader. to that end there will be a lack of posts just now for a week or so, but all worth it in the end.

speaking of which, here's the end of the story for those of you who are in a rush and simply wished to take a cursory look at what it is i have been up to.



indeed that is me (sorry for the lack of warning that i would feature, those of you who wisely prefer the other 75% of my family) and indeed i am stood in front of our storage. our, as you can probably make out, empty storage. i mostly emptied it out over the weekend, with the kind help of someone in a couple of instances.

regular readers or the curious who search through this blog will be aware that we've had the majority of our stuff sat in storage for, what, some 18 months i think. it's a good two or so years since we have seen a lot of it outside of boxes, to be honest.

the idea of being able to get everything out of storage has been, to be, both a daunting and an exciting one. it's shiny stuff, after all, and i really like shiny things. if that's the excitement, let us consider the more daunting element of this.



wow. that's a lot. i believe, as point of fact, there were or are some 180+ boxes an items, with them being - trust me on this one - of varying weight and size.

i knew that this weekend was the one that i needed to get this done. my thoughts on opening up storage and seeing this  - actually more, as my blueberry camera and that doesn't really do a wide angle - was along the lines of f***, i am never going to be able to do this. well, as the first picture showed, i was.



no, i didn't use my car to shift all the boxes. the car of my (considerably) better half is not so much considerably as it is actually bigger, so it made more sense to use that. also, whereas i doubt things like suspension and shock absorbers are actual things or of any validity, i thought it best that if they were real and were likely to break from weight, not in my car, then, thanks.

another look at the size and scope of boxes i was required to move? surely.



when i say "required", i mean "planned". i could have left most where it was, but clearing it out now saves me the (in fairness highly reasonable) cost of storage for another month. plus, if one is making a move to somewhere that one has more space, it kind of makes sense to utilise that space, does it not?

much of my weekend, then, was spent driving between storage and the larger space, picking up boxes, packing them in the car, driving, unloading the boxes, going for more. when i took a break i called in to see Gran & Gramps, who were proudly displaying a new picture of my Dad. here's a snap of it.



that's quite a smart look you have on the go there, Dad. would look pretty smart at a Madchester Rave On festival, that would.

a quick look at the progress of my efforts in removing boxes from packaging? to me it seems pointless, as you know the conclusion, but for the curious, here you go.



other than a big, big thanks to where we had everything stored, massive thanks indeed to Bayley, the people who packed us up and shipped our stuff.  their packing work has been superb - not only did it withstand and survive moving some eight thousand miles, the packaging they used has held up and allowed us to store all of our stuff for however long it has been.

also thanks to Robert, who with his smart van and boss trailer helped me move the too large for the car and too heavy for just me to move stuff. here you go, he normally keeps a low profile but here's a picture of him as we were unloading.



if it were not for Robert i would have been well and truly stuck to get some of the things moved. i dare say i would have ended up paying a small fortune to get some gents to do it. i dare say that there will be the value of several drinks in it for Robert after he's called in and helped us move a few other things.
 
another gander at the suspension or whatever it is in a car possibly getting a bit battered off of the weight that i added to it in my transportation efforts? surely.



in my efforts i also conclusively proved my pet theory that rearview mirrors on a car are an opulent, bourgeois luxury that are not necessary. i couldn't see a thing behind me and it did not affect my driving at all. as far as i am concerned reversing, when i needed to, went fine without that mirror, and if my (considerably) better half notices any dents at the back i will assure her that she must have done them.

a look at me, halfway through moving everything and fully knacked? sure.



believe it or not i was actually trying to smile in that picture. sorry, i was just plain exhausted and drained.

so, done then. and overall i thoroughly enjoyed it. there's the sense of achievement, of course, but physical activity is indeed invigorating. i have tested the patience of my physique, i have picked up a few items on my own that i perhaps should not have, i am well and truly battered, but oddly i also feel refreshed and all the better for doing it.

for the benefit of your nightmares i thought i'd have a go at a sort of Mr Kurtz type of shadow in the door image for you.



i'd actually dig to do this all day, every day. no, not writing (do that already), picking up stacks of boxes, in Robert's words play jenga with them in a truck, van or car, drive them about and unload them. what are the chances of a career change? well, let's have a look. i'm 42, i have literature degrees coming out of my @rse, i have careers in corporate b(w)anking and writing. i doubt, dear reader, that i would be high up on the list of anyone looking to employ someone to drive around doing stuff with boxes.

next, of course, is the challenge of unpacking the boxes rather than just moving them. this will be a lot of fun, and will see me get rid of a lot of stuff after i have unpacked it. there are things in the boxes of sentiment and value, of course, but there's also a lot of stuff that we have lived without for close to two years, and can probably continue to live without.

right, that's me done. hope you had an awesome weekend, and one that was not as exhausting as mine was. well, unless that's what you wanted..................




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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