Category: Moving House

#286 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Coffee Hunters, Moving HouseLeave a comment

Facebook reminds me that it is five years since I was in North America. That is a timely reminder as yesterday we had planned a North American experience.

Lets be honest a coffee in an independent Coffee Shop, Hot Black Coffee, in Toronto is a very different experience from a Tim Horton coffee, but needs must and we are in Plymouth not Canada. Tim Horton opened in Plymouth yesterday.

Now that was the plan. But domestic life got in the way and inadvertantly solved a year old problem.

When we moved house a year ago we had made a grab bag of important documents and items that must not be lost. The plan was that one of us would grab the, highly visible, leopard print clutch bag, and move it safely from one house to the other. That didn’t happen and neither of us know how. The bag has been missing for over a year. The contents were so important that every room in the new house has been turned upside down and inside out several times. The loss of some of these items has been crucial and the 6 month wait for new passports is probably the most painful result of our loss.

We were up early yesterday to visit Tim Horton’s for breakfast. In the quiet of the morning there was the sound of a drip in our utility room.

Our utility room is know as the ‘Futility Room’ as it is too small for its true purpose and yet somehow is a perfect store room, and loo!

We had to move a lot of stuff to get at the drip. Having located and fixed the fault we decided to reconfigure some of the shelving installed by our diligent removal men. Unbelievably behind the shelving the Leopard print clutch bag was resting, safely holding all of our important things. One of the removal men must have picked it up, tucked it under his arm and moved it with the shelving and then just put it to one side at the new house. That is the end of a year of puzzlement. It was also the end of breakfast at Tim Horton’s. We did drive over at 2pm having mentally swapped breakfast for doughnuts but the rest of Plymouth had got there before us. Huge queues for drive-thru and eat in. Maybe we will go back, maybe not. In less than a month we are Toronto bound, the queues will be shorter there and we can also go independent. After 5 years we may well do both.

#117 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Home, Moving House, Serendipity1 Comment

Yesterday was a dull thing. So I’ve borrowed some images from last year to jazz up todays blog. Over the weekend I was talking to some friends who have had a protracted house move. Protracted because they inherited a partial share of a house many years ago and were unsure quite what to do with the property. Some years down the line they have bought it completely and are moving this week. Like us they have also lived the South London/ West Country life for many years, until Covid changed everyones way of living.

The topic of our conversation was too many bathroom products. Both cleaning and beautifying.

Our recent move followed several years of changing circumstances all of which seemed to increase our collection of half used bathroom products.

Our actual move and settling into the current house went well and we were tidy in record time. Except the cupboard of shame! A floor to ceiling cupboard that held products that had been inherited and duplicated many times in various changes of life circumstances.

Talking about it made me realise that it was never going to sort itself out.

There was nothing pretty or exciting about a day spent checking pots and bottles. Amalgamating window cleaners and liquid soap. Cleaning hair brushes and make up/ travel bags.

The task, though, has been achieved. Last night the talk was all about what to do with an empty cupboard!

Oh the glamour of a dull February day!

#17 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Bobbing, Moving HouseLeave a comment
©Debs Bobber

How wrong could I have been yesterday! The fog and mist cleared quickly, by the time we had done our swimming the sun was up. Not only was the sun up but someone lovely had put up coat hooks at our normal swimming spot.

©Gill Bobber

It took no time at all to fill all the hooks with our swimming stuff.

What a kind thing to do.

When we moved house recently we gained a garage, which in some ways has replaced an art studio and two brick storage sheds in the last house. Inevitably it became a bit of a storage area and dumping ground during the move. It will never actually house a car.

Somehow during the move our cordless drill became disassociated from the charging port. The last place it could possibly be was the garage. And just like that the autumn project revealed itself! I can’t say it will be the most exciting of post-move projects, and would certainly have been better done before quite so many spiders had moved in, before the winter. An hour or so of reorganisation yesterday revealed the missing charger. That small victory became reason enough for me to stop the process. More effort and diligence is going to be needed to see this particular project through. Perhaps next week is the time to really sort it out…

For now I have an exhibition to prep for. How many times will I have to scuttle into the garage today to find missing art stuff!

Pandemic Pondering #545

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Moving House, YardeningLeave a comment
New home for neon

The weather today was not glorious, it was perfectly fine but we decided to hit the to-do list. Hannah picked up a paint brush and the exterior paint pot and took on walls and the outside toilet. I rearranged the work room and found a new home for @theoldmortuary neon sign. The reason for this flurry of activity is that while we were renting this house we promised the previous owner that we would do nothing structural. So when we moved in many of our unpackings and placements were temporary and we had to store quite a bit of stuff in the work room. Now we have actually owned it for a week it’s time to crack the whip on our to- do list. The paintwork is just on a first coat so that will feature on another blog. Oh the anticipation of a freshly painted outside loo !

A tidy work room also benefits from some neon placement.

The yard is proper twinkly now the neon has been unpacked and turned on.

Which makes for some interesting shapes and shadows.

Pandemic Pondering #529

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Moving HouseLeave a comment

Yesterday was designated as a tech sorting out day. I haven’t hooked up my printer in the new studio. Just a case of finding a lead and signing in to the new wifi. In the process my camera battery was reunited with its charger. It has been a long time since they have been together Maybe 2 years since they were both in the same place at the same time. The Pandemic and the numerous lockdowns meant that I have not particularly needed a camera better than my phone in those two years. In the scrabble for leads I managed to not sort out the printer but to find the camera battery charger. The printer stubbornly resisted linking to the new wifi and needs a different lead to any in our large collection! The only tech victory of the day was the unplanned one of the camera The last picture on the camera was taken in Greece 23 months ago, the last time we travelled abroad. Yesterday the battery was charged in time to do the last dog walk of the day.

A proper camera did a good job of sorting out the clouds at dusk, and a very fine job of catching a dark sunset.

The conundrum of the printer remains. I suspect thick walls and the wrong type of lead are the problem. For now I will take the minor victory of a fully charged camera. Todays quest will be to find the camera instruction leaflet …

Pandemic Pondering #481

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Moving House, SerendipityLeave a comment

Sun setting on an extraordinary weekend. But also a reminder to always keep our eyes open. Today I walked passed an ex-colleague who I would dearly have loved to have a natter with. Our weekend has been filled with meteorological sunshine. It’s pretty cool to walk from home to overlook the finish line of an International Sailing competition and your tea still be too hot to drink on arrival.

And then to watch the competitors sail back in to their temporary accommodation.

The sunshine also lit up our back yard.

And at night the back yard lit itself up.

All that lovely sunshine stored up in Solar panels to make the evening brighter. This weekend has also had some darker moments but life just like the weather can’t be constant sunshine, we just need to keep some reserves in hand to make these things more tolerable.

In other news, a very old bear was unpacked today. There was a serious problem with his stuffing which required immediate attention. The patient is seen here enjoying a post anaesthetic cup of tea. He will soon be back on his feet.

©Gill Bobber/ Marianne Bobber

Passionfruit and Mango Sundaes to mark the end of Sunday.

©Hannah Bobber

Pandemic Pondering #478

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Coffee Hunters, Moving House, Serendipity1 Comment

The end of the week coffee. Coffeeer than any other coffee, not as desperate as some and maybe not as chilled as a Sunday morning coffee. But still a landmark coffee. Today happens to be Friday but in my previous NHS life the end of the week could be any day.

Always celebrated at Black Sheep. Coffee to power me through the last 12 hours at Barts Heart Centre. Obviously the doughnuts are not part of an approved Cardiac Health Diet.

©Black Sheep
©Black Sheep

Today’s coffee from Hutong, hopefully doesn’t have such a big task. Or does it?

Today is flat pack furniture day!

https://g.co/kgs/pYQUqg

Pandemic Pondering #475

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Books, Moving HouseLeave a comment

Yesterday the hardware for our domestic WiFi was installed. Today at some point we should be back in the world of Broadband.

©Debs Bobber

The last three weeks have been frustrating. When we told our network at the old house that we had a moving date the company switched us off immediately. Installation at the new house has not been a smooth operation. Coupled with a very poor 3/4g signal at the new house we’ve been out of the loop. All news and entertainment was provided by a radio. We blagged our way into a friends house to watch the Euro 21 final on TV. Curry, football and a discussion about African Wax cloth was a great experience.

Emails and WhatsApp arrived in a bunch whenever we left home. It has been a great leveller, we are as out of touch with people a mile away as we are with friends and family all over the world. Face to distant face chat outdoors has been our most reliable form of contact.

©Debs Bobber

Yesterday more than 6 book group readers met in a garden to talk about a specific book. This is going to hurt by Adam Kay. ( mixed reviews) Then we shared our good reads of the past month.

All the lovely pictures in this blog were provided by Debs, a Bobber. Bobbing has probably kept us in the loop more reliably than anything else over the last few weeks. Three days a week, at least, regardless of the weather we all meet up at Tranquility Bay and swim and natter. Last night the bay reflected its name.

©Debs Bobber

And there may have been underwater seal activity.

Is this a seals eye. ©Debs Bobber

We await activation!

Pandemic Pondering #470

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Moving House, Serendipity1 Comment

We are broadband less, WiFi less and with a poor signal for 5 more days. 5 more days of constrained blogging. Gardening however is unaffected. The pot grown garden plants have perhaps done the best out of our recent move, they communicate in ancient ways, unaffected by the whimsy of telecom companies. A North and East facing corner plot swapped for South and West Facing yard suits them very well so far.

The move has not been without its casualties. One Acer struggled a bit with being potted then rallied but was beaten by bad weather and a trip in a van. The numbers of plants has not diminished as some new ones have arrived in the arms of precious friends.

Who needs broadband when you have views like this on the evening dog walk.

The sad truth is that in this techno age it is very difficult to navigate many things without a computer or smart phone or a decent signal. The challenge of going through the preliminary stages of a call centre 5 times or dropping out of an on-line ‘ chat’ is one that I am learning to accept with every day that passes. 5 more days will not be so bad.

In other news one of the Bobbers has escaped to London to visit the Hampton Court Flower Show. Seals and dolphins forgotten she is in Green Park with the Elephants.

©Gilly Bobber
©Gilly Bobber

Elephants like plants communicate perfectly well without Wifi. Note to self, be more Elephant.