Garrulous Geek

I'm getting properly scared about the new house and new job and stuff. What if this is a horrible place to live? What if our neighbours are horrendous? What if the house falls apart? As for the job... what if I can't do it? What if I get sacked for being inept? What if all my colleagues hate me? Argh!

I guess things should be clearer by next weekend, when I'm a bit more settled in the house and I get back from my first night away meeting work people and stuff. Till then, I'll just be here getting all nervous. Stay tuned, as they say in TV land.

We've come about 120 miles as it happens, so there you go. We got into our new house on Saturday. We packed the van in about 2 hours on Friday, with much help from friends, then drove up in a sort of convoy on Saturday. A friend from church drove the van for us, I drove our car with some luggage and the cat, and my mum took Alison and baby Beth. We got unpacked in an hour, which was quite amazing, and spent the rest of the evening getting stuff out of boxes and reassembling flat pack furniture. The latter is still going on two days later.

It's weird being in our new house. It's kinda freaking me out, in a way that I've not felt when I've moved house before. Perhaps it's something to do with this being the first time we've actually bought a place. I feel quite edgy about it, and at the moment it feels like I'm living in someone else's house or something. I guess I'll get used to it. I'm sure it'll feel better once we get all the boxes unpacked and get our stuff sorted out and get things looking a bit more homely.

Work starts next Thursday, which is kinda scary. I'm getting nervous about that now. I'm going to be a businessman in a suit... weird. The whole training thing is kinda nerve-wracking too, especially as it means leaving Ali and Beth alone for a week at a time. I'll be away for most of September, which sucks. So, if anyone wants to visit to keep Ali company and lend a hand, that'd be most welcome!

Right. I'd best be off. More in a few days, probably.

I went to London over the weekend for Sophie and Max' wedding. I headed down on the Friday morning (in my kilt and a t-shirt, proving not only that I am at the height of fashion, but that I am also quite brave) and got into Richmond to meet Julie and Izz (whose account of the day can be found here by the way) at about 11. We had lunch, got changed and met up with everyone else as and when they arrived.

The service was at 3, and was very nice. The church was lovely - quite an old building (Colin reckoned Georgian) and a far cry from the concrete box I got married in! The service went well, and the Canon was very keen and worth listening to. Above all, it was great to see Sophie and Max get married. I'm very pleased to see them manage it at last, as I know they've been waiting a while for it. They're so much in love and really good for each other, so it's brilliant to see them married.

Julie, Izz and myself headed off to the reception, via the hotel to check in and drop off luggage, which was a bit of a pain as the traffic was appalling and as such it took us over an hour to make the round trip of about 3 miles. So, by the time we got back to the reception all the photos were done. Still, we made it into the final group photo so that's something. Then we got on with the important business of celebrating, by which I of course mean eating and drinking a lot. It was good to see everyone from uni, who I've been slack and not seen in ages, and doubly good to see them over a very nice meal. The ceilidh afterwards was fun, though as per usual alcohol impeded proper execution of the steps, no matter how clearly they were explained! Good fun nonetheless. I normally can't stand dancing, but I do enjoy ceilidhs. Perhaps it's because someone else is telling me where to put my legs and arms, so there's significantly less chance of me embarrassing myself or injuring a fellow dancer with my "moves".

We said farewell to Sophie and Max at about 11:30 and then headed back to the hotel. Thanks to a bit of confusion over the booking, I wound up sharing a double bed with my (male) friend Alex. Ho hum. Still, we figured it was less dubious than my sharing with Ju or Izz, so there you go!

Anyway, before I get to the rest, here's a couple of photos from the wedding:

Here's Sophie in her dress:



Here's Sophie and Max after they cut the cake:



Here's Sophie and Max dancing:



Here's some random dude who evidently pinched my camera at some point:



On Saturday we all went our separate ways. I went back to Richmond to meet up with my friend Nikki Wilson, who I've not seen since my own wedding. She lives in the same end of London as I was visiting, so it made sense to see her while I was there. She's just announced her engagement, so we had a good long chat about weddings and marriage. Good stuff. After which meeting I got the train back to Leicester and my wife, daughter and bombsite house.

On which note... packing is going OK, though it's hard work. Things are just about getting sorted with the solicitors, though I'll not be resting easy until I'm in the new house on Saturday. It should be OK, though it does hinge on a lot of money making it's way to the relevant people in time for completion on Friday. If anyone feels like praying for the banks to get it done, please do!

Well, in contrast to the instructions above I have elected to keep my old bank statements and throw away my old love letters...

I spent yesterday sorting through our box of important documents, and organised all our bank statements for our joint account. I have 33, and I'm only missing 2 since we opened the account. I spent today digging through loads of old letters and diaries and decided to throw most of them away. It feels kinda weird, because it's a bit like throwing away history, if you can do such a thing. It's like destroying the past, or at least making a concerted effort to forget it.

Throwing away old love letters is fairly easy to justify... I guess most people do that each time they break up with someone. I'd kept most of the letters from each of the 5 relationships I've been in, except for the correspondence from the first one, which I burnt and threw the remnants of into the Dee... Inventive, no? But I digress... The point is, I'd kept quite a lot of old letters up till now, but I can't really figure why. I imagine the point of the quoted lyrics is that some day you might want to look back on a time when someone loved you, or whatever, but that doesn't really seem all that necessary now that I'm married and intending to stay that way until death do us part. So, I'm getting rid of a whole load of old love letters.

Diaries is a bit harder to square in some ways. My mum once told me that one of her biggest regrets was getting rid of her old diaries. (For reference my dad says that one of his biggest regrets was selling his record collection when he was younger, so there you go.) However, my diaries are mostly just miserable semi-emo whinings, which is hardly a great surprise as my teenage years were resoundingly crap. I'm not really in a hurry to read about years of bullying, teenage angst and the all pervading dearth of women. On the other hand, I'm not sure I need to read about all the ups and downs of my relationships once the latter problem was resolved, now that I'm married to someone else. In all truth, reading my old diaries is like reading about the life of someone else. Most of it I just can't connect with. I really was a different person back then, before various women (Tamsin, Rachel, Laura, Alison, mostly in that order) helped to sort me out. So, thanks ladies...

Right. This post was a bit emo in itself, so I'd better cut it short here, especially as I need to go and feed my daughter. Catch you all again soon.

PS. I've fixed it so comments can be posted!

Some good friends of ours did us a big favour and took Beth off our hands for the afternoon, giving us some peace and letting Ali catch up on some sleep. Beth has thrush in her mouth and Ali is feeling none too well, so feeding has become something of an ordeal, and we were very much in need of a break! We had to take Beth to the emergency doctor on Saturday on account of it, but fortunately she was prescribed some medicine for the thrush and appears to be improving.

So, that's the naff side of parenting... On the groovy side, Beth is learning to smile which is really cute, and is also getting some more control over her arms and hands so she should start developing well on those lines in the near future. She's also growing, and we're having to put her in 0-3 clothes rather than newborn now. She's nearly 8 weeks old... It seems very quick, but at the same time life without her seems a world away (6th quote down).

We went up to see my parents last week. It was good to take Beth away from home for the night for the first time, and get a taste of travelling with her. My parents and sister were glad to see her. They even got to look after her for an afternoon while Ali and I went to the solicitors to talk about all the house moving stuff. Things seem to be moving along well. Contracts should be exchanged by the end of this week, and we're moving the following saturday. It's all happening now! We're making a good start on packing, though obviously it's a bit difficult as it has to be fitted in around looking after Beth. As I think I said last time - I don't really like seeing all my stuff packed into boxes. It kinda makes you think about how much of your life you base around possessions and so on, which can be a bit of a can of worms when you really start thinking about it... Ah, materialism. Anyway.

Besides that... We're enjoying Season 3 of 24 on DVD (purchased on ebay for but £14 - get in), which we'll hopefully finish before I head off for training for most of September. I'm also finding myself somewhat charmed by Will Young's new single and it's Blue Peter video. So there you go then.

Oh, and I'm off to my friends' Sophie and Max' wedding on Friday. It should be a good laugh, and I'm looking forward to caileighing in my kilt again... I'll try to get some photos up sometime after that, in what will probably be my last entry from this house. See you then.