Leaving work heading for the UK

[pederito1]

I wish you all the Best of British Luck and of course with HMRC.

[Diflower]

Why should you provide a service, when they're not obliged to provide you with work?

Good luck Suff, hope it goes well x

[Cal]

All the best, hope everything works out well.

[Suff]

Thanks all,

Quick update.

I finally got the apartment packed up at around midnight. I then brought the car round and hauled it down two precipitous flights of stairs and out, across the bus route, to the car. TV, PC, two large cases, 7 large boxes, sundry bags and one table top freezer. To give you an idea I have a Peugeot 807. It had two seats in it folded down and my large metal box (3ft by 1.5ft by 1ft) in the back. It was stuffed to the roof with a small gap in the middle to see through the back.

Aching and sweaty I left Brussels for Dunkirk at 1am. I got to the ferry an hour early and sat until we could get on. To reiterate, I had left home on Sunday at around 19:30, arrived in Brussels at 02:30 and got to bed on the Monday morning at 05:00. I went into work at 10am and then came back at about 11:30 and slept till 5pm...

So I arrived at the ferry boarded, had a coffee in the private lounge and crashed on one of the three seater settee's for 2 hours whilst the ferry took an additional half hour to do the journey. I got off at Dover and drove straight to Lincoln without stopping. I'd stopped for fuel at the Dunkirk Cora before boarding the ferry and had a full tank. I stopped at my parents, loaded up the two Freesat recorders I had ordered and they had for me, stopped for a toilet break, coffee and sandwich and headed on up the road after 45 minutes.

I had to check in for the Big Yellow storage before I got to Edinburgh and they closed at 6pm. I needed to be there for 5pm latest. I stopped short of Edinburgh and did the check in on my netbook off my phone data. When I started the car again it sounded a bit noisy so I got out, had a look under the car to see the exhaust had a 3" tear in it... Great. 10 miles later on it sheared off completely...

I arrived at the storage, did the paperwork, signed my life away and loaded my stuff into the double telephone box storage. It fitted just and the large trolley and large lifts were just "bliss"...

Back on the road with a roaring exhaust and I struggled to keep awake. I had been on the go for 25 hours with a short nap on the sofa... I arrived at my friends and was as polite as I could be whilst drooping. I managed to get my stuff in and get organised, ate, chatted for a while, ironed some clothes and headed for bed.

Day 1 and I nearly missed the train, still travel lagged.
Day 2 and I got up early, took the car to Kwik Fit before they opened and forgot to leave the keys with my friend....
Day 2 afternoon, left work early to get to Kwik Fit with the key so they could do the work on the exhaust today, meeting ran late, fast train was cancelled (snow and ice killing the signals....), missed the slow train, waited half an hour and took the next fast train which was delayed by half an hour. Got to Kwik Fit in time to give them the keys and let them do the work tomorrow.

Tonight I was looking for Accommodation and found a fully furnished one bedroom apartment, available now, came on the site today, within a 5 minute walk from a train station, £475pcm. I've mailed them, going to phone them first thing tomorrow and see if I can get the car back and do the deal by Sat afternoon.

Hopefully next week will settle down and life will return to semi normal.

It may have been a bit of a wild ride, but I got a lot done at home, I have almost my entire apartment here in Edinburgh ready for when I need to move in, I closed out work in a few hours and by Monday I'll be settled and working on a project which will appreciate what I can do rather than moan that I don't like crossing i's and dotting t's I like getting stuff done. But when everyone who is supposed to be doing work is dotting i's and crossing t's it's impossible for me to get anything done....

My old work is not amused... The agency started getting cranky but it was not until they threatened to sue me that I asked them to re-read the contract they asked me to sign. Then they started becoming reasonable again. I've agreed to head back to Brussels and do a 2 day handover (if it takes more than 2 hours I'll be surprised), at the end of the month, for which they will pay me. I will get my bike and ride it back over the weekend so for me it's a twofer...

I guess most people would probably have spent a week doing what I have just done. I learned in the Army that you do it now and do it fast and get it over with then you have time to yourself afterwards. The longer it takes the more pain it causes in the end.

I didn't mention the fun with changing my Belgian Mobile Vikings second phone over to EE pre pay.... Or being stuck on the £1 expired contract with no way of getting it working and the helpdesk off till the morning. I phoned them this morning and was "grumpy" with them. They removed the £1 pack, enabled my £15 pack, instead of me having to wait 6 days for it to expire, then refunded me the 25p the call costs. I guess I can't complain too much no matter how irritated I was with them.... This post is being written on that phone data...

Have fun guys.

[saundra]

Good planning and organization
Work wonders

[Kaz]

Well done Suff!!

[molly]

Blimey Suff………where do you get the energy?

You are now living in my favourite city……I am jealous.

[Suff]

Not really energy, just slow dogged determination and flirting with exhaustion most of the time. TGIF....

I've viewed the apartment. It will do but there was someone else viewing it before me (it had been on the market less than 48 hours) and both details will be sent to the landlord. The previous tenants had done a lot of damage which had to be repaired, including the replacement of the (newly bought), settees.

I've offered to pay double rent as a deposit if the landlord is worried. Let's see how it goes. I have the car back and I've found a deal for my mobile I was missing. I'll post about that in another post.

It's been a bit up and down. I did the viewing today, went to the estate agents and filled out the forms then tried to go to the Vodafone shop, a few doors down. To find it blocked off with a helpful notice telling me they are rebuilding the shop and will "be with us soon"... Not helpful. A quick check on the web told me that the only store open later than 17:30 was ocean view in Edinburgh and given I was over the bridge in the rush hour that was never going to happen.

My shoes are falling off my feet since I lost a stone in weight so I went to Brantano in Glenrothes and bough some new Clarks. I also wanted some black trainers as my right foot is playing up again. Really I wanted to use the right one to wear to work from time to time whilst I had the normal shoe on my left foot. I found a box labelled £10 with reeboks in it labelled as "different sizes". The right trainer was an 11 (which fits snugly) and the left was a 12 which was a bit loose but viable with a thicker sock. When I got to the till the £10 became £9. That'll do.

More surfing for properties tonight. I think I'm going to push the price up a bit so I get less competition and see where it goes. Biggest problem is available entry dates which are trending Feb/March which is too far out.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[Kaz]

Good luck!

[Suff]

This looks interesting though. I'll see if I can get a viewing tomorrow, it's just down the road from where I'm staying.