Effecting The Transition

Sam's original idea was to buy the house so she could rent it to her sister. Now she and her sister are buying it together and planning to rent it outside the family. Sam says she'll paint everything cream and have the hall floor professionally polished.

We've gone out to lunch every day this week. We eat in supermarket cafes. Ailz thinks Morrison's offers the best value- and the pensioners of Failsworth seem to agree.

In the evening I eat bread and soup. Last night I settled into my comfy chair, rested my computer on my knees and watched a recent episode of Poirot.

Everywhere there are plastic bags. They contain books, CDs, DVDs, clothes, soft toys, miscellaneous junk. I wonder how many we'll be able to fit in the car.

Ailz's mother is coming to accept the situation. She works herself up towards one of her routines of self-pity and then realizes what she's doing and stops short.

There are two things we can do about the large items of furniture. The first is get some huckster to cart them away. The second- which is the one we've come to favour- is hire a van and take them down to Kent. Matthew has agreed on principle to be our van driver and removals man.

Facing Up To What's There

I did what I said I wasn't going to do and went up into the attic.

O dear.

Much of the gear isn't even ours, but stuff we're storing for other people.

Last time I saw Joe I reminded him there is pile- amounting to a hillock- of video casettes up there, purchased by him with his squaddie's pay.  He laughed and deflected the conversation elsewhere.

There are surprises. For instance a box full of Transformers. Those are Mike's. I think he'll actually be pleased to have them back.