Far From ...Anywhere

Well I am now an offcial resident of North Woolwich.

The move was immensely stressful. It took longer to load up the van than expected. My bedroom in HOlloway was on the 2nd floor so we had to carry everything downstairs.
At least the new flat was serviced by a lift.

By the time we had dropped by the estate agents to pick up the keys it was nearly 5pm and by the time we finished all the paper work and arrived at the Estate it was 6pm.

The cleaners were still inside and flapping about because there was no electricity and they couldn't clean properly. The light bulbs had all been removed from the fixtures and the fire alarm kept going off.

We couldn't get a hold of the Estate Agent to ask about the electric. One of our neighbours informed us that the electric metres are all kept in a cupboard in the hall. When we went to look it was looked and we had no key nor could we find anyone.

We went to the Building Manager's office who sold us a key for £5! He was quite shocked that it hadn't been provided with the rest of the house keys.

So then we had electricity but the place still needed a clean so Andrew, Tim's friend, drove us to Tesco so we could buy lightbulbs and toilet paper while the cleaner's finished up. The Tesco- at Galleon's Reach- was quite shocking. Quite possibily the biggest supermarket I have ever seen. It freaked Tim out with its sheer size over two floors.

We then realised the van didn't fit in the car park where we would have had step-free access to the lift. We had to park outside the front door and log things up a flight of stairs.

Andrew took things to the first floor. I loaded them onto the lift to the 4th floor and then passed them on to Tim. It was past 10pm when we finished.

A depressing array of bags, boxes and bits of disassembled furniture stood before us.

Then we discovered there was no hot water. But we were too tired to worry about it. We went for a Chinese Take Away. As we left the apartment building we noticed the full moon over the River Thames. We stood admiring it for a bit.

When we returned we ate our dinner on the balcony looking out at the river with our backs to the mess inside.