On Thu, 17 Oct 2013 21:57:06 +0100, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

>>> Holy hell, I'm back! :-D
>>
>> Welcome back!  How was the move, and how's the new place?
> 
> The move wasn't too bad. Dealing with my mother was a total PITA of
> course. If I could have done things slowly and carefully it would have
> been much easier than having her hurrying me along every three seconds.
> Needless to say, I now have a significant amount of shelves, due to my
> mother's shelf obsession.

Ah, now if I'd known that, I could've sent you some bookcases we just 
gave away. ;)

> For a while it's been like living in a campsite here. Only recently have
> I got everything straightened out enough that it actually feels like
> home, not a temporary hotel or something.

That's great! :)

> During daylight I really love my new flat. At night, it creeps me out
> that the entire world can see me through the paper-thin curtains, and
> everyone in the building can hear me. I really need some decent
> curtains; so I can have some privacy, and so I'm not heating the street
> every time I turn the heating on.

Ah, *that's* what I was seeing.  I wondered. ;)

Good curtains are a good thing - we've got some windows in the back of 
our place that don't have interior coverings (we have exterior shades on 
three of the bigger windows - they help keep the place cool in the 
summer).

> Other than that, my PC was pretty much the last major thing to get set
> up. I'm still waiting for a sofa to arrive, but I've got a table and
> chairs. The flat came with a working cooker, freezer and washing
> machine. The electric hob takes some getting used to; you have to turn
> it on about 20 minutes before you want to cook anything, and once it's
> hot it'll stay hot for 20 minutes after you turn it off. In short,
> there's no way of controlling the amount of heat the food gets. On the
> other hand, the fan oven should make baking a lot easier...

We found adjustments to cooking times were necessary when we replaced our 
electric cooker - we had a gas stove/dual oven in the basement that 
wasn't being used when we moved in (though there was a second kitchen in 
the basement - a "mother-in-law" apartment is, we think, what the 
previous owner's intention was), and we had it restored and moved 
upstairs.  It's really nice to have, and I know we'll miss it when we 
move (which may happen before the end of the year).

> I especially enjoyed that the paperwork for the flat contains the manual
> for the previous boiler, and not the one presently fitted. :-D

That sounds familiar.  When we moved in here, we found several old 
instruction manuals for all sorts of stuff that was no longer here.

> It's really wonderful to be able to come home and just COOK something.
> No more trying to second-guess what my mother is going to do; I can just
> EAT! This is why I moved out. Well, that and the ability to actually
> have visitors.

That's definitely a plus. :)

> Speaking of which, several of the people at my dance class seem to be
> under the impression that there will be a house-warming party. I kinda
> like the idea of that, but I don't know how many humans you can fit in a
> one-bed flat, and I'm also not sure exactly what I would *do* with them
> once they're here... we shall see.

I don't know about in the UK, but here in the US, it's been my experience 
that with that type of gathering, people tend to come and go.  Put some 
music on, get some light snacks (chips, dip, pizza, that sort of thing - 
and drinks, of course) and invite people to come over.  Get to know and 
invite your neighbors as well - that's a great way to reduce the chances 
of a noise complaint from them. :)

People tend to just gather and socialize, have a drink or two, and then 
may wander off.  My son did something like this when he and his SO got 
their place - with only a couch, they got a bunch of pillows/cushions so 
people could sit on the floor.  They played video games and such as well.

> My last bank statement was scary. It's alarming to see the money out
> column has MORE DIGITS in it than the money in column. :-S Welcome to
> never having any money ever again. ;-)

I know *that* story. ;)  It's been over 2 years since I was laid off and 
started working for myself.  While I could make a lot per month if I put 
in a full work week each week, I tend to work about 4 hours a day on 
average, really just enough to keep paying the bills.

> Oh, and my boss tells me I might want to update my CV, because the
> company *may* go under shortly. O_O
> 
> (NOW you tell me?!)

Eep.  Always a good thing to keep the CV current, just in case.  I wish 
I'd done that in the years leading up to my layoff - it was much harder 
to remember and provide specifics on projects I worked on (things like 
savings, revenue impacts, that sort of thing - if you work on stuff where 
you have that information available).

We're looking to probably move to Seattle by the end of the year; if we 
can get what we want for our house, that'll give us a little money in the 
bank to cover moving expenses and hopefully about a year's worth of rent 
(we've decided to rent a flat rather than buy a place, at least until we 
have decided on a place we want to invest in).  That's one of the nice 
things about owning a place and fixing it up - you can make money on it 
when you sell it. :)

Jim

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