Weekend

Well I think it's fair to say this has been one of the less scintillating two-day periods of my life. I feel as though I managed to bore myself deeply while simultaneously not achieving very much. I hate moving. And I especially hate moving when I can't even unpack into a new an exciting home but have to pile everything into boxes and live out of suitcases for the foreseeable future. I just want everything to be in its place!

Yesterday woke up to discover the sore throat had developed into a full blown cold. Got up and moved two full car loads of stuff from mine to Al's - each car load takes 4 trips in the lift up to his flat. I suppose I should be grateful he at least has a lift. It was strange driving in daylight. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the dashboard - it looked somehow different. Was an alarm light on? Nope - just the fact that the headlight icon was off was so unusual it freaked me out.

Had two people come to look round the flat, one of whom seemed to like it and was also the ideal tenant - a nice quiet single nurse. The other guy said it was nice but had no room for a music studio, which is fair enough.

Couldn't believe it when the nurse said she'd seen other places at the same price smaller and not as nice. It's on at £545 a month! I can get a three bedroom house in Clackmannanshire for that, or I could if we weren't so damn fussy.

An update on this: there's nothing out there good enough! I rang a couple of agents to explain what we were after: rural, detached, with a garage or storage. One of them was great and agreed to keep in touch. One said, 'Oh, we've a lovely two bed flat in Alloa - very handy for the town centre.' Er, hello? Which part of 'rural and detached' did you not understand?

So now I'm stuck in limbo, surrounded by boxes. Al's flat was already stuffed to the gunnels with his stuff, so mine is mostly just abandoned. There are two crates of groceries in the middle of the kitchen floor. And I can understand how we might end up with two of everything, but how come we've got three open bags of plain flour, four packets of lasagne sheets and 50,000 jars of peppercorns?

Retired early to bed with Lemsip last night so missed the make-up hill training I was going to do. Dragged myself up today to do my long run, which actually cleared my head a bit. Did four and half miles to Murrayfield and back along the Water of Leith, so nine miles altogether. People getting ready for the rugby at the stadium, which I later watched the first 20 minutes of before decided I wouldn't be missing anything if I kept packing. (We lost, as usual, though in the face of some pretty terrible refereeing).

Lots of folk out walking along the river, which was higher than I've seen it ever: at one point you have to cross a footbridge, turn round and then go under the bridge. The water here was right on the footpath and only needed to be a couple of inches deeper to make it impassable. Lots of dogs out too. I was literally tripping over black labradors. They're everywhere! I must have seen ten or twelve of them. I'm definitely not getting one now - why be like everyone else? I also surprised one poor old golden lab who was obviously a bit deaf and didn't here me till I overtook him, when he jumped out of his skin. Most people were lovely and said hello but as always there were packs who blocked the whole path and then milled around failing to create a way through when I said 'Excuse me'. Also an annoying young couple who were walking towards me and could see me coming from miles away but still didn't see fit to stop holding hands or even huddle together a bit so I could pass. Grr!

Then back to the flat for another car load. Still loads to go - books, pots and pans and CDs, mostly. Said I try and get it cleared by next weekend. But what I really need is somewhere to put it.

Anyway, digging out all the food from the back of my cupboards had one positive effect, as I realised I had the ingredients for both a pre-dinner snack of stilton, crackers and grapes and a vodka and tonic. With fresh lemon, no less. Much needed.