Extremely grateful to my top friends Paul Morricone and Steven Morricone for their invaluable assistance in one of the most tortuous and protracted house moves conceivable. It started with a super-generous offer from Morricone (P) to use the Rockmobile as removals van to help me get down to Brum. Then, at around 9.30am on Saturday I get a call to say nothing to worry about but the battery is flat so the AA are on their way out to get it going and then well be off. They duly do, and Paul gets to mine only 45 minutes behind schedule. No biggie. The first job is to drop off an old cathode ray at the tip, but once again the van doesnt start, and unfortunately this time the AA wont cover it as Pauls now not at his house. I do however have breakdown recovery through my bank account. So I call them up and they patch me through to the breakdown people and they explain that - in the exact opposite of Pauls policy - if if the vehicle is outside my house then Im NOT covered (but am everywhere else) so they wont come out. However as luck would have it I had changed my home address to the new address with the bank the day before. So called them and they managed to negotiate it with the breakdown people to convince them its not (now) my home and to come out. They they say because its a long wheel vehicle its a commercial vehicle and not covered. Again, they eventually relent and say theyll come out. In the meantime, we agree that if the van gets running again it may be wise not to stop it, but theres not enough fuel to get it back (or anywhere really), so I head out in my little car with a jerrycan to find some diesel with my neighbour who is unfortunate enough to be home and happy to help! We take the old TV and the jerrycan and get that done. By the time the AA get there, they say that the van isnt going to make it, but they can get it started. They do and Paul drives it back intending to come back with his car and well try doing it in two trips. By coincidence, Pauls brother Steve happens to be up with a transit van in Sheffield picking up a massive cooker. He massively kindly agrees to try and get what he can in the remaining space in the transit. However now we have substantially less space than wed anticipated, so extra brutality is now required with regards to furniture rationalisation. My beloved work desk is donated to next door (with Paul and myself assisting Kevin get it down from the top floor of my house and then the Exorcist type very large staircase at the side of the house to their house, and then back up again to the fourth floor of their house) and pretty much anything made of wood is ditched and put on the firewood pile to feed their log burner. After this Steve detours via mine and between us we get pretty much everything into the two most efficiently packed small cars in the world plus some bits and bobs around the cooker and treadmill in Steves car. Finally we head off to Birmingham just in time to hit almighty city traffic heading into town for the Christmas market (the biggest in the country) meaning that we finally get to the flat at 9pm, a mere 7 hours behind schedule. Steve shoots back down to the South West with his van and Paul and I - by this stage - NEED some dinner (and beer). Alas, by the time were out again its gone 10pm and the Christmas market has closed, but we find a posh curry house - they seem happy to ignore the fact that I honk of diesel - where we orer the Presidents Platter (including a whole curried lobster!) and then find a jazz bar where an actual genuine 1993-vintage Acid Jazz band is playing live (for free). Their owner has obviously taken good care of them in the intervening twenty years as they appear in good working order, must have recently had a service, and with the aid of much Brooklyn Beer fun is had. Obviously nothing that was meant to be working in the flat was, but as of about half hour ago things are finally up and running and Im now a Brummie resident.... just the small matter of unpacking now in among the mountain of work to do!
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 09:50:04 +0000
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