Is there no end to the busy?
I managed TWO runs up to BY to bring stuff back today! Before the first one I went out to post paper towels to eoforyth for her kids to plant cress on, and paid the TV rental while I was in the PO getting a Large Letter stamp for the above.
However, I was delayed for the first run because, as I was about thirty yards from the bottom of the street on the way to the PO, I heard a *thud* *CRASH* noise from behind me, and looked round to see that a bus, pulling out a bit to get past parked cars on Junction Road at the bottom of my street, had hit and knocked over a motorcyclist. There were people converging on the incident, and I didn't have my mobile on me, nor am I a qualified first-aider, so I watched till I was reasonably sure things were being taken care of, and went on. Only when I got back from the PO, the bus was parked right at the corner of the street, which would have made turning left at the bottom somewhat hazardous. (And there were police and an ambulance in attendance.) So I did a bit more tidying instead for half an hour.
I brought back a fairish load, after some sorting, including packing most of the rest of the kitchen stuff into one of the large boxes (in individual bags, to make unloading easier!). I also found my cross-stitch program CD, which I'd wanted to use a few days ago but it wouldn't run from the old HD on this machine - I knew it'd probably need re-installing, but couldn't find the disk. It was in one of the bags of Stuph from the bedroom up in BY, though, and I spotted it and extracted the folder with it (and some other Useful CDs/Info).
There's a noticeboard in the lobby at BY, and I noticed it had a poster for Cancer Research on it, with charity bags attached; when I read it closely, it invited people to take a bag, fill it, and return it to reception at BY, which is dead convenient. So I took one, filled it with the bits I'd got lying round the living room and some from the new load, and took it back when I went up later.
Though I had 'lunch' first - half a dozen crackers with butter and egg&spring onion sandwich filler. Then, because I'd had A Ninspiration (like A Nidea, but a brighter light bulb), I pulled the cooker out, detached the chain, pulled it out further, and plugged a three-way 1-metre extension lead into the socket that's supposedly for plugging a gas cooker into for the ignition - only since mine works from a battery, it doesn't need that. But ... the socket is *there*. And there's a power switch for it above the worktop. And there are NO ordinary sockets on that side of the cooker...
So I plugged in the 3-way (thank you, IKEA!), turned the power switch on, and lo! I have power! So I can now have my blender and coffee mill and mixer on that side of the worksurface. There's a double socket on the other side, over the medium-sized cupboard; currently the toaster and rechargeable mixer are plugged in there, but there isn't much space on top for them, and I think I need to think of something else to do with the spices, as I don't have a decent spice rack. I'm half-wondering if they'll just sit on the turntable I have that used to have the (old) TV on (before I got the swivelling-top cabinet, thank you IKEA). The three-way is not attached to the wall, though I found my stick-on Velcro squares so I might use a couple of those (they should hold OK on tile), but I've fixed it temporarily in place by using an adhesive cable grip to hold the flex just as it comes over the edge of the worktop.
One of the boxes was small kitchen tools, which I've put in the small drawer on the other side of the cooker; the other small drawer, next to the fridge, now has things like greaseproof paper and Teflon oven liners and so on in it. These drawers are stupidly shallow - I had ONE standard drawer in the previous set-up, and it held all my kitchen tools. Now? One medium one and one small one, and neither will shut properly unless you juggle stuff around. Grrr.
The second load of stuff is still mostly in the car - it includes the bag which I have identified as probably the one with spare T-shirts in. There's another bag I brought back yesterday which has clothes in, which I need to sort and triage, and pack into the vacuum roll-bags. The winter clothes, alas, are just in the back of the wardrobe in one of the big clear IKEA Dimpa bags.
How is it that I have at least four times as much work surface as before, and it's now completely COVERED in stuph? I need to move things around to make space for the coffee maker this evening - it's getting another few tries, and then if I'm still dissatisfied with it I'll donate it to the archery club. Or something.
ETA: Have also paid my car tax disc online, which apparently enters me into a prize draw for the chance to win one of three SEAT Ibizas. Chance would be a fine thing...
However, I was delayed for the first run because, as I was about thirty yards from the bottom of the street on the way to the PO, I heard a *thud* *CRASH* noise from behind me, and looked round to see that a bus, pulling out a bit to get past parked cars on Junction Road at the bottom of my street, had hit and knocked over a motorcyclist. There were people converging on the incident, and I didn't have my mobile on me, nor am I a qualified first-aider, so I watched till I was reasonably sure things were being taken care of, and went on. Only when I got back from the PO, the bus was parked right at the corner of the street, which would have made turning left at the bottom somewhat hazardous. (And there were police and an ambulance in attendance.) So I did a bit more tidying instead for half an hour.
I brought back a fairish load, after some sorting, including packing most of the rest of the kitchen stuff into one of the large boxes (in individual bags, to make unloading easier!). I also found my cross-stitch program CD, which I'd wanted to use a few days ago but it wouldn't run from the old HD on this machine - I knew it'd probably need re-installing, but couldn't find the disk. It was in one of the bags of Stuph from the bedroom up in BY, though, and I spotted it and extracted the folder with it (and some other Useful CDs/Info).
There's a noticeboard in the lobby at BY, and I noticed it had a poster for Cancer Research on it, with charity bags attached; when I read it closely, it invited people to take a bag, fill it, and return it to reception at BY, which is dead convenient. So I took one, filled it with the bits I'd got lying round the living room and some from the new load, and took it back when I went up later.
Though I had 'lunch' first - half a dozen crackers with butter and egg&spring onion sandwich filler. Then, because I'd had A Ninspiration (like A Nidea, but a brighter light bulb), I pulled the cooker out, detached the chain, pulled it out further, and plugged a three-way 1-metre extension lead into the socket that's supposedly for plugging a gas cooker into for the ignition - only since mine works from a battery, it doesn't need that. But ... the socket is *there*. And there's a power switch for it above the worktop. And there are NO ordinary sockets on that side of the cooker...
So I plugged in the 3-way (thank you, IKEA!), turned the power switch on, and lo! I have power! So I can now have my blender and coffee mill and mixer on that side of the worksurface. There's a double socket on the other side, over the medium-sized cupboard; currently the toaster and rechargeable mixer are plugged in there, but there isn't much space on top for them, and I think I need to think of something else to do with the spices, as I don't have a decent spice rack. I'm half-wondering if they'll just sit on the turntable I have that used to have the (old) TV on (before I got the swivelling-top cabinet, thank you IKEA). The three-way is not attached to the wall, though I found my stick-on Velcro squares so I might use a couple of those (they should hold OK on tile), but I've fixed it temporarily in place by using an adhesive cable grip to hold the flex just as it comes over the edge of the worktop.
One of the boxes was small kitchen tools, which I've put in the small drawer on the other side of the cooker; the other small drawer, next to the fridge, now has things like greaseproof paper and Teflon oven liners and so on in it. These drawers are stupidly shallow - I had ONE standard drawer in the previous set-up, and it held all my kitchen tools. Now? One medium one and one small one, and neither will shut properly unless you juggle stuff around. Grrr.
The second load of stuff is still mostly in the car - it includes the bag which I have identified as probably the one with spare T-shirts in. There's another bag I brought back yesterday which has clothes in, which I need to sort and triage, and pack into the vacuum roll-bags. The winter clothes, alas, are just in the back of the wardrobe in one of the big clear IKEA Dimpa bags.
How is it that I have at least four times as much work surface as before, and it's now completely COVERED in stuph? I need to move things around to make space for the coffee maker this evening - it's getting another few tries, and then if I'm still dissatisfied with it I'll donate it to the archery club. Or something.
ETA: Have also paid my car tax disc online, which apparently enters me into a prize draw for the chance to win one of three SEAT Ibizas. Chance would be a fine thing...