Moving (PM)

There is both nothing worse and nothing better than moving house.*  The packing, the sorting, the deciding what comes and what's trash. The lifting, the carrying, the more lifting and more carrying. The cleaning. And that's just for the good moves. Once when moving house in the pouring rain, the heretofore perfectly fine bathroom roof leaked and flooded the bathroom. Not our problem. But really it was. In that move LB and I didn't even have a real house to move to, we just had to get out of that shoebox and away from our crazy landlord who lived next door. That night at a party at Miguel and Legsly's, very tired and very drunk LB and I had a terrible fight, then slept on our mattress which was on a pile of our belongings in the back of the car out the front of Miguel and Legsly's place. Another time when we were moving house in the pouring rain I drove a car load of stuff and 2-month-old Baby to our new home while LB drove a truckload of stuff plus our mattress strapped to the top of the truck. This is one of those stories where it is worth noting that at the start I mentioned the pouring rain. Somehow the mattress fell off the top of the truck in peak Punt Road traffic and was by this stage so waterlogged all LB could manage was dragging it to the side of the road before driving away hoping no one took down his plates. I guess that mattress would have been good for nothing anyway after the amount of water it took in.

But, when the moving is all done and you are in your new place there is so much promise, promise of a new lovely space to organise and beautify, not yet overwhelmed by the debris of everyday life, promise of all the good times you will have. Last year when I moved house right about now I was so happy. The move was smooth and it didn't rain at all. Everything arrived at the new place in tact. The space was clean and fresh and, back then, fit all our stuff. When the house you move to is good and it's a new year and exciting things are gonna happen and all your walls are white, that, that is pretty, pretty, pretty good.



*Not an actual fact. Actually it is absolutely untrue, so many things are worse than moving house and many things are better, but you didn't come here for facts right?