In my final week of work in the UK, with numb fingers from the bitter cold, I picked up a pile of drawings that I had to mark up. The set of about 10 drawings showed defects on 2 bridges in north Walsall, and I had to change them from 'defect sketches' to 'repair sketches'. What this entails is changing labels like '5mm crack in brickwork' to 'stitch repair to 5mm crack in brickwork'. Very tedious - typically I change about 15 notes on each drawing, even more tedious given that these were the 7th and 8th bridges where I had done the same thing for in 3 months! The really sad thing is that I first drew up the repair sketches a year ago - in which time not very much has happened.
Then, after I finished work, I spent 5 minutes putting on jumpers, coats, gloves and hats, and second pairs of socks, all to go to a shop 5 minutes away, and then spend another 5 mins taking all those clothes off. I think it's safe to say I was about ready to go somewhere with a warmer climate, and a new challenge in terms of a job.
Luckily, towards the end of November last year I arranged a new job, in the nice warm climate of Singapore. So, for the first time in my life I bought a one way air ticket from LHR to SIN, indulging myself with Singapore Airlines, mainly to protect my cello; cello didn't quite want to have to change planes halfway. In the two months prior to moving RR and I managed to pack up a whole house with 3 years of accumaltion, a new owner for my car, a new sofa to make it legal for me to rent my home, and then a group of 3 tenants willing to pay to live in my home. It all fell quite remarkably into place in the last two weeks, TNT's refusal to collect my last few boxes and and failed burglary attempts aside. (Just to clarify, that's people failed to burgle my empty home, not any attempt by myself to burgle anyone elses home.)
So - here I am, just moved into my room in RR's mothers. It's about 30 degrees outside, and all I really have is a suitcase and a cello, but I''m sure that things will work out. Start work on Monday - will let you know how that goes.
New sofa required for fire regs or something? Who are your new tenants? Students or professionals? And what's all this about a burglary attempt then...?
ReplyDeleteYeah - stupid fire regs to protect a smoker who would drop a fag end on it - ace huh? Even better as the foam poss was fire resistant, I just couldn't prove it :(
ReplyDeleteGot 3 professionals just moved in for 12 months. I suspect some ingenious thief knew the date the flat was available from, and tried to get in that night, but they didn't get any further than the kitchen window - so the alarm and windows did their job!