The Lost Weekend

During my absence I had a long weekend, June 30th-July 3rd, with Andy Luke of Livejournal Fame (or is that Andy Luke of YouTube fame?).

Andy was due here Friday afternoon. At noon that day, the guy next door very kindly took mom’s clothes in his car for me, to donate to a local charity shop. Four bags, plus a bag of clothes hangers. Sorting that out really did my head in. It’s like another door closing, you know? I was depressed and went back to bed for a while. Andy arrived around 4.15pm; I finally woke up (again!) at 4.30, called him and explained the situation, and all was well.

Of course, I didn’t get into Brum to meet him for another two hours! And I ended up getting a taxi there, using the money I’d got from cashing some of the mountain of copper change mom had saved in the last three years. We had a drink in Bacchus then a curry in Aloha, a rather inappropriately named Indian restaurant. Got some booze in and headed home.

As Andy was a Placebo virgin, the very late hours were spent playing the hits DVD. I think he might be a convert. He didn’t drink much of aforementioned booze, but I made up for that…

So, Saturday I was kind of wrecked with a hangover. Ugh. The man next door came again to get the spare widescreen TV. A relative of his gave me £50 for it. His ringing the doorbell woke us up, and as I was hung over and only partly dressed, Andy answered. The money came in handy. Most of it got spent, somehow, by the end of Monday.

We decided to continue the Healthy Living diet by phone-ordering a pizza of the night—Cajun chicken with (hmmm) jalapenos. Great, except the delivery dude had serious problems with directions. It took the better part of two hours for the delivery to arrive, and that only after two phone calls to reiterate our location. *sigh* He gave us three quid off for the trouble. A good deal, as it was still warm.

I hear that during all this, England went out of the World Cup. Honestly, I have tried to lose a bit of sleep about this, but it just hasn’t worked. This is a polite way of saying, ‘Bollocks to the World Cup.’

Although ostensibly Andy was here in part to help with some of the painting that needs doing in the flat, nothing got done till Sunday afternoon. And he had to do it on his own. My mood’s been up and down quite violently since mom died, and most of the Sunday daytime was one of my down periods. I lolled around whining, mostly to myself, while Andy valiantly tackled painting the window frame/ledge of the living room. It turned out nicely, though.

Andy in the back garden on Sunday afternoon.

Monday afternoon was the Probate hearing for mom’s estate. Andy headed home after that. We had a major drama with fascistic railway staff before getting to the appointment—might write about that in more detail later. The hearing was very quick & painless in the end, and I should receive the paperwork any day now.

I was glad Andy came over. In spite of my moody period, it was fun. It helps me get through this difficult period.

Since then, I have talked to the man who owns the leasehold of this estate, and he is interested in buying the flat from me. His offer is a bit lower than market price, but given the state of the windows (they definitely need replacing), and the fact that I might be able to move within 6-8 weeks, I am leaning towards letting him have it.

More later.