Well perhaps not quite so emergency as it was.

So on Wednesday i was reasonably happy that the whole lock up thing was essentially sorted - when i got to GOC i bought a sack barrow so i was all set to do the move on Thursday. It seemed too good to be true, moving stuff just a few metres along the block and when we went to sort everything on Thursday morning it turned out it was. Yup, the potential landlord withdrew the offer so we were now half a week into the notice period and getting a little fraught to say the least. Commercial lock ups were all way beyond the available budget, any 'home' solution would take too long to sort out, things were looking grim.

Well to cut a long story short, I've been saved once again by Bev, she's an angel as far as i'm concerned! She was in Sheffield at the crack of dawn with a big van which we then spent something close on 4 hours filling to the gunwhales with all my worldly possessions. Then we've driven for 4 hours back to Brizzle - she really is a gem, tomorrow morning i'll be emptying everything into what was going to be the bike workshop. I'll be spending a lot of time inthe coming weeks sorting and consolidating everything, there will be more heading towards Ebay thats for sure.

It feels sort of final, my personal connection to Sheffield has been severed and whilst on one level it will be nice to have my possessions close to hand, i feel more isolated than ever. On the positive side, I'll be able to work on my Gaby photo stories again, all my camping gear will be at hand and visits north won't be dominated by visits to sort out/exchange things and spending literally hours searching for stuff. And there is a lot of stuff, books, vinyl, the Gluhwein mug collection, tools, model car collection, clothing, postcard collection, bikes & bike gear, camping stuff, shoes, dolls, maps - as well as more mundane stuff like kitchen equipment, presents in waiting for the grandson and a bit of furniture.

I will be going back up to GOC next week to get the crap that accumulated in the LU into a skip but for now at least that will be the end of this latest saga.

So thank you again Aunty Bev, you really are a life saver.

Madeline Anafrid