Site Meter

Monday, July 25, 2005

Well, that was horrible.

We were woken up by the phone ringing this morning : our furniture had arrived, way earlier than scheduled, at the storage place, and there was no-one available to unload it. After a few panicky phone calls to the moving people (not in yet) and the storage people (amiable yet utterly unhelpful) we flung ourselves into the car and drove the hour into Gloucester so that we could unload the damn stuff ourselves.

When we arrived there things weren't quite as disastrous as we'd feared - the moving company had in fact organised a crew to unload our things, so we didn't have to exert ourselves. We did, however, have to stand in the freezing wind and intermittent drizzle for two hours, ticking things off a blurry, almost unreadable carbon copy of the inventory. My fingers were actually numb by the time I was done; I could barely hold my pen. The unloading crew thought it was hysterically funny when we spotted some of our wardrobe boxes and ripped them open in search of our warm jackets. (Which we found, thank God, moments before we succumbed to hypothermia). It's hard to believe that just a few days ago the weather was absolutely glorious.

Once our things were safely in their new mini-containers, we had to fill out some forms for the storage place. The chap running the place had a freakish resemblance to John Cleese in his Basil Fawlty incarnation, and went over every tiny detail in excruciating, mind-numbing detail. I had no idea it was possible to make such a meal out of a simple storage agreement. I wish I'd had a hidden video camera on me; he had to be seen to be believed.

Meanwhile, the job hunting continues. Bobby now has three possibilities in York and several in London. We are really hoping that one of the York ones comes through. Though, if today's icy cold experience is anything to go by, we may not be hardy enough to survive up there.

So, today was rather hellish, but yesterday was good. We went into Gloucester to the climbing gym, which is very cool. Lots of high walls, tons of lead climbing and lots of interesting little details. Like, you can boulder up to a mezzanine level, and, from there, climb a fireman's ladder to another area. Then, from that third area, you can boulder up to a huge bouldering cave. (There is a back route with regular stairs for non-climbers.)

The people at the gym were very friendly, most unlike the climbers we've run into outdoors, who have been very offish. I don't think it's an indoor/outdoor thing, as these folk mostly seem to only climb indoors when the weather is bad. I suspect that people here only become friendly once you've proved your competence, as it were, because I saw people kind of watching us before they got chatty. Seems kind of snobbish if that is the case ... maybe I'm wrong, I hope so.

No comments: