jingle jangle... click!

[myz_lilith]

myz_lilith and lykeios welcome you to the grand opening of Leeds Lodge

So, finally after what seems like months of slogging round houses and badgering agents and fretting about credit searches and references and notice periods, today we finally got to collect the keys to our new place. Although wasn't too impressed when I turned up there this morning on an advanced scouting and meter reading trip and found that next door neighbour's cars were ~still~ parked on our drive, and that the kitchen still held no trace of a cooker. Aaaaaargh! However as it turned out this was no bad thing, went back to the agents and they most efficiently chased people to do things, which included the landlord offering to come and sort out the oven immediately if we were desperate, and being wonderfully grateful that we were prepared to wait until tomorrow. There's still a few niggly things such as missing keys to deal with (the back door could at present be better classified as a wall) but I feel a lot better about dealing with them now I've seen how quickly people acted to get stuff sorted out, and how nice they were... On top of that have been stupidly organised and sorted out gas, leccy, insurance, my bed, booked a van to move things in (brooom! I like driving vans) and even persuaded the job centre that I should be allowed to sign on on Wednesday this week so we have all day Tuesday to shift stuff.

Next fun thing to do (apart from packing and actually moving stuff cos even thinking about that at the mo is waaaaay too exhausting) is to get in touch with Housing Benefit people and explain that I would quite like to actually get some kind of payment for the past two months, so if this requires a home visit could they kindly get their arses in gear and get round here pronto before I move... and then explain that they will have to then come back and see the new place (it's cheaper which is one of the reasons I'm moving so hopefully they should be ok with that) Fun stuff to do should they ever actually show up in the new place will be convincing them that Kris and I are not actually partners, and are sharing rather than living together. Considering the number of our friends that still refuse to believe we're not secretly going out this may be a mighty struggle, but I'm hoping that housing benefit peoples might not have such nasty suspicious minds. Or at least that the fact there are TWO SEPERATE BEDROOMS might convince them.

Still feeling a little nervy about sharing a place with Kris, but I think that's only natural. I still remember sharing a house with my best friend when I started Uni, and it being absolute hell and us never really being close ever again. But that was the kind of best friend that you go to the pub and shopping with, but never have to see any other side of each other until you're living in the same house. Whereas Kris and I are far closer than that, have experienced all the good bad and ugly we can throw at each other, have tried to kill each other on several occasions (Merrion security may still have the video of me trying to strangle him) and NOT YET SUCCEEDED (although the new place does have a patio...) and not managed to drive each other away no matter what we do, so I'm hoping this will have no more impact on our relationship than, say, me screaming abuse at him and trying to jump out of his car while it was moving... And we have pretty much spent more time together than apart ever since we met... we just never thought it would be a good idea to live together... until now. And we'll probably end up having more space from each other in a weird way, cos whenever I'm at his house or I'm at mine we haven't got our own room to escape to... and I always feel that when we're visiting each other it means we should actually be talking or doing stuff together seeing as one of us has just had to make the drive over... and now we're not settin asdie evenings to visit each other we'll both have a lot more time to be sociable with other people, whether it's together or seperately... and besides, he's been more or less completely living at my place for the past 3 or 4 months and we're closer than ever... and I can't imagine anyone else in the world I'd rather share a house with (including Jonny Depp)... but I've still got stomach full of butterflies. Good ones as well as bad ones though.

And the house is GORGEOUS... there were a few things weren't quite as good as I remembered: the box room (my studio) is tiny, and I might have to rethink having two desks in there, and the wallpaper is old-fashioned but new, so we won't be able to redecorate in our own tastes, and the alarm and heating timers are both those highly confusing things that look like they should be simple cos they only have 3 buttons, but those three buttons are meant to perform 60 billion different functions... But on the other hand the bedrooms are bigger than I remembered, the bathroom is truly palatial (definitely a hair-dye free zone though, think colouring is heceforth going to occur in the kitchen... or possibly in the garden with a hose!) and the garden is bigger than expected and the garage actually has quite big windows at one end so while it's very drafty now, in summer it might make a good painting studio (if we're still there then) and there are real flame gas fires in both the lounge AND the dining room which are completely lush, just what you need when you're moving at this time of year. And of course the hall has gorgeous dark wood panelling (one of the things to give Leeds lodge its name) which is slightly scuffed which is great cos it means we don't have to tiptoe through eggshells all year for fear of touching it, and also we should be able to put up coathooks and things without fear of serious reprisals.

And there WILL be a bubble blowing frog in the garden. The farting gnome is still pending a stewards enquiry...

Anyway, can't burble more, have to go dress up in something vampy and plot to kill people over pasta :-)