Christopher Hamilton

It’s been a very stressful week for me and three of my friends. We are all moving into a flat together, and so far the process of dealing with our new landlord has been… irritating. I’m not holding out many hopes for the course of this lease running smoothly.

The deadline they had placed on us getting all our documentation together, including references, was a ridiculous three days. Three damn days. We all work, and not one of us had enough time to pull all that together so quickly, we all almost managed it, and I think they have all of my stuff now. It turns out our landlords are used to dealing with students, among whom they seem to have a horrible reputation, who tend to have a bit more time on their hands. We don’t. One of the guys has been dealing with them recently, and was getting more and more frustrated by how stupidly difficult they were making the whole process. Including asking us to pay a deposit before we had signed the lease. So at the end of his patience he tagged me in, and I had a very firm conversation with our prospective landlords.

I think I may have flustered her over the phone by being so firm while keeping perfectly calm and making the point that in no way would we pay a deposit before our lease had been signed. I was happy for us to pay the deposit as we signed the lease but not before. She said something about that’s not really how they do it, at which point I informed her that’s how it was done by every other professional letting agent in Edinburgh, and she went and had a chat with her manager. I was on hold for a few minutes, and she came back to me saying ti would be perfectly fine for us to pay the deposit when we signed her lease. Funny that.

After that conversation I managed to arrange our home contents insurance, which all comes after sorting out my old flat deposit the day before. That money should be in my account in a day or two, which means so far things are falling into place. Which makes me happy after the way this week started.

I can’t wait until I move back into Edinburgh. Last night I went back out to my folks, had dinner and had to catch a bus back into town so I could catch up with Dave for a few beers while watching the footy. Getting a 50 minute bus into town wasn’t too bad, but the bus home at 11.30, after a few beers was a killer.

All of which brings me to now. I’m chilling out in the Cameo Bar with a tasty, tasty beer, waiting for Anna to turn up. We’re going to go and see “There Will Be Blood” tonight, and find somewhere to grab some food. Tomorrow is the last day of my course (Managing Microsoft SQL 2005… or something like that) and then I get to spend a slightly boozy Friday night/Saturday before preparing a meal for Mothers day on Sunday. All of which I’m looking forward to immensely, although my Mum is not going to be the easiest to cook for. I’m going to have to keep it nice and simple but use fantastic ingredients. I just need to figure out exactly what those ingredients are going to be.

I’ll worry about that later, now I’m going to focus all my energy on sitting in this very comfy leather armchair, and drinking this excellent pint of Tennents, and surfing the web for random crap… just like this.

Yesterday was a very tough day. It started with the funeral of my parents next door neighbour of 23 years. Davie was 76 years old, and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. We had to sit through the ceremony at the church, and unfortunately we were sitting in a front row with a view of the grieving family. A seat no one in their right mind would want to be in. We got through the ceremony without any major incidents, until they began to wheel the coffin out of the room. Watching Davies eldest daughter, Norma, and widow, Nina, break down was heart wrenching. At that point in the ceremony I had a huge lump in my throat.

We left the church after about an hour and made our way to the cemetery. There was a huge number of people at the funeral. It just goes to show the huge regard our local community had for him. Once the burial was over, we headed back to a local pub, that as a large function hall, where we had some tea and coffee. After passing our commiseration’s to the family, we said our goodbyes and left.

We all went about our day, shopping, getting ready for a birthday party, and in my case heading into Edinburgh to see my girlfriend. A few hours later my mobile rang. My sisters name came up, and so I answered with a light “Hey, what’s up?” She told me she was at my uncles house, and she sounded a little upset. My uncle had had some trouble with his heart towards the end of last year, and spent almost a month in hospital. Needless to say, I instantly became very worried.

It turns out he’d taken a “funny turn”, as he put it the other day, and woke up yesterday feeling pretty unwell. Due to the heart problems before, my folks took him to the doctors, who immediately told him to go to the hospital. They went up to A&E and waited to have him admitted, a process that took hours. I sat waiting at my girlfriends, getting more and more stressed and worried the longer I waited to hear what was going on.

Thankfully, late last night I got a call from my folks to tell me, he had been checked out, test results had come back, and he was fine. He needs to rest, but they were confident he is going to be okay, and sent him home. I was hugely relieved when I heard that, and I’m glad it was nothing too serious.

Frankly, yesterday is a day I am quite happy to completely forget.

Due to a difference in lease expiration with the friends I’m moving in with, I’m essentially spending the next month or so at my parents. I will be staying with friends and my girlfriend on various nights, but it’s predominantly at the folks. I moved back home on Sunday evening, and had a couple of days off work to try to readjust and to unpack any essential items I would need for my stay there.

Things were going fine until Wednesday morning, when I had to travel into work for the first time. My parents are in the suburbs outside Edinburgh, and work is two buses away. So to make sure I got into work on time, I caught the 7.30am bus into Edinburgh, and then the connecting bus that brings me down to Leith. It got me into work early for the first time in a very, very long time, even though I used to live around the corner from the office, and gave me a chance to relax before getting into my day.

None of that is really an issue. The 7am wake up was a little jarring the first day, but I’m fine with it already. It’s the journey home that annoys me. It doesn’t bother me, getting up early and heading into work an hour and a half before I’m due to start. It’s the fact that it takes even longer to get home in the evening. I’m used to walking out of the office, and ten minutes later being home. Now It takes about two hours from finishing work, to walking in the front door. Then I have to cook myself dinner.

So now I’m not eating until 7.30pm at the very earliest. Then once I’ve eaten, and cleaned any dishes I’ve used, it’s after 8pm before I have any time to do anything for myself. I know people will think that the commute I’m doing is nothing, and in fact I’ve done longer commutes in the past myself. But when you are so used to being able to walk everywhere, having to rely on buses that take over an hour to get from point A to point B, begins to make you a little irritable.

Thankfully we’re looking at moving into a new place by the Easter weekend, so I only have to endure these treks for four or five weeks. No doubt by which point I’ll be ready to throttle someone if they hold up my day any longer than necessary.

Even though I complain, there is one plus point that comes from having to sit on these buses. I’m getting quite a lot of uninterrupted reading time. At the moment I’m just working my way through a newspaper each day, but over the weekend I’m going to go through my boxes of books and pick out a few for the next month.

The one thing the over the last few days that has become clearly apparent to me, is that I am without doubt a city boy. Living out in the suburbs is such a huge inconvenience for me, and it makes me appreciate how great living in the middle of a major UK city actually is.

Bring on the Easter weekend, it can’t come soon enough for me.

I forgot how rubbish moving house can be. This weekend is the last in my current flat, and I have to finish packing, clean the flat, and trasnport all of my things to storage at my Uncles place. I don’t think I’d be so annoyed by it all if I was moving into a new flat straight away. Unfortunately, the guys I’m moving in with have to stay in their current place until the end of March. Which leaves me in a sort of limbo for 6-7 weeks.

In that time of limbo, I’ll be staying at my parents, my girfriends, and various friends places. A month and a half alternating between places to stay can be fun, and it might remind me of my back-packing days, but overall I can see it being a royal pain in the ass.

The main issue I’m going to have during this period will be the travel to and from work. Instead of a ten minute walk, I’m looking at two buses from my parents, a twenty-thirty minute bus ride from my girfriends, and depending on which friend’s place I crash at, a long walk or short bus journey. It’s not what I’ve grown used too.

On the plus side, in this period I’m going to save a fortune! When I look at how expensive renting on your own in Edinburgh actually is, I’m amazed I managed it for a full year. Prices in the city centre are crazy.

Moving house is sometimes necessary, but never fun, and to think I have to do it again in 6ish weeks.