The BT guy came this morning. In a rare display of enthusiasm and good service, he said he’d arrive between 8am and 1pm… and woke me by banging on the door at 8.01am. Bit under two hours later, and I have a working landline; very impressed. I’ve now ordered the broadband, and in the meantime am discovering the joys of dialup.

It’s ages since I’ve been on dialup – took a long while to get off 56k (and I spent a fair while before that on 28.8). Then I got spoiled at University with Janet and its crazy-fast charms. Having had ADSL (and wireless to boot), it’s strange to be tied to the corner of the living room with a piece of string and this slow connection. It’s not bad, but I can’t wait for sweet, sweet 1mb ADSL to start working. It’ll make research a lot easier, that’s for sure.

pitp_30
Originally uploaded by Bees.

Cal Flickrd some of his old photos of blogmeets, and lo and behold, a photo of a slightly-chubby looking eighteen-year-old Tom, with Robyn, and most definitely without a beard. Spooky.

I look a bit less chubby these days.

I’m a little out of the loop right now. The move went OK, but now comes the hard part: putting everything away. The new furniture arrived yesterday; tonight I will mostly be building bookshelves. Once bookshelves are built, they can be filled, and we’ll be nearly there. It’s mainly about working out where things should go. Slowly but surely, we get there; the kitchen and bedroom are essentially done, and we’re halfway there with the living room.

The only glitch so far is no phone line. BT are sending an engineer out next Wednesday to fix it. I think the flat was on NTL at one point, which could be the problem, but BT have a record of the last occupant being with them at some point. With any luck, that’ll sort out the phone line, and then I can sort out ADSL. As it is, I’m grabbing email via webmail and doing my best to stay on top of things. It’s a nice break, in a way, and I’m looking forward to radically restructuring my digital lifestyle once I’ve settled down into the flat.

At the same time, the prospect of not having a phone line is slightly distubring me, so I’m crossing lots of fingers. Moving is as nerve-wracking as they say. It also takes longer than you expect. Pretty sure it’s worth it, though.

…which is why I’ve been quieter than I’d like. Not because I’ve been spending all my time packing, more because I’ve been worrying about packing. Which is why I haven’t published my notes on Spain. Or on Pat Kane’s The Play Ethic. Stuff like that. The new flat has a study and everything – I’m hoping we’ll fit into it OK – and so I should be a bit more relaxed about productivity there. It’ll be a while before I get broadband set up – I’m praying there are no hitches, ntl-branded phone sockets are everywhere but I’m praying I can get BT and ADSL up quickly – so I’ll probably be dumping stuff up here in my lunch hour at work.

Looking forward to it all, I think. Just all a bit hairy – and not the ideal way to spend one’s weekend. Next weekend will be spent with flat-pack furniture and GTA: San Andreas, most likely.

• 250+ emails
• 223 unread RSS headlines
• 148 photographs downloaded
• far too many decibels coming from the party upstairs
• 1 fantastic holiday

More soon along these lines.

Gosh it’s been mad busy around here. Top tip: never try to move and go on holiday all at once. Didn’t help stress levels. And, of course, work has been crazy-busy – more so than normal. But there’s still fun to be had and I should be back posting here in a week or so (until I lose my broadband), full of beans and with lots of new energy. Lots of ideas, that’s for sure.

Must go now. Seville calls me. Flickr photoset, writing, sketches-maybe, will follow.