:: delofted

I kept up the pace today, loading the car with cardboard and polystyrene even though there was a gale raging and rain lashing down. I got a freecycle taker for the loft panels and he collected them straight away, so that was a bonus. Then I took the rubbish to the tip ... sorry, took the recycling to the community recycling centre. Actually it was pretty good - lots of enormous bins for absolutely everything, all well organised. I got lost on the way there and drove around aimlessly for a while trying to remember where it was. Then suddenly remembered my new phone has internet - and googled it! And found it! I do love technology.

I even managed to post Faye her dressing gown, and I only got her letter this morning. Whatever happened to my procrastination habit? This is kind of weird, this efficiency business.

So now I just have to find homes for the carpet offcuts and CD shelves. I'm also going to have a hard look at the sheds, see if there isn't more stuff lurking in there that could be recycled or freecycled.

:: What i've mostly been doing today

Clearing out the loft seemed like such an easy thing to do. How wrong I was.

I was under the impression that there were just a few cardboard boxes up there. Oh, and that bit of carpet. And some left-over packs of laminate. And the old lamp and the CD shelves and Pop's old suitcase. And the floor panels and the old doors. And actually, there were like about a dozen cardboard boxes, big ones, and they were almost all full of smaller cardboard boxes and/or polystyrene blocks. Poor Bertie was very worried indeed as the boxes came hurtling down through the hatch, followed by packs of laminate and floor panels.

It was terribly tempting just to give up, but I plugged on, stymied only by the three old doors, which are huge and about an inch and a half thick. After I'd hurled everything out I clambered back down and spent another hour or so separating the boxes from the plastic and polystyrene and bagging everything ready for recycling. So that's it - I'm never leaving this house. I don't have boxes for anything any more.

I've also filled the shed up with the bits and bobs I'm keeping. The rest is in the hall, waiting for me to list it on freecycle. And THEN I got out the vacuum cleaner and dealt with all the fluff and dust. Incredible.

:: keep reading!

I've done some more travelogue ... I'm up to the second day in Thimpu now. Just a couple more days to go!

Day 14: Kolkata to London to Edinburgh to Queensferry... sigh...

The wake-up call was 4am, followed by a waiter with a pot of tea - Darjeeling of course. He brought the tray in, I tipped him and waited for him to leave. "Please, let me pour," he said. "No thank you, that's fine." "Please, madam, allow me the privilege." Good grief! I just wanted to let the tea draw.

We were away too early for breakfast, so the hotel made us up boxes, with a sandwich, juice, crisps and so on and we ate that at the airport. Amazingly I had a row of three seats to myself again! Very comfortable. And the flight was fun too because it was daytime and I had superb views of somewhere hot and dry - possibly Afghanistan.






And I had visits from Merle, Desi, Susan, Lynda and Denis, and visited them ... the most sociable flight I've been on in a long time.

At Heathrow I was really pleased I left so long between flights - it took an age to get to T5; it wasn't just a train trip, I had to change trains! And the security routine was quite something. The thing I hated about the terminal though was the shops - it was all designer and swank and swish, but hardly anywhere to get a coffee. The few cafes had giant queues. My advice is to open a couple of traditional tea shops, with lovely big pots of tea, plates of cakes and proper sandwiches. Crazy idea.

Finally, at last I got on the plane for Edinburgh, with a chatty, witty chap sitting next to me who made me feel glad to be going back to lovely Scotland.