Progress...
After 4 days that went by in a blur, I thought I'd make a quick update to say that I have survived the move and now have a flat full of boxes containing my worldly goods.
We got the internet working in the flat at some point yesterday afternoon (well, we got it working earlier than that, but I didn't have a thingie for receiving wireless internet) but by that point I was too knackered to do much but browse a bit before heading back into the living room to make a pathetic attempt at unpacking and tidying.
So, Wednesday last, we headed back up North to get my things. This was nearly thwarted by a problem with the trains which at first left it uncertain whether any trains to Liverpool would be leaving that night. Had we listened to the man on the National Rail helpline, we'd have not gone to Euston and not made it home on time, but we ignored him thinking to chance it and in the chaos, ended up on an earlier train than booked, getting us back to mine in good time.
Tursday was spent trying to get my things to fit into the box and bag space available and mostly failing miserably to do so. I started on it at about 8am and, with only a short break to take stuff to the charity shop/recycling plant and then a further break later to go shopping for cleaning materials, I was still not finished at midnight. By this point i was shaky and anxious and P had to talk me into quitting at that point and getting the final bits done before we left to pick up the van the next morning. By this point I had convinced myself that it was all hopeless and so going to bed seemed like the best plan.
I felt a bit better on Friday morning, and decided that anything that wasn't packed up would just have to be left until I came back for my car in a couple of weeks. Making that decision helped a lot and put me in a better mood for getting things sorted out.
I fetched the van from the rental company at 9am, but they didn't let me out of there what with paperwork etc until near on 10am, which threw out our schedule for the day quite significantly. Dad was a star and helped me and P get the van packed up as quick as poss, which meant we were on our way by 11:15. Bad traffic on the M6 didn't stop us from making it to the flat by 3:30 in the afternoon which I think is quite a good time for a novice 'white van woman'. To be honest, driving the van on the motorway was fine - really comfy actually, and being so high up is actually great as you get a much better view of what's going on around and up ahead. I'm definitely counting that as a new skill :)
It took a while to unload the van at the flat, even with help from P's brother and mum, because having to get everthing into the lift and up to the 4th floor in batches was a slow process. No problems arose due to the size of anything though, which was a relief! Finally, we headed out to P's house at about 4:30pm, but this time it was town driving and it was rush hour, so it was a bit stressful for me! P had about 20 mins at his house to get what he could into the van in order to give us time to get it back to the flat and unloaded and then for us to get the van back to the rental company before they closed at 6pm! It was a real race against the clock. By the time we got back to the flat, we decided just to unload everything into the hallway, P's brother volunteered to stay with it and we got back into the van to get it to the other side of town, by this point not only racing the clock, but the petrol gauge which was ominously blinking at 'empty'.
Once the van was dropped off and we were back at the flat and had waved bye to P's brother, we both realised how tired we were and didn't really fancy much unpacking. In fact, we decided we couldn't even bear to look at all the boxes, so went back to P's house and stayed there. I fell asleep straight after my curry and didn't wake up again til late the next morning. Saturday, we did a little of the cleaning at P's house and stacked up what still needed to be brought over to the flat, then went to the flat and arranged the boxes into a neater pile. We went to Ikea in the afternoon to get some bits & bobs, then came back to the flat where we made a proper start on the unpacking and P sorted out the Sky and internet.
Sunday was more tidying, Asda for food, computer shop for wireless receiver, more tidying, laundry after figuring out the washing machine, bottle of wine (after being ID'd (!) by the cashier who wouldn't believe I'm 27) and more tidying before bed.
It's been a frantic few days and i can hardly believe I'm sat here in work again. The move has been fairly stressful and P and I still haven't had time to just sit back and realise 'hey! we live together now'. We've both (me moreso, probably) been tired and irritable all weekend as a consequence of the hard work and lack of sleep on Thursday and Friday so it's been tough. We're coming out the other end now though I hope.