[Leica] Best laid plans

[Douglas Barry]

Sitting down at the pc after a few weeks of chaos. Moved house on the 15th
along with wife and son, furniture for 3,500 sqr foot house, 30 paintings,
innumerable framed photos, and 134 boxes of stuff, not to mention the pile
of sundry items, gardening gear, bicycles, and stuff of that ilk. We have a
lot - in fact, a ginormous pile - of crap that we've been minding over our
lifetimes until our children decide to throw it all on a skip when we croak.

The new house is much smaller - just under 1600 sqr feet, and of course in
the way of these things, was not ready with six builders and a trio of
kitchen installers busy inside it when we arrived. It was an absolute
pandemonium of noise and dust. We had been promised by the builders that
they would be finished by the end of November and then it slipped to the 4th
December, but on telling the builder that the removers were tied to 15th and
that we would have to follow our beds on the same day, we were assured they
would be definitely gone by then, and they would only have the outside to
tidy up.

What with weather, supplier problems, and the rest, white man speak with
forked tongue, and to boot, the chief kitchen guy had a mini heart attack,
was delayed in starting, cancelled the plumber, and we had no water for
showers. We had to travel back to the old place to shower. That was just the
tip of the iceberg, as we had the clear the old house by the 19th and there
was no cleaners available due to peak demand so we had to do it ourselves. I
discovered that, on looking in the mirror that when incandescent with rage,
I do go white :-) Oh yes, the dishwasher packed up and we had to get a new
one on Christmas Eve. I could go on, as I'm still sitting in a cluttered
nightmare with no rubbish bins until delivery in January. Oh yeah, broadband
connection issues too - new cabling needed - that was fun. And there was was
lot more shite to cope with.

So, I haven't touched a camera, and apologise to Geoff for not submitting to
the yearbook, which I'm sure took up a lot of his time, and, no doubt, was
well produced. But hey, there's next year, stick with it, Geoff! I also
missed a couple of shows booked, and the ballet, but can only blame myself
for not staying in the old place until January. I can now give lessons in
how not to manage a move.

Douglas