New Flat

Went down to Oxford to go flat hunting just after New Year. Found 2 which I liked, one was a very large room (larger than my current flat pretty much) right on the edge of Oxford and the other was in the gorgeous little village of Waterstock. I have to say that I loved the cottage in Waterstock and could quite happily have lived there but the room was very small and I have a lot of stuff (even after culling it severely) so I decided to be sensible and go for the Oxford one since I'll save in travel and can fit all my stuff in.
The trip itself was fairly uneventful except for some slight problems with my national express tickets on the way down. When I got my pre-christmas tickets for the bus that got cancelled amended, I was given a code and assured again and again that that was all I needed, despite my being very sceptical. Apparently I was right to be so since the first bus driver was incredibly reluctant to accept my ticket and only conceded because the bus was mostly empty (I didn't even attempt it for the Milton Keynes to Oxford stage but just bought a ticket. Fortunately it's the cheapest bit of the journey!). I called in to the National Express office in Oxford when I got down there and they very nicely printed me out some proper tickets so at least the journey back wasn't a problem. On the plus side, they've built a very nice new interchange at Milton Keynes which was a nice change from freezing to death in front of the old collection of portacabins for an hour or so like I've been doing for most of last year! Journey back was very crowded as well so I had a very uncomfortable night with no sleep and had to go straight to a full days work in that condidtion. Still, that's my own fault for having used up all my holidays on interviews and being too short for the seats. The Youth Hostel wasn't bad either (I tried the YHA next to the train station this time which, despite being right next to the railway line, still managed to be quieter than the one I stayed in last time!)
Anyhow, time since then has been spent on tenterhooks while waiting to see if the contract would go through alright and trying to tidy my current flat so that it didn't look cluttered when my landlady shows future residents round. (She was apparently a bit concerned with the 'clutter' when she came round last week, despite the flat being clean and tidy. She said she thought it made the flat look small. I refrained from telling her that it's the fact that the flat is small that's making it look small!). Anyhow, Trina has been kind enough to temporarily adopt some of my bulkier items (and all the moles) which freed up some space and I've managed to shoehorn the rest into cupboards. I now have to manage to live without leaving a trace for the next 2 and a half weeks! I've already taken some stuff to charity shops: all but 2 of my ball dresses, an old wedding hat, some old shoes that I no longer wear and some of my better made reenactment kit and a wierd bit of exercise eqipment that my mam gave to me (for a laugh, I think!) which I've never managed to work out how to use. Have got rid of all my old jigsaw puzzles that I no longer do due to lack of time. Have sorted out which DVD's I want to get rid of and will hopefully get them along to cash converters next weekend (and may possibly take along my video recorder since I don't watch american videos any more, it's over complicated and I have a much simpler video player as part of the TV that I can use to watch PAL videos). Have even contemplated getting rid of all my Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler books since, if you've read one, you've read them all and they take up a lot of space. All my old, useless reenactment kit is heading to charity shops or the bin in the next week so that too should free up room.
Anyhow, contract for new flat came through today (albeit with my name wrong on the first try but we've corrected that now) so at least I know I have somewhere to live which is actually a huge relief. Have booked a medium sized van for the last weekend (mostly cause the stuff I have is too bulky for a little van), arranged to pick up keys and booked a train back from Edinburgh for the 31st (for less than it would have cost me on the coach which I found fairly impressive!)
Then it's starting the new job on the 1st! Not nervous, not nervous at all...