I Did It

I somehow always seem to watch the perfect documentaries at the right time— my new interest in the law beginning last autumn inspired me to watch all of Forensic Files which was actually helpful. Lately I’ve been absorbed in watching “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” which is epic stories of survival with the survivors ranging in competence from the excruciatingly bumbling and foolish to actually not bad to expert but morally questionable. But what they all have in common is ridiculous levels of perseverance and fortuitousness.

I’ve basically needed to channel that over the last four days (on top of the last two years in general) to make so many trips with my car to the new place, moving slowly and carefully so as to not aggravate my knees. The first day I was quite sore, the second day I took it easy, third day I began strong and by the fourth day I was getting exhausted. I’d arranged for Sarah from Stepping Forward to come and help me move the last big things in the evening. But just before I made the last trip I needed to do, my back suddenly became sprained 🤦‍♂️. I felt like one of the plane crash survivors and totally helpless.

It was a total disaster, at first I couldn’t move from my bed. I barely managed to get up to let Sarah and her friend in. My back felt like it was going to snap in two but I couldn’t take painkillers as they were in the new place. But thankfully after resting and moving around slowly I became more agile again and was able to help carry some of the lighter things. Thank fuck I was still able to drive. I had to leave the room a total mess since I couldn’t clean anything. Which of course will only satisfy the landlord no end and multiply their confirmation bias about me, but it doesn’t matter. I emailed them and the council to let them know. I know it just sounds too ‘perfect’ an excuse that my back became sprained right at the end! It was incredibly lucky it didn’t happen sooner actually— there’s the fortune part.

Man I am incredibly grateful to the old guy Sarah brought with her to move my heavy/bulky stuff! I’d envisioned them sharing the load between them but the guy took it all on himself. Never met him before but he was understanding and non-judgemental of my ridiculous situation!

I feel like I’ve just crawled over the line to finally get moved out. It was such an effort and now the new place is like a jigsaw which needs to be put back together again. But I can take as long as I need. Right now I need to uncover my bed and somehow put the sheets on it. I can barely reach stuff from the floor at the moment 😆.

It’s just amazing how much stuff I’d accumulated in the old place, largely down to building my own kitchen in the corner then my own makeshift bathroom with the camping toilet and everything. Now I feel like I’ll have the energy and the time to really work on reducing this stuff down again, giving things I don’t need to charity.

I can’t call it ‘my place’ yet because frankly it smells like dogshit. My landlord for all of her advantages was understandably not knowledgeable on how to deal with hoarding aftermath. She tried scrubbing it herself which just left a wet carpet. She should’ve used a carpet cleaner but I wasn’t in a position to make any demands. I’m trying various techniques on the carpet but ultimately I need to replace it, which I’ll do at some point. I’m ventilating the place and continuously burning incense as well and hopefully everything becomes tainted with that.

🌪