h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Leave room for yourself in the house not to mention some for things you haven't even thought of It's a lovely feeling though, isn't it?

Websailor

Well, you can always have a garage sale if you end up with too much stuff

Next week my aunts and I are going to empty my grandparents' house. I fear I will end up with a lot of old furniture... There are things that are hard to sell/throw away of sentimental reasons.

I'm quite convinced an old wooden sofa from their kitchen will end up in my kitchen - not that there really are enough space for that. I've slept in that sofa, fell down from it the xmas eve I was three and got a concussion, Gramps used to sit there... Use that sofa for fire wood is really out of the question

Don't worry, there's plenty of room for me... I have less furniture than the former owner, and all of her things fit in there. (Admittedly, I have more bookshelves. And an extra one after today's effort.)

Dq - never mind the garage sale, I'd happily sell the garage. I don't need one at all, and now I have space for two cars... That's just absurd.

That feeling is so familiar dragonqueen, and I still have odds and ends I can't bear to part with after more than twenty years!

Websailor

Usually I don't have any problems at all throwing away stuff. Contrary I've got the family reputation being the one throwing away everything...

But sometimes it's hard to know what to do with things people leave behind. For instance I've got a large storage box filled with photographs from the Queen Mum, I don't know what to do with. Presently that box is in my living room. I must make up my mind if I shall store it somewhere or burn it. There are pros and cons with both these options.

I'd get the hatchlings to decide what to do. It's their heritage too; let them do the hard w*rk.

Some of the stuff will end up at their places.

Unfortunately only princess has a "proper" flat. is a sailor and has not yet arranged a land based permanent habitat. DJ lives in a very tiny studio flat, mostly resembling of a student dorm. So I guess - as always - my storage space in the attic will be over crowded...

>>and of course i'll be joining hati and tartaronne as soon as we have retired biggrin

(whether they want it or not)<<

We'll be honored, I'm sure, . The fun and laughter - and Tanzen must be part of the deal.

Our attic, where we used to have kid's toys, a table tennis table set up and several other kinds of bits an pieces, is now overflowing with three kid's stuff "that might come in handy some day", my grandmother's table (and chairs), under which I remember hiding, my parent's books in four rows against each other and my dad's paintings. About 50 square meters of other peoples' stuff.

I'm trying to coax Sig. S. into going to Australia. As he doesn't fly we play lotto to be able to afford sailing to the continent.

My dream is to take the Transsiberian railroad to China - then a train to whatever habour is the closest - and then a ferry/cruise ship.

Old photos are the things I most regret throwing out. I did it in a fit of 'end of a chapter' feeling and now wish I hadn't as I have kids and a grandchild. Funny it didn't seem to matter till I got

Websailor

You should include 'the peace train' from Hanoi to Saigon in your plans, Tartaronne

*Makes notes*

Tartaronne, I'd suggest the Trans-Siberian, then another train through China and a ship from Hong Kong. Naturally I have no idea at all how much this would cost...

As for old photos - those I keep, even when I'm not entirely sure who the people in them are. Some of the old ones I have are strangely evocative of their period and interesting as *artefacts* rather than just snapshots.

*Makes more notes*

*Stack notes in the attic*

Meanwhile...

I'm trying to sort out how to pay the Territory government's charges on property transfer. They will only accept a bank cheque. I don't have a bank account, only a credit union account, and credit unions can't issue bank cheques. They could issue a corporate cheque which would then have to be presented to a particular bank and changed into a bank cheque. I would have to authorise all this crap in writing, ideally in person at a branch of my credit union. The closest branch of my credit union is 1000km away. I won't be able to get there until about 5 weeks after I have to pay the Territory government.

There is a possible alternative course of action, which would entail paying a personal cheque into my solicitors' trust account sometime in the next couple of days, to cover government charges and the portion of the purchase price which I don't need to borrow. I can't just pay this portion of the price by personal cheque; the solicitor for the other party won't accept personal cheques, only bank cheques. See above for where this leaves me.

I'm waiting to hear from my solicitor.

Can't you just go into the nearest bank and buy a checque? It's what we do here in situations like these

Apparently not...

I'm about to call the credit union again, to see if I can get more sense out of them this time.

H'mmm.

I now have a full set of instructions on what should be included in a fax (no other form of writing, only a fax) to my credit union. If I give them more information than I want to give them, they will arrange the cheques with the bank and then post them to my solicitor.

I have to check with the solicitor to see if she's happy with this, and to see if I have the correct amounts written down. I can't get hold of her this afternoon.

And no, I can't just buy a cheque at a bank because the bank won't trust an unknown person who tries to put that sort of amount on a debit card for another financial institution. Similarly, the bank won't accept my personal cheques for the amounts involved in case my personal cheques bounce.

This is all just pointless crap, really, isn't it?

Hallelujah.

The solicitors have agreed to accept my personal cheque for the government charges and part of the purchase price. I'll give this to them by the end of this week. Later, I'll write another cheque for anything else that's come up.

No bank cheques required.

My head hurts rather a lot. This is in fact the reason I'm not at w*rk. But if I'm having a real headache, I might as well have a metaphorical headache as well and make a day of it, don't you think?

Sounds like fun!

It reminds me of when I bought my house. The solicitors needed a £5000 deposit from me. I could transfer the money electronically, for which my bank wanted to charge me £25, or I could pay by cheque, for which the solicitor wanted to charge me £25. Or I could pay cash, but nobody would do that, would they?

Sod paying £25 to anyone! I went into the bank, told them I want the money in cash. It took them half an hour to sort it out, but eventually I was walking the 1 1/2 miles across the city with a rucksack containing £5000. My god, that was scary. I wouldn't have looked any different to any other person walking about, but I've never felt so conspicuous!

I got to the solicitors, and toild them I wanted to pay the deposit.
"Ahh, is it by cheque?"
- "No, cash."
"......Ahh. Ok."

He called his secretary through, and she counted it, one hundred £50 notes. His eyes were popping out, I don't think he could believe it. She got to the end, and confirmed (much to my relief) that there was indeed the correct amount.

He then asked if I wanted a receipt.

Hmmm... let me think about this...