Why is nothing ever simple? Since BT require 14 working days notice of moving house and I move in 15 working days, I thought I'd ring them to get that sorted, ring Zen to get my broadband sorted and ring Pipex to tell there where to stick it.

Except that there's already a phone line with a different company at my new place, so BT refuse to do anything! So I'll have to ring the estate agent on Monday, get them to find out when the tenant is stopping their phone line, then ring Zen and BT to find out just how likely it is that I'll have broadband in the new place this side of Christmas.

I'd have gone off moving if my neighbours hadn't decided to wake me up at 7 this morning with their very loud washing machine.

I have now packed for Canada. Everything fits in my suitcase fine, which must mean I've forgotten something. But I started throwing things in there a week ago so I ought to have remembered everything by now. Even though I only have six days worth of clothes (one day of which are on a chair for me to wear on Saturday) it still feels like a suitcase full of clothes. But then my backpack will be full of food.

Last week I saw three houses. The first was just down from where I live now - three blocks away (and by blocks I mean of flats). It's more than I pay now, but was smaller - the kitchen was tiny, but the bathroom was massive. All the rooms came off the lounge as well, which is a pain for having people over to stay.

Then I saw one in a former foundry. It's also more than I'm paying now and very quirky. The lounge would be big except there's a step separating the lounge and dining room. The bedroom doesn't go right to the far wall and you can look over the rail down to the lounge below. The bathroom doesn't have a window and all the things in it (bath, toilet, sink) are all dark blue. The walls are also dark blue. So you can imagine how dark that room is, especially as it's only small. I loved it to bits, but it's just not practical to live in (there's a good reason why I haven't looked at any of the places with a spiral staircase in).

Then I saw one in the next town (that would mean I'd have to drive to work from). It's less than I'm paying now and about the same size ish. But I liked it. It's first floor, so no neighbours above and it had red carpets. You can only get to the kitchen from the lounge, but the rest of the rooms are off the hall, so it's not too bad for having people staying.

So I told them I wanted it and it's all approved. After I get back I have to give them large amounts of money and work out what date I'm moving in. Then pack and try to get rid of some of my crap and work through my list of people/companies I have to tell I'm moving. And change my doctors, which I'm not looking forward to. But at least it's all sorted and I don't have to worry about it while I'm away or when I get back.

I am so tired. My housewarming was this weekend, so I had my bookcases made (I hammered some pins) and we survived that without you gmul . Saturday night was our Cheese & Wine quiz which seemed to go well. Although it always seems to involve a whole load of running around setting up. And Nicola's teacher marking is a lot quicker.

My chocolate mousse tasted nice, even though I think I microwaved the chocolate a bit too long. Then we didn't go to bed till around 3am and for some reason one of my neighbours decided to use a strimmer/saw/something else very noisy about 9am. So oddly, enough, we were awake. My alarm going off this morning was frankly, rude.

I have now put stuff on my bookshelves, so I can find my books again! And I listed to Elisabeth Sladen The Actor Speaks, which is all ladyvivien's fault. Course now, I want the B7 ones. And Soldiers of Love.

Why are weekends not three days?

It's been a busy day today. First the BT man came round to fix the phone. He stayed for a bit, then I went back to work and he used the box outside. When I got back I had a voicetext, so Tom Baker told me my line was now fixed, which is the funniest thing I have ever heard.

And then my landlady and her boyfriend came round. She gave me her number as doing things direct through them got it done much quicker. He fixed the washing machine, so I am now not going to run out of clothes, yay! He's coming back on Saturday to fix the hall light, which is simple. And it turns out there's a trick to the shower but it also requires something to hold the knob up, so he's going to sort that too.

And while I was out with the BT man, my freeview PVR turned up. The manual is 86 pages long because it does so many things. I'm going to have to rearrange everything to work out where to put it. Although I did realise I still have my old DVD remote control out whereas the DVD itself is in the box. There's nothing on till Doctor Who on Sunday, so I might be playing with that later because...

...my broadband is up! I rang Pipex yesterday, and although I rang them on 18th December to get it turned back on, which was the earliest they would let me, for some strange reason my file said I had requested it to be on on 4th January. Whereas in reality I wanted it on on 17th December. But it is on now. Not noticeably faster yet but then I had been getting used to dial-up, so it's harder to tell.

I had a letter this morning dated 29th December from Barclaycard to say they couldn't sort out getting me a refund for the bed until it hadn't been delivered for 30 days, and I needed to contact them by 3rd January if it had turned up. Which goes a long way towards explaining why the bed people rang me yesterday to try and tell me they'd had delivery problems. Which of course explains why they hadn't answered their phones for three weeks. They said they'd refund me and Barclaycard are too, so we'll have to see what happens and how many times I get refunded.

Although my magnetic pinboard has no way of attaching it to the wall, despite saying it came with fittings, so I'll have to ring them up to get that sorted.

I went to Tescos last night, in the fog, which was scary, and hard. Not least because the car wouldn't behave and kept feeling like it was going to stop whether I put more choke on or less. The roads were nice and quiet though. I thought since I'll end up having to drive in the fog sometime, it might as well be when I've got someone else with me. It's not something I'm planning on doing again out of choice though.

I realised I've got loads of reading and email writing to catch up on at the weekend when I'm home with a fast internet connection. As well as TV and radio that dad's taping for me. And shopping to do. But I thought it was great that reading LJ through RSS feeds meant I can read them offline. Which I can, it's just so slow to update I'm not getting them all. So I'll probably have absolutely masses to read once I get home.

After last night's Rotaract meeting most of us went back to mine to have a look. And one of them understand storage heaters, so now I have them sorted. Well, mostly. The one in the bedroom is just an ordinary heater with a timer but is crap. Hopefully after a few days I'll be able to get it up to a temperature where I don't freeze. And I think I needed both plugs turned on on the one in the lounge because that's freezing. But the fan heater in the bathroom warmed my clothes up nicely while I showered this morning (with the aid of a plastic jug). And it is nice to have my bathroom smell of white musk afterwards.

It's not feeling like it's home yet. Probably because I'm still living amongst crates and can't find anything and because I've not put anything on the walls, due to not being able to find anything or get to anything.

I did still manage, on Sunday night to post chapter 8 (definitely of 11) of Doctor Who: The Soap Opera where I continue to not actually torture Sarah.

• The analogue signal from the TV is crap - but the digital one is good. I thought my issues with the Freeview card were due to lack of RAM (even though I have 7768Mb) but no, it was the signal. Only problem is frequency at 850 is crap, so no ITV or Channel4 (or ITV2, 3, 4 and More4). Dad found a digital signal booster in Maplin, so we're going to try that. And maybe get a Freeview box for the TV. So I'll still be able to tape one channel and watch another
• My bedroom heater doesn't work. I don't really need it that much but it would be nice not to get up in the freezing cold
• The shower doesn't work due to lack of hot water pressure. Only solution is for the estate agent to see if the landlord will get an electric shower put in
• The shelf space on top of the wardrobe is a really annoying size, as is the space under the rail. But I have moved my clothes so I have two free big drawers
• I'm still waiting for Comet to call me about picking up the hoover and microwave. Apparently it's in a queue and they can't do anything until it reaches the front of the queue. Which is helpful
• I want my broadband connection!

Edit: You'd think that ul for Unordered list and ol for Ordered list would be simple, but no...

Because this is very long: Read more...

I have survived my move, although yesterday was v stressful - more details later. I'm currently on 1p a minute dial-up because freeserve changed their number, so it's no longer my best friend. Will be staying late at work to catch up on the internet!

My freeview works, so I can watch Torchwood. My computer works. I still need to make my bed, wash up everything so I can eat and find whatever I need for tonight and tomorrow morning, but still...

Just been to see Casino Royale and I really enjoyed it. Even though there was no Moneypenny or Q. But I liked the technology in it and the chase sequence at the beginning had me biting my fingernails. I wish Craig Daniel had kept his clothes on more often, though, that was not a pretty sight. But then he's generally not a pretty site. I hope they go back to dark haired handsome men next time. The part I didn't like was when I left and my car was not only steamed up but trying to ice up as well. And the water I left in there nearly froze my tongue off.

I did discover though that Ewan McGregor is in that film about Beatrix Potter. With a dodgy moustache. So I might have to see it. Contrary to all expectations, I don't like Peter Rabbit. I don't know why, so I'm not that excited about seeing a film about her. Or Ewan McGregor in a moustache. But then I saw two Star Wars films with him with long hair, a beard and doing a dodgy accent, so I expect I'll cope. I'm just glad his wife is sensible and prefers him clean-shaven.

I really enjoyed last night's Torchwood. So I was really surprised to read all the posts this morning from people hating it. It was a bit different because it didn't involve most of the Torchwood people but it was an excellent whodunnit. There were some things that didn't quite make sense but it was really interesting. And I'm reliably informed by my dad that the answer is a parabola; I didn't hear the question.

I went to get my post redirected this lunchtime. Which involved queueing in the post office for 10 minutes to get a form, then I joined the back of it again while I filled it in, then handed it in. I almost decided to come back later but it's not going to get better till after Christmas. I took a stack of things into work to phone to tell people I'm moving but only managed my car insurance (which doesn't change price, unlike my house insurance which saves me 64p). I know what I'm doing every lunchtime this week.

And lastly, I posted my entry to the SG Rare Pairings Ficathon: Never Easy, which is Jack/Elizabeth. There looks like being loads of interesting pairings there, I just need to find the time to read them.

I have nearly everything I need for the new place, I just failed on the toilet cleaner brush front. But since I'm only going to be there a week till I go home, it's not desperate. I do love Wilkinsons though, they sell everything, even though it's only a little shop (in comparison to the one in Poole).

I've packed seven crates, one is full of clothes, the rest are all books, DVDs, paperwork and other things. The rest is going to wait till Friday when I have two more crates left (I'm sure I had one more spare though, so I don't know quite what I've done there) and take down the rest of my posters, so I have even more depressing walls to look at. I do have quite a lot of things in boxes, which seem pointless to put in crates. I can foresee several trips - it's just as well I'm only going five minutes down the road.

I'm so tired though. Last night I went to the District Christmas party, which was good, apart from it being freezing out on the walk home from the bus. And I didn't get in till 1.30, so I was hoping my system might realise that sleeping late to compensate would be a good idea. So I woke up about 8.15, which is half an hour after my alarm goes off for work and still fifteen minutes before the heating comes on. I was fine this morning but since about 3pm I've been quite happy to just go to bed, if I thought for one minute I'd sleep. I'll go to bed to watch Torchwood and if I sleep till my alarm goes off, I'll be happy.

I did stop the packing because I was so tired and watched the last Seventh Doctor story I had to go, which was his first, Time and the Rani. I enjoyed it, the first episode particularly was delightfully silly. I liked him misquoting proverbs too. It could have got really annoying if they'd kept it up, but for four episodes it was funny. I remembered why I really like Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. You can't tell so well in the audios because it's his actions that do it. He's always doing something, usually in a silly way and I love that. He did look quite funny in Colin Baker's costume too.

Work looks like not being too bad next week after all, but the week after (ie the week before Christmas) will probably be hideous. But since I have less on then, that's not so bad. Tomorrow I'm going to see Casino Royale, which I'm looking forward to.

And as I've actually remembered, I posted chapter 7 (of 11, probably) of Doctor Who: The Soap Opera. This one's back to a Sarah & Harry chapter, after Lavinia's cameo in chapter 6.

Moving is stressful, I've discovered. Although this is mostly because I wanted to tell Pipex I was moving but it turns out this means they cancel your current account and give you a new one. Which can take 7-10 days after you move in. So I could be broadbandless for a few days, till I go home. I don't know how I'm going to survive (although I can see it involving staying after work...)

I posted the latest chapter of Doctor Who: The Soap Opera, Chapter 6: The Truth, where I don't torture Sarah at all. But am making up for it in other stuff I'm writing.

My dad introduced me to Pandora where you tell it what music you like and it finds other things it thinks you will. I told it various artists and it came up with a Garbage song, and I'd forgotten to tell them I liked Garbage, so that impressed me.

I'm less impressed by the book I'm currently reading, which is 12 in the Star Trek New Frontiers series. I haven't read any since about book 4 and I think it's gone downhill since then, as I'm not interested in any of the plots in it. But what got me last night was the science being completely and utterly ridiculous. Basically, they've just found out that back in Kirk's era a god and a human reproduced and had a daughter. She had a daughter, who had a daughter, who had a son. None of the daughters showed any signs of godhood but the son did. The explanation was that the difference was that he had a Y chromosome (fine so far) and the godhood gene is on that. Er, no. You get your Y chromosome from your father, so the son can only be a god if his father was descended from one, not his mother. They could have made it work like colour blindness, where the godhood gene was on the mothers' X chromosomes but was cancelled out by the fathers' X chromosomes, but that bits missing on the Y (where the brain is, according to my A level biology teacher).

That's all fairly basic biology as well, like GCSE level stuff, so no-one should be getting it wrong in a published book. It's slightly more excusable in fan fic. I read something recently that was set now and had someone in this country paying with pound notes. And another where someone British was described as African American. (although it always comes up at work when we do an American questionnaire and ask ethnic origin, if you can be African American, [anything else] American why can't you just be American?)

I now have some furniture. My sister took me to IKEA yesterday in Wembley. Although the sat nav tried to direct us to the Tescos behind it instead. I now have a table and chairs and a couple of chests of drawers. Most of the rest will wait till January, although next weekend I'll be getting any last few bits from Wilkinsons amidst some serious packing as I'm not really going to be in much next week. I can't do too much now, though, because there just isn't the space for it.

I also managed to order myself a bed and headboard. It seems like just a small place mum found, but they were really nice to talk to, so I'm happy. Certainly more helpful than Comet, who declined my card because I hadn't realised that my billing address had to match my credit card now, rather than where it will be. It took twenty minutes to re-order my stuff. Helpfully they will only deliver sometime between 7am and 6pm and I can't pick the keys up until the estate agent opens. They are apparently going to phone me first but if it's before 9am there's not going to be much I can do! Although having said that they are delivering stuff that will fit in my card, so I suppose if the worst comes to the worst I can always get them to come round here.

Now I just need to organise myself with telling people I'm changing my address and setting up a standing order with the bank so my rent gets paid.

On a TV note, I watched Robin Hood on Sunday as mum told me Rene Zagger was in it. I missed the last ten minutes due to the electricity running out (so glad I'm moving to somewhere with proper electricity) so I had to ask dad how it ended. I don't feel that I'm missing anything by not watching though, I'm just not feeling inspired by it. And last night's Torchwood, was Ianto really suggesting what I thought he was suggesting?

It really shouldn't be that hard to buy a bed. I was going to quite happily get one from Argos except that eventually I found that they don't deliver large items on a Saturday. So I went round loads of other websites they either think you want a fancy bed that will just create dust underneath and/or want to spend more money than I earn in a month. Or want something that has no drawers which is pointless. And none of them want to deliver on a Saturday. What do they think the majority of the population who work Monday-Friday do?

Eventually managed to find somewhere who also sell headboards and deliver on a Saturday, although need to ring them up. Hopefully they will be able to understand my attitude on headboards (they are there so you have something comfortable to lean against when you sit up in bed reading. And that's it).

I'm so tempted to go and see Melli when she's in Virginia, on the basis that it's closer than Tasmania, and a shorter flight so I can take all my own food in case they're crap. And it's not far from New York, which I do want to go to for more than five hours. Not sure I can actually afford to though. Will have to see.

When I checked my post last night I thought the calendar looked quite red. So I scrolled down and discovered that I've made more posts in November 2006 so far than any month since I started this blog back in July 2002.

Last night I had a really nice meal out in the new Italian restaurant they've opened in town. I've been there three times now and had something different each time! I could even have the sorbet, which there was loads of. Only problem was that since it contained mushrooms it proved that I have developed an intolerance to them. So I spent the rest of the night watching videos to take my mind off it, and stayed up far later than I wanted to.

I realised that driving in the cold is not doing my hands any good, they're getting so dry. So I asked my mum for some driving gloves and she sent some. They don't quite fit - I've always had a problem finding gloves to fit, ever since I was little, no idea why. But I wore them to Tescos tonight and it was so nice to drive with warm hands, they're great!

The most exciting news is that I've finished my pico project. I wanted to write a radio script that I had started and had 673 words of, and it looked like I was never going to get anywhere on it. So I was determined to finish it for pico, and 5000 words seemed like a likely target. I have 5710 words, two of them being the fabulous 'The End'. I need to rewrite it now, though, not least because I realised one of the characters was redundant, so needs writing out. But at least now I have something to work from. And I have less writing to do, as my SG rare pairings ficathon piece is also done.

Work is looking to be really manic in December, so really not looking forward to that. My life might well end up consisting entirely of work and moving related things. My sister is also going to be moving in December, so she's offered to take me to IKEA on Sunday. So I might now be doing moving things on 16th and 17th December. I also found out one of the charity shops in town that sells furniture delivers. They're better for sofas than anything else. The flat comes with a sofa, but I might get an armchair later. I need to check out the other charity shop that sells furniture tomorrow.

My BBC news email told me this morning that Channel 4 are planning to offer downloads. I don't actually watch that much on Channel 4 but it would be good to catch up with Teachers because I seem to have seen random bits of that.

The Guardian had a big article in the online section about spam, since it's gone crazy recently (I used to get about 50 a day, now it's 100). Except that they basically concluded there's nothing you can do. It's just took them the whole of the front page and part of page 2 to do it.

Last night I was good and sat down and now have 2511 words for my pico project, which is halfway.

And I had an email today to say I passed all of my checks for the estate agent, so I can move in on 15th December! Current plan is to clean the flat on the 15th and get some essentialy furniture (bed, hoover) delivered. Then move in on 16th and clean my room here. Then live out of crates for a week while I work out what furniture I need and what I have space for. Then I'll be buying some of that in January.

At the moment I'm trying to read books that I'm planning to charity once I've done, so there'll be less to move. Current book is What Katy Did, which I'm sure I read when I was younger but don't remember. The kids are mostly looked after by their aunt, which is making me think how much I'd like to see Sarah Jane as a child, growing up with her aunt fic.

This morning I had a driving lesson on the motorway! Which was not as scary as I thought it was going to be. My knee didn't appreciate it terribly though. And then this afternoon I did some Rotaract stuff and then I was all dynamic and updated my website. And done some writing, although not my pico project. I haven't even gone near the comm because I already feel guilty. There is plenty of time yet this evening, though. Although it is quite annoying that Midsomer Murders clashes with Torchwood.

It turns out that my parents have two spare kitchen bins in their loft. Apparently because they don't fit in the strangely shaped space they have in the kitchen and dad wanted to keep them because he thought they might be useful for something. It's great that I can have one but that does go a long way towards explaining why they have a loft full of crap. And why I still have my old dressing gown, even though I've had a new one for a week.

I watched Wednesday's episode of The Bill earlier, as it had Sylvester McCoy in it (which my mum completely failed to notice). I thought it was a bit mad when they said his character (Morris Shaw) was Glaswegian but then he did come up with a few words in a Glaswegian accent. It didn't seem to last though. I wonder if whoever wrote Jack's line: "You know more about time than Stephen Hawking" did it deliberately, or it was just a coincidence (the DCI was talking about time inside). No screencap as I wasn't in, so had to tape it on the video and I can't get a decent photo off the telly. He is in the second picture down but wearing the George Bush mask (having just robbed a betting shop - his partner in crime was Tony Blair).

I actually quite enjoyed the episode. The crime parts were quite interesting, the soap parts I didn't care about. And they introduced a new character with a police-related thing about her. So now we know what sort of copper she is and incidentally a bit about her background, rather than the other way round. There seems to be a particularly dodgy between the new ginger super (so glad I knew what his rank tabs meant) and some bird who I can't work out who she is since her rank tabs don't fit into the usual station ones, so I don't know what they mean.

From reading the forum it sounds like this one was unusually good, and since the crime still seemed short enough to fill a half hour episode, I don't think I'll be going back to watching it on a regular basis. But I might watch it when I'm home at Christmas and mum has it on. I was quite excited to see Mickey in the new episode trailer, though.

My new flat is almost definite. The website now has it under offer and it's just waiting for a credit check, which since the only debt I've ever had are my student loans, I know I'll pass. Current plan is to have any essential furniture delivered on the Saturday (which one that ends up being since that's still TBC) and clean, then move in on the Sunday. Then once I've worked out what I need and what I have space for, then organise other furniture.

I am moving! I'm going to be renting a one bedroom flat (the advert says maisonette but as far as I can tell that means flat) from about Christmas time. It's going to be great to have my own place and very exciting. And since it's unfurnished, my own furniture too. No more sleeping with ear plugs, or having to take the cat shit out of the bath before I can shower. And I'll get a microwave with a grill so I can make flapjacks. And I'll definitely have to make some chocolate mousse.

It's a bit scary, though, because I already know I don't understand the heating and I'm sure there will be other things that will be a mystery to me. And I'm not looking forward to packing. I definitely need to have a ruthless spring clean as I do so (the charity shops will probably be getting a whole load more stuff - mind you, a couple of them also sell furniture, so they'll be benefiting in more than one way).

There will be a housewarming at some point, probably in January. Although it is a house that is impossible to find - the car park's relatively simple but I couldn't find the house when I went to view it and the estate agent couldn't find it when she went either. Of course, anyone who wants to come and help me move is entirely welcome.