Not On A Tuesday

So not long after writing the post below this one, Matt arrived at my house and after I got dressed and such, we set out to walk to his parents house across town, stopping in the small store around the corner on the way for me to buy Coca Cola (a can for Matt, 1.5 litres for me to compensate for lack of sleep). Fired up on caffeine we reached the house where we were joined by Dan, Curly and Jake who had also been conscripted/asked into lending a hand.

With the team assembled, we then had to wait for Wendy's parents to arrive with the moving van (Wendy being Matt's diminutive other half). We were not kept waiting that long, and Matt didn't really have that much stuff to load up, mostly boxes, and oddly next to no actual furniture (I wasn't the only one to comment on this). The only actual items of furniture being an easy chair, a wooden chest and some CD towers.

The others bundled into Curly's car, while I got a lift in the van to Wendy's parents house in Cotford St. Luke. I'd not been there before and after having seen just how... bland I think is the best word I can come up with, everything looked, I'm not keen to go there again. There we unloaded everything back out of the van, and piled it up on the drive, adding to the pile of all Wendy's stuff (again mostly boxes, but there was a sofa too). Then we loaded everything back into the van, reasonably sensibly.

After a brief trip to the village shop to get drinks, Dan, Curly, Jake and myself piled into Curly's car and set off for Plymouth... leaving behind the map and instructions that Matt had written to get us to his flat! It was a nice drive, and we listened to 80's rock music from the movies on the way down, with tunes like Danger Zone, Fame, and The Power of Love amongst those enjoyed (though Jake did get the Fame tune stuck in his head!)

The four of us arrived in Plymouth well before the others as Matt and Wendy were driving down in her car and were making a stop at one of her relatives on the way, and her parents didn't plan to start driving the van down until their daughter had set off. So with some time to kill we figured to find a pub, have a beer and a pub lunch. The part of Plymouth where Matt's flat is is called the Barbican, an old part of the city right on the docks. None of us were at all enamoured of the place.

After an eternity stood waiting in line to use a cash machine, we wandered about and finally settled on the Three Crowns pub (I think that was it's name anyway) and went in and ordered pints. Bloody expensive pints at that. £2.80 for a pint of Carlsberg is daylight robbery in any town, and Dan was charged £2.40 for a glass of cola (not a pint glass either). On top of this when I asked to see the menu, I got the curt reply "We don't serve food on Tuesdays". So we took our drinks, sat outside and proceeded to merrily rip the piss out of the place. I mean what kind of idiotic policy is that? They had signs out proclaiming fresh baked food and such but not one bloody sign saying "Except on Tuesdays".

Downing our pints we went and got food from a traditional Fish 'N' Chip shop (though I think only Jake actually had fish) and sat on the quayside to eat it. Sitting and eating our chips we made fun of one legged seagulls, Plymouth in general, Tuesdays (this was to be a theme throughout the rest of the afternoon), over priced beer, and ludicrous car parking charges (seriously the place we found to park had a £1.60 fee for 2 hours, but a £10 fee for 4 hours!! What the fuck is up with that?), amongst other topics.

Matt finally turned up and we made our way to his new home. It's quite a nice little 1 bedroom flat actually, with lots of windows and two small balconies, one of which has a view over the harbour. The block also has a very nice secure garage, so it might just be worth the £500 a month rent they are going to be paying! Moving the stuff in was easier than I thought it would be (well all apart from the sofa, Jake had to take the lounge door off its hinges to get that through), and Wendy kept us supplied with drinks as the five of us men toiled. Her parents didn't lift a finger to help though, her Mum unpacking stuff in the kitchen and her Dad wandering around taking photos.

We were offered pie once all was brought up to the flat (they are on the first floor), but as it would take an hour to bake it we declined and after bidding Matt and Wendy the best of luck etc, we got back into the car (I got the passenger seat this time around) for the drive to Taunton, all of us quite glad to be leaving Plymouth behind. Curly was good enough to drop me off on my road. I got no sleep last night, but even with this cursed heat, I can just feel that tonight when my head hits the pillow, I'm not going to have any trouble getting to sleep!