The Real Life Mrs Weasley

My best friends mother is a star. As Drew aptly put it last night – she is the real life version of Mrs Weasley. If you’re hungry, she will feed you. If there is something you want, she will have it, and if she doesn’t she would get it for you...

So imagine my surprise when I turned up to collect the ‘couple’ of items I was told she had for me…

The contents of Jeans kitchen, is now in mine. I swear, the amount of stuff she gave me, I must have everything she owns for surely there wasn’t anything left over! There was a bin, a washing up bowl, a brand new iron, towels, glasses, cutlery, a fruit bowl, mugs, coffee and tea jars, a tray, lamp shades, a small round table to sit your drink on, a toilet brush, a toilet roll, a bar of soap (special soap because my skin is ‘funny’ haha bless her)… There were so many things she gave me I don’t actually know what there was for the bin is still full of items wrapped in newspaper I have yet to unpack. But the most surprising item? A plant. A random thing to offer I thought. Do you need this? How about that? Or this? Do you want a plant?

Um… sure?

So there were four of us to carry all these items to my flat from my friends house which is about a five minute walk. But not to Mrs Weasley… Apparently it’s a mile away! “Oh lordy you’ll never manage it!” God I love her haha =)

My brother could manage to lift the bin full of items with one hand but Mrs Weasley still insisted on taking some items out and dishing them out in bags to make them easier to carry. She loaded us all up with items, asking if I was coming for dinner tomorrow, then ushered us out the door.

If you could only have seen the sight of us… My friend had two bulging carrier bags full of breakables, my brothers girlfriend more breakables, my brother wrestling with the bin in one arm and brandishing the little table as a weapon in the other… and me? Under one arm I had a washing up bowl, and under the other, my new plant. Together, we looked like we had just pillaged the local village and left with everything except the electronics.

Off we toddled up to my flat, off loaded all the stuff, and laughed. I think I actually need a bigger kitchen I have so many items for it! It was a lovely evening though, and it’s made me realise just how wonderful people can be, and how generous people can be.

Thank you Mrs Weasley! Now every time I step into my kitchen I will think of my friend, and his wonderful family, and how lucky I am to have stayed friends with him for so long and how I hope to stay friends with him for many years to come.

Drew, you shall now be known as Ronald.

I have named my plant Ginny.

Busy Busy!

Wow, so busy, I can’t believe it is Monday again already!

I have now officially signed the tenancy for my flat and have the keys! Woohoo! I’m a little annoyed at the moment though… as the keys were available from last Monday I have to start paying rent from then – even though I didn’t sign the tenancy agreement till Thursday, even though the gas wont be switched back on till this Thursday coming, even though I cant move in till the place has been heated up and aired out because its been empty for a few months… Grr! But oh well! I shall be writing a lovely letter to the council with my view and see what they say as it never hurts to try and get a discount or what not!

I still don’t have a cooker or a washing machine, but I’m not too worried. My cooking skills mostly rely on a microwave and a toaster, both of which I have been given so all shall be well! Failing that, once I move I’ll be five minutes away from a chip shop, five minutes away from a Chinese, five minutes from my best friends house and five minutes from my brothers house! I’ve already warned them I’ll be round every night with my tin of beans or what not, asking for it to be heated up please please thank you very much!

I cannot afford to buy carpets! At least, not at the moment. I’m still trying to figure out my budget and find out what I can and cannot afford which is really difficult to do when you are just estimating costs. I wont truly know what my outgoings will be till I move in and start using stuff and, well, living! Who needs carpets anyway? Polish the floorboards, beg a fancy rug off someone – simples! And fashionable too, apparently.

I still need to sort out a tv licence, apply for working tax credits, contact the water board, send in my council tax form… So many things to remember!

In other news, I have remade contact with my step-mother and father. Well, technically speaking, they made contact with me, at least, my step mother did. After a few heated text messages she wrote me a letter, which wasn’t what I was expecting at all. It was… nice. There wasn’t any animosity at all, it was just a nice, here’s what I’ve been doing, hope you’re okay kind of letter. So I replied with a here’s what I’ve been doing of my own, and I actually felt good for writing it, for making that contact with them. There is so much history between us, sometimes it’s hard to really know where I stand with them. I feel so awkward when I shouldn’t, I get anxious for no reason, it makes no sense to me. Hopefully I’ll be able to understand it and work through it with the therapy I am doing.

I came home last night to another letter from my step mother in response to the one I had wrote her. And another letter. From my dad. It was a congratulations on your new home card, and in my dads scruffy writing all it said inside was “all our love and best wishes, love dad and Anne.”

I cried. I cried harder than I have done for a while for that card meant so much to me. My dad had made an effort. My dad was thinking of me. My dad wanted me to know he was thinking of me.

I shall treasure that card and it will take pride of place in my new flat. Once I buy a shelf for it to sit on that is!

Moving On

OMG OMG I had some really good news this morning!

I have been on the council waiting list for a while but this morning I had a phone call from them and they have offered me to go and look at a flat! YAY!

Ok, so you might be thinking “wow, council flat woohoo aiming high…” but this to me will be such a huge and positive change. In my current situation there is just no way I could afford to rent somewhere privately, or even try and secure a mortgage for my own place. The council route was really my own affordable option.

I have to go and look at the place first before I can properly state that I want it, but if the flat is suitable, my answer will be an excitable whoppingly fat YES! The location couldn’t be better – it’s a five minute walk from my brothers’ place and a five minute walk to my best friends’ house, smack bang in the middle between the two. It’s still on the bus route to work and to the train station for when I go see Ben and it’s in an area I grew up in so I’m familiar with the surroundings. They won’t get the keys till the end of this week, early next week so I won’t know for definite what’s going on till probably after Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my mum, but living with her has in itself created problems. I won’t go into them all here, but lets just say me moving out will help to heal our fractured relationship. Besides, I’m sure she wants her own space and independence too, she’ll probably be glad to see the back of me!

If this happens and I get to move in to the new flat, already I can see a brighter future for me.