In my first post I promised to explain the “why” and the “how” of my crazy scheme. I think I’ve now done a pretty good job of the “why” (do let me know if I haven’t!), but before I do the “how”, I should probably have a go at some of the “what”.
I’ve already told my landlord that I’m leaving, so I’ve gotta be out of this flat by the 12th of December, which is in 16 days. Looking around me right now at my remaining stuff, that’s a pretty scary deadline.
But I’ve come a long way already, and I’m pretty much on the home stretch…
For the past month or two I’ve been selling a lot of stuff. The majority of it went on eBay; for a couple of weeks earlier this month, I was almost on first-name terms with the guys at the local UPS drop-off point. But by now, most of what’s left over is either stuff I’m keeping, or is of relatively little value and will be given away over the next couple of weeks to Freecycle or charity shops.
By the 12th I will have hopefully reduced my possessions to two simple categories of thing:
- Stuff which really, genuinely deserves to be kept; and
- Stuff which I really, genuinely need to live and work day-to-day.
The former category will be going into a tiny storage unit, and the latter will be coming with me in two items of luggage.
So what happens after the 12th?
Well it so happens that I’ve got pretty clear plans for the first month. Straight after leaving the flat, I’ll be down in London for about a week, staying with a friend. Then I’ll be heading back up north to my home town of Kendal, to stay with my mum for a few days over Christmas. On boxing day I’m off to Hamburg with another friend, to go visit 30C3 and spend New Year in Germany. Finally, I have two more full-time weeks to do at my old job here in Manchester – I actually started the new job yesterday, but I offered (with my new employers’ blessing) to help them out with handover when the new guy starts in January. During those two weeks I’ll be staying with yet another friend who works at the same company.
After that, my schedule is completely free, at least as far as physical location goes. From mid January onwards, the plan is to go wherever takes my fancy, staying in temporary, short-term accommodation – and carrying everything I need to live and work in my two items of luggage.
It’s scary as hell – and I can’t wait.
Dewr iawn – gwych! Edrych ymlaen yn fawr at weld sut bydd popeth yn datblygu…:-)
Diolch o galon i ti! Dw i’n methu aros chwaith :-)
(Note to readers generally: for reasons that I’ll probably go into at some point, I happen to be – perhaps slightly unusually – an Englishman who speaks Welsh… so if you ever see something in the comments you don’t understand, that’s probably what’s going on ;-))
If you happen to find yourself in Helsinki, I have an almost couch to sleep on and fast internet connection. =)
Ooh, that’d be fantastic some day :) Never been to Finland, but always wanted to. As a language geek I did once go through a brief period of fascination with the Finnish language. I’ve noticed that a period of obsession with Finnish is a phase that most language geeks go through at some point; mine was about 12 years ago though, so I have no idea how much I remember now :D
Hey, we live in the middle of Missouri out in the middle of the US. If you’re ever interested in this side of the pond … ;-)
Diolch! You lot are all *awesome*.
Oh, and that side of the pond is definitely on the cards… ;-)