From Bethnal Green to Brockley via Hammersmith

Saturday 20/01/2007 - diary of the move

7 am: Wake up after 5 hours sleep after Joanna Newsom's concert the night before. Go to Coffee@/Bagel Shop to buy our breakfast: the kitchen has already been cleaned and we are going to leave it that way.

8 am: The three of us start loading the van I had rented the previous day^***.

11.30 am: We realize that we actually have too much to load. Oh no! We have to come back and load what will be left. As well, we need to be in Brockley by 1pm to sign the contract so there's no time left to finish the cleaning of the flat before our first journey.

12.00 pm: We leave Bethnal Green towards Brockley. Takes us 1 hour to get there. According to the google maps instructions it would usually take 20 minutes. What do they know anyway?!...

1.10 pm: We meet up with Ikuko who was waiting for us in Brockley and we go to the agency to sign the contract and meet the owners of the house. The owners are a couple of young lovely people who make sure we have everything we need - they have bought new beds/clothes cupboards [ikea quality stuff - not the cheapest shabby ranges] and got us two sofas.

1.45 pm: We start unloading the van. Much quicker of course than the loading - there's 4 of us and now we just leave things in the living room, the room closest to the front door.

2 pm: We have lunch at the nice cafe that serves good coffee and good food in the corner of Coulgate Street with Brockley Road.

2.30 pm: Susana, Ikuko and myself drive back to Bethnal Green. Neia stays home unpacking and tidying up.

3.15 pm: We get to Bethnal Green (a bit quicker) and load what there is to load (not much in the end). We clean what's dirty, return the keys to the agency, and hope we never again have to deal with them.

4.30 pm: On our way to Hammersmith to get Ikuko's stuff.

5.15 pm: We pass through Kennington to pick up the magnificent desk I got on eBay the day before. It is by far the best bargain I ever got on eBay. Black solid wood about 2.5 meters wide and 1.5 meters deep.

5.30 pm: We leave Kennigton and go to Hammersmith. Loads of traffic from the Chelsea Embankment all the way through to Hammersmith. It takes us about 1.5 hours to get there.

7 pm: We arrive at Hammersmith and start loading Ikuko's things to the van.

7.30 pm: Going home. Again, lots of traffic.

8.45 pm: At last Brockley.


^***So, driving in London... Not easy, the fact that the gears are in the left side, and the wheel on the right side doesn't help at all. Then, the roads are usually too narrow if you have a car parked on one side and it's a two-way road. And now, imagine that driving a van...

I had to have two co-pilots all the time: one with the London A-to-Z and other maps, and the other to mind if I was getting too close to the cars parked on the left side of the road. There were about 10/15 times where I almost hit a car or at least a rear-view mirror of a car. Anyway all ended up well. I lived to tell.

By the end of the rental period I was becoming proficient in van-driving. Well kind of.