Moving stories #3 - Loo Rolls And Tea Bags

Back in my first teaching job, I worked with a woman who always bought her loo rolls from Harrods. Her reasoning was this - in the sale, Andrex luxury paper was reduced if you bought in bulk. She lived in a large house, so if she bought a year's supply at a time, it not only worked out cheaper than Sainsbury's budget brand, but she also had a Harrods van arrive outside her front door, and it amused her to see all the nosey neighbours twitching their curtains.

Christmas 1984. Bob was in his third year at college, Steph had just been born. One of his fellow students had become an agent for "Traidcraft" - a new charity supplying fairly traded goods. She needed to sell a minimum amount for the first month, so urged the students to buy the stuff. I decided we should buy a year's worth of loo-rolls to help her reach her sales target

We'd recently acquired a small undercounter freezer- but we couldn't afford to fill it. I had read that freezers need to be kept full - even if it is just bags of water, or rolled up newspapers. My experiments had shown that you can use tea bags straight from the freezer. So we also bought 1000 teabags.

Then things went pear-shaped. Out of the blue, the charity which ran the Housing Scheme restructured things and we had to leave. The Manse at Crofton Baptist Church, Orpington, as empty, as they were between ministers. One of Bob's tutors told CBC that a poor student family were being made homeless- and these lovely people said we could live there. By now I had a toddler, and a 3 month old baby to feed. So again we used a removals company. They were very good - but as one chap unloaded ninety six loo rolls he asked me if we had health issues. And then when I told him the 1000 teabags were going straight into the freezer, I think he decided I really was strange.

We gradually used up the teabags and worked our way through the loo rolls. We were so happy in that house, and the church folk were really kind to us. But I have never felt the need to buy teabags or loo rolls in such vast quantities again!

And by the way, as we gradually unpack and settle in to Cornerstones, I feel I ought to point out that it is exactly twelve years today since we first took possession of this bungalow [pictures here]

UPDATE Wednesday went well - van loaded and on the road soon after 9am. We arrived mid afternoon and unloaded ( much faster than before - considerably fewer boxes) The planned fish'n'chip supper was late. We went to FIVE places before we found one that was both open and willing to take payment by credit card! Today we take the hired van back to Dorset then return in Bob's Skoda. And we will be properly, finally here! Unpacking is another story...