Flight prices

A return from Edinburgh to LAX is as low as £444, but a single costs £390. Eh? Where's the logic in that? It's odd how airlines do that: charge you as much for a single as a return. However I work it, I'll have to buy a single and a return, because I have to be back in mid-September for the happy event of P's brother's wedding.

Clear-out II

It's amazing just how much stuff I've accumulated over the last decade. I know I chucked out most of my undergrad baggage when I moved to this flat, so most of the current junk is less than 6 years old! Four bags of clothes went to Shelter, along with two boxes of books, an air purifier, miscellaneous household goods (like a travel kettle) and assorted vases and pots. And that's the good stuff. About the same amount has gone straight out to the bins. And we're still nowhere near clearing out the flat. How do other people do this?

Argh!

D's "certificate of eligibility for a J1 visa" arrived in the post this morning, which means she now has to travel to London for a visa interview. Scary prospect! We're now looking for a job for P, but have also found out that if he travels to the US on a B1/tourist visa, any application he makes for a subsequent J1 visa (temporary worker) will be delayed by 6 months. Not sure why, but it means we'll have to go separately. We're in the process of getting things sorted, like getting a certificate for the central heating system and arranging for cover so we won't have to make silly-hour phone calls to plumbers etc. when over there.

This moving business is turning out to be even more costly than anticipated. A quick call to a few storage companies has revealed that renting a 5x5x8 foot room will cost between £50 to £60 per month. Over 36 months, this translates to between £1800 and £2160. Our main problem is that D has tons of books (well, figuratively... literally, it comes closer to 5 bookcases). Plus, we have winter coats/jackets, CDs, toys (well, a kite and a few robots) and other little things that would be silly to ship over there. And these won't all fit into a cupboard. Hence the self-storage option. If we could get a decent rent for the flat, the storage costs could be absorbed that way. Fast running out of ideas.