Measuring up

I'm beginning to feel quite positive about this new flat.

Not that I didn't have a good feeling about it to begin with, but the reality of having bought it, having made it mine to move into whenever I like, left me a little shellshocked.

Today, my folks and I popped back there and started measuring up - nice and accurate, thanks to my father's ultrasound measuring device - so that we can start planning furniture and the like. My mother is perhaps a little too keen to start playing about in her interior designer software, so I'll have to make sure the end result is both functional and something that reflects me rather than her, but I'm quite glad of the assistance.

Much of what's already there, furniture-wise, will be adequate for the time being. The sofa in the lounge is - conveniently - a sofa bed. I will need to clean it out (having opened it out to see what it was like, I discovered popcorn, pistachio nuts and a used cotton bud in the inner workings) but it's a decent enough sofa bed. Not sure how useful it'll be when the place is more fully furnished, but I'll cross that bridge when I come it it.

The table and chairs, while nice enough, are a little redundant considering the amount of space I'll have to play with. I shall aim to have some kind of office space in the lounge, so a proper desk would be more appropriate.

The bedroom contained a wickerwork-look chest of drawers, a matching wardrobe, and a canvas 'wardrobe' thing. The chest of drawers now sits in the bathroom, a reasonable size for storing various bathroom trappings.

The kitchen has a washer/dryer, microwave and oven with hob, along with a fridge-freezer. My mother suggested a dishwasher but, frankly, I don't trust them to do a good job based on the performance of the one at home or the one at work.

All told, I'm quite pleased with it... I just need to figure out how much of my TransFormers collection I can safely move in ;)

So I bought a flat...

...Or, y'know, so it seems.

It's quite surreal, really. Months ago (back in February?), this process started with me putting in an offer on this single-bedroom, second floor flat. Things happened in the background (though, thankfully, none of those things were the vendor moving a tenant in) and yesterday, after a last-minute glitch, I received a phone call from the Estate Agent to the effect that everything was OK, and I could pick up the keys whenever I wanted.

This was something like 4.30pm, about four and a half hours after the usual time for such matters.

The 'last-minute glitch' was that the accountant for the vendor's solicitor went home at lunchtime and didn't tell anyone that the transaction was complete.

Classy, huh?

I'd like to be able to say that the accounts people at the company I work for are better, and wouldn't do something so stupid... but I know that's not true. These are the people that don't pay our temps unless we kick up a fuss. These are the people who don't process bonuses for several months. Who knows what other things they get up to. Or don't get up to.

So anyway, yes, I am now a property owner. And in my brief visit to the flat yesterday, I found some post for the previous occupant - one of which was from a 'certificated baliff', according to the envelope.

With this sort of thing, it wasn't long till my father shared with me the cheery thought that, if the previous occupant had kept a set of keys, they'd be able to pop back and take the furniture they'd left behind (and, stupidly, tried to get me to buy the day before completion).

That is, of course, something I had considered. When buying a new property, it is always prudent to change the locks... but it's not necessarily something you want one of your parents to say - loudly and publicly - when you've only had the keys to the place for about 45 minutes.

I am hoping to be off to the London Film and Comic Con today... just waiting on a phone call. More later, I'd imagine...

Curse you, eBay!

I'm sure I've already described the positively unhealthy amounts of time I spend trawling eBay.

There are a few things I'm on the lookout for, and will aways try to bid on when I find them. One such item is the torso of the G1 gestalt group, the Seacons. Snaptrap is a strange aquatic tortoise (he has feet rather than flippers, so he can't be a turtle) with guns sticking out of his shell, and a wierd claw thing at the back. He's pink and blue, so he looks really scary.

Considering how poorly-executed most of the Seacons are, it's strange that the combined form, Piranhacon, actually looks reasonably effective. Frankly, it looks about as good as any of the G1 gestalts (perhaps not as good as Menasor, the only full set I have, so perhaps I'm biased), but the colourscheme was always a bit on the psychedelic side. The best version was the Japanese Beast Wars II version, God Neptune, which had a consistent colour scheme - pearly white, gold and grey for the most part - and that's including the new TransFormers Collectors' Club version.

I suppose part of my thinking for completing my G1 Seacons set is that, if I sell the complete set on eBay, I would probably make more than enough to buy the Club set, if I so desired.

The Club set is complete - unlike God Neptune, which was lacking one of the smaller Seacons - but the colourscheme is pretty vile. Apparently, much like Club Astrotrain, it's based on an unreleased Walmart exclusive set. Unlike Astrotrain, however, it's made from a 20-year-old mold that wasn't particularly impressive the first time round. Add to that a colourscheme that's even more psychedelic than the original (the yellow burns my eyes!), and you've got a Club exclusive that's not high on my want list.

I shall consider my options very carefully when Snaptrap arrives... To be honest, having looked over my G1 collection several times of late, I'm thinking of selling a good chunk of it. Things like the Headmasters are, in this day and age, pretty rubbishy - incredibly simplistic transformations, very limited posability, boring gimmick. Even the massive Scorponok isn't much cop by today's standards. Then there are things like the Firecons and the Throttlebots - very limited play value, and not much to look at on display. I'd imagine some of it would net me a fair old sum...

The upside to selling a complete set of G1 Seacons to fund buying the Club set is that it's supporting the Club. When I join a club, I do like to support it... and it's really only by buying the exclusives that one can support this club.

I kind of wish they'd reduce the number of BotCon exclusives and channel more resources into the Club exclusives (say, a 3-piece BotCon box set, a further 4 'souvenir' pieces, and then 4 more Club members only pieces to go with the two non-BotCon Club exclusives?) but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon... BotCon is a huge moneyspinner, and this year's set sold out completely, well before the show.

But, back to eBay... While I was there, I ordered a couple of Japanese videogame artbooks - for Guilty Gear and War of Genesis - from Otaku's eBay shop. It's been ages since I ordered any artbooks, which is odd because I tend to find them quite inspiring, one way or another.