Spending two days making frantic phone calls has finally turned up results! I have an apartment in W.! Yipeeee! It's the fifth (of six) I had a look at, and the only one with a big enough living room and bedroom for me to even attempt to put all my furniture in! The rent is a bit higher than I'm truly comfortable with, but what the heck... I'll survive it. The parking-space problem might be less funny, though -- it's in the same part of town as our bureau, not in the suburbs, and therefore always crowded. I simply hate having to fight for a free parking space with teeth and nails! That's stress I really don't need. Well. We'll see. The apartment is 60 m² in size, has two rooms, a spacious kitchen (thank God!) and is on the third floor. No elevator. Will be fun to carry groceries up there... <eg>

No, above all, I'm happy. I stayed home from work yesterday and today and tried my best to find a moving company. Tomorrow, I'll drive 200 km, sign the lease agreement in W., drive another 180 km and let two moving company representatives take a look at my furniture etc. in my old apartment so they can give me a costs estimate. Then, I'll drive the rest of the way home to my parents (another 140 km). On Saturday morning, I'll buy paint (in sunny yellow, orange and light green) for painting my new walls, and on Sunday we'll celebrate my older brother's birthday.

Ugh. Another full weekend. As for next week, we'll have to see. There's so much paperwork involved in moving -- why the heck didn't I let myself be deterred by that?! Too late, I'll just have to deal. <grins>

Apropopos paperwork -- I tried to get a duplicate for the vehicle registration document of my old (totaled) car since I appear to have lost the original. I could swear that I gave it to my father for safekeeping, but he's equally sure he doesn't have it. And I could find it nowhere, though not for lack of looking! Frustrating. And expensive. It costs 30,90 EUR to be allowed to make a solemn affidavit that the car in question actually belongs to you, and another 58,80 EUR to have a new registration document issued. Problem is, said document can only be issued where your car had been registered in the first place. In my case, that means in Schweinfurt. Great. How am I supposed to go to the registration office there when it has opening hours you can only laugh about? Cologne and Schweinfurt aren't situated exactly next to each other, you know?!

Sometimes, I hate bureaucracy, and feel an overwhelming empathy for anyone who has the bad luck to be its victim. Then I remember that I am, more or less, also part of that slowly-moving machinery, and can't help but feel ashamed. It's like being an ant and facing a mountain ridge -- you have to cross over, but you're scared at how much effort and time it'll take. Bleh.

And, as of last, another 'fun' anecdote. When I drove to my parents last weekend, or rather: to mareen, I didn't take the fuel gauge seriously. In my old car, about 30 km before the tank was totally empty, a light started to blink, and I waited for the same in my new one. But, alas!, my new car evidently doesn't have such a gauge! Result: 10 km before reaching my destination, my car died on the highway, barely rolling over to the shoulder next to the right lane. My parents weren't home, but my dear friend Rebekka and her husband packed their baby into their car, drove by the next gas station, bought a canister plus 5 liters of super, and rescued me. I'll be forever in their debt!!! mareen just waited patiently, laughed at my SMS message and fed me casserole. Hah. I took it all with humor, because it... well... was rather funny. :-)