So, it turns out that moving house is quite difficult. It’s not the ‘putting things in boxes’ part that’s hard (although it turns out that duvets resent being put in boxes), it’s the ’sorting through stuff’ part that turns ones brain to a confused mush.

In case you hadn’t gathered, Heather and I are moving house. In fact, we are really moving country – we don’t yet have a house to move to. Nevertheless, this means that a lot of our possessions need to go into boxes, where they will be stored for two years, and re-opened when we return. This is, therefore, not your average move.

Firstly, we have to decide if it is ours – Heather has lived in this house for 5 years, and had 5 years worth of roomates who have kindly left her a lot of their possessions. Secondly, we have to decide whether it is coming to England or going to Purgatory. Then, we have to decide if it is worth keeping in a box for two years, or given away / sold / burned. Finally, we have to decide if it is a precious item – and, therefore, must live inside the in-laws house – or, if it is suitable for their garage. So, effectively, there are several moves taking place.

In less than a week’s time we will be in England wondering why we ever got so worried about the move… maybe!

Going back to SPCK stuff. I received a comment today from one of those who reposted Dave Walker’s “missing” blogs.

Relating to a post I made about the WHOIS information on various SSG websites, the anonymous commenter writes:

“Another interesting question is who exactly owns the online bookselling arm of the SPCK, particularly as they are now happy to offer books by such important religious writers as Aleister Crowley, let alone a wide range
of ‘adult’ material. spckonline.com is still registered to the SPCK although they of course say that they’ve passed the domain over to SSG. When you go on to spckonline though you are in reality on a twinned site ‘Third Space Books’. You’d have expected to find that to be registered to one of the Brewer brothers’ myriad enterprises, but it’s hard to tell. The whois for thirdspacebooks.com shows up thus:

Registrant Contact

Name: Carey A McDonald
Address: 202 N Curry St.
Carson City, NV 89703
US

Note that Andy McDonald is not listed as the registrant, merely as the contact. Andy himself has a site http://www.juland.com (correctly registered), which appears to have nothing whatever to do with bookselling, let alone the Orthodox faith. How do I know that he’s actually known as Andy? Well, I rung him up (his office number’s on the whois, and his answaphone gives out his mobile number). It would have been nice to establish what and who exactly lay behind an Orthodox Christian online bookseller prepared to use the name of a long-established and respected UK charity to flog such distinctly un-Christian literature, but alas I fear that Andy was not able to give me any assistance whatever.”

I live only 15 miles from Carson City (the capital of Nevada, and also the cheapest petrol around). However, a quick Google search does reveal that the address is an Antiques Store. Confused? I am.

EDIT: Although I think the information is quite bizarre and interesting, I also think it is important that we respect the privacy of some of these people. They are probably innocent of the SPCK/SSG incident, and probably unaware of its existence – so we should be a little careful before contacting them / accusing them of anything.

During the winter many places get snowed in. These places effectively shut down – everybody stays indoors and tries to endure the weather by watching TV, reading books, and discussing the benefits (if any) of a nationalised health service.

Over here, in Reno, we get sunned in. For the past week the temperatures have been creeping into the 40s. This is too hot. It’s too hot get into the car. It’s too hot to chase after the ice cream van. And, due to the state-wide water shortage, it’s too illegal to spray yourself with the garden hose.

Obviously, the heat doesn’t stop everybody. Heather and I have just been in Quincy (where it has been hot and smokey – refer to my previous post), and there is a steady stream of the cars going down the road which suggests that some people are trying to brave the weather. However, any form of strenuous excercise is just too difficult and sweaty to perform.

So, Heather and I have done the most logical thing. We bought a Nintendo Wii. We will be spending the summer indoors.

Today is July 4th – Independence Day. For most in the USA it is a day off work – a chance to enjoy the sunshine, have a barbeque, and watch some fireworks. For me, it is a chance to feel very British and hope that the people I meet don’t remember the year 1776 very well. For Heather, it is one of the busiest days of the year (the Reno Philharmonic is doing two different concerts in two locations).

I followed Heather along to one of these concerts (the free one, not the one that cost $55 a ticket). It was being held in a town called Genoa – allegedly the first settlement in Nevada. The event reminded me a lot of some of the village events I had been to back in Suffolk – except that, in Genoa, the BBQs were bigger, there was a full orchestra playing, and everyone was wearing red, white, and/or blue (on quite an extreme level).

The concert was brilliant. Not because of the music that was being played, but because of the atmosphere. The orchestra was wearing t-shirts and jeans, there were people eating picnics pretty much anywhere they could find a space, and everyone appeared to appreciate everything that was going on (in particular, the lady next to me was quite overjoyed at the cannons during the 1812 Overture).

So, I’ve decided that I like Independence Day. Nobody seems to care about its history (thank goodness), and instead they just spend a day being thankful for being where they are. For this reason, I now fully support Sufolk declaring independence from the UK (think of the hog roasts we could have!).