Leaving things behind

I still live here for a couple of days, though. Yeah - sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor. It looks like I definitely can't wait to leave.

For those of you interested in junk inventories, here's the statistical data of what I leave behind:

Waste for which I had to pay a "waste disposal fee":

• 5 filled plastic bags at 110 liters each (small, non-recyclable items)
• 5 filled plastic bags 60 liters each (small, non-recyclable items)
• 1 bed
• 1 table with four chairs
• 1 cupboard
• 1 motorbike helmet

Recycling contains stuff which I was able to bring to the recycling center (without paying any fee) during several trips by foot:

• 160 kg electrical items, such as laundry machine, iron, old radios, cabling and a hair dryer (sic!)
• 75 kg books
• 28 kg metal
• 22 kg paper for shredding (my bookkeeping went back to 1984, sigh...)
• 15 kg clothing
• 15 kg of VHS tapes, software
• 13 kg newspapers, magazines
• 7 kg crockery
• 5.5 kg glass
• 1.5 kg plastic

Sold a lot of stuff, before going to recycle and eventually afterward throwing away:

• 1 television set
• 4 computers
• 1 printer
• 1 game console
• 1 DVD recorder
• 250 CDs
• 200 DVDs
• 2 satellite receivers
• various kitchen items
• various smaller electronic equipment (W-LAN router, hubs, etc.)
• various furniture (sofa-bed, TV-stand, DVD-rack, CD-rack, etc.)

Thanks a lot to all of you who have bought this stuff (and thus contributed to financing the trip): Boban, "Dalchi", Domenic, Fred, Erich, Marcel, Michi, Rolf, René, Silvia, Steff, Thomas and Yannick. I hope that I haven't forgotten anyone.

Remaining are a few personal items which fit into 15 regular-size ("banana"-)boxes, plus two suitcases (except for the stuff which I'll take along the trip in my backpack).

You are about to scratch your head about how I dealt with stuff to which I was really attached? Well, there were two items, which I was foo-fighting about whether to keep them or throw them away: My childhood teddy bear and my vinyl record collection (which uses about a dozen out of the mentioned 15 boxes).

Last Thursday was definitely a challenging day and a major milestone in planning: Removed the last furniture for the junkyard during my lunch break with the help of some guys with a moving truck (who arrived on time - lucky me). After that "break" I went back to the office to clean-up my desk and to bid farewell. This was also my last working day. At five, I dropped the mentioned boxes and suitcases off at my nephew's house using a rental van (and playing the "being-stuck-in-the-Easter-holiday-traffic-jam" game together with other tourists on the Swiss highways). Aside from this small delay caused by the traffic, everything went well and as planned.

So here I am now in my flat, full of echoes and silence. Cleaning with patience and grace all the rooms. It looks like I'll be ready for the handover to the new tenant next week.

Today's riddle: What is the name of the band and the album to which I am listening right now? If you get this one right (and if we meet before departure), I'll buy you a drink. :)