When I first faced the prospect of packing to move, I was more than a little daunted by the prospect of the amount of books I own and the thought of packing all of them up.

But I discovered at the weekend that I actually find packing books to be very therapeutic. After all, I might have thousands of them, but they don�t require wrapping or padding or anything other than fitting as many of them into a box as possible.

In fact, the only real thought required is to ensure that I don�t use any particularly large boxes that I won�t then be able to lift.

Over the weekend I managed to pack about two thirds of my books (excluding cook books, but they�re a whole separate category). I would have kept going and finished all except my current and expansive reading pile, but I ran out of boxes and now have to start begging for them around the office and the local supermarket.

It was, as I said, very therapeutic. Spending an afternoon listening to the football and loading books into boxes, followed by creating a fabulous and only slightly unstable looking tower from those boxes in the dining room, aka packing central. I felt like I was working hard and achieving something, even though I wasn�t actually working hard at all.

It�s far easier to pack when there�s no chance of breaking anything. Packing up bowls and platters and all variety of kitchen implements was not nearly so easy. Too much chance of things getting broken while being put into the boxes, while sitting around in the boxes in the dining room for a few weeks, while being moved in the boxes and while being taken out of the boxes. Also while being used by my in general every day life.

In other move-related news, I finally found some wine glasses that I like, and they only cost $19.95 for 6. Of course they�re not perfect, but they were 20 bucks, so what does one expect? They are however as close to my list of requirements that it�s possible to get with heading for Waterford.

I also found cutlery that I like, and at a very good price, but I�m holding off buying that because I don�t actually need it, and there are still a few things on my �need� list, so I can�t really move on to my �want� list yet.

Aside from packing this weekend I also saw the new Harry Potter movie. If they really decide that the kids are too old to make any more movies I think it would be a completely stupid decision. Leaving aside the fact that we�re used to seeing 27 year olds playing 15, I think the ageing of the actors is really having a good effect on the movies and allows them to move into more adult situations that the books are heading into. In fact I think the third movie did a better job of conveying that the kids were growing up than any of the books have done.

That little rant aside, I really enjoyed the movie, and thought they did a great job of condensing the book down. Not least because they cut out all the boring house cup stuff that I skim over in the books and think that even J.K. Rowling has got sick of. One mention of points and a quick flick past a Quiddich match being used for another purpose are a more than adequate way of dealing with all that stuff, and I hope they keep that up in future movies as well.

Anyway, that and far too much time in front of SimCity was my boring but satisfying weekend.