The Cheerful Insanity of Me

When I popped around to the flat on Friday evening to meet the inventory clerk, we thought for a minute that we were going to have to re-arrange because there didn't seem to be any electricity.

Turns out the place has a pay-as-you-go meter and once we found the key in the kitchen we got the power on.

I've spoken to the landlord and the electricity supplier and the meter is going to be changed next Monday.

This leaves me in a state of not knowing quite how much electricity I currently have (I'm sure the meter would tell me how much credit was in there, but I'm not sure that would help me figure out how long it would last me), so I'm now waiting to see if the lights go out between now and Monday.

Given that I have candles and a camping stove with plenty of gas, most of my electrical stuff (hifi, computer, etc) is still packed in boxes, there's very little in the fridge-freezer, it's not been cold enough to switch the heating on since I moved in and I'm away in Exeter Friday-Sunday, at what point does it just become not worth topping up if it runs out?

I guess I'm on silent running for the next few days to see how long I can make it last...

Yesterday I

• Went to work


• Went home for lunch (mainly because I could and it was a novel as a big book of fiction)


• Went back to work


• Went home for dinner


• Went to rapper practice


• Went to the pub


• Went home to bed

Entirely on foot! hehe!

I get the impression I'm going to like living here. I wonder how long I can get away without needing any other form of transport. I suspect Exeter might be a bit of a walk on Friday, so I guess it won't be that long.

Switch on the radio on Sunday evening a caught part of analysis, which was all about our inate need to travel. One of the key things it covered was how commuting didn't generally bring with it the level of satisfaction that would generally be associated with the improvement to living environment associated with it. Couldn't help nodding in agreement there.

When I can't find my ticket for Sadler's Wells next week, remind me it's in my laptop bag at work.

Landlord rang me on Friday evening. He had spoken to the letting agent and they're going to put the house back on the market.

The agent is confident of finding a new tenant soon, so hopefully it won't be too long before I can move back to London...

Missing part for new desk finally arrived yesterday (after 3 months of chasing it up), so now computer is setup again.

Also got a trolley-thing to put the Samovar on, so finally I have the important things in life back again...

Firstly, the big news: thethirdvoice has been offered a job, which she is probably going to accept. She's got another interview on Tuesday, which she is going to go to in case it is the greatest job in the world, but the chances are she'll be accepting this offer mid-week.

On Friday, we're off to Sidmouth for a week with Molly and then will be heading up to Mum's for the following weekend to see her before she head's back up to Penrith (she's been renting a house in north Devon for the past 6 months).

When we get back, I'll be moving offices at work. An obvious corollary of not being a librarian is not needing to work in the library any more. We had a handover meeting for the library on Friday and it's going to switch to being open and unmanned while I'm on holiday.

Also moving house hopefully at the end of August. thethirdvoice's new job is in Langley, Slough, so we are going to try to move there a soon as we can (quite lucky I didn't end up working in Cambridge really). Went to look at houses there yesterday and found a couple of potentials and we're going to try to claim one of them tomorrow morning.

I need to give a month's notice from a rent date for my current flat, which is at the beginning of the month, so if we get the Langley house sorted this week we should be able to move towards the end of the month.