Josh's Blog

Happy Halloween everyone! I’d share an ace photo of Percival, my pumpkin (little known thing: this was the first year I ever carved a pumpkin!) but I’m in the library and don’t have it here. Maybe when Tiscali finally get off their collective lazy arses and give me my internet, I’ll post it then.

Things have been ticking on nicely – I’ve moved in to my house and have gradually been making is housey… it’s been an expensive month. I’ve just got a sofa left to buy, which I’m going to try to do at the start of next week. I got a futon sofa-bed thing from Ikea yesterday, which is fine for the time being, but is more of a spare room sofa, and works better as a bed than a sofa. The thrills.

Work’s going well – they’re very keen to throw responsibility at me early, which suits me just fine – not getting it quickly was one of the frustrations I had before I moved. Christmas looks like it’ll be mental, but that’s a good thing really.

Delilah’s been in the wars this month – burst a tyre yesterday, she’s in getting mended as I type… just what I needed on an expensive month like this one

So, very speedy entry, hope you’re all well, and please please come to my housewarming – I miss all of you! It’s on the 15th of November at my house, all the details are on Facebook.

Erm. Oops. It may have been 3 months since I updated here… not sure how that happened. So, my life since then, in one paragraph:

I bought a car (her name’s Delilah) and drove her to the Dordoigne for an amazing weeks holiday with lots and lots of my friends. I got back, and found a house in Guildford (mid July.) I’m sharing with 4 randoms, who are all perfectly harmless and the house is nice enough, it’s got a big garden which has been a good venue for a couple of BBQs, including my birthday party last week! I’ve started going out with Jennie (again, mid July) which is ace and we’ve had several fantastic weekends, but the 300 miles between us has been a bit of a pain in the arse. So, I asked Zoë (my Store Manager) whether there was any chance of a transfer up north, which has just recently been confirmed – I’m starting at the Metrocentre store in Gateshead (near Newcastle) on the 13th of October!

OK! On to the present… I’ve been on holiday for the past week, which was fabulous – started well with a party in Guildford, and a day in London with Jennie, and then we drove up North on Tuesday. Since then, she’s been working in preparation for the start of her PGCE on Monday, and I’ve been looking for houses in the sunny North East.

I saw 9 places in total, all over the area between Durham and Gateshead. Some were nice shiny new developments, both houses and apartments; they were all a bit fake and small and expensive, though nice enough. Some of the houses I saw were just a bit old and sorry for themselves, though there were 2 or 3 good ones, but when I saw this one in Langley Park (a nice big village about 10 mins drive west of Durham) I was pretty certain about it. Jen came with me for a second look on Friday, and we both thought that it was just right – modern inside, but not too big and not too small, a nice terrace in a a pretty lively looking village. I went and signed the papers that afternoon, and I’m moving in on the 11th of October!

The house is unfurnished, so I’m on the hunt for an entire house worth of furniture now… if you know anyone with sofas, chairs, shelves, fridges/freezers, etc going spare, please let me know! Apart from that I’m just working freecycle and ebay as hard as I can…

I’m on my way back to Guildford now, to round things off at the store there and get ready for the transfer oop North. I stopped at K&L’s in Uttoxeter last night, which was good fun, and I’ll do the rest of the journey today. Was also proud of myself for doing the 180 miles from the metrocentre to here with 12.5l of fuel, a good solid 65mpg, which is ace! That’s the best I’ve managed so far, 12.5l is a quarter of my tank: I normally get ~110-130 miles for that (40-47mpg), so it’s a huge saving driving at 60 rather than 70. I wasn’t really slipstreaming lorries much, so that’s the next test! (Such a geek…)

I’ll try to do better next time, and actually update, ooh, more than once a month, even!

So, it’s been a while. Again. Sorry about that.

The main big news today – I passed my driving test! Eight minors, which isn’t my best performance, but no majors, which is. It was my fourth attempt; the whole thing was getting increasingly ridiculous, with the examiners coming up with new problems each time with things they’d been perfectly happy with the last time. Anyway, several hundred pounds later, and I’ll never have to do that again – hooray!

V and I have had a few trips to Leicester and other assorted places to visit people, all of which have been wonderful. The diary’s filling up for March too, which is exciting. Christmas was nice, if a little family-oriented, and new year was a lot of fun. It all seems a long time ago now though…

The most exciting thing of all though, is that we’ve booked our quickly-becoming-traditional summer break in the Dordoigne. Sixteen of us are going to drive there, and stay in a really nice converted barn for a week at the start of July. Good weather, good food, and great friends, what could be better?

I’m quite ridiculously excited about France, and have to keep reminding myself that it’s still five months away, but still, it’ll be fabulous and I can’t wait!