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.

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!

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!

I’ve been quite busy recently – for good reasons, like having got a job! At last! I know, my unemployed time wasn’t too long, but it’s the indefinite nature of jobhunting that makes it seem so bad at the time. Anyway, I started working at King’s College London on Thursday 6th, as an Admissions Officer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery; lovely people, varied work, and a great organisation to work for, so I’m very happy. (I won’t be blogging about work much from here on, to be honest, because I don’t think it’s a good idea, generally speaking, for a variety of reasons.)

I also took my first driving test today. 9 minors, and sadly, 1 major fault, which I picked up in the last five minutes of test for forgetting to cancel a left indicator before pulling away from parked on the road. Very, very annoying, and my next test isn’t until the 4th of January, unless I manage to pick up a last minute cancellation over Christmas – I’ll be keeping my eyes firmly on the DSA website over the next few weeks.

Yeah, that’s about all to be honest… If anyone’s planning a new years party that I can come to, it would be good to know what’s happening

J

I’ve been learning to drive more – had my theory test (passed, 49/50 on questions, 49/74 on hazard perception) and I booked a practical test for the 3rd of January. I also found a driving instructor, who thinks I should move it to early December, so I’m going to do that. All very exciting, and through birthday money and selling some camera gear I don’t use much (still have my main gear, of course) I’ve almost saved enough money to buy a car already , though not insure it yet. In time. I’m looking at 1996-99 Polos and Puntos, which seem pretty affordable, and small but not too tiny to take 4 people to France and back (much as I love the Lupo, it wouldn’t really work with more than 3 + luggage….)

Went to Leicester last weekend for a bit of a last hurrah, going for a night out at Retribution (Totally. Amazing.), seeing friends, and having a little trip to Bradgate Park to see the deer and upside-down-tankard folly. Fun times! I would be going up to Durham this weekend to see people, but no cheap fares. Alas!

Also, a couple of hints for you all, cunningly stolen from the MoneySavingExpert weekly email: £5 train fares on the GNER east coast line (you have to use the link), and a free £10 for Natwest, RBS, HSBC, First Direct and Ulster Bank customers, grab and go.

I’ve been trying to do 3-point turns within the road, without going on to a dropped curb; I’m struggling to get the wheel around in time on the second and third ‘spokes’ of the turn: are you supposed to start turning the wheel before you reverse? I scratched one of the alloys coming out of a tight 3-point turn, which is annoying, but I’m generally being better at not getting frustrated.

Generally pretty impressed with how quickly you can build on knowledge when you’re going out every day, so that’s good. I’m going to start looking at booking a test and getting an instructor, etc.

I went out today as well (1h30), and that wasn’t so good at first – I was jumping the car a lot more than I had been, and that kind of thing. Eventually got the hang of it, and more of the up/down play on the clutch/accelerator. I did a few 3-point turns (and one ended up being 4-point) and struggled not to stall on at least one of the starts.

Anyway, that’s all for now, will update again soon (with pics of the car, if it ever stops raining)!