Josh's Blog

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!

Oops, it seems I’ve not posted for about a month. Well, it’s been a busy time, so I don’t feel too bad about it, and from now on I should have more time to do it: I got one of these little 3 Mobile Broadband things, so I can apply for jobs and keep up to date on the train, which is cool. No jobs to go for at the moment though, applied for everything interestings over the weekend.

The main highlight of the month has been, of course, our amazing holiday to France in the first week of September. Went with Vickie, Kieran, Lucy, Ben, Louise, Sam, Jez, Patrick, Simon, Mark, Matt, and Magz; we stayed in a converted water mill in the Vendée. It was a fantastic week, and everyone had a great time eating lots of cheese, drinking lots of wine, swimming (brr) and sunning, with a few trips to explore the area (Luçon, Rue de Vin, La Rochelle) thrown in for good measure. Verdict: success, and must do again some time.

The drive (as a navigator, of course) wasn’t too bad, but was probably the limit in terms of distance (500 miles door to door from Guildford) with only one driver per car, but next time I think we’ll try and get more than one per car anyway, it would be far better if people could get some sleep on the road. The eurotunnel was great, but we might look at ferries that take us a little closer booking them way ahead of time so they aren’t to expensive. Might not work, but it’s worth a go.

France was a good lot of fun and games really. A great bunch of people (I love you guys!) with some I see a lot, some I see less, and a few I’d not really met at all before, which is always good. I’m keen on the idea of upping the numbers to twenty or so, and getting a chateau – that would be awesome, but so would doing the same thing again next year.

In other news, it looks like I’m going to party conference! Very exciting, though I don’t have the pass yet so anything could happen. We are all working on the assumption that I’m coming, which is encouraging… I’ll be doing lots of video work, of interviews of ministers, Q&A sessions, and the responses to video questions posed by people on the website. The internship has picked up a lot recently, and I’m doing interesting work now that we’re coming to the end of recess – a shame I only have about two weeks left, but there we are.

My driving’s coming along well now too – I tend to do all the driving for the family right now, as long as it doesn’t involve motorways (because it’s illegal to, not because I can’t. Managed the A3 in rush hour on Thursday, which is a motorway in all but classification. Some muppet in a white van wouldn’t let me on, which was a bit hairy for a second, but managed to get on behind him, without crashing at all. Go me!) I don’t think I’m doing too badly, given that before the holiday I was on the industrial estate – something about being driven around France made me better by proxy! I’ve just got to take my theory and find an instructor, and I can start looking towards a test – it shouldn’t be long now, which is a nice prospect.

Anyway, getting towards my station now, so Ciao people!