Josh's Blog

Right, after a good showing in November, my postings slipped back. A lot. 10 weeks might be a record, but I’m still here.

Christmas was all new… for a start there was the work, which was busy in a strange way – the work peaked in the last three days, after being quite quiet up to then, but when it came it was more than we ever expected. It seemed to take even the guys who’ve been around for years by surprise, which was interesting. I really enjoyed it when it picked up, anyway, which is a good sign.

I spent Christmas itself (I had 4 days off!) at Jennie’s house with her and her mum – a much smaller (in people if not pressies) affair than I’m used too, but it was really good fun… I was given lots of lovely things that have all been used, which is the real test of a good present.

We had second Christmas at K&L’s, then a New Years Eve party up here at mine – was great to see everyone, as it always is.

After a few days back at work at the start of Jan, I was off on holiday to Dubai, to see Mum, Dad and Felix and help them settle in over there… it’s a really interesting and quite strange place – I had a great visit, though it did rain a fair bit more than you’d expect in the desert! I’ll probably go back out in October, which will be good especially to see them settled in their new house.

And my main big news, which most of you lot know anyway, is that Jennie and I got engaged! I proposed up Arthur’s seat in Edinburgh on the 1st of February, and we’re looking at Christmas 2010 for the wedding (which can’t come round soon enough!) – absolutely fantastic news, and I’m thrilled that she said yes.  We’re starting to get embroiled in the crazy world of wedding planning, but we’ll be having an engagement party in mid-April to celebrate with everyone… hopefully we won’t be all jaded by the hassle of planning by then!

I’ve had a nice few days off since Sunday – back at work tomorrow, so not a full week off, sadly.

That’s all for now folks, I don’t really want to write a great long post about things you all know anyway!

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!

Well, since everyone else seems to be doing it, I thought I’d join in the fun! I’m looking for a house or rather, a houseshare, because even though my salary is sufficient to get at least a 1 bed studio (or even a 2 bed house in some places) anywhere else in the country (even London, because I’d get a £3k weighting), I have to live in Guildford. Stupid expensive commuter town. Yes it’s pretty enough, and nice in some ways to be so close to London, but it’s still ridiculous money.

Anyway, the plan was to live at home until my training year is finished (at which point I’ll be escaping back up north quicker than you can say “woohoo, pay rise!”), and so gather a handy housing deposit sized savings account. However, it got to the middle of May, and I realised that I’ve almost lived at home for a year… which is fine really, but it’s a bit of a psychological upper limit for me. There’s living at home for a while to find your feet, and then there’s mooching off your parents for years and years. I’m not the kind of person who falls easily into the latter category, even when there’s £15,000 in it for me. Anyway, I think I’ve found my feet now, living at home gave me the chance to jobhunt (much as I hated it) rather than temp, and I don’t think I’d have applied for what I’m doing now if I’d been temping. I applied on one of my weekly “lets mix it up a bit and apply for random jobs” days, which I doubt I’d have given myself if I was paying rent.

So, I’ll have been here a year in 3 weeks time. I’m not going to say I’ll move out before France, because frankly, that could be a bit silly – the most important thing here is to live with the right people, then the right place, then the right money… and while I’ve got the time to look without a contract running out or anything like that, I’d quite like to make the most of it and get it all right.

I went to see a place last night… a bit of a flat within a flat, if you will. It’s the loft of an upper floor flat, so all sloping ceilings and the like (which I had last year and love, even if it’s not the most practical). It had a really nice en suite, a little study space thing, and quite a big main room, but was £540/month, with no parking – not even residents permits, and sharing with a young mum (which I have nothing against in particular, but might be a bit of a lifestyle clash.) So not perfect, and at that money I won’t be taking anything that isn’t.

Next on the list is a houseshare with 4 others for £400 inc bills, but 3 of the current 4 are moving out over the next few months. Makes it hard to judge what people will be like, but also means I’d have more of a say in which tenants are taken on. I’ll obviously have to make sure I’m not signing up to a joint and several contract where I’d be responsible for covering the rent of empty rooms.

One more thing. Most of you know this, but it needs to be written – Vickie and I broke up a little while ago. We’d been together for a great two years, and it was difficult to do – there are a few reasons for it, and I’m not going to write about them, it wouldn’t be appropriate, so don’t ask in a comment .