Housekeeping

Pretty uneventful day, really. I did some general thinking around what it might cost for us to buy a house (the price of surveys, legal shit etc etc). Turns out it’s between six and ten bigguns, which is a little more than I’d anticipated, but not that far away. The general feeling seems to be heading more towards renting somewhere lovely outside London for 12 months and then buying, enabling us to stack up a proper fund and not scrape every last penny out of the kitty before moving. Sensible, relaxed, no hurry. We really don’t need to rush.

Following on from my piece earlier in the week (Age, above) it dawned on me yesterday that October 1 was my grandmother’s 96^th birthday. Ninety fucking six. Sadly what with everything else, I forgot to send a card, and I can only assume no-one else will have done. This leaves me conflicted because she’s not in a position to worry about it, but I hope that when I’m that age nobody forgets. In many ways I’m glad her condition precludes her from thinking about endless empty days, loneliness and memory in same way I was forced to when I realised my error. She is effectively the last of the clan. I’m sorry, Grandma.

In other news:

There are interesting alternatives to the job I’m currently doing in the ether, and I’m wondering whether to jump, as ever. Really great, but for the brave only, I think. How brave am I, though?

I have written over 10,000 words since changing roles one month ago – roughly a half-and-half split between paid words and free words. This is unprecedented and probably a unanimously good thing. I’m certainly taking some pleasure in seeing them pile up on here, if nothing else. For the first time in my adult life, I actually /want/ to write. Distracted quite a lot by work and various other things, but still finding the time to jot something down here every day. I’m also inspired by Colin Greenwood’s diary around the increasingly fraught sessions for Kid A – a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the best rock band of their generation, by their bass player. How can I not be interested in that sort of thing.

I’m also pretty close to choosing another tattoo (lower right arm sleeve, since you ask). I’m posting this from work email, so no image just yet, but it’s pretty cool and worth sharing so I’ll ping it up here when I get the chance.

Generally positive, we continue.