I entirely adore that song, stays in my head for ages and reminds me of the movie Girl next door, which I really liked because in the end everybody was a winner.
So it’s been a little while, and you may think that I have forgotten all about you. But the truth is: I have really…
To say life has been busy is an understatement, and at this rate the first free weekend I will have will land sometime in February. I go to work to have a break, like someone who has already had children (not that I have, or am about to). And to further my ignoring of you, work is not the kind of place one blogs instead of working. I would dearly love to discuss the randomness of my 9-5 day, but I cannot. Not to discuss the work you understand, because that is stratospherically boring – but to discuss the people and the non-work occurrences, like the phantom menace who uses (and abuses) the gents located next to my office. Last time he visited he left such an impression it flooded out onto the floors, and made even the building corridors unpleasant places to be.
In other news -perhaps more pertinent news in fact – Vicky and I are apparently about to make the single most important purchase of our lives so far. No pressure then.
All this leaving the nest stuff seemed a lot easier before you had to consider room sizes, locations, neighbours, parking, future planning, decoration, gardens, area and a myriad of other things one simply must consider before buying essentially some bricks, mortar and grass.
We only just started looking, and as such have only seen a handful of houses. In that handful we have already seen some we like, and some we don’t. The issue of location is rearing its ugly head, we have no intention of looking outside our little towns couple of square miles, but how far is too far from our parents? And more importantly, how close is too close?
Of the houses we have seen two stick out as favourites, only thing is one I favour and one Vicky favours.
I prefer a house that needs work, and could do with a fairly large extension into an already paltry garden. Although the house and land it sits on are not ideal, they are workable and it is located smack bang in-between our respective parents, on a quiet road and near a park (for the future, you understand).
Vicky prefers a much more perfect house, with a large garden and drive, including a garage and space for a workshop. However this house is located further away from where we are now, walk-able but at a distance that poor weather would make unpleasant. It is also located close to a major road, and possibly about to become a cut-through for a large new housing estate going up further along the road.
Both of us see the benefits in the other house, neither of us are dead set on the houses we favour. These are early days, and we haven’t seen that many houses yet, but it’s a worrying indication of how hard this decision is going to be.
Of course, a by-product of this house-buying thing is that Vicky is quite insistent that we cut down spending on vehicular hobbies. I personally think she could do with a new car, something sporty and efficient that’s easy to manoeuvre in town and small enough to park easily whilst still being practical and having four functioning doors. So hot hatches basically. I am aware that this limits the options to mostly silly, wheelspinny front-wheel-drive-ness but there are some oddball other options – such as a BMW 1 Series like mums, or an Audi hatch with Quattro. Unfortunately they are both expensive, where as new or used the current model Skoda Fabia VRS is not. It comes as standard with a fuel-sipping 1.4l Turbocharged petrol engine and a clever automatic gearbox (although I would rather a manual). I have yet to convince Vicky that a purchase of any car is viable, let alone a brand and model she actively dislikes (but they have changed now- and it does come with electric windows). Any help on the subject is most welcome; any help that does not fall upon deaf ears would be actively encouraged.
