Moving on

After 5 years on near-abouts in Shoreditch it feels like it's time to move on to pastures new.  Or y'know, pasture-esque as opposed to inner-London council estate chic, at least, not out of London but outer-London so to speak.  It took a long time to find my place in London and it does feel like home here...albeit a home I wish people would clean up a bit and stop spitting on.  Seriously, spitting is revolting you oiks, it does not make you cool.  But I'm ready for a new home, with Sam, and since I deal with change so well and never freak out, it should be fine...oh, right, yeah, I freak out over changing my mind, let alone my London Borough.  This could get rough.

I think the thing keeping me sane in amongst all the hassle of saving money, finding tenants for my flat, negotiating with letting agents, banks, mortgage providers and all the other myriad things I am slowly becoming aware that you need when becoming a landlady, is the excitement of having a new place to 'play house' in.  This is where the lovely house blogs people have come in.  Some people do crack, others flick through endless pictures of bookshelves in ever more perfect formulations (colour coding books, fyi, = heaven).  The Guardian has been putting in some stellar service with pics of perfectly arranged book shelves, stripped wood floors and beautiful vintage furniture.  Apartment Therapy is gold and Bodie and Fou's blog, with the emphasis on white, stark but calming is also a must view.  I never really got to grips with my own flat - I have never spent enough time here to do much more than sleep, let alone bring it to life - but I have high hopes of starting afresh with a new place, albeit we'll be renting, which in a way I suppose, removes a lot of the stress of decorating i.e. actual DIY, which I loathed.

Hmm...there's packing and so many other arduous chores to do yet but I feel a bit brighter about the prospects already...  x

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2012/jun/06/living-room-design-ideas-in-pictures

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2012/jun/06/living-room-design-ideas-in-pictures#/?picture=385617265&index=17

Recently..

...I have been feeling fairly uninspired by blogging as I sit all day at work reading, thinking and writing as it is.  When you write, albeit sensible work stuff, for a living, coming home and switching on the computer for anything other than watching Lewis, CSI or Castle (I like a good, by which I mean bad, crime drama or three), just does not er, compute.  But then I read Junkaholique after a very long break and was reminded how nice it is to just jot down a few words about nice things that have happened, with no danger of being 'red penned' ie. corrected by a boss who cannot work track changes.

The new job is good though, my brain is engaged, I'm busy and people actually care what I think.  Initially this was fairly terrifying as I had no idea what I was supposed to think, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now and can speak in meetings without having an out of body experience and nearly passing out.  Progress!

My social life has taken a bit of a chill too, something I had been trying to achieve for a while in terms of getting a better balance between work, play and finding time to do all the things that involve being at home.  I mean, seriously, when you're struggling to keep up with CSI even with the aid of 5-ondemand, you have most definitely overstretched yourself.  Not that I'm now ready for my pipe and slippers female equivalent, just a little less...hectic.

The last few weekends have been spent traversing about visiting relatives (Sam's) and generally making the most of the nice weather...and the not so nice this weekend - poor Queen, Divine Right to rule and after 60 years of loyal service Him upstairs can't even put on a bit of sunshine?  Poor show if you ask me.  We also went to Secret Cinema, which was fun.  Dressing up in boiler suits and seeing the perplexed faces of the commuters at Euston was especially worthwhile!  Also, boiler suits hide a multitude of sins (hip flasks, beers and cookies), which is just as well as they were having a laugh with the bar prices and the service was worse than a Hoxton bar staffed by hipsters who are, like, in a band, yeah? And don't really need to be serving you.  Yeah.  That bad.

Sunday lunch at the most amazing house after a day in Bath (at the spa y'know, in the roof top pool) thanks to Sam's Gran.  The helicopter was parked on the lawn and we couldn't resist a few shots...although, 'bless', to the person who asked me how the helicopter ride was after Sam posted a pic on fb...

Shhh....Secret Cinema, Tell No One.  I won't spoil it if you haven't been and are planning to.  It's a space film, but the emails and uniforms gave that away already.  None of us guessed it...we were hoping for Total Recall.

Us 'enjoying' the Jubilee.  Watching the flotilla was fun actually, I like moments like that when you stop being individuals and become a 'crowd' instead.  Only in a good way though, with flags and bunting and three cheers.  I've never been one for schleping out to see the Royals but this was good, and the Queen waved at me (and the other hundreds on the riverbank) so score!  We didn't stay long though due to the horrible downpour.

And slightly off topic (if there is one...) my pudding tonight, which I photographed purely because it looked lovely.  Strawberry jelly and fresh blackberries.  Healthy (ish) is my new thing.

Hopefully the next post won't be so long or such a long time coming... x