Saturday 28th June 2008
So, I've now spent every night in the new house for a week. I've become acquainted with Chessington, and it's not all that bad! The local supermarket (in walking distance) in a Sainsburys. I foresee my Nectar points rocketing up. Oddly Chessington seems to be home to a lot of elderly people, and they all seem to know each other. Everyone in Sainsburys seemed to be having a chat about their lives. Very odd. There's a small selection of shops there, but a pleasant selection none the less. A post office that's not yet shut, some charity shops, and a place selling baguettes. Tonight I've also treated myself to a burger and chips from the local kebab place (also in walking distance). It was good.
Also the drive to work is quite pleasant from here. We're further from the A3 now, but I now join it further down, so it's still only about a 35 minute drive, but it's a bit less monotonous as the first 10 minutes aren't on the A3 anymore.
Anyway, got a car full of stuff outside that I need to bring in now!
Monday 16th June 2008
Today's been a good day, I feel. Today was to be the day that we got the keys to our new house. I got up a little later than planned, but we were at the letting agents by about 10, and we had a nice little chat, signed some things, and then we were given the keys. Hurrah! We were told to go in and find everything that's a problem and make a note of it. Apparently the girls who lived there before were pretty awful tenants, and left the place in a bit of a mess, and our letting agents didn't want us to be held accountable for any of the mess. So we did that, wrote a little list, and then came back to our flat to send the email.
Later in the day was a trip to Ikea. It was a little odd shopping for a bed, I've never had to do that before. I love how Ikea has everything in bits. You can't buy a bed, you have to buy the frame, midbeam, and slats separately, and then of course the mattress. When we got to the bit where you pick up the bed (both James and I were getting a bed), it turns out that even the bed frame comes in three separate boxes! Anyway, we then debated whether or not we'd be able to fit a double mattress into my car (an old Ford Focus). We decided it wasn't worth chancing, and that we'd put the bed frames in the car and see how much space is left. On the way out back to the car, thinking again about these mattresses, we jokingly said about how many people must have bought too much to fit in their car, and wondered what you do if that happens. Karma then struck. 30 minutes later, we'd got a bit over half of all these boxes in the car, but clearly no more was getting in and we were left standing there wondering what to do. I ended up phoning my Dad who seemed a bit surprised, but did seem fairly happy to come and rescue us which was good. We decided to go and have something to eat from Ikea while waiting. I was quite impressed with the food. Quite cheap, and surprisingly enjoyable. We then went back downstairs to wait for my parents. After a minute or two I get a message from my mum saying, "just leaving". Sigh. So we were then there absolutely ages, with nothing at all to do. Pleasingly my Dad eventually turned up, and got the remaining bits in fairly effortlessly. His car's not that much bigger than mine, but clearly enough to make a difference. So we then drove back to the new house, and I was a bit worried of what my parents would think. Pleasingly they both seemed very positive about it, my mum in particular. This was good. There's a few things which need sorting out, but on the whole it is very nice. I'm pleased it's all worked out alright, now we've just got to get furniture and bills and stuff sorted out.
Anyway, I need to go to bed now, as I've had today off work, got to get back into it tomorrow. Woo.
Saturday 14th June 2008
So I got my chat with Bill off the Podcast thinger. I don't really like my voice that much. Anyway, click here! to have a listen at a piece of radio history.
I'd like to phone Bill up again, he was nice. Can anyone explain that knife to the floor, man to the door thing? I didn't really get it.
Friday 13th June 2008
I've just been on the radio! It was a bit terrifying. I don't really have much confidence with those sorts of things. After talking about wanting to do it for ages, I phoned up Bill Buckley on LBC (a talk radio station) for a brief chat about Friday 13th. I had to keep redialing loads of times as I kept get an engaged tone which I hadn't expected. I assumed they'd have a ton of free lines. I also thought it wouldn't be that busy, as it's 2am. Anyway it did eventually start ringing and I got a bit more scared. It then rang, and rang, and rang for ages. I very nearly hung up but eventually Bill's producer Rebecca answered. She was lovely. I've heard her talk a few times on the radio, but she generally stays quite quiet. Anyway, I gave my name and location and she said she'd ring me back. Hooray! It was happening. It then felt like aaaages. Again assuming that it wouldn't be that busy I was expecting the call back in about 30 seconds. I don't know how long it had been, I wasn't really looking at the clock. I was however, looking at my phone a lot. Eventually she rang back, confirmed that I still wanted to talk to Bill, and then said I'd be on next! I could then hear the normal radio show on the phone, so promptly turned off my radio.
I wasn't talking to him for long, and I don't think I did it particularly well. I would like to have another go in the future though, as I'd quite like to be able to do it a bit more confidently. He's probably the least intimidating presenter on LBC, so I'd be pretty much useless with anyone else. I wouldn't mind a chat with Clive Bull at some point though. He seems nice. I think my account for the LBC podcasts is still active, in which case I'd quite like to download the show, so I can keep that piece of radio history forever. Anyway, the reason I'm up this late is to do some work, so I should get back on with that!
Tuesday 3rd June 2008
Sunday was quite good fun... I found myself up at the Silverstone race track, where Matt was going to be driving a Lotus Exige for 9 laps. It was quite exciting, I was a bit surprised at quite how proper everything looked, but then I remembered it's where the UK stop of the F1 racing thing is. What got me a little bit excited after that was when Hayley pointed out to me that we were standing around at the same spot where Girls Aloud were, and specifically where Sarah managed to crash a Ferrari. I still cringe everytime I see that. Anyway, there was a bit of a whimsical purchase made. It was meant to be me driving some sort of Lotus round the track for two laps, but it turned out to only be a passenger ride. However, it was an incredibly enjoyable passenger ride. There's something quite fun about going sideways at 70mph around a corner! Before we set off, the driver guy was telling me about the car, where I learnt that the car had only done 5,600 miles so was barely broken in, and the two back tyres are pretty much brand new meaning they're barely broken in. He also added that they've tweaked it a bit to get more power out of it, and modified the front splitter to make it have less grip... Just to set the mood. An over powered, not broken in car with slippery back tires and not much grip at the front either. It was sooo much fun! Here's a picture of me with the panic building in me:
I was actually getting a bit scared while sat there, but as soon as we set off I soon started smiling. :) We were sort of skidding sideways for 10 seconds around a corner only to exit the corner facing dead straight already going at like 80mph and ready to accelerate up from there. Good times.
Once this little bit of messing about was over, I headed over to where Matt was doing his driving thing. At the time of my arrival he was on a little break in the middle of two sessions of driving. He seemed to be enjoying himself anyway. On the way home we then stopped off at some very random American Diner. It was quite exciting. They shut pretty much as soon as we got in, so we then had the place to ourselves which was nice.
I'm now watching Loose Women for the first time ever, it's actually quite enjoyable. I'd never really given it much of a chance before. I am getting fed up with the Malteser adverts at every break though.
I'm not sure when I got grown up, but I've found myself using the calendar on my phone to actually organise my time. I'm not that busy really, but I just find it good to keep track of things. I also recently bought some strange looking picture to put up in our new house... Most unexpectedly of all though, I've found I have some affection for plants. We had a kind donation from Matt, of a chilli plant. James and I now seem to be giving it lots of love and attention. He's called Maynard, and he gets very happy in the day time, but then looks a bit sad at night time. Sunshine makes him happy. Oh the life of a plant. We haven't got any chillies yet, but we're hopeful. When we move I'd quite like to start growing several vegetables. Plants are fun!