Brrrrrrrrrm!

I got a bike!

OK, it's not a very big bike, and it isn't exactly flash (a made in India budget special), but it's bike enough for me.  I've bought the new Honda CBF125 because it's new, extraordinarily economical (about 350 miles to a £9 tank!) and cheap.  The reviews are making nice noises about it, and I liked the colour when I saw one at a bike show. What more can a girl ask for?

 We picked it up yesterday and Stuart drove it to a big carpark for me.  I did my clutch and gears CBT about 8 or 9 years ago so I wasn't convinced I'd remember the single day's training.  But you've got to wonder about the quality of everyone else on the road - for some reason loads of drivers chose to exit via our furthest most remote corner, some of them even managing to mount the kerbs of the planter beds.  Yes.  In an empty car park.

After variously mixing up the clutch, accelerator, rear brake, front brake and gear lever, I decided I'd had enough.  I could remember how to go in a straight line in first (and stop again) and that was enough for me.

This morning I decided that the only way to get up to speed was to get out there, so we got the radios up and running and Stuart gave me a mini lesson.  My brain was full of the mechanics of the bike, so I wasn't really driving properly.  Thank goodness for the big guy in the BRIGHT YELLOW jacket hanging behind me.  It was like being a driving school duckling all over again.  By the end of the 18 miles into London and back, I wasn't stalling nearly as much, and when I did I was able to recover from it without too much fuss.  At this rate, I'll be thinking about the journey rather than the mechanics in no time.

I know it sounds silly, but doing this has helped me feel a lot more London.  Partly because it's a pain in the arse to get anywhere in a car, so I've started to combat that, but more because I now feel like it's going to be possible to just pop over to visit friends - and that I have friends I actually have friends I want to pop over to go and see.

But right now, I'm sitting at home drinking tea and aching from using new muscles.  Ace.

The Joy of Christmas

Who said the spirit of Christmas is dead?  Just look the wonderful tree our district has put on for us:

It's been like that for weeks now.  OK, I appreciate there might not be enough money in the budget to replace it, but surely a tree that looks like it has been given a good kicking is worse?

Netbook Loveliness

Having still not found a real reason for one of these but just wanting to own one I finally succumbed yesterday and bought a shiny new netbook. We were in Costco and they were there calling out my name "Stuart, buy me" they were saying, so I did. I am now the proud owner of an Acer Aspire One. As you will see from the time I am posting during working hours (lunch of course) as it is a really teeny tiny computer that is genuinely stuffable into your bag to carry about for the day. So here I am at work, on the free wi-fi, browsing Engadget and updating the blog.

I am a very happy person right now.

Keep your eyes open

I've started getting musical hankerings again, which means spending much time in instrument shops playing with all the kit. I was in a place near soho, and spotted this in among the sheet music:



Can you just imagine what this would sound like? Superb.

Finally landing?

Big changes with the Silvershed household.  All at once we were given a tip off that someone fancied renting out our house, had him come and visit, have him decide that yes, he rather liked the look of it, and could he move in next week, please?

Cue lots of very frenzied rushing around trying to sort everything out.  I'm way more familiar with the M6 than I'd like to be, and I've missed several really rather good concerts that I wanted to go to. But it's done.  NorthHouse can manage itself for a bit, and for the first time in 18 months I don't have to worry about which city I need to be in at any one time.

And do you know what?  I'm totally lost.  I can't kid myself that I still live there any more.  I have to face up to the fact that my life is down here now.  And I love it down here, I really do, but sometimes I hugely miss that easy familiarity that comes with places and friends you've known for a bit.  Even if most of those friends have moved on themselves in the meantime.

Maybe this is a good thing.  I can stop living on pause, start working at making this into my city. But right now, I'm just going to feel a little bit sad.

Intrusive marketing calls

Don't you hate those really annoying marketing calls you get at home. We've signed up for the privacy service with BT but that only stops UK based marketing calls, not the international ones and since getting a phone line back we usually have 2 international calls a day when we get back in from work in the evening.

Last night one of them called in the evening and I enjoy winding them up so I try and always answer them now. There is no point getting annoyed at them, it is much more fun to wind them up. My previous ploy has generally been to answer and then go silent on them, you can hear them thinking WTF is going on.

Anyway, last night they were asking for a Mr Ness and I decided it would be fun to advise we were in mourning after Mr Ness had died earlier that day. This completely threw whatever script the caller was working to and he was almost spluttering down the phone trying to work out what to say. Needless to say at the same time Mim was falling about on the floor trying not to laugh out loud. In the end the guy on the phone apologised for our loss and hung up.

I think everyone should try this on a telemarketer at least once to see what happens, maybe we can get a few to explode in their office.

Sad nice

We've just spent a proper weekend at North House for the first time in ages, tidying the garden up and just keeping on top of things. I really like the flat we've got down here, and it feels far more like home than the empty, slightly smelly, house we own up north.



But a couple of hours getting rid of the weeds? Oh, I miss it so very much. I can't wait until this phase of our life is over and I get a garden back.