It’s Begun
Posted: Wed 9 November, 2016 Filed under: Advertising, Charm School, Cynicism, D4D™, Festering Season Leave a comment »
So here we are. Not even ten days into November, and the run-up to the Festering Season is fully underway.
The Christmas adverts have kicked in- and the ‘event’ ones like John Lewis etc. will be launching over the next few days.
The supermarkets have got all their tat out already, the cards, mince pies, chocolates etc., and even the fucking Christmas trees in the entrances, for shit’s sake.
Of course, the TV schedules are filling up with the standard reality TV run-ups, the BBC’s “Strictly” and ITV’s “X-Factor”.
Seven weeks or so to go, and it’ll be over for another nine months or so. In the meantime, D4D will be brought to you courtesy of the words “For”, “Fuck’s” and “Sake”. As usual.
Still Not Moving
Posted: Sun 25 September, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Come November, I’ll have been in my current house for 4½ years. For me, that’s pretty scary – it’s already the longest I’ve stayed in one house since I left home. (For long-term readers, I lived in Manchester for longer, but that was split between three houses)
I’m also now signed up for another year, so that’s even scarier.
As I’m sure I’ve said before, my current location (between Milton Keynes and Bedford) isn’t my dream place by any stretch. It’s suited my needs, but that’s been more by luck than judgement.
There’s been two key reasons for staying here (and a subsidiary third) which are pretty simple to explain.
The main reason is how easy it is to get away from here. I’m on the crux of two major roads – the M1 North-to-South, and the A421 for East-to-West. Plus I’ve got two easy rail routes for London and the like. It opens things up for social and fun stuff, but also work-wise, gives me a lot more variety/locations than I would’ve thought. (Of course, the irony is that for two years of that, I’ve been working from home, or on my shortest commute in decades!) An hour’s drive (which I still consider as an ‘easy’ commute) covers a massive distance – and a two-hour drive covers a huge dollop of the country.
Secondary to that is that I simply haven’t found anywhere that I more want to be. There’s some places I’d move to, but there’s no real desire or urge to do so. (Also known as the “Yeah, it’s nice. But…” verdict) Previously, there’s usually been a good reason (or at least a reason) to move, and at the moment there’s just not. So I don’t bother.
Connected to that is also the increase of credit-checking when it comes to new rental agreements. I don’t think it now would cause me any great problems, and my current landlord would provide a decent reference – but equally, if I don’t have to test the theory, why bother?
So here I am, and signed up ’til November 2017. No real plans to move – and even more bizarrely, I’m actually OK with that.
Holiday Thoughts
Posted: Mon 19 September, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Travel 4 Comments »As I said before, I’m away at the end of the month on a break to Cornwall. And as usual, it makes me do a bundle of thinking.
I am, I totally acknowledge, utterly shit at taking proper holidays. Always have been, and I suspect always will be. I want to do more of it and see how things go, but it’s about balancing that with work and so on. I need to be stricter with myself on it too – there’s two options really.
Basically, I either book dates at the start of the year so they’re a fait accompli, or I’m stricter with myself about taking holidays between contracts by forcing a delay on looking for new ones by taking time between jobs. Honestly, I don’t know which option works best for me, so that’ll be something to work on next year.
As it is, I’m just seeing how stuff goes this time. I want to see how everything works out with this break. There’s been a fair amount of preparation going on, as I’ve said before – but it’s also about seeing how I feel with taking the break, and also how the cats handle it. This week away will be the longest they’ve not had me around, and I want to see how they deal with it, and with my return. They’ll probably be OK, but if they descend into vileness and retribution, I’ll have to rethink.
So all told, it’s going to be a bit interesting. I’m looking forward to it, but also somewhat anticipatory. It’ll be interesting to see how it all goes.
Holiday Prep
Posted: Fri 16 September, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »At the end of the month, for the first time in years, I’m taking a week off, and going down to Cornwall. Being self-employed, it’s not a cheap option, and I seem to be doing a ton of preparation in order for it to happen, but it’s all paid for and so on, so it’s definitely happening.
I’ve been spending time organising everything in the last couple of weeks – booking in a delivery of shopping/food for once I’ve arrived, sorting out a carer for the cats while I’m away, paying off some of my domestic bills early (rent etc.) so that it’s all going to be smooth, and I’m not stressing while away about things I’ve forgotten. It’s been a mess of to-do lists and so on, but I do feel like I’m on top of things.
In the meantime, I’m also writing some bits for here that’ll auto-post while I’m away, and organising a bundle of other bits too.
I’ve only been to Cornwall once before, and that was before I was driving at all, so it’s going to be interesting this time – and covering a lot of miles. There’s a list of things I want to see/do, although that’s *not* a to-do list where I feel I have to check off everything – I’m pretty sure I’ll be going back again, so that’s all fine.
So yeah, while you wouldn’t necessarily notice it, I’m going to be away for a while. Enjoy.
Quiet, Because Busy
Posted: Sat 13 August, 2016 Filed under: BurgerCrawl, D4D™, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Films, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, London, Single Life, Solo Dining, Travel Leave a comment »It’s been a quiet week chez D4D™, although that’s primarily been because life has been idiotically busy instead. In fact, all of August and September are ridiculous, with very little in the way of spare time. Weekday evenings are (generally, kinda/sorta) available, but weekends and so on are completely blocked out.
Last weekend was spent in London on the Saturday (including food at Benares, which was excellent) and then meeting friends on the Sunday. During the week I was then at the cinema one evening, back in London on another, and handling all the standard domestic tat in the meantime – as well as work, which wasn’t an easy week, with lots of rewrites and rethinks of stuff that had been written a while back.
This weekend, today was spent (again) in London, visiting Blues Kitchen and MeatMarket, and then seeing Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre. Tomorrow is likely to be a daytrip somewhere, and walking round or whatever.
From here, there’s another meal (this time at Hibiscus) and then a concert, a birthday event, and the Threepenny Opera at the National.
September is even dafter, including : Meatopia, watching The The’s “Infected” film, and seeing The Alchemist and Doctor Faustus – both at the Barbican, so I’m there three weeks on the trot, as I’ll use their parking for Meatopia as well. Finally, at the end of September, I actually have a week away, down in Cornwall. Much-needed currently, it has to be said.
I’ll be writing more stuff here to be going on with, but that’s why it’s been quiet round these parts over the last week or so.
Sticky
Posted: Fri 22 July, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Weather Leave a comment »Among other things this week, the heat (or at least the heat in UK terms – in most places it’s barely temperate) also had another effect at my house.
Sometime in the week, I’d thrown away something sticky – I suspect one of the fresh lemonades that’d gone out of date – and while I was out at work yesterday, it’d obviously gone off, fermented, and popped the bottle. In the bin. Which meant that I came home to a kitchen floor covered in sticky gunk, that had then become an absolute snack-bar for flies. There were hundreds of the fuckers.
In the end it took a load of paper towels to absorb the majority of it, plus two full moppings of the floor before it stopped being sticky. The flies took longer to fuck off, along with judicious application of fly spray to annihilate the twats, but all was well in the end.
It was another of those things that I could’ve done without – but also it would’ve helped if I hadn’t thrown the sodding things in the bin anyway.