DIY

You know, sometimes things become seriously domesticated. A day of assembling desks and bedside furniture. Quite fun, in a “oh you fucking bastard piece of shit, why won’t you go together” way.

Away again

Chuff this, I’m off to Berkshire. Again.

There may be posts over the weekend. There may not. We’ll see.

Milestones

Sometime in the next few days, I’ll be posting d4d™’s 2000^th post. (This one is #1994, if you’re interested) As of Monday, it was on 220,000 page impressions, so there’s probably at least another 5,000 or so since then.

d4d™ keeps on going on, and I’m still deeply pleased with it.

Moving On

Yes, as I alluded to earlier this week, I’m pretty sure that come the start of 2005, I’ll be moving on from Manchester. By that time I’ll have been up here for five and a half years, and really that’s more time than I ever intended to be here.

However, the last three to six months have provided the impetus I needed to start looking at moving. Following the break-ins last year, I got more aware of the scallie element of Manchester, which really isn’t appealing in the slightest. So in some ways the changes have been getting ready for a while, but it’s the more recent things that have been the real impetus. Or impetuosity, whichever.

In the last five years, the city has provided me with lots of what I needed at the time – plenty of concerts, work, social contacts, and in many ways it altered a lot of my perspectives on things, and proved pretty much life-changing, looking back on the differences between then and now. But sometimes a place has a life-expectancy too, and I think that Manchester’s life with me is coming to a close.

Changes galore have happened this year – and I suspect there’ll be more in the near future. I’m still going to be based up here ’til the start of 2005, the contract with the council is going to run ’til then, having been extended yet again. For the most part, that’s a good thing, it gives time to make sure that everything is being done for the right reasons, and there’s also plenty of opportunity for the necessary introspection and assessment of what needs doing. Hell, I might even think about writing a new “to-do” list.

What’s changed? Well, primarily the new relationship in my life, and the changes that are being wrought around that. There’s a lot still to be sorted out and looked at – will we share a place from the start of ’05, or is the move initially going to be “just” to cut down on the 400+mile round-trips? That’s a decision for the future, and we’ll play it by ear. But there’s other reasons too – after five years, I need a change of scene, but I also want to explore more about my creative side, the photos, and writing, and see what I can do with them. Yes, I could do a lot of that up here too, and I will be doing in the meantime (those round trips have to have some use, after all) but there’s also that air of “new start” that’s coming up.

Would I be moving on even if the relationship weren’t there? Yes, I would. Maybe not right from the start of 2005, but yes, it wouldn’t have taken long to get it sorted. Of course, the destination would be probably rather more random than it is now, but well, that’s life. There’s a lot going on, a lot happening, and probably the strangest thing of all is that I feel fairly optimistic about the entire thing.

In Sewer Ants

I wish I could remember what book that title came from.

But anyway, I digress. This time next week I’ll be flying off to Iceland for a four-day weekend – with the parents, no less. It’s the first time I’ve been off with the family for a break since I was thirteen. That makes it – oooh, shit, shouldn’t have done the maths – nineteen years ago. Nineteen and a half, if we’re being picky. Scary.

Anyway, I finally got through the travel insurance stuff from my bank – it’s all part of the current account I’ve got, which makes life a lot easier. But having read through the document last night, it’s really pretty comprehensive – and it’s valid all year, and doesn’t care how many times I go away. Happy day.

Breakthrough

So, there’s a thing called the Breakthrough Generations study. They need over 100,000 women to join their study about lifestyle and breat cancer. Any women over the age of 18 can take part.

You can find out more about the study here – go on, sign up, do your bit.

Going Postal

Out of interest, did you know that if you send something by Recorded Delivery, it actually doesn’t get any kind of special treatment at all, and just goes in with normal post? If you want something to get there for the next day, or whatever, then it needs to go by “Special Delivery” instead.

So really, it seems like Recorded Delivery is more useful as a “this way you know it hasn’t been received” than as any kind of relevant guarantee. It’s no wonder Royal Snail missed all 15 of its performance targets recently. Useless bunch of chuffers.