It occurs to me that while I was spending the last month doing creativey things, a lot of things happened and, being dedicated to blogging 1,500-2,000 words per day of the narrative nature, I really didn't have the time or energy to devote any blog space to these things that were happening. So let's rectify that today.
The main thing that has happened is that Andie and I are moving (back, in my case) to Southampton very shortly. And yes, I mean very shortly — our new rental starts on December 10 (pending references) and to be honest I'm not convinced it's quite sunk into my own mind yet. Hopefully writing this will convince me that yes, it is happening and yes, I need to do that thing with the boxes I hate so much. (Packing them, obviously, not sticking them up my arse.)
Those who have been paying attention and/or following me for a while will know the rough chronology of what happened to me over the last couple of years — my wife and I parted ways; I failed to find a new job; ran out of money; moved back in with my parents; gradually built back up to full-time freelance employment that earns enough to live on; met Andie; moved back out, to Wiltshire this time; witnessed the catastrophic collapse of the second website I'd been a regular contributor to (GamePro this time — the first was Kombo); secured my current gig and, well, here we are.
Both Andie and I had been becoming a little despondent at our relative isolation. Andie was a few minutes down the road from her job, which was convenient, but neither of us really had any friends in the area. We spent a day celebrating the Queen's jubilee earlier this year in which we got to know our immediate neighbours a little bit, but I found the whole thing painfully awkward and certainly wouldn't count them as "friends".
My true friends were (well, are) still in Southampton, as it happened, meaning that any time I wanted to spend time with them there was a 1.5-2 hour drive involved. Andie's friends, meanwhile, were scattered everywhere from Southampton to Australia, so we decided that looking to move back towards the South coast would be a good idea. (Australia's a bit far.) Since I can work from anywhere, it was up to Andie to find a job in the area suitable for her talents, and she hates job hunting almost as much as I do. Possibly more. Thankfully, though, she successfully managed to score a position recently, and so our quest to find a new place to live began.
House hunting is rubbish, as everyone knows, but we happened to be down in the area anyway last weekend as I'd taken us away on a short break to celebrate Andie's birthday. We made some appointments and called in at a few estate agents to make some enquiries, and decided that if we found a place that looked acceptable, we would just take it rather than faffing around for weeks. Largely because we didn't have weeks.
The first place we saw was a reasonable (if rather small) house that was in shitty condition, and probably wouldn't be ready in time for when we wanted to move in. Next we saw a decent (but, again, small) house with an abnormally narrow staircase that would have been all right were it not for its location, which suffers something of a dearth of parking spaces.
Then we saw The One. A flat in a good, conveniently-located area with awesome large rooms (including a massive kitchen) that looked to be in excellent condition. It costs a little more than we're paying right now in Chippenham, but that was an expected part of the move, plus given the location I'm probably going to get rid of my car once we're in place, which will save some money.
It was pretty apparent that The One was The One after we gave it a cursory once-over, but we still had a couple more to see, so we went and had a look just to make sure. One was a nice-quality flat in a great location, but the rooms were far too small. The other was another nice-quality flat in a not-so-great location, but again the rooms were a bit small and the layout was a bit weird.
So, The One it was. Assuming our references come back all in order shortly, we'll be moving in mid-December, meaning we'll hopefully be in place well before Christmas. Then, once 2013 starts, we can really feel like a new stage of our lives is starting.
You have no idea how much I am looking forward to this. It feels like things are finally starting to fall back into place. I realise that, of course, I'm probably cursing myself by uttering those words, but what the hell. I can't wait to be back in that slightly crappy town that I still consider to be "home"; to be near my friends and to be able to actually socialise with people without having to make plans weeks in advance.
I'm extremely grateful to Andie for her major part in making all this happen. Without her, I wouldn't be back on this path to "recovery", for want of a better word, so I don't know, everyone bake her a nice cake or something. Or just come to our inevitable housewarming party! We might have a Wii U for everyone to play with by then.
See you in December, Southampton.
Shit, that's this month. ARGH
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Whatdya mean Australia's a bit too far!!!??? We're just over the other side – take a right past Barnard Star etc! Bugga! It would've been cool if you came over here. Mind you, Andie's friends might not be in WA – they might be on the other side of OZ, which would be a bit far to drive for a party, I admit. Bugga. S i g h . . . . .
I love packing!! I am the best packer in the world! We have moved soooooo many times – about 11 diff houses, 6 we owned incl this one, plus 2 more investment properties. You get rid of a lot of stuff – things that you say 'might come in handy' and haven't. And I love unpacking even more. We usually move our own stuff – a trailer for the furniture and big stuff, and armloads of clothes from the old wardrobe into the back seat of the car then into the new wardrobe, with a little shuffle at the end when you get a bit of time. 😀
I could pop over and help you pack if you like. You know how I like my coffee made so that'll be okay. We haven't made any plans for Xmas yet – 😀 😀 😀
You'll be in by Xmas so I hope you both have a great Xmas back in the fold and comfy fun with your friends!
Hah. Yes, I'll just pop over, like I always joke I'll pop over to see my friends and brother in California 🙂
I like the end result of moving, but the lead-up (packing, carrying heavy things) is always immensely stressful. It's even worse when life circumstances mean that you're already upset and stressed out, as it was when I moved back home, but in most cases arriving at your final destination and getting everything in its right place helps to mitigate that.
Really looking forward to being in our new place. As in, in there, unpacked and ready to receive guests. It's probably going to be a difficult few weeks, but I'm sure it'll be over before we know it!
judsjottings December 4, 2012 at 12:30 am
https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=107694679285158&set=t.542400675&type=3&theater
Hi Pete, This Link should take you to my nephew’s comic book facebook page to a pic of him at a Comic Book Convention. I think Fist Full of Comics is his and Pulp Fiction Comics is based in Adelaide, but not sure if that is his as well, or just a group he is part of.
I suggested via his facebook that he look at your Wasteland Diaries and also your new novel and gave him your blog site. I don’t know if he has had a chance to look at them yet – hopefully he will and will contact you. Anyway, I thought you might be interested in his comics/visual novels. I get the feeling that his humour might be similar to yours. I rarely see him, or indeed any of the family as they live in Adelaide, Sth OZ.
Let me know if the Link works, and if this is of use to you – if you get time that is, between all your packing.
Your Fun Pal To Be With courtesy of the Cybernetics Corporation! Just call me Marvin!
Reply ↓Just added this here in case you don't check your comments for a while. Probably should have done so anyway. Sorry. Really haven't grasped many things about this blogging.
Pete, You know your pic you have for your Wasteland Diaries in your side-bar? How did you put that there? Can you tell me what that action is called, where I should go to access it, and if poss how to do it when I get there? Please? I am thinking of putting my full novel onto my site, and have a MADAM PELE painting that I did to use for the cover, and I want to put that in the side bar as the Link/with the Link (however it works) for the novel. Hope you don't mind me asking but as you have already done so I thought you may be able to help me.
How'z the packing going? 😀
OK. It's a bit fiddly to do if you've never done any HTML before (have you?) but here's the gist. You need to use a Text widget, which can be found in the Appearance > Widgets section of your WordPress dashboard.
Detailed instructions:
1. Open your WP Dashboard and go to the Media section. Upload a new image and copy the File URL that it shows when the image is stored online. (Note: the image needs to be the right size for your sidebar. I'm not sure of the width your sidebar is in your theme, but 200 pixels wide is a good place to start — you can always replace it later if it's too big/too small. Resize using whatever paint/photo manipulation software you have on your computer.)
2. Open the Appearance > Widgets section of the Dashboard.
3. Drag a new Text widget into the sidebar and add the following text, replacing the stuff in square brackets with the relevant links:
<a href="[web address of the page you want to link to]"><img src="[File URL you copied earlier]" /></a>Everything between the "a href" and "/a" becomes a link to the web address you provide, the "img" bit tells the web page where to find the image you want to display.
4. Save the widget and look at your site to see if it looks right. If it does, great; if not, start again from the top with a smaller/bigger image as appropriate. It sometimes takes a bit of trial and error to get it right if you don't already know the exact dimensions of your sidebar. (If you do, you can save yourself a lot of trouble! :D)
That's about it. For reference, the image in the link below shows the complete code used to make my "This is Me" widget in the sidebar, which includes all the clickable pictures. "p" tags mark paragraphs, "br /" tags make empty lines.
Thanks Pete, as ever you are a champion! Another possible Blog for you site – Pete's How To Do Stuff Lots Many More Easies On WordPower – Yu have heaps of them now. 😀 Your blog you did and sent me on Terms which I reblogged is often 'hit' on my site, so there are plenty of non-IT-literates out there looking for someone to "Please Explain!"
A couple of questions – What is HTML – does it just mean moving images from Google to your blogs? Is Google classed as Media? Is anything having Images classed as Media? [maybe I should refer back to your Terms blog – you probably explained that there? embarrassment!]
I take it the spaces that are between "a href" and "img src"are intentional and need to be in the chain.
I will give this a try shortly and get back to you when I succeed – nebulous use of the term 'shortly' 😀
I've been a bit down lately – pulled in several directions at once – don't know how you manage all the things that you have to fit into a day – not to mention with the added bonus of packing.
My sight minor probs are unfixable so I'm stuck with feeling the need to wipe the PC screen continually – bugga! Makes playing and testing games a bit harder. And I always have to make allowances for it before I slam the game for not being clear enough.
I feel like I'm running out of time to get all these things done – including my desire to travel – whaat a joke! Mind you my Dad will be 98 soon, so that augurs well – or not, depending on your point of view. Bah Humbug seems the way to go 😀
Once again thanks Pete.
Dear Pete,
Welcome back!
Yours sincerely,
The Mandela Boys.
BRRRRAAAAAAPPPP