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Our house has been in the market for a month now. We’ve had at least 5 viewings and it looks like there’s an interest in it. However, we haven’t received any offers yet. I’ve been watching all kinds of “home-related” TV programmes on the channel “Home” and both Jon and I are quite confident that the house will sell eventually. It ticks all the boxes: uncluttered, not too busy, recently re-decorated, commutable area, etc. So we just have to sit back and wait for an offer!
In the meantime, we have started looking at potential properties ourselves. We shouldn’t really, as we may fall in love with a house and be unable to put an offer on it (beacuse we can’t until we have an offer on ours first), but still, it is a good exercise in order to judge what there is out there, what we can expect for our money, which areas are best, etc.
Rightmove.co.uk has been my best friend in the last couple of weeks 
We’d like to stay in the area where we are at the moment. We already know the place, it would be near work, it would save us a lot of money in petrol, and all that. But at the same time, we know that the further we go, the more value for money we’ll get. For instance, for £220k in the Woking area you get a tiny semi or terraced house, with three bedrooms, one bathroom, a living-dining room and a kitchen. Basically, the same that we have at the moment, but with an extra room. In the Basingstoke area, on the other hand, for £220k you get a semi detached with three bedrooms, maybe the master bedroom will have an en-suite too, bathroom, large kitchen, separate dining room, garage, off street parking… So much more for your money. But it is one-hour drive away…
We’re going to have a look at a new build in Basingstoke today. We’ll be able to judge the distance and realise if it’s commutable or not, but we’ll also be able to look at other towns and villages in the area.
Who knows where we’ll end up!?
I missed season 12 of America’s Next Top Model. Well, I managed to watch the last couple of episodes, but you can’t really enjoy the final as much without having been watching from the beginning, without relating to those girls from the start. But still, I think the best girl won, although I wasn’t too bothered.
Teyona
A new season of ANTM has just began in Living. And, I am already hooked. Sorry, I couldn’t help it.
This cycle’s “special hook” is that all the models are short. They can’t be taller that 5 foot 7 (which in meters is 1,70 -> That in my books isn’t short, that’s normal height! I am 1,71!) but in the modelling industry, that IS short. Most of the girls are really cute, but because they never had any hopes of actually becoming models, their modelling is not as good! Especially their catwalk. Some of them are just laughable.
Well, so far, these are my favourite girls. (I won’t include Courtney, who I think is simply gorgeous, because she got eliminated yesterday, which I don’t understand…)
Laura
She’s such a cute girl. She’s pretty, she’s simple, she’s always smiling. She’s nice to everyone. And she seems to get great photos too! I really like her.
Nicole
She reminds me of OzNTM’s winner Alice Burdeau (maybe it’s the ginger hair?!), but I really belive she’s exquisite and really looks like a model. She doesn’t seem to be getting on too well with the other girls. I hope that doesn’t influence her too much.
Other girls that I like are: Sundai, Brittany and Erin.
I don’t think they’ll get too far: Kara, Jeniffer and Bianca (she should have actually gone in yesterday’s episode.. Can’t stand her)
Another season… and here I am again…
I “borrow” Brand New’s slogan, and make it my own, in the very day when I’ll see them for the third time in my life.
And I say that I’ll fight off my demons because this weekend I will be driving into London.
London and driving have never been uttered together in the same sentence by me, unless it was in a negative sense. For example: “Driving in London is for mad people only”, or “Are you driving into London? You must be crazy”, etc.
But since tonight’s concert is in Wembley, and the TFL have somehow decided to close all the surrounding tube lines for engineering works this weekend, I thought the best solution would be to take the car and drive there. Now, some people may say: “But hold on, you can’t really say that Wembley IS in London” (erm, yes, I can). The problem is that after Wembley, on Sunday, we have planned to go into South Kensington, and that IS London.
My main concern is finding a car park. I know there aren’t that many public car parks in Central London, and I am somehow scared of leaving my poor old Micra in the streets for a prolonged period of time.
My second concern is getting lost. Of course we will take a satnav, but it wouldn’t be the first time that the satnav takes us funny places. I have looked at the route on google maps and it looks pretty much straight, but who knows where we’ll end up.
And last but not least, just to remind everyone that I have only been driving for 3 years and my driving-testing-area has always been in the quiet Surrey countryside. Never the city.
But I am fighting my demons off. I’m going to do it and not die trying. I know I can do it. Yes I can.
(“Inspiration” for this entry has been taken from this blog)
Sometimes it amazes me how similar people are. It is true that every person is its own world and everybody is unique and individual in themselves. However, more often than not, we come across people who we’ve never met, people who live miles and miles away.. you’ve never heard their voices, their accents, you don’t know what colour their eyes are.. and still, suddenly you realise that you’ve got more things in common that you would have imagined at first.
This list of things that I like and dislike is very unoriginal, in the sense that almost all of it has literally been copied from the blog I linked to above. Only a few additions of my own. So, here it is:
LIKE
- I like the smell of the ocean
- I like to sing aloud in my house or car
- I like pens, notebooks, crayons, and everything related to stationery
- I like sincere hugs
- I like feeling touched and even letting a tear escape my eyes when someone does something for me, really showing that that person knows me
- I like driving round and about the countryside
- I like sleeping and dreaming with things that may never come true, but make me happy regardless
- I like observing people and finding beauty in the little details
- I like massages and all kinds of rubs
- I like independence, and in ocassions, solitude too
- I like feeling the “tingling” of love
- I like adrenaline and excitement
- I like laughing and making people laugh
- I like helping others
- I like taking pictures
- I like receiving hand-written letters
- I like discovering the soul of cities
- I like history and happy stories too
- I like the sunset
- I like food (really??!?!?!)
DISLIKE
- I dislike lies
- I dislike cruelty and insencirity. I dislike people who talk behind my back
- I dislike people who only think of their own interests
- I dislike people who want to impose their own view or belief
- I dislike people who blame and point the finger at others without admitting their own mistakes
- I dislike scary/gory films
- I dislike being untidy and lazy (and being uncapable of doing something about it once and for all!)
- I dislike people who will try to change you
- I dislike bureaucracy and paperwork
- I dislike “doom and gloom naysayers”
- I dislike people who complain about everything and don’t do anything to improve their situation
- I dislike vengeance and resentment
- I dislike getting into a cold bed
- I dislike not drying properly after a shower
- I hate drugs and their consequences
- I dislike sharing food that I am enjoying (well, I don’t dislike it, but I tend to avoid it xDD)
And in the last few years I’ve also realised that:
- I prefer a quiet night in than a crazy night out
- I prefer watching films from the comfort of my own home
- I prefer the country to the city
- I like owning my house
- I am not as crazy anymore
- I am quite tight with money and I like not to squander
- I have an interesting relationship with fashion: I love to look at it / I hate to wear anything “fashion”
- I can’t handle “standing” concerts any more. Please let me watch from the seating area. Thanks.
- I am nowhere near as opinionated as I used to be
- I have learnt to have peace with myself
Nothing to do with the Jackie Chan films, I promise.
I had to attend a meeting in Central London yesterday. I will try to avoid any gory details about the stupid delays caused by the bad weather (as I can’t say anything original or different about it that hasn’t already been said by some other thousands of people who, like me, can’t believe that a whole country can come to a standstill everytime it snows).
Unfortunately, my meeting at the gorgeous Grimshaw offices in Farringdon finished at the unlucky 17.00. Rush hour. Very unfortunate indeed.
Everytime I find myself in an overcrowded tube station, surrounded by stinky people who feel that s/he has more right than you to be on THAT train, then I feel blessed for having chosen to live and work in the “countryside” (if you can count a village just inside the M25 as the “countryside”). I know I wouldn’t last two weeks working in London. No chance. Too busy. Too manic. Too stressful. And then add the commutting! Nope, never.
This is what it felt like, I swear..
On top of that, Baker Street tube station is the most ridiculous station I’ve ever seen. With 4 different tube lines, it is actually difficult not to get lost at some point by taking the wrong route. There are great hall areas, lots of stairs and escalators, puzzle-like platforms, etc. I know it is one of the oldest tube stations EVER and that to completely knock it down and rebuild it would be unconcibable. However, for poor “turist-businesspeople” like me (ie, business people who rarely go into London for work reasons) this is one of the worst stations ever.
Lots of history, yeah, but what a puzzle station!
Thank god I don’t have to go that often!
