After the shenanigans last year, we’ve been fortunate enough to find somewhere to rent for a while at pretty short notice.

So next week we’ll be moving a little way south to a flat on the Isle of Dogs, very close to Canary Wharf.

Xmas and New Year was pretty hectic. We had planned to go up to Yorkshire on the Friday before Xmas, but Vic had hurt her back and wasn’t able to move most of that day. A visit to the hospital to see if there was anything they could do proved mostly fruitless. We finally headed up North on the Saturday morning, hitting delays at the M25/M1 junction but other than that having a hassle free, if long and tiring, journey.

We stayed at a hotel close to where Emma and Alex live in Wetherby and spent an enjoyable Saturday night talking to Emma, Alex, Deb and Loic. We popped over again on the Sunday morning, before setting off for Cleethorpes to see my parents on Christmas Eve.

Xmas was good, saw lots of family, drove down to Bury St Edmunds on Boxing Day, stayed there for a couple of days (where Vic developed a stinking cold to sit neatly on the bad back) and then back to West Ham for a night.

That gets us as far as last Friday, when we picked up a rented van, retrieved my CD and DVD collection from storage at Cedric’s and moved them up to a Bury St Edmunds.

New Year’s Eve, I caught Vic’s cold, and she was still out of action with her back so we stayed in. The fireworks by the London Eye looked very spectacular on TV, but we were quite happy in the warm with a glass of champagne.

Back to work on Tuesday with a head full of cold, but I couldn’t start my time as a permanent employee by taking the day off sick.

Here’s hoping 2007 works out a little better than 2006 did.

I saw this advert last night, and it cheered me up quite a lot. Alpacas are smaller than llamas, but equally appealing.

So if you haven’t found that last minute present for someone yet, go to Oxfam Unwrapped and get someone an alpaca package!

Two months after accepting our offer, and after we’ve had a survey, a structural engineers report, all searches etc. completed, the vendor of the property we were buying has decided to withdraw from the sale.

We found out through a letter from her solicitor to ours. The solicitor has no other information. The vendor hasn’t even told the estate agent!

So after spending in excess of £1,000 we have nothing to show for it. This is our third property to fall through due to the vendor withdrawing or a bad survey results. Frankly, we’ve had enough.

In the UK, there is no legal redress available for these situations. You can only ask for some contribution towards the cost but the vendor is under no obligation (other than a moral one, and those tend not to get you very far these days).

We’re now looking for somewhere longer term to rent from 11th January when we have to leave our current home.

Sick and tired of things. Makes me wonder whether coming back to the UK was a good idea after all.

Not long until Christmas now. I’ve done some shopping, and it looks like we’re going to be doing a lot of travelling. We’ll be in Cleethorpes for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then down to Bury St Edmunds on Boxing Day.

We’re busy as usual. The current house-move situation is that the vendor hasn’t said when she will be moving out, but we have to move out of our current place by 12th January. So we’ll be homeless at that point. As a result, we’re viewing short term rentals, which isn’t a whole lot of fun, but we can’t see many alternatives.

What else has been happening? Well, my brother, Nick, got married. He’s a few years older than me, and I think a lot of people had given up on the idea of him ever getting married, but he’s done it and the wedding was great. Here’s a photo as proof:

Nick lent me his flashy DSLR camera for the wedding and the results can be seen on Nick and Deb’s wedding photo gallery. The pictures that Vic and I took using our own camera are in a Flickr collection.

So merry Christmas everyone, and here’s hoping things settle down a bit in the New Year… (well, by February anyway)

Last week I was on a VMware training course near Fenchurch Street. I don’t get into the City much so it made a change. Interesting course and it was nice to be able to travel home with Vic again.

Vic recently started a new job in the City, working as a PA to some HR directors at an insurance/financial company. Her office is very close to the Lloyds Building, which I’ve never really had a look at before.

It’s an interesting-looking building at nighttime when it’s all lit up. Very close by is the Gherkin, another building which I’d not seen up close before.

Yesterday we decided to venture out to the Bluewater shopping centre. We’ve been over to the retail park at Lakeside a few times, but thought we’d cross the river and see what Bluewater was like.

It’s pretty easy to get to from where we are in West Ham, straight along the A13, across the Dartford Bridge and there’s an exit for the shopping centre right after the bridge.

Although it was easy to get there, finding somewhere to park was less simple. There are 13,000 parking spaces at Bluewater but you try finding one on a Saturday afternoon. There are lots of signs saying “P”, but finding which of the car parks actually has any space is a different story. There are cars parked on the pavements, in between the disabled parking spots, in the no-parking zones, everywhere. After about 30 minutes we finally found somewhere in the cinema parking area.

I managed to find three shirts and a pair of shoes for my brother’s wedding next weekend which was the main reason we went. Vic found that lots of the items she liked were sold out in her size, and the place was rammed. By 6pm we were both shattered, so after re-fuelling at Ed’s Diner we went home.

There were plenty of shops, most of the high-street names, plus an Apple Store (which always attracts me). The place is pretty big, though not as interesting as some of the malls in Thailand, Malaysia or the US. I guess that the rents are high enough that small/new businesses can’t afford space there.

I’m not sure we’ll be rushing back, certainly not on a Saturday with Christmas coming, but facing the hordes at Bluewater made a change from the hordes in the West End.

Last weekend was my 40th birthday. I’m not big on birthdays, but Vic and I went to Brighton and stayed in the (very nice) Hotel Du Vin. Had a couple of nice meals and wandered round the shops.

Got our wedding and engagement rings re-polished at Jeremy Hoye’s shop. They’re now very shiny, Vic’s engagement ring had been done before, but it’s over three years since that was done do the difference is very noticeable. Really nice people in the shop too, and the re-polishing is free of charge as we bought the rings there.

Got some nice presents including a remote control Dalek, a Banksy book, remote control for my iPod and Good Beer Guide.

On the Sunday we walked around town and watched some of the vintage cars arriving as part of the London-to-Brighton Vintage Car Run.

We found a house between Herne Hill and Tulse Hill and are progressing with the purchase. If all goes well we’ll be moving in early in the New Year. Keeping our fingers crossed in this one.

It’s going to be lots of work as we’ll want to put in a new kitchen, bathroom, knock the kitchen through into a kitchen-diner, and it needs a new roof. The area is fairly quiet and it’s within walking distance of Brixton and Streatham.

We don’t have any photos, so you’ll just have to wait until we move in to see it.

After having a few issues regarding pricing etc with the house in Nunhead, on Monday the vendor withdrew the property from the market “for personal reasons”. So having paid for a valuation, we’re a few hundred quid down and no further on.

We suspected this might be coming, so had spent Saturday and Sunday looking around houses in South London. We’ve found a couple that we liked the look of and are seeing a couple more tomorrow so we’ll see how we go.

We both enjoyed the Bestival on the Isle of Wight the weekend before last. The facilities were a bit lacking, not enough toilets, not enough running water, too few food outlets and too slow bar service (I waited an hour to get served on Sunday afternoon).

The weather was great though, we even got slightly sunburnt, and we really enjoyed some of the acts, notably The Fall, Petshop Boys, Scissor Sisters, The Long Blondes and rounded it all off with Carl Cox’s cracking Old School set on the Sunday night.

We had a day at Freshwater after the festival to wind down and catch up on sleep, and enjoyed the break.

Well, it was all going quite well until a week ago when we got the house valuation back.

They found a bit of damp, not really much of a problem, but they also decided that the property was worth £35,000 less than the agreed price.

As a result we’re now in a process of the estate agent finding “comparables”, similar properties in the area which have sold recently for the similar amounts.

These then get sent to the valuer for an appeal. If they won’t accept them, we will have to drop our offer for the house to a figure closer to the valuation.

It’s all getting a bit frantic as we have to move out in a month and won’t have time to find another property to buy if the vendor won’t accept a lower offer, so we’ll then have to find somewhere to rent.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that either the appeal is successful or that the vendor will accept a lower offer, as we can’t really face traipsing around looking at flats to rent.

On top of all that, my laptop has developed “RSDs” (Random Shut Down) and has been sent for repair.

On a brighter note, we’re going to the Isle of Wight next Friday for the Bestival. Hoping that the weather perks up and the sun comes out…

After the disappointment last week, we got back on the horse and started viewing again.

We saw two on Sunday, one on Tuesday and two on Wednesday.

Fortunately, we liked one of Wednesday houses enough to agree to pay asking price. So, pending surveys etc, we’ll be moving to Nunhead.

No one knows where Nunhead is, in fact I didn’t until this week, so I’ll explain that it’s between East Dulwich and Brockley.

The house is a short walk from Nunhead station (and backs on to the railway line), and is also close to Nunhead Cemetery.

Keeping our fingers crossed this time and hoping it all goes smoothly. The vendor has agreed to leave all furniture and appliances so we’ll be able to move in without too much additional expenditure.