Resuming

Hello.
Sorry about that - it was the most stressful 3 or 4 weeks for a long time - the culmination of the transformational process of becoming a homeowner. I am very scared that I might end up reading the Daily Mail and voting Tory (if not smoking a cigar and wearing a top hat and spats) but have asked a close friend to 'sort me aaahhhhht' if that ever happens. The stress was all about the 'proof of income' - I don't fit in that box very well and it looked like it was never going to happen, at least 3 times, but I managed in the end.
And yes, it appears that we have bought a house. I can pretty much see it from my sofa in our rented house and it is definitely there, made of bricks and everything. And we have the keys and some plans (to knock a wall down and a few other things that we hope to do before we move in) and stuff. We will be in for good by end of September.
Very exciting!

Other stuff has been Big Brother 8 - no coincidence that I finally blog today, I suppose! I got really into it and also had a lot of work, so have spent a lot of hours working with the BB8 house live streaming in the corner of my screen, intermittently chatting to mates at BBGossip about things as they happened. It was so long this year though, even I am glad today that it's finished! Not unhappy with the result either. Really funny night last night as BBGossip had big meet for final night in Sheffield complete with webcam - very entertaining.

Work - tons and tons because we are skint with the whole process of the buying - fees, etc. despite having a lot of financial help from my mum. Have worked extremely hard and should see results of that in September and October thank goodness.

F - has been a star while I've been stressed/working/BBing and we've managed to have some fun times in the midst of it all. I had to go over to Brighton or into town at short notice a few times and we managed to make a pleasure trip out of it too - going down to sea, paddling (really good for stress!) and eating ice-creams, etc. She recently asked for more help with learning to read and is doing really well making some steps in that direction. Generally, she has been watching films, making things out of cardboard or oven drying clay, drawing a lot, setting up garden activities with signs and maps, going to the park, Gears Gears Gears (she used them to make a sort of theme park based on the My Secret Unicorn books - OMG we got book 14 and Mrs Fontana dies! Shocked!) playing with her soft toys, throwing herself around, parenting her toy cats, etc.
Her second baby tooth fell out on the same day that we got the keys to the house. She now has a crush on Moss from The IT Crowd, who interestingly is based on the writer when he was 12. She tidied her bedroom floor one day, completely on her own initiative, getting rid of some bits in a really mature and self-organized kind of way, which was impressive.

We have seen quite a bit of family members (including going over to Cheltenham - the elder of my two half-brothers is moving to Australia and dad's funeral was exactly a year ago today) and a few friends but have not seen other children much, except at the park/beach/playgrounds, over these last 3 weeks. However, the autumn return to more regular social times is just round the corner, not a moment too soon really this time.