h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

7/10/12

I've just been on a date! Well no, but it kinda felt like it. I meet up with a person I know through a baby forum in Ironbridge. We only had time for lunch rather than visiting any museums, but it was fun. I can get quite nervy when I meet new people as I am aware I either talk too much or not enough, but I think it went OK. She doesn't live that close by but close enough that we can meet somewhere in the middle.

I'm currently sat on the car waiting for to wake up. He's got a few more minutes before I have to be mean and take him in the house (there's only so long I'll waste watching the Geek and Sundry YouTube channel on my phone!).

[Amy P]

8/10/12

Yesterday I saw one of those lovely juxtapositions of old and new: hedge laying with a chainsaw.

I also managed to get embroiled in a discussion (on facebook) about the election of our local police commissioners. I find the whole thing idiotic. Why should I have a say in this? Surely the most qualified candidate, as chosen by experts in the field, should get the job? Even worse, it's another way of getting party politics into the police, because in my area you have a Con and a Lab candidate who have never worked in the police or associated areas. Thankfully there is also an independent too, but there's no guarantee of that in every area.

But then, I also get very angry when I think that our cabinet ministers have zero experience in their posts either. I feel strongly that a Ptime Minister should have successfully run a large business, and the Health minister should have at least a few years experience working as a qualified health professional. It really bugs me.

[Amy P]

Must be quite a rich independant

Annoyingly I missed the deadline to get my postal vote from several counties away as i got distracted by a bunch of deadlines - meaning I miss my first vote

And furthermore, despite being a staunch tory I'm hoping for a labour candidate to win - he's the previous dep head of the police authority and has about a decade of experience whereas the tory candidate as no experience either in policing or in managing anything - how can a career politician know what to do?

"how can a career politician know what to do?"

Welcome to politics NBB.

I ended up reading up on Cameron as I was feeding earlier. It does sound like he is a bright man and a good, well experienced politician... but that is all he has done. Ever. He's never worked in the real world.

I'm semi-Tory in that I agree with the principle of equal access and opportunity for all, but given it comes from a party with a horrific bias towards those with money I find it a bit hard to swallow sometimes. We need to find a system whereby it's not money that gets you into power. It's just a shame that it would require such a fundamental shift in the way it is currently done I doubt I'll ever see it. Then again, I've only just woken up from a nap, and I'm inclined to type before I think.

I've met Cameron, he's actually a really nice guy and we had a bit of an argument at the bar of the pub he was in. A proper argument where you listen to the opinions of the others, debate them with them, raise your own, and spend an hour or so over pints of beer discussing real world issues, like pub closures and breweries opening, price of a pint etc.
He was an intelligent, informed and witty bloke.

That's good to know Pastey; if it's the real man, or was he just being a politician who was trying to convince you that he's an intelligent, informed and witty bloke? I'm not against him personally; but distrust politicians in principle.

I have no doubt that Cameron is intelligent, informed and witty - all three both fit his character, and are necessary anyway for a good politician (I'm not sure about Miliband on the 1st and 3rd aspects, but still)

Whether he is truthful, honest (in the sense of his character matches to what he tries and portrays) are more of interest to me

Sounds like Pastey saw those two aspects, which is good -whether I'm reading Pastey correctly, and whether Pastey read him correctly are of course up to debate

I met him before he became leader of the tories, and it was in his local where he was relaxing. So I'd say it was him being a real person, especially as I was arguing against some (most) of his views and he wasn't doing the whole political sucking up to the voter thing.

Whether he's still like that I don't know, but when you see election night coverage, everyone's in some dull hall or party office somewhere, while he's down his local with his family and neighbours.

9/10/12

Gah. It's my Scout pick tomorrow and I've only done one PR review in... uh... about a month. Oh well, it'll just have to wait for me to build up a little more momentum on that. I'll get there, I've promised myself I'll aim for a review a week and warned Mr Vip too. Should be doable on the nights I'm not going to bed at 8-sodding-30.

What can I say- teething sucks. It's completely screwed with )
s sleep and he's pretty grumpy during the day too. Oh well. This too shall pass...

On the plus side Mr Vip and I looked around a house today. It was a pleasant surprise. Normally we detest new builds, but this one was a decent size, at the end of a cul-de-sac, within cycling distance to work, closer to town, and they'll do part exchange on this house too.
It's not the village location we were after, but it's nicer than here and still has ask the benefits of living in a town. We were only visiting to put the idea to rest, but we're both seriously considering it! Hey ho, life takes you on odd journeys sometimes.

[Amy P]

10/11/2010

Well, that was pretty much the worst nights sleep ever, I think. Including when he was a newborn because at least he just slept between the feeds. I was pretty much up from 4:30, having been woken for long stretches at 10, 12 and 3. *sigh* This too shall pass, this too shall pass...

On the plus side, he is now opening his mouth for the syringe full of paracetamol rather than fighting us every step. On the down side, he now wants to spend all his time on his tummy or on his feet, so changing him (on his back) is turning into a full on fight there instead!

-----

We viewed a new build house today. Despite previously saying we'd never seriously look at a new build, we actually really like this one. And it is --just-- within our budget (assuming we restrict ourselves to 75% LTV mortgages, because otherwise the interest rates are terrible).

Pros:
It's on a small-ish new estate, so big enough to have a few people but not faceless, and the houses are all family-orientated houses so will have company.
The estate has a green space to play on, and the roads will be quiet enough for to play out when he's older.
It doesn't feel like a rabbit hutch (usually new builds skimp on room size, but this is actually bigger than what we currently have).
It backs on to a footpath, so our garden isn't overlooked. That footpath leads to the old canal footpath, and down to the river.
It's half the distance to town than here (about 15 minutes walk, rather than 30).
Mr Vip can still commute by bicycle so we don't need to buy a second car.

Cons:
It's not in a village, and it's not the nicest bit of town (although it's a nice town, so not really a terrible place to live). The area is undergoing a bit of a revamp, but there's no guarantee that it'll actually help.
The local schools are OK, but not the solid grade 1 that we were looking at before.
The traffic along the main road can often be at a standstill (but Mr Vip would be commuting by bike, so it's not really a problem most of the time for us).
It is a big financial stretch. We'd have to borrow a little bit from family in order to make the deposit.
They'd want us to be in by Christmas. Yes, this Christmas!

So, decisions, decisions, decisions...

[Amy P]

That's a quick decision to have to make!

I know! That's a really sudden thing, and the sudden-ness of it is making us twitchy. On the other hand, this is the first house we have *ever* viewed that doesn't feel like a compromise. It actually feels like a house to live in for at least until leaves home*. And, because they do part exchange, we don't have to worry about selling our current house (it's been on the market for 7 months so far).

We had a chat about it last night and we think we're at least going to look into the financial possibility of it. If they don't give us as much for part-ex as we need then that will scupper the whole plan anyway.

In a way the timescale is almost an added bonus, because it forces us to have discussions and act, otherwise we could dither for ages!




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*being that permanent actually scares me for some other reasons, but we are determined to give that stability so it's time for me to take a deep breath and grow up.

Yeah--listening to me dither every early spring for the last 3 or 4 years before we bought this house is plenty for any of our mutual friends

11/11/12

Well, we've decided to at least look into it. We've got a mortgage in principle (I love first direct being open in a Sunday) and the builders are going to set the part ex thing in motion, which will take about a week. Once that's done we can then definitely evaluate if it is a financially viable option.

In news, tooth number 8 is emerging which is very good news. We were actually starting to get concerned it was something else, like separation anxiety or something, but now we know to just keep up with the paracetamol and to ride it out. I cannot waitto return to the days when I only have to get up once! Bliss!

[Amy P]