I am getting my booster shot today. In my previous city, I only had to walk 15 minutes or so down the road to reach the vaccination site. In my new city, I have to travel for around an hour. A lot of scratching my head over Google Maps eventually yielded a 20 minute walk, a train journey, and another 30 minute walk as being the most efficient route. I did briefly flirt with the idea of using an...
Since moving, we have had some issues with the internet. Every now and then our connection would drop for seemingly no reason. Speeds were slow. And our phone line (yes, we have a landline phone) would sound full of static and crackle. We called our ISP and they took us through a rigmarole of diagnostics; unplugging the router and plugging it back in, connecting to the test socket, using a...
I started a new (temporary) job this week. My first day I went into the office, which meant I got to enjoy something I haven’t done in a long time: commute. I am lucky enough to be able to commute by train, but of course, commuting by public transport in December has a (chilly) downside. Luckily, warm clothing and waterproofs can go a long way! November has felt like a full life reboot. I...
Transitions are inevitable in life. From the moment we emerge squalling into the world to the moment we shuffle off this mortal coil, we are faced with times of growth and change. Some changes are sudden and devastating; the death of a close friend or loved one or the sudden loss of a job. These whip through our life with the force of a hurricane, leaving grief in its wake. Other transitions are...
And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is’.Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country I am happier than I’ve been in a while. This is particularly impressive considering I am in the last throes of moving house, and my entire life is in boxes right now. Of course, last year...
Head to any personal finance blog or forum, and you’re likely to discover that one of the first things you’ll be told to do is keep a budget. Now, if you’re up to your ears in debt and struggling to pay your bills on time, the benefits of creating a budget are obvious (though likely also depressing!) But what if you’re earning enough to coast by? Why should you keep a...
A little over a month ago I wrote that I was looking to move house. At the time, I was deep in the vagaries of the rental market, racing to try and get to decent properties before they were snatched out from underneath me. I’m happy to say that P and I were, in the end, successful. Our new house is a 2 bedroom end terrace, recently refurbished to a high standard. As a result, we are...
The Lonely Century is a book that argues we are living in an age of extreme loneliness. Noreena Hertz has done her research. She points to colleges that are needing to teach students how to interact with other people face-to-face. Elderly Japanese women who are committing petty crimes in order to be sent to prison, in order to alleviate their loneliness. And single people who eat their meals...
I first started doing yoga some 15-20 years ago. I borrowed a (mostly text-based) book from the library, which gave me a guide to various poses as well as introduced me to some basic concepts around breathing (helpful) and Vastra Dhauti, in which a cloth is passed down the digestive tract to the stomach in order to cleanse impurities (this one appealed a lot less to teenage me!) Since then...
My life in housing went something like this: Live with my parentsLive at University in dormsRent a room from a friendLive with my parent-in-lawsLive with my parentsRent a 2 bed houseRent another, cheaper, 2 bed houseRent a studio apartmentRent a room in a house shareLive with my parentsRent another room in a house shareLive with my brother-in-lawLive with my parentsRent a friend’s apartment...
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