Kitchen Sink Drama

Well, less kitchen sink and more bathtub, though the kitchen sink is an unfortunate side effect.

You may remember I posted a couple of weeks ago about our bathroom / overflowing basin disaster, as a result of the bath being blocked.

The bath is still blocked. Since that incident we've tried two different types of Mr Muscle - the gel and the foamer.

( In which I am losing the will to live... )

Oh yes. On Saturday we had our second concert of this season (I missed the Verdi thanks to the sprained foot, though apparently it didn't go that well anyway), the Bernstein/Parry/Faure/Durufle one. We had a low audience turn-out (as usual) but those that attended seemed to think it went well. I think the Bernstein Chichester Psalms went the best out of all of it, but probably only because we've rehearsed it to death. The Faure (Cantique du Jean Racine) was pretty, and the Parry was... well, patriotic. Durufle's Requiem is a lot nicer than I remember; in fact I could only recall having sung it with Derby Choral Union but had forgotten it all completely.

( Choir stuff )

I think I'll post this otherwise it'll never end... I shall put in an early BAH HUMBUG just to get it out of the way. :P

Somewhat calmer now...

Paul's mate Alex is coming over tomorrow to see if he can fix the bath blockage, as he seems to know what he's talking about. *crosses everything*

The upshot of all this bath!drama, however, is this:

We've pretty much decided to start house-hunting after Christmas. (There was a conversation leading to this, honest! It wasn't that spur-of-the-moment...) I mean, we need to properly look at finances/incomings/outgoings and stuff, but we can get a three-bedroom house for only a little more than what we pay now for our one-bedroom, falling-apart flat. And if we can convince lovely housemate Lisa to move in with us, that would be even better. We like living with Lisa, so it would be nice if she could come, too. :)

But yeah. Trying to move before Christmas is a bad idea, so we'll probably wait until post-January paycheques to have another look at what's available. The bonus of house-hunting in winter is (a) you can see what the heating's like and (b) it gets dark earlier so you can see what the area's like at night. My proposal is to do house-viewings after work to scout out public transport / area / distance issues, and also to bring a 'grown-up' along like either of our respective mums, David, Darren and/or Andrea, etc, as people who have been through this several times have a better house radar, as it were. (Our scope of areas-in-which-we-would-want-to-live is somewhat limited to "the bits of Birmingham which aren't shit", incidentally, so that narrows the search somewhat! And obviously our lack of being able to drive is a bit constraining.)

Me personally, my preference is on "good light". I'm really weird about natural light; if a house looks dingy and foreboding from the outside I will not even consider it, and I think massive walls with tiny windows are a waste of good space. So yeah, if it were up to me we'd end up in a greenhouse. :P

So yeah! The negativity of "Fuck you, stupid flat!" has turned into a positive move for the future. We did say we'd only be here five years at most and it's been four, so... not far off.

Given my pronpensity to jinx things by being too excited, I shall not mention this again until such time as Things Happen. But I would appreciate positive vibes from everyone just the same...