I am officially "the Thick One" in my relationship....

Yep, J got her confirmation yesterday that she has passed her Masters. Not just passed, but come blimmin close to a Merit. I have already told her that I think she was just pretending to be stressed for the past two years to get sympathy, when all along she knew she was a genius.

Am very chuffed for her - not to mentioned impressed. I've waxed lyrical enough in the past about how amazing I think it is to study for a masters at all, never mind in another language, so I won't go on about it again here.

Am looking forward to July and graduation - it's gonna be some party if I have anything to do with it....! Especially since her attempted celebration on Saturday was cut short at 8.30 thanks to some mistimed food poisoning (I wasn't cooking, honest). The Master of Science in Geohazard Assessment was unfortunately in bed by the time Match of the Day came on. Still, there'll be plenty of time for toasting her success in the next few months. In the meantime I'm considering dying my hair blonde, in keeping with my role in the relationship.

Mmmm..... Roast pork...

....and it's not even Sunday.

Off to see I'm from Barcelona again tomorrow

Purveyors of that particularly odd brand of Swedish feel-good indie pop that sees a multitude of kazoo-wielding band members invade the stage and good-natured carnage ensue. We tried it in this country and could only come up with Goldie Lookin Chain. Admittedly, I also saw them in concert - like, before they were famous, yah?

So - a night of loveliness awaits tomorrow at Scala in Kings Cross. I've even got a nice new haircut for the occasion. I'm currently sitting in the new, "just gets more great" flat, splitting my time between typing internet related things into my computer and watching South Park whilst waiting for them to load - I'm still on dial up as I wait for Sky to connect up the broadband. I've fallen straight into that "thousands of channels but nothing 0n" mentality with the telly - there's easily about 50 things I would watch if it were one of 5 options on terrestrial tv, but because it's satellite I demand perfection, goddamit!!

We got a new number for the front door today, along with a blind for the kitchen window and a key for a storage cupboard upstairs, which is almost like having a spare boxroom in the flat (except it's one floor up and has no light, ventilation or way of opening/closing it from inside. Not exactly like we can sleep there when mum visits). Things are starting to settle down now - we're about to hoof our unrequired yet sentimentally attached junk into storage and all the bills are pretty much under control.

Rock. And. Roll.

Or Pop. And. Smiling. As is perhaps more appropriate.

I got a little creative today...

....whilst setting up a new spreadsheet at work.

I was trying to come up with an appropriate error message when people try to enter information free-format into one of the columns. I eventually decided that an irate Rangers fan might foot the bill. Some of you might find it amusing - others may wonder what the hell I'm on about...

Looking out over South West London

I'm sitting in my new flat, watching the planes on their final descent, flying away from me towards Heathrow. Having been out of contact and in the middle of the best kind of house-related stress for the past few weeks, I figured it was best to drop a short line, in case anyone is still sporadically checking the blog.

We've been in the new place for a fortnight now - in some ways it seems like we've been here for much longer (Dulwich seems like an absolute lifetime ago), but in most it has flown by. Half our stuff is still unpacked - in part due to the severely limited storage we have, and partly just because.....well, it's a bit of an arse, really.

I've managed to achieve a long-held dream in the past week - nothing so worthy as raising money for charity or scaling Everest, but every bit as impressive were you to ask my 14 year old self back in 1992. I have Sky TV, my friends. Oh yes. 100 channels of top quality entertainment at my fingertips. Ignoring the fact that I have just scanned through them and could find absolutely nothing to watch. Such amazing options as "Horse & Country", "Nigeria Movies" and about 15 Evangelical channels are right there, just waiting for me to come home drunk enough to watch them. When I was young, I imagined that by the age of 24 I would have a riverside apartment, be a loaded City hotshot and have every channel available on Sky. I now am 31, have a lovely flat in Brixton, a respectable but at least reasonably secure job in Tower Hamlets and the variety and knowledge packs on Sky. I'd like to look at it as a glass half full kind of situation.

The flat is everything we hoped it would be and we're very happy so far. The past two weeks have been somewhat uncharacteristically kind to us: J found out she has passed her Masters after two years of stress and hardship, whilst I was nominated for an award at work and have secured a new "grown up" job which starts in January. Not discounting the fact that the credit crunch has done away with both my Christmas party at work and the prospect of any sort of foreign jolly should I win said award, it's been a pretty shit hot time for us at the moment.

We can only hope that it continues for a little while longer - Christmas is just around the corner and plans are already afoot for Christmas trees and all that palaver. Magic.

The boy's done alright for himself...

After spending a month coming up with reasons why it wouldn't happen, we got the keys to our brand spanking new flat tonight. Not too shabby, i think you'll agree. Of course, this photo is taken from the far corner of the "living room", giving an idea of the size, but it's all ours and it's all ready. Missing bog seat excepted.

The inner sanctum

Having never worked in a pub, i felt like a kid in a sweet shop tonight as i was shown the room "where the magic happens" in my local. It's even more beautiful than i imagined.....