I am a Lodger

I am homeless in GNT no longer. Wonderful landlady (with social skills) must have decided that my unique selling points outranked Roger's, and I have an offer of a room in her house, five minutes walk from the hospital and 20 minutes walk (or a bus ride) from the centre of town. I celebrated with a triumphal walk to the vegetable shop, via the fishmonger and various charity shops. Lola II will be devastated to learn that I have attempted to buy second-hand clothes without her support, but I haven't tried them on at home yet, so they may in fact be utterly unsuitable.*

The hole in the kitchen ceiling is filled, and Alf has continued with the extension of our airing cupboard. We have had several deep and incomprehensible conversations about door hinges, but I think the matter is now settled. We have also had to carry out complex manoeuvres around parking, because of my incompetence at a) losing and b) failing to replace the visitor's parking permit in time. Without a permit, Alf's van is allowed 2 hours outside our house, then 4 hours on the next street, and then another 2 hours outside our house. What he can't do is 4 hours on the next street, 2 hours outside our house and then back to the next street, because of the '...and no return within x hours' condition.

After foolishly imagining that local residents might be in the pub at 2.30 pm on a Tuesday, rather than non-driving alcoholics, I tried the house across the road instead. The lovely lady there was happy to lend us a pass until Friday, and the only hitch is that although she has told me at least twice, I can't remember her name at all. Mr A was going to ask our friends who live next door to her, but forgot. I'm going to have to write it down when I find out.

Then I went into Birmingham for a social evening with friends I used to work with. It was a lovely evening, although I think I did most of the talking, about my course, the placement, GNT, and my research. I have completed a summary of the research rationale and findings for those organisations who helped and volunteers who took part, and an even shorter version that is for attracting the 'media'. When I'll have time for that sort of game, I'm not sure.

So far today I've been glued to the Interwebnet trying to find and book accommodation for the Lola II Birthday Extravaganza weekend, which this year we hope will be in Sheffield. It has not been easy, but I still have time today and tomorrow afternoon, and if I am unsuccessful I shall just have to pass the baton back to Lola II to see if she can achieve a result.

I took the photo at the top of this post when I was out in Leamington the other day. Apparently, this 'double decker' column arrangement is very unusual, because the upper columns are made of wrought iron in an interesting perforated style.

* I have tried the clothes on now, and they are fine. Don't tell Lola II.