Rushing by

Well I'm officially a whole year older since the last time I posted!

Went out for all you can eat Chinese with X,Y, work colleagues and partners on Friday night, which was both delicious and muchly pleasant. Last night was spent bowling followed by drinks (with a bit of dancing thrown in) at the local dive, accompanied by my sister Lottie and friends Bea, Lily, her sister Daisy, Gerii, Disco and Joy. It was a really nice night, although my bowling skills left a lot to be desired, and great to catch up with folks.

I also had some great presents, including Thorntons chocolates and a cactus from X, a silver heart necklace from Y, 2 series of Charmed on dvd from my mum, £20 from my dad, expensive salon hair products from work, Garnier face products from Disco, a new silver watch from Bea, and a funky Roxy handbag all the way from New Zealand (via Australia!) from JRTC! Not to mention the Creme De La Mer facial scrub and Estee Lauder face cream I treated myself to!

Alas, none of the following face products, phone or jewelry on my 'far too expensive to ever actually obtain' list were forthcoming, but one can but dream!

The housebuying is still on track - though still incredibly early days unfortunately, and as it stands right now...
- the application to the regional housing association to register for a property has been completed and sent off
- the application to the local housing association for that particular property has been completed and sent off
- a mortgage company have agreed a 2yr fixed (extortionate due to poor credit) rate mortgage that will skint me but is affordable
- my sister has agreed to lend me £2k, to be paid back when my Alliance yearly saver is up next January

I now need to complete the mortgage application form, get a mortgage guarantee certificate and send that in to the local housing association, and then wait to see if I'm eligible for shared ownership, and finally, if I'm then offered the house. Not too many hoops to jump then! The good thing about everything being brought forward is that they look at offering the houses around 8-12 weeks before they are built, which works out as the end December/beginning of January - so not too long to wait for either good or bad news.