hats and umbrellas

The house is gone.
Sold.
Sad.

I went into the estate agent on Tuesday to tell him we were ready to make an offer on it and he told me it had sold that morning. I was totally heart broken, but I’ve quickly bounced back and realised it’s not the end of the world. There will be others.
We had another viewing yesterday.
We walked in and everything looked so promising. Cute little entrance porch, newly renovated lounge and a beautiful kitchen!
New conservatory just off the kitchen and the most perfectly kept back garden.
Then…. then we went upstairs, oh my!
No carpets anywhere, mould and damp on all the walls, and all the doors had been stripped and not repainted.
And the worst part: The bathroom had NO SINK. um, what?
What kind of family doesn’t have a sink in their bathroom? Gross.
We wouldn’t have minded putting a bit of money into it and paying for carpets and painting and a sink, but we’re definitely not interested in buying a house with a damp problem.

We’ve discovered houses in Shirehampton are super cheap. I’m trying to be open minded but I’m not sure I want to live in Shirehampton. I’ve never been there but as far as I know it’s a bit villagey and full of old people. It’s also miles from Bristol and over 13 miles from work.. I’m not sure I want to live all the way out there, but we’ll wait and see.

Instagram was released on the android market. I have an android phone, but apparently it’s not compatible.
That’s a bit poop.

The amount of assholes I had to deal with at work last week was through the roof.
seriously. I wanted to slap quite a few people and just scream "what the fuck is wrong with you?!"
The summer hasn’t even really started and I’m already wishing it was over.

Yesterday Ben and I went out for burgers on a whim. It got to about 5pm and we were both starving and feeling pretty lazy.
It doesn’t help that Wetherspoons do a burger and a drink for £3.99 and it’s a 5 minute walk from our flat.
We’ve had a few days off work together and haven’t really done anything but sit around and watch tv. Bliss.

I have a story about a ring!
My aunt (my dad’s sister) died before I was born. My gran (their mother) took Renée’s diamond and had it set together with her diamond in her wedding ring.
I’m the eldest granddaughter in the family so I’ve inherited my grandmother’s ring with both diamonds on it.
The ring itself is really ugly.
My mom and I have decided to take the stones out and sell the gold and use that to pay to have a new ring designed. I’m pretty excited!
There was also the issue of what to do with both diamonds. They’re both the same size and shape, but my gran’s diamond is older, a bit yellowed and not as sparkly, but it means more to me because it was my gran’s. My aunt’s diamond is much clearer and prettier, but I never met her so it’s less sentimental.
So I had 2 decisions to make
Which diamond did I want to put in the ring we’re having made.
And what to do with the other diamond? 
I decided I wanted to use my gran’s one to put in a ring now, something I can cherish forever.
The other diamond I’m going to keep for an engagement ring- for so many reasons. I couldn’t think of anything else to do with it, and it’ll make my engagement ring super extra special if I have a family diamond it in, AND it’ll save Ben lots of money just having to pay to have it set in a band rather than having to buy a diamond ring.
I’ve explained all this to my mom and to Ben and they both seem happy with it.
This by no stretch of the imagination means I want to get married any time soon, but I guess it’ll happen some time in the future and at least this way everyone knows what I want.

We’ve been together 5 years this month.
I think there’s only about 2 or 3 of my bookmarks who have been reading this diary since before I met Ben.
But 5 years! Totally mental.
We’re going to London to celebrate. We’re going to watch Matilda the Musical. Tim Minchin wrote all the songs. Ben and I both love Tim Minchin so we thought it was totally fitting we went to see a show he wrote, for our anniversary.
We’re spending the night in a London hotel.
I’m really looking forward to it!

Oohh, I didn’t write about my weekend in Hastings.
Well it wasn’t quite a weekend, I was only there for 1 night.
Drove down last Friday to celebrate Niks’s birthday.
It was fun! We sat in her flat and had takeaway curry, played drinking games and listened to 90s CDs.
We had this big night out planned but we wen outt to a bar, had 1 drink, decided we weren’t really feeling it, so we got some food and went home. Had a few more drinks and went to sleep at about 2:30am.
The next day we went antique shopping. We found a hat stand for £20 I really liked. I regret not getting it now. I only had £13 in cash though and I was too lazy to go and find an ATM. I really wished I had bothered.
Drove back to Bristol on Saturday afternoon.

ttfn