The New Garrett...

...is huge! My bedroom alone is more than twice the size of my room in the Old Garrett.

My trusty desk is still standing, after a trip across London. This may be a testament to my flat-pack-assembly skills, or possibly (more likely) to Argos's glue. The desk also, by sheer fluke, matches the wardrobe in my room perfectly: it's part of the same Argos range.

Our broadband and phone line are working perfectly, though we haven't yet got to grips with our gas oven. And despite being yards from the trainline and Nunhead station, this place is far quieter than the Garrett on Gipsy Road. I do love double-glazing!

*kerthunk*

That's the sound of a 504 page manuscript being returned. I came back from a lunchtime swim to find it sitting on my desk.

Disappointing, but not unexpected -- and London Independent Books wrote a nice rejection letter. They said that, having reviewed the whole manuscript, they felt the novel didn't "click" for them and that they didn't want to take on books they weren't wholly enthusiastic about.

So, back to the Yearbook, I suppose. Time to dust off the query-letter-synopsis-sample-chapters and get them back out there.

I've not done any writing tonight, as I've been packing books and clothes in preparation for moving to the new flat on Saturday. I got about a thousand words done yesterday, though, on a longish satirical/humorous horror story about undead computer programmers in an evil corporation...

...yes, it's been a bad week at work. How could you guess?

Work trip

I was helping with one of our sporadic "Beta Testing Days" in Nottingham today, which meant travelling up by train yesterday afternoon, and spending the night in a hotel.

It was quite a nice way to spend a day and a half; I enjoy the limbo of train travel, chiefly because it gives me a great excuse to read or daydream. (The only other occasions when time seems to stretch malleably and pass inexorably are during examinations, when sitting back and perusing a novel is generally a tad counterproductive -- literature exams excepted.)

I met up with a couple of friends in Nottingham, and had a great time catching up over some fabulous hot chocolate at The Malt Cross -- a fabulously arts-studenty bar, of the sort I frequented six months or so ago... The hot chocolate had whipped cream and crushed maltesers on top; excellent!

Once I had found my hotel (hampered somewhat by having foolishly printed a map from google which didn't include many street names...) I spent the evening reading Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book and, I suppose, participating in said activity.

Today I sadly had to get to the beta testing venue, rather than mooch around the Nottingham shopping centres, but it was a good day; I got a free USB pen and a free lunch...

Lunch at the Mansion

The Boyfriend came up to Gipsy Hill yesterday, and brought chocolates and champagne! I'd booked the afternoon off work, so we went for a fabulous long lunch at the Mansion, a very nice gastro-pub at the end of Gipsy Road. (Once I've moved out of the Garrett, I think the Mansion will certainly be worth travelling back to Gipsy Hill for...)

We had a lovely waitress who very obligingly took a photo of us both by the fireplace. You can see that I am standing cunningly on the hearth in order to look a touch taller...

Lunch was delicious and very nicely presented, tempting my appetite back into full force (I've been oddly -- and very unusually, for me -- off my food this week). We had a meze platter to start with; toasted pitta bread, roasted vegetables, marinated olives and feta, with hummous and tzatziki dips.

Then Paul had what looked like a very tempting fish pie, with bread and butter -- served on a chunk of wood:

And I, after much dithering, had the thai red vegetable curry, which was
lovely and creamy and mildly spicy:

We finished off by managing to order pudding just before the kitchen closed, at five to four. Our pudding tastes tend to be predictable; I had the chocolate fudge brownie cake, with very good vanilla ice-cream, and he had the bakewell tart.

This repast was washed down with a bottle of very decent white wine, a greco which I've forgotton the full name of...

One day, I hope to be living the true writerly life and enjoy lunches like this on a frequent basis. At my editor's expense. ;-)

New Flat!

We signed the contract on our new flat (see left!) on Thursday evening, and we're going to be moving in on Saturday 24th. I'm very excited; it'll be great to have somewhere which is finally my "own" rather than shared with strangers. And it'll also be great to see the Boyfriend every day. :-)

I like the area; there's a laundrette and corner shop and a couple of takeaways at the end of the road, and a few pubs and other shops nearby in Nunhead. It's only a ten/fifteen minute walk into Peckham, which is big -- plenty of shops and a huge library.

There's quite a bit to be sorted out, such as transferring over the gas and electricity bills and -- more crucially -- the broadband. ;-)

I tried out cycling to/from Nunhead yesterday, and got fairly lost (even with a map) -- I think I'll allow plenty of time to get to work on Monday 26th...

The Garrett will shortly be moving...

I spent last Saturday flat-hunting with the boyfriend, and we found a nice place in Nunhead which we're signing the contract for on Thursday evening. Hurrah!

It's in a "tower block" but only a small one (nine flats), and I've decided that's considerably preferable to a converted Victorian/Georgian place with draughty windows.

The interior was very neat, nicely decorated, with plenty of furniture. There's photos of it in the advert at http://highermarks.co.uk/flatse15.htm if you're interested.

It does mean moving rather sooner than I'd planned; February 24th, as the Landlady wants to have the flat rented out before the end of Feb. This means I'm paying a month's rent on the current Garrett despite not being resident in it -- I'm seeing if a friend of the Boyfriend's is interested in sub-renting from me. Still, since the new place isn't through an agent, we're saving a quite extortionate amount on "administration fees".