As you may have noticed, I can now be found amongst the Twitterati being a right twit at http://www.twitter.com/rchiswell. Come, my followers, join me and together we will take over the world mwhahaha!
Category: Life: Personal
After 5 months of “temporary” living in Harrow (instead of Leicester), I’ve now really got to make up my mind. Should I continue living “Down Souf” and sell the Leicester manor, or end our lease in the Harrow homestead and move back to Leicester and commute daily to the Big Smokey (London, not our kitty!).
Benefits of selling up: Around £18,000 to £20,000 “cash in the bank” (after mortgage repayments, loan repayments, selling fees, redemption fees, Home Information Packs, Conveyancing fees). Saving of approximately £1,300 per month in mortgage and loan repayments and life insurance [for the next five years] and £66 in Council Tax and £100 in utility bills. Total month savings: £1,466.
Benefits of going back to Leicester: Saving £1,400 per month in rent, £288 in Council tax, at least £93 in utility months. Total monthly savings: £1,781. Family, friends and generally a bit cheaper. Live in house I own.
Disadvantage of going back to Leicester: Commute goes up from 10 minute walk and 24 minute tube journey (34 minutes) to 15 minute taxi/car journey, 1hr 30minute train journey, 3 minutes tube and 5 minute walk (1hr 53 minutes). Price goes up from £148 per month to at least £760.20 (£933.20 including parking). Smaller property. Household maintenance expenses.
Net “gain” in moving back to Leicester: £996.00 per month
Net “gain” in staying where I am: £1,466 per month + interest on savings.
Those figures look pretty damming and conclusive to me. So much for thinking it’ll be a lot cheaper to go back to Leicester.
This comic on xkcd is quite relevant at the moment Yes, I’m splitting up with my other half – No, don’t panic K, I’m not really 😉 But she and I were watching Firefly over the weekend (10 out of 14 episodes done: big pity they cancelled it) and we did find it annoying that we didn’t understand the Chinese language in it: and we know at nearly the big “three oh”, we’re both going to find it difficult to learn a new language (especially since we would prefer to learn Japanese or Mandarin/Cantonese) as our brains have “solidified”.. Shame!
Anybody got any tips for learning totally new languages when you are a bit old in the tooth? Neither of us know any other languages (apart from several computer languages and very basic French: but those don’t count)…
- When Policeman start looking younger
- You don’t remember being absentminded.
- You have more patience; but actually, it’s just that you don’t care any more.
- Your memory is shorter and your complaining is longer.
- You look forward to a dull evening.
- You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.
- Your idea of a night out is sitting on the patio.
- You begin every other sentence with, “Nowadays…”
- A ‘late night’ now ends at 11 pm.
- When the actor playing Doctor Who is younger than you
*sigh*
Have a look at this snapshot of my Nationwide Building Society’s online statement: I’ve blocked out the bits which don’t matter.. See anything odd? No – well, the statement was dated “Saturday 6th of December 2008”, but it’s showing a “Branch or Cash Machine Withdrawal” for £20.00 on Monday the 8th of December 2008: two days in the future!
I know I regularly withdraw £20 or £30 pounds from an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine: the proper name for cash machines/hole in the wall machines) on a Monday, but isn’t Nationwide being a bit presumptuous in thinking that I’ll do the same again this coming Monday? Or have they just invented a time machine so they can ensure that they know what the financial markets are going to be like in the future…