25 Before 24 - December Update

Snowdrops in Royal Fort Gardens

Late again - but I'm all moved in with Boy now. We got all our stuff into the house pretty quickly and unpacked but have been rather exhausted by keeping all the normal things together on top of that. We were both rather looking forward to some quiet time together in the house to enjoy each other's company but busyness has held that off 'til after Christmas. Boy's birthday is just before Christmas too so I was gearing up for that.
We've not made any new year plans so hopefully it'll be a quiet one spent with some good friends, some wine, and the contents of our salad cheese drawer.
As ever I'd like to blog more regularly - I think reminding myself that I do make and do interesting "blog-worthy" things is part of the struggle. Now I have a craft room I shall hopefully be more organised in my making and not have unfinished projects lying about.

25 Things

1. Cycle to Bath - Now have a garage but it's full of car things so no space for bike yet...
2. Visit K at RHUL
3. Go to a sewing meet
4. Make 5 items of clothing - Craft room is set up & I have some lovely soft teal cord for another Simplicity 2451. It'll need lining though - new frontiers :s
5. Go to Cornwall and/or somewhere warm - we've talked about a week in the warm in Jan/Feb
6. Learn some Perl/Ruby/C++/SQL- Hmm
7. Keep a list of things to cook and make 2 new ones per month - Made a very fruity/vegetably cake twice over - once carrot, banana, apple, coconut & walnuts and once apple, banana, hazelnut & chocolate
8. Read twelve or more books  - Nope. All mine & boy's books are cohabiting merrily on proper bookshelves now
9. Cut down my photo-uploading backlog - On roll 4 of K1000 photos
10. Scrapbook - Did a little concerted scrapbooking just before I moved, currently just keeping bits together
11. Visit 5 new towns or cities - Visited different parts of London to previously... Bethnal Green, Dalston & Goldhawk Road
12. Keep job/get good/become independent - Finished the annoying thing. Now doing lots of copying & pasting. Have taken over scrum master duties which is more responsibility -> good
13. Go to a pop-up restaurant or supper club
14. Finish things - UFOs are now dwelling in a box of shame
15. Mend/alter - Did a little of this before moving, got a couple of things back into circulation
16. See cousins - Failed to see any
17. Go to a gig/film/... every month - Saw Cate Le Bon at Rise for free and Darren Hayman at The Vortex Jazz club in London. Both very good.
18. Walk lots - Now closer to *a* bus stop, but a little way from a reliable one so walking there is a better option
19. Visit new cafés/things - Went to The Breakfast Club in Shoreditch and Tap Coffee on Wardour Street in London. Both very good - I had bacon & banana french toast in the former, and good coffee and some kind of tasty cake in the latter.
20. Do something creative every week - This got rather lost in all the moving and I've been feeling the want of some craft time
21. Make an effort to go to things - Went to London! Saw a few friends who now live there
22. Learn to knit properly - I have a pattern recommended and some wool in mind for arm-warmers
23. Listen to the radio regularly - Boy's digital radio is often on in the evening
24. Use stashes
25. Find a dentist & get teeth fixed 

25 Before 24 - November Update

Edit: This was written quite a while ago but got stuck on my phone. For the sake of completeness I've not edited it.
October was the month that boy & I found a house to move to together. We've been together almost four years now and with both of us having finished all the degrees we have planned and settled into jobs, now really did seem like the time.
One of the hard parts of adapting to full time working and commuting has been not seeing him half as much as I had been used to. When I was a student, and then when I was unemployed, it was very easy to come past his office at lunch time and get a quick cuddle, or bring him lunch when he'd forgotten. Now I work a full day far outside the city centre that just isn't possible: I'm often too tired in the evening to think of going out again and too late to join him in the pub for long before we start wanting dinner and whatever else we had planned goes out of the window. We've joked that going out for dinner has replaced Photography as our shared hobby but it is rather too close to the truth.
We've payed our Subject To Contract fees and deposits and all we have left to do now is to sign the contract and get the keys. It'll be nice to be together by default, and be able to take short breaks from our respective activities for a cuddle and a coffee instead of having to choose between getting stuff done and being together. Hopefully too we'll be able to get the domestic stuff out of the way and go for days out. We both do the majority of the housework in our current houses so that should only get easier!

25 Things
1. Cycle to Bath
2. Visit K at RHUL
3. Go to a sewing meet
4. Make 5 items of clothing - I seem to have started another instead of finishing anything
5.Go to Cornwall and/or somewhere warm
6. Learn some Perl/Ruby/C++/SQL- Writing teats & exercising my Perl skills again
7. Keep a list of things to cook and make 2 new ones per month - stir fry broccoli noodles, marinated pork & slaw, apple upside down cake
8. Read twelve or more books  - Inherited lots of books
9. Cut down my photo-uploading backlog - Started on K1000 photos
10. Scrapbook - Keep scraps with book but otherwise no progress
11. Visit 5 new towns or cities - Had an evening drive to Portishead but didn't make it out of the car
12. Keep job/get good/become independent - Been stuck on one thing for ages which is quite a downer, but also got pulled off it to help with an emergency
13. Go to a pop-up restaurant or supper club
14. Finish things - Oops
15. Mend/alter
16. See cousins - going to London next week & will hopefully see some
17. Go to a gig/film/... every month
18. Walk lots
19. Visit new cafés/things - Tried the little café near work and was pleasantly surprised
20. Do something creative every week - Finished my bus crochet
21. Make an effort to go to things - Been for dinner with friends after work, to a Photosoc social
22. Learn to knit properly
23. Listen to the radio regularly - Occasionally pop it on while cooking
24. Use stashes - I have plans
25. Find a dentist & get teeth fixed