The last few weeks have been very busy with huge highs and lows. I don’t want to go into the lows too much as it’s not my story to tell but it’s enough to say that a friend of mine is going through a really difficult time right now battling with depression. Official figures are that 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year but I would say that those statistics are on the conservative side, I could count on one hand the friends I have who aren’t troubled by one sort of mental health problem or another. There has been a huge push over recent years to get people talking about it but still it is something that we are on the whole reluctant to share, and that I think can be very dangerous as it’s something that you really shouldn’t have to go through alone.
However I’m going to leave that and go on to our very good news: WE ARE BUYING A HOUSE! It’s unbelievably exciting and just a little bit terrifying and we are very lucky indeed to be able to do it. It’s taken us saving and scrimping along with a huge amount of help from both sets of parents AND a government scheme to make it possible! For anyone living in London who inevitably finds saving towards a deposit nigh on impossible it is well worth looking into shared ownership – it’s a brilliant scheme where you buy a percentage of a property and rent the remainder from a housing association. Your total monthly payments end up being not much more expensive than renting and a good proportion goes to paying off your mortgage – amazing! We’re still in piles of paperwork at the moment so it’ll be a little while until we’re moved in but I can not wait.
This weekend just gone I had a break from the norm – Nick was off at his best friend’s stag do and so I spent a whole 24 hours with my Alice! It’s been months since we saw each other and even longer since it was just the two of us and it was SO FUN! We ended up having a lads night playing on the Xbox, drinking in the old ale emporium & playing darts! Smashing.
We also had an unbelievably foggy few days last week and it was oh so beautiful! Even Jewsons had a certain something in the fog.
Flora Nancy Paterson 