Well it's all go here, we've moved in, got the furniture in... well almost... one sofa wouldn't go up the stairs!  So with a quick sale to a pal and the money being used for new lush blinds we have the house sorted (almost)  It's the fine tweeking now.

As of next week we'll be the happy parents to Lola, a rescue English Bulldog from the RSPCA, she was neglected from her previous owner and the RSPCA is prosecuting as she was very underweight, she has to put on 5 kilos, but is making good progress.  She is a lovely character, walks effortlessly on the lead and although can be obstinate (as the song goes 'what Lola wants, Lola gets') she's playful and docile, we have thought of getting two dogs, but we'll see how we go with Lola before adding to the madhouse.

The Gay Dating Expert weekly column is launched at the end of this week, part of the coaching arms of the LifeWith coaching practice.  The Dating Expert book will be out in print in the next few weeks and the Gay Dating Expert book is being released after Easter. 

I've not done much in the way of fiction writing recently, however I am looking to allocating time from next week to get cracking, we've been up to our eyes in jetlag, unpacking, flat pack construction and finding transportation.  We ended up getting a Ford Cougar, it's a little old, but has been owned for the last 10 years by an elderly chap who just used it to go to the golf club, so the very low milleage and the full service history along with the cheap purchase price was great for a little run around for us, plus with the spacious boot it's been invaluable with the umpteen trips to furniture shops and the many many trips to the tip (I'm on first name terms with them there and have my own parking slot) I really didn't realise how many boxes we had.  Rob has been marvellous in organising the kitchen, it's about a third of the size as the loft apartments, but with a bit of giggling about he'd done wonders, our stock cupboard that was replenished in full when we returned from living in Berlin was enormous, and still is.... we have plenty of dried and canned food to last to 2013!

Living in a house is great, we've a 3-4 bedroom one, however have discovered we're using every room and now only have one bedroom, a dressing room, office, music room, dining room, kitchen, living room and obviously bathrooms (three of the buggers lol) Having stairs is also a novelty, Rob was living in a bungalow before we got together and I'd been living in a flat for seven years.  I had a brief trial of living in Chorlton for a few months but that was in a much smaller house, it's amazing how space is important, I am surprised some houses and apartments are actually build as they have room for a sofa and beds etc but they don't have room to live.  

We have decided now, this is our 'forever home' it's got what we need and more space for us to grow into.  Yes there are bigger and better houses out there, but for us this hits the mark.  The property market has been in a period of flux for a few years, mortgages are harder to come by, especially with the house prices all over the place.  People that bought in the last few years before the crash are in negative equity and I doubt they will emerge out of that for some years to come, if ever.  It's unrealistic to think that we'll experience the heyday of the property market of what it was.  It's time to look at a property as a home rather than a hardcore investment which will earn more than you do, those days are over.  We met our wonderful friendly neighbours the other day, a lovely couple and it transpires they bought the identical house to us for £23,000 more than us, and only just out of the negative equity!

Our next property purchase will either be an investment to rent out as a pension pot, so the rent will pay a mortgage until we deem retirement is upon us, or my personal favorite plan is to build a house.  We've got enought cash to buy land and put foundations down, and then as we earn more money we can put funds aside to build the rest.... this is a plan we're definitely considering for the future.  In the mean time it's time to start tiping money into the bank account.  The year off ended on January 11th and now it's time to get back on the earning treadmill, but I am very much looking forward to our future.