A couple of hours later the tyre was sorted out but the spare needed some air so we jumped in the car and drove to the nearest garage. Which had no air, the machine being out of order. And the same for the next place we tried. On our way to the third garage, and getting further from my flat all the time, we spotted a tyre place and called in. Luckily they were able to sell us a new spare and inflate all the other tyres so, that done, we headed for home again.

By the time we’d got the car loaded up and driven back to Juliet’s, that was pretty much it for the day. Then, of course, it started snowing. By Sunday morning there was a thick enough covering that we clearly weren’t going to get any more moving done, so we resigned ourselves to our situation and did some sorting out of our new lounge before heading to the pub for a couple of evening drinks.

Not an unpleasant weekend, for the most part, but not what we had planned. It’s left us rather behind schedule with the move but hopefully we’ll get everything done on time.

As a result of all this, I feel more optimistic about the future than I have for a very long time. Life’s been pretty hard over the last few years but this last year and a bit with Juliet and now planning our future together has really made a difference. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This year promises to be hard work but great fun! I’m feeling more optimistic about life than I have in a very long time.

When the time for the film approached we made our way to the auditorium where there was wine on offer. There were some extremely nice paintings on the wall, mostly of life around Brick Lane, any of which I’d be very happy to have on my wall. After a brief introduction, the film, Carry On Girls started. The commentary from the hosts was a little lacking, I felt, but the film wasn’t their usual kind of choice, so I think they can be forgiven. They still made a pretty good job of keeping us entertained through what is a truly terrible movie. I won’t bother to describe it – suffice to say that if you’re familiar with the genre you’ll know exactly what we got. I’ll definitely be going back to BFC again, especially as their next London showing will be Anacondas. Need I say more?

At the weekend Juliet and I decided to go and have a poke around at the London Tattoo Convention in Wapping. My friend Mark had let me know that he was going to be there and I was looking forward to meeting up with him. Unfortunately, thanks to the dreadful user interface in the car’s sat-nav, we were led way off course and had to spend hours struggling through heavy traffic. This meant that we didn’t get to see Mark.

On arrival, we discovered that the only cash machines were in the venue and we couldn’t use our debit cards to pay the rather steep £30 entrance fee, so we popped to a nearby garage to get some cash and have a quick and much-needed burger for lunch. Once we were in, we had a good wander around but, to be honest, weren’t all that impressed. Much more entertaining was sitting down with a drink and doing some serious people-watching.

The journey home was very slow, again thanks to very heavy traffic. At least we were able to break it up with a quick stop at the services to pick up some food and some milk.

On Sunday we had a nice long lie in before cycling into Rickmansworth for a spot of lunch. We decided to take the dog out for a walk in the woods, and were very glad we did. Not only was it delightful out, but we came across three alpacas, which were recovering from dog attacks. We spent quite a bit of time leaning on the fence watching them, while the dog just stood and looked faintly bored.

The evening was spent relaxing in front of the TV, which is a pretty good way to end a weekend, if you ask me.

At the weekend Juliet and I had a wander down to Walthamstow Marsh. I took the camera with me so that I could practice some photography and, although the results were a bit hit-and-miss, I did manage to get some shots that I liked.

On Saturday night we went out to a club in Romford. It was a pretty easy journey there as we were able to take the train, but the trip back in the wee small hours of the morning was not so much fun, involving as it did two night buses, a couple of longish waits in the cold and then a walk home from Walthamstow Central station in heavy rain.

As a result of being out so late on Saturday, we had a good long lie-in on Sunday, getting up at about 1pm. As is normal for me, though, I was awake at about 7:30am and was unable to go back to sleep, so by the late afternoon I was really struggling. This was a bit of a shame as we were out again and had to come back earlier than was ideal. On the plus side, I did get a nice rest and a good night’s sleep and so I’m pretty much back to normal.

On Sunday, assuming that Hurricane Irene doesn’t bugger things up completely, I’ll be meeting Juliet at the airport and accompanying her home, where I shall look after her while she gets over her jet lag. This will, I suspect, spill over into Bank Holiday Monday. We just might walk the dog or maybe do a spot of cycling, but probably nothing too energetic.

So, that’s the plan for the weekend. It’ll be lovely to get some rest – I’m feeling increasingly in need of some R&R, so I suspect it won’t be all that long before I take a week or so off work and give myself over to some serious laying about.

As well as a large quantity of pottery there were an incredible number of animal bones. I have no way of knowing how old they were, but I can only assume that they weren’t terribly recent, jusging by the colour and the way they were broken up. I have to say that it was quite fascinating, and I’m very tempted to sign up for a day’s organised beachcombing sometime.

I was (and am) strongly opposed to the idea of ID cards, but I have to confess that even I thought, albeit momentarily, that it would have been handy in this particular situation to have had one. Then I came to my senses and remembered just how deeply flawed the whole idea is and gave myself a mental slap for being so stupid. It does go to show, though, how easy it is to persuade the general public of the usefulness of such a system.