Thursday

..and another staggeringly beautiful day - 6am and it's like the Med out there, Alfie Greyhound really didn't want to go walkies today - managed to get him up and down the hill but he was aready moaning about the heat. Little Mouse is running around the house and garden, eventually she will combust... and that's one less mouth to feed.

Worked at home yesterday, managed to do loads and juggle 3 projects at the same time. Doing some nice rebranding work and generating new names for a retail group. Was delighted to be told that the re-brand I did for Nisa 18 months ago was so successful they have already rolled out 500 new stores. They are a 'symbol' group and getting retailers to trade up to their brand family is a major achievement. had a moment of quiet reflection where I realised that if I still lived in London and was a bit more motivated I'd probably be quite well off.

Against my better judgement I spent my tea break looking at the property prices in Brighton, I can - it's true, just about afford a large studio or small one bed flat - but I'd rather kill myself - I then checked the prices in Hastings and yes - I can find somewhere closer to the station that's manageable. Assuming property prices stay stable and I am able to keep earning money at the same rate, or possibly a bit more - and get this house done up to a decent standard, I should be able to manage a move into town or St Leonards in a couple of years. Nothing wrong with this house - I really like it - just too far away from the train station. I'm not ready to retire yet.

I can't really think about much at the moment - I'm really busy now for 6 weeks - once I get to the summer I can relax a bit and get my head together. paid a bit more of my tax bill yesterday - down to £2400 exactly ( I like rounding down ) and the rates bill for this month - which I increasingly resent. £100pcm is a lot of money - after my mortgage and food it's my biggest outlay.

Going to work at home this morning then run over to college later in the afternoon, probably - might see what I can get done here. It's been a really quick week - thought I'd have managed to achieve more - but I did take the bank holiday off, reckless of me...