Once again we’ve been beset by yet another storm that has rocked the ship, alarmingly so some days. The anchor is weighed, the hatches battened down, and no unnecessary journeys undertaken. The one day was so windy here the Ship’s Dog was lucky to get a walk at all, though we did steer clear of trees, just in case. Damage appears to have been minimal, though many in our local town were without power for a few hours. Looking at photos of other parts of the country, others have been less fortunate and I’m grateful that once again, we seem to have escaped the worst of it.

Sunday morning, after a late night, I got up just after 5am. I’d been awake since 4.30am, and the wind howling round the Ship was doing nothing for my insomnia, so I got up early. This always gets the Ship’s Dog very excited as he thinks if I’m up, then we’re going for walkies. Dream on. Now that I don’t have to walk him in the dark, I don’t. I have nowhere to go, and not much to do, so he has to wait until a more ‘decent’ time of day.

I think I’m finally getting the hang of shopping for one. The first couple of week, after the Deckhand jumped ship, I found I was wasting food as I’d bought too much and anything that wouldn’t freeze, had to be binned. I no longer buy biscuits unless they’re individually wrapped – I know it’s wasteful on packaging, but that has to be weighed against wasting food as they go stale too quickly. I buy loose fruit only, and need to find somewhere locally that sells loose potatoes. An awful lot of supermarket produce is not designed for a family of one! I like juice sometimes, but that’s another issue as the cartons are too big, same with some yogurt cartons – I only eat plain yogurt. I’ll have to look out for multipacks of small cartons of both, so I don’t end up throwing half of it away. They’ll need a good ‘use by’ date though.

On Friday the Deckhand and I skyped for 2 hours! We had a lot to say to each other, obviously. He’s very busy this weekend helping to set up for an exhibition for gaming companies, and he got to try out some professional level gaming equipment. He enjoyed that! I’m glad he’s getting involved and seems to be having a good time. We talked a lot about the housing situation too, and the plan is for me to move next year, hopefully around Easter time. He’ll move in with me and the Ship’s Dog, and will pay rent to me, rather than the university. It will be best for both of us. Either way, I can’t afford to stay in this house much longer. I had hoped to get a part time job, and have applied for any admin jobs I see, but no luck so far. He’s been looking at what we could afford, if he pays rent to me, and he feels quite ‘miffed’ at what we could rent, compared to what he’s living in at the moment. Basically, he has a small bedroom, shared kitchen and bathroom. Washing has to be done in the laundrette, and the closest supermarket is 1.5 miles away, and he has to walk – no bus on that route. If we live together, he’ll have a whole house to live in, the dog, and a garden, as well as a ‘taxi’ when he needs it, and he knows I’ll do shopping, cooking, and laundry, and it will be cheaper than what he has now. I’ll be better off because he’ll be helping, financially. A win, win situation.

I know at 21 he may seem ‘old’ to live at home again, however with the housing market as it is in the UK, his situation is far from unique: I worked with a male colleague, in his 30’s, who still lived at home. As a technician, he couldn’t afford a mortgage, rents are astronomical, and it helped his parents that he contributed financially. He’s becoming the norm I’m afraid to say. Lack of affordable housing, lack of one-person houses/flats, coupled with artificially low salaries, and high living costs are creating a generation, and more, of people who can’t afford their own roof over their heads.

Too much ‘politics’ for a Sunday morning lol.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Hope the weather is kinder to us all for at least a few days.