In which I actually write about something other than sleep training for a change

Today was my day off. I took Jamie to the doctors about his squint, and I did the healthy thing and walked there, so I got to have a bit more of a look at our general environs.

The house we are renting is in a large new estate in a small town, twenty-two miles away from where I work. It is, eventually, going to be rather a nice estate. At the moment, it's bits of rather nice estate interspersed with bits of building site, but that's OK - it means we're getting a discount on the rent, which is fine by me.

The house itself is smaller than the last one we lived in, and smaller than we really need long-term - right now we have a huge amount of stuff in storage and a huge amount more packed into the garage that comes with the house - but what we lack in quantity of house we're making up for in quality. The last place we lived in looked great at first glance - in fact, I liked the layout of the house so much that if we ever do end up building our own place, I think I might well base the design on that - but there were so many horrible, shoddy things about it. The poor-quality plumbing that meant your shower wouldn't stay hot if someone was running a hot tap anywhere else in the house (and I always managed to forget this and douse my poor husband with cold water by turning a tap on somewhere else while he was in the shower - he was not impressed, I can tell you). The dreadful drains that were forever backing up no matter how often Barry put drain cleaner down them. The doors that didn't hang properly and hence didn't shut properly. The kitchen sink tap that didn't swivel from side to side, but did wobble on its base, leaving me feeling I was living in a doll house. The malfunctioning gas meter that meant we ended up with a horrible exorbitant bill because the gas company refused to believe that something could possibly be wrong with the calibration of one of their meters. And let's not forget (shudder) the horrible heavy blinds that took two hands to raise (not easy when you're carrying a baby) and, worst of all, the cold stone floors that looked so good but meant there was NOWHERE to put a baby down. Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh.

So, while living in this house might be more crowded, it's also a damn sight more livable. I can't tell you how good it is to be able to put the baby down.

As for the general area, it's really beautiful. I thought the commute to work and back would be a drag, but this area has a rare and wonderful combination of good quality roads, minimal traffic and astonishing views make it a positive pleasure. And there's loads to see and do. I meant to go into town this afternoon to have more of a look around and do the walk round the town centre checking out all the interesting historical/architectural bits as recommended in the leaflet in the 'Welcome to Town X' pack some nice group sent us when we moved in, but when I'd nursed the baby to sleep on our bed for his afternoon nap I suddenly felt so tired that I just closed my eyes and napped next to him. I just nursed him whenever he woke up and he settled really well, so I had an absolutely mammoth nap of about four hours. He'll probably never get to sleep tonight, but by god it was worth it.

And I think that's about it for today's ramble through my life. Oh, yes - the doctor thought the squint probably wasn't going to be a problem and would settle with time, but she's going to get in touch with the squint experts to see whether they think it's worth seeing him, and refer him if so.