Oops, I missed a week. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I mentioned last week that hayfever was kicking my ass: I fixed that with fexofenadine and Beconase – but then I still had a sore throat and a runny nose. And then the headache appeared. Turns out, those are also all the symptoms of the Delta variant of coronavirus. Three lateral flow tests and one PCR test later: no, I didn’t have COVID. I figure my immune system was probably just getting its first outing in a long time…

The househunting continues. We did some proper exploring of Leyton and Walthamstow last weekend, and started to get a feel for the area. They’re two parts of London that I’d never explored before. They’re worth a visit: Francis Road and Walthamstow Village are both cute, and the former is a bit more affordable. Moving from Hackney to further-east is a pretty well-trodden (read: clichéd) path, but hey. The next stop is apparently Surrey.

It’s a time-consuming process. Finding places, organising viewings, going to viewings, getting to know new areas: it sucks up a lot of time, but it’s also been pretty fun so far. We found a place we liked yesterday, so I’m trying hard not to fall too hard for it. We were lucky to have Emma with us who asked a load of questions we’d never think of, and had an eye for things we hadn’t spotted (hello sad kitchen worktop). Top tip: take a friend with you, especially if it’s Emma.

We’ve also been using Nested as a buying agent: you can fire Rightmove links at them for places you like, and they’ll produce you a report on the property with details of the history of the property (previous sale prices, planning permission, etc.), as well as guides on what your first/final offer should be, and what the justification is. It’s been a handy guide-rail to have so far.

We’ve not been watching TV for a while –- I’ve been deep in Designing Data-Intensive Applications – but that changed when we realised there was an entire fourth season of The Handmaid’s Tale we hadn’t seen. I think we binged the entire thing in four days, and it was pretty good. Next up: probably reading The Testaments.

Join me again next week, when I’ll probably moan about house hunting.

👋🏼