Vans and Vestments

Well I haven't written for 10 days and there's a good reason for this, very little has actually happened!

I'm feeling anxious at the moment, which is playing out as on-and-off nausea. I think I can pin my anxiety down to 3 things.

1) The house sale is going slowly. It's been 2 weeks since we accepted the offer. At this point when we were buyers we had already measured for furniture and got a surveyor sorted. Maybe we were just over-enthusiastic?

2) We haven't yet learnt where we will be living at college. I'm quite an organised person and I like to have things planned out in my head, and to not know where we'll be living in just a few weeks is a bit frightening! The last cohort of candidates went through their BAPs at the end of May and will be finding out their results about now. Sensibly, the college wait to allocate accommodation until they know exactly which students they have got so there's nothing I can do to make this happen quicker.

3) MONEY. It's a big one this. For the last year or so Paul and I have been living a few hundred off our overdraft and credit card limits. We've no big financial vices (apart from possibly going out for coffee and cake.) We just made a slight mistake in going for a fixed rate mortgage meaning we're paying above the odds. A few big expenses in the last few days (which I will come onto later) have meant we're living on just a couple of hundred for the rest of the month with an overdraft extension pending.

Happy days! So that's where my mind is at the mo and the work-home-tea-TV-bed routine seems to only elevate the stress.

Still, yesterday was interesting. Paul and I decided to both book the day off, our last full day of annual leave before we finish our jobs so we knew we had to make good use of it.

First thing we popped into J Wippell, clerical outfitters, in search of a cassock and surplice which I will need for college. We thought we'd get this sorted early as weren't sure how long these things take to make. I haven't been to J Wippell before and imagined it to be an establishment like you might find in Diagon Alley, dark and dusty with cassocks hung all over the place and possibly a few wands. But it was a very professional affair, the man didn't seem at all surprised at me rocking up in my Converse and skinny jeans announcing I was going to Theological college and found what I needed in a jiffy. I'm having mine tailored for me so it will take a couple of weeks. Here's what (I think) I've ordered. Ignore the models!:
http://www.wippell.co.uk/p-291-style-w120x-polyester-viscose-cassock.aspx
http://www.wippell.co.uk/p-109-style-no-w4b-surplice.aspx

Maybe I will debate the pros and cons of priestly garb on this blog at a later date. Suffice to say it felt very odd trying them on. The cassock was very smart but the surplice made me feel a little like a cake. I also feel significantly poorer now having put this holy wear onto the credit card. Needs must!

Anyway, after Wippell we went to Marsh Barton, Exeter's solution to all your motor-vehicle-related needs, and hired a Ford Transit. We spent all morning carting junk to the dump. Doors, radiators, bits of wood, tiles, an old sink, rolls and rolls of carpet; all the stuff we'd shoved in the sheds over the course of our home improvements. Finally we loaded up some furniture we don't think we'll need in the flat - a bed, a bookcase, a chest of drawers - and took it down to my parents' who are kindly storing it for us.

We had a lovely afternoon with Mum and Dad, did some shopping in Taunton where Mum and I started buying me my birthday present (she always takes me clothes shopping, which believe me is very useful!) But the afternoon was slightly dampened by us knocking the wing mirror off the van on the way back to Exeter. These things happen. We had a bit of a difficult evening worrying about how much it was going to cost. We even phoned the bank and accepted their recent offer of an overdraft extension.

The van hire company phoned this morning. It's only going to come to £50 which is quite a relief. But we're going to have to go careful for the rest of the month. No more cake. No more cassocks. Pasta and baked beans all round...!