Will

Our mortgage has been issued following the bank's valuation so looks like it’s definitely happening. Hopefully, the legal side won’t be too bad as the solicitors have already done a few places in the building. Really looking forward to finally being in our own place again, just need to find a chunk of money to furnish the place.

I like the sound of having a negotiator! I’m going to try and have one in every aspect of life from now on.

Damn, that must be annoying - any reason for the delay? We got the first round of things signed today and paid our reservation fee. Looks like it’s really happening!

Heading over tomorrow to sign the documents and it will all be confirmed. They think if all goes well we should get the keys in four weeks' time!

It’s bought! Will be picking this guy up on Saturday, maybe before if everything goes through OK.

So I really need to get a car to give myself some freedom, but as we’re trying to buy a house right now I need to be a bit careful about it. I do like something with a bit of performance and plan to buy a Mini Clubman JCW later in the year: Test drove one a few weeks ago and it was pretty damn awesome, way better than I expected. Until we have all our finances sorted out I'm just going to buy something much cheaper to keep us going. Max budget is around £5k or so. I went to have a look at a Mk2 Audi TT yesterday: But the guy at the dealership seemed incredibly unkeen to sell it. Actually seemed quite nice and I'd probably have taken it if he'd been a bit more forthcoming with information. So what are you guys driving? Any tips on cars I could look at?

Test drove the BRZ today, it’s brilliant. A lot more fun than I was expecting and WAY more practical than I thought it would be. Tentatively made a reservation awaiting the results of my mortgage stuff going through.

We tentatively reserved a new-build flat today. Perfect location and a really good size with really nice finishing on everything in there. We have until Wednesday to confirm everything so now I’m just really hoping the mortgage is able to go through without us needing to put down a bigger deposit.

That looks great @Julius! Think I'm going to go for the Cosmic Red once I have somewhere to put my PS5.

It really does look great, looking forward to playing it.

Thinking of a new contender, a Subaru BRZ: Seems like a good bit of fun and is just practical enough for the day-to-day stuff I need to do.

Same here, only I was using iPad Safari. The most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. I'm definitely going to spend 45 quid on these pieces of plastic.

Yeah, that’s a good point, some of the repairs I was looking at for the Audi were definitely on the steep side. I’ve seen a few other TTs and I think it’s definitely a nice mix of practical and fun. Similar to my issues with housing it seems as if nobody actually wants to sell anything. I test drove a car last week which had a few very obvious niggles, but was otherwise pretty great. I said I’d be keen if they were fixed, they said they were on their list of things to sort. I said give me a call when it’s done and I’ll come down and buy it if they’re all good. Did I ever get a call? Of course not. It’s just sat on the website and the other sales places waiting. Another one I was due to view today looked perfect but unfortunately, someone snapped it up before I got there. So the search continues, maybe I’ll just put the deposit down on an Emira and hibernate until it’s available.

So I am starting to see why this is such an annoyance to people… I don’t know why but it seems like agents really have no interest in actually selling houses? I’m a first-time buyer, with a 10% to 20% deposit depending on which property we’re looking at, a higher salary than most (I guess), a mortgage in principle in my hand and still it’s a total nightmare to actually get viewings of properties. I arranged to see some properties tomorrow, times etc. were all set and earlier today the agent called me to ask if I still wanted to sort something out. Errr yeah? Oh, well I’ll check with the owner then! What? We already agreed on this a week ago! I registered my interest for a new build, had a few emails with the agent, requested to view (having had to go through an affordability check) and then nothing for a week. Eventually, they mailed me back saying oh you just book a viewing separately on our website. Stupid me had been assuming that as I’m in direct contact with an agent they would actually help me move things forward. Of course, now there are no slots to align with the other viewings I have booked and I need to make a separate trip to see them. It’s got to the point where I have a mortgage advisor calling agents for me as they’re so terrible at their jobs. The whole thing is a total nightmare and we haven’t even gotten to the difficult bit yet.

I always thought that it not hitting your insurance premiums was the main benefit to doing the course. For insurance, I think you might have to declare them even longer than they’re on your license. I was doing some quotes at the weekend and everything was “in the last five years have you…”

I think I started posting in the Cube Europe days around 2002. I was Gizmo originally but that name got nabbed when the forum transitioned so decided to just go with my real name. Was just looking back at some of the oldest threads still available and there are some pretty interesting things being discussed. Quite fun to have a bit of a read-through. I’m trying to make an effort to post here pretty regularly but life gets in the way a lot nowadays. Even though we’ve become a bit of a smaller group now this still feels like my ‘home’ on the internet. Here’s to many more years!

2021 was definitely a weird year. There were a couple of highlights, but for the most part it just kind of whizzed past with nothing happening. The year started off pretty well, family life was good and I was finally in a secure job with a good salary and a great boss. Singapore was still in its never-ending lockdown but we’d gotten used to it and could do most of what we wanted considering we had a baby to look after. The only really bad thing was that we couldn’t see family in person. Nothing really happened until May when we had a few days in a nice hotel for my son's first birthday, that was definitely a good highlight. Then things really took a downturn, one of my best friends and regular vid-con buddies was taken ill after getting their COVID vaccine and passed away a few days later. That was really tough and something I wasn't prepared for at all. I still can't quite believe it even now. My boss quit and I was left to report directly to the MD of our studio, it was probably the worst experience of my working life. I finally understood the problems that the company really faced were not the headline-grabbing assholes but the fact that the management of the company was just utterly toxic. I started looking for a job pretty soon after having to work with this guy but Singapore was pretty hard to find anything. Towards the end of the year I was offered a job back in the UK, and with nothing much changing in Singapore and my job having become totally depressing, I decided to take it. So far that has been a great decision as work is great, the team rocks and being back in the UK has actually been really nice. Sadly my Nan passed away just after we got back here, though she was 92 and at least got to meet my son before she went. So yeah, I'd say mostly a non-event of a year, a couple of really crappy things and one or two good highlights. Mostly I'm glad to see the back of it and hope for better in 2022.

Anybody embracing this sort of thing and doing some interesting things with tech in the home? A number of years ago I had some of the original Hue bulbs and a Bluetooth thing to unlock my door for me, and that was about the limit of things back then. It looks like there are some really interesting things you can automate with sensors for pretty much anything you can think of now - it’s all pretty cool. I’ve been looking at Aqara sensors, Hue lighting, and smart locks but I'm sure there is even more fun stuff that can be done. Anything you lot are doing that is really cool with home technology?

I don’t really get too stressed but when I want to unwind a bit I generally go for a run. I also like to ride a bike or drive around a bit so when I eventually get a car I’ll probably be doing that more often too. I do like to spend time doing absolutely nothing sometimes too, just lying by or chilling in the pool. Not sure how well I’ll be able to keep that up now we’re back in the UK though.

I guess with this way of looking at it you’re essentially just moving a switch from the wall to your phone and probably doesn’t add too much to things. I think the real benefit comes when you say “movie night” to your system and it sorts out the lights, blinds, TV settings, heating and starts making you a coffee. Or you leave the house and automatically all the lights are turned off and doors locked without you having to do anything.

Yeah, I think lights are the main thing to do with it. I currently have the following on my list of things to do: Lights Door locks Heating Door Bell Security Cameras Then combining all of that together through automation to have things happen as and when needed. Now I just need a house to do it all in…

This one happens quite regularly for me using my iPad and default browser. Nothing seems to solve it permanently.

Also picked up a few bits more recently: Some nice gloves to keep my poor hands warm in this cold weather. A HomePod to eventually use to run my smart home, but for now just to use as a nice Apple Music player. The Sonic lego set as I love lego and I love Sonic.

Picked up a few things before Christmas to improve my wfh setup: A stream deck to make things a little more efficient. Haven't had time to set it up properly yet but even just doing a few basics of turning things on and off it's been pretty good. A mic arm, which I didn't have a long enough USB cable to start using yet, but should tidy things up nicely once I do. A key light so I don't look like I'm sat in a cave when I'm on calls. A mounting arm so I don't need to balance my camera on a pile of whatever I've found around me to get it to the right height.

I enjoyed Technic for a while but pretty much agree with this. The best use of Technic is when it’s hidden behind the scenes of a regular lego set. Ordered the Sonic set, quite looking forward to having that on my work desk.