Feeling like a bottle of shook champagne...

Quickly writing in my lunch break. I'm completely all over the place today, once again in a mild state of shock, after agreeing last night to take the place in Turnham Green. Only a few days ago I was saying to my mother and brother "I'm not going to rush at this digs-hunting business, let it go onto the back burner for now, I've got enough on my plate at the moment". Then suddenly I find myself looking at an advert on Gumtree that sounds interesting, and on impulse I ring up and make an appointment to go and see it; and it's terrific.

It's a big first-floor front room in a shared house, about five minutes' walk from Turnham Green tube station. The house is probably Edwardian, certainly no later than WW2 in date, so the ceilings are high and the windows are large. The room has one wall lined with built-in cupboards, so I'll have masses of storage space (which is one of my principal worries solved), and a large part of another wall is taken up with a window looking out onto a quiet residential street lined with trees. I get a double bed, a big table and chair (& I already own a second chair), a large mirror, a couple of odd little occasional-table thingummies, and some rum little shelves built-in to the blocked up fireplace - I already have a small freestanding bookcase, and will look for another, but otherwise the furniture situation looks ok. There's loads of space. There's a picture rail - yippee! - so I can hang some of my work. I didn't count the number of electric sockets, and I've just realised there was no chest of drawers; I can probably get hold of the latter without too much trouble, though. There's a small, unkempt, uncared-for garden at the back, south-facing, running up to the embankment of the District & Piccadilly line; the landlady's daughter, who showed me round, practically skipped with delight when I asked tentatively if I might do a little gardening.

Anyway, I'm going to have no end of things to charge around trying to get sorted out in the next few days. I've booked tomorrow and Friday off work in order to pack and start getting moved, and Monday off to finish unpacking. I'll be rushing about like a cat with a scalded tail, but I'm thrilled to have found somewhere that fits what I want so well. It's right at the top of my budget, but the place is so good that I'm prepared to pay up. It's a really nice area, too. I'm inordinately happy, even if also completely stunned at the suddenness of this. I've gone from a state of just-keeping-my-eyes-open to I'm-moving-in-two-days, overnight; bang!